Khushnooma Kapadia - Sr Area Director, Marketing & Communication, South Asia - Marriott Intl Inc

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This, the 80th episode of our award-winning series MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast from MediaBrief.com, features an accomplished marketing leader with a global powerhouse in hospitality – Khushnooma Kapadia, Senior Area Director of Marketing, South Asia – Marriott International Inc.

Khushnooma drives marketing across 144 operating Marriott International Inc hotels across South Asia and India, and is a leader who joined Marriott way back in 2003 when the group had just 3 hotels in India, with the JW Marriott in Mumbai’s Juhu launched just about then. Today, Khushnooma heads marketing for more than 124 hotels in India alone (at last count when we recorded this episode some time back).

So, Khushnooma is a professional who, across her 19 years with Marriott International, has lived by the belief that it is important to learn, not jump jobs for a hike, to help grow — and to grow with – your organization. That really is also Khushnooma’s simple but very valuable advice for every young professional seeking a career in marketing – balance your needs, and more than other things, keep two: job satisfaction and learning and development, front and center.

We speak of the legacy of the Marriott brand and how it has deployed its best global practices to carve its own space amongst Indian patrons.

Speaking of a key group strength, Khushnooma quotes from Bill Marriott's vision, which, she says, also  describes how the entire ecosystem at Marriott International Inc operates. ‘He said: Take care of your associates, and your associates will take care of your guests.’

Khushnooma tells me also of what helped Marriott become the number one global hospitality brand in India and speaks of the important pillars of any hotel operations, including the crucial ‘hygiene’ pillar of the room division, and Food & Beverage – that great aggregator of positive perception and an excellent reputation from all the restaurant outlets and banquet facilities, and other top priorities going ahead.

The hospitality industry that was flat-lined by the near-death blow it received during COVID, is now up and running, and Khushnooma and her team are working to spread the good word about Marriott International Inc’s responsible, experiential, benefits- and satisfaction-filled hospitality and holiday services that, she says, are today considered an essential, and not viewed as a burdensome cost by individuals and corporates alike.

Khushnooma tells me about the marketing strategies and beliefs of Marriott International and emphasizes the importance and responsibility of every professional across the spectrum to co

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