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I consider it a privilege to serve as the
President of your Club. I wanted to share with you the five priorities that
my Board members and I have resolved to pursue during my term as President.
I look forward to your ideas and suggestions.
It is not my intention to commission any
single, grand, new project to mark my legacy. Our Club is a fine
institution steeped in old traditions and enduring values. Our task is to
keep in the Club in step with modern times without diluting our values and
traditions.
1. Upgrade the club’s existing facilities
The Club is known for its fine dining experience
and the ambience of its bars. It has excellent living arrangements at a
reasonable cost in a central location. And it has one the finest libraries
in town. However, one of challenges of our heritages is the age of our
facilities which require constant upkeep. This year we will invest in a
thoughtful way to build on our core strengths and refurbish and upgrade our
existing facilities.
2. Membership and Admissions
The Bengal Club is an exclusive club and much of
its brand is shaped by the quality of its members. While embracing
diversity, of which we are all proud, we must systematically attract more
applicants who are successful in their professions and businesses.
By
creating a sense of exclusivity and “scarcity” we will continue to be the
most coveted club in the city. Knowledge-driven and large-scale
manufacturing industries are contributing to the resurgence of Bengal but
are under-represented in our membership .It will be our goal to attract them
to the Bengal Club as well to contribute to its vibrancy and economic
well-being.
3. Inspiring and training human talent
In any service industry, customer satisfaction
is delivered at customer touch points by motivated and talented people. We
are lucky to have a band of colleagues and staff who have contributed much
to the record of service of this club. Through communications and through
good and fair management practices we will motivate our people to deliver
customer satisfaction. While negotiation of wages and benefits are facts of
life and this year we need to conclude our negotiations, we will strive to
create a harmonious and not adversarial muscle tone at the management level
–we will be firm but fair. We will also have to focus on training and succession
planning specially in the kitchen. We also include all our people in the
footprint of our communications.
4. Vision 2012
We will create a vision for the future and a
roadmap on how we will get there. We will listen to the views of our
members, customers, people and our management team to create this shared
and unified vision. The world and the city is changing fast and it is
necessary to plan scenarios for the future and envision how our Club will
look like in the future and what steps need to be taken now so that we
remain the most coveted club in the city five years from now.
5. Using technology in the service of our
members
We will invest in revamping our systems and
back-office .We have already installed wi-fi broadband internet access in
the Club. Bookings at Chambers will in future be done over the internet and
payments will securely received over the internet. This would reduce record
keeping costs and improve our occupancy apart from making the life of our
members and their guests easier. We will also use our website more
effectively as a tool of communication to our members. We will complete the
process of making our internal audit system more effective in the current
year. We will revamp our membership database and automate our applications
process.
As to style of management, I will strive to make
it open, collegial and transparent. Please feel free to call me directly if
you ever have a question or a doubt.
Warm regards
Roopen Roy
July, 2007
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