This couple don’t talk business at dinner table (Sunday Times 22 Nov)
When Mr Surya Jhunjhnuwala first moved his family to Singapore in 1997, he missed his native Hong Kong so much he was looking for reasons to fly home every month.
It wasn’t so much for the noodles, congee or dim sum – he is vegetarian after all – but the vibe, that throbbing pulse that makes the vibrant city tick.
‘People always tell me, the pace of life is so fast in Singapore. I look at them and think, are you serious? If you walk slowly in Central, you’ll be pushed,’ said the chairman of the Hind Group, stressing that last word.
‘Here, it’s two to three notches slower. It took time adjusting to that.’
Coming to Singapore wasn’t really his choice. His father who, together with his two brothers had bought the Imperial Hotel here in 1978, was suffering from poor health in 1996.
The family decided Mr Jhunjhnuwala, then 35 and the company’s managing director, should come take care of the ageing hotel’s business. The elder Jhunjhnuwala died in 1997.
Within two years, he sold the property off to DBS Land, now CapitaLand, for $100 million and shortly after, bought another piece of land nearby and developed it into Residences at 338a, a 46-apartment property.
Meanwhile, his wife Ritu convinced him to let her resurrect Rang Mahal, an Indian institution of a restaurant in the Imperial Hotel.
‘I said, as long as it’s not going to be bleeding, sure. She’s done a fantastic job,’ said Mr Jhunjhnuwala in his modest third-floor office in KH Kea Building on North Bridge Road.
In 2000, the new Rang Mahal opened at the Pan Pacific hotel looking starkly different from its predecessor – the heavy, traditional aesthetics had given way to a clean, contemporary style that drew new clientele like expatriates, corporate suits and diplomats.
Accolades for the fine-dining restaurant since are too numerous to list, but its latest is one that Mrs Jhunjhnuwala is especially proud of: last week, it was conferred the Heritage Brand under the Singapore Prestige Brand Award.
In 2001, she also conceptualised Vansh, a hip eatery serving Indian street food that appeals to the younger set. The brand has outlets at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and Starhill Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.
Come next month, she will open another Rang Mahal at the Hard Rock Hotel in Sentosa’s Resorts World, and one more in the upcoming Marina Bay Sands.
Judging by their food and beverage business’ success, the couple’s mantra obviously works.
‘You have to be different, take bold steps and risks. That’s the only way you’re going to succeed,’ said the 47-year-old Mr Jhunjhnuwala.
It is the same principle he has applied to his luxury boutique hotel, Naumi Hotel, in Seah Street, which he opened in 2007.
The posh 40-roomer catering to business travellers and boasting bespoke service was his answer to all the impersonal, predictable and standard offerings he received on his stays in big hotel chains on his frequent business trips.
Guests of Naumi – which means the ninth day in Hindi – can call on their 24-hour aide for any kind of help, and rooms, among the biggest here, come with 50-inch plasma TVs, Nespresso coffee machines, even XBox or Wii game consoles if you so desire.
Despite sharing the same office, the couple don’t meddle in each other’s business affairs – he takes care of the property side, she is in charge of F&B.
Important decisions like expansion plans are made together, but never over the dinner table, ‘or the discussions can be never-ending’, said Mrs Jhunjhnuwala, 44.
They don’t even come to work together sometimes – he prefers to get around in his speed demon Porsche Boxster, she in her environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius Hybrid.
Even so, they complement each other, both at work and at home.
‘She’s the calm one. Sometimes when my team gets all flustered with me, they go to her and cry on her shoulders,’ said Mr Jhunjhnuwala with a laugh.
‘I’m the quick, quick, quick, get it done kind.’
It is a trait he has nurtured from living in Hong Kong practically all his life.
Marwaris from Rajasthan, Mr Jhunjhnuwala’s grandfather moved the family to Yangon in Myanmar after World War II in search of better opportunities.
But when the military came into power and nationalised all industries, they were forced to give up their textiles business in 1961 and moved to Hong Kong.
There, Mr Jhunjhnuwala’s father and his brothers started a watch manufacturing business which soon grew into one of the largest in Hong Kong, producing close to one million watches a month.
After finishing his A levels, the young Mr Jhunjhnuwala was immediately conscripted into the family business.
‘No question, it was expected. I guess I had to live with it, and I’ve learnt the hard way. But I’ve learnt,’ recalled the well-groomed, articulate businessman who speaks fluent Cantonese.
His father did not believe in giving him a cushy job on top from the start, so he had to earn his stripes, starting in the mailroom, and even assembling watches.
Despite not being given a choice, he said he always had the freedom to pursue a new business, and the elder Jhunjhnuwala always supported his other entrepreneurial endeavours.
In the early 1990s, he set up a brewery in Australia and sold it for a sizeable profit after just two years.
‘Dad never said no. He would say, give me an idea, if it’s interesting, let’s do it. Sometimes you have to do something and if it fails, it fails. You learn from that.’
He also went into the construction business in Australia, and then Singapore, and the family still has a paint manufacturing company in India.
The biggest lesson his father taught him was never to cheat his partners, even if things turn sour.
‘That was one thing that was very important to him – keep your integrity. Your reputation is very important.’
Today, he and his younger brother, Girish, run the business, which also includes four luxury service apartments in Hong Kong.
Their strategy is in growing by acquisition, which was why Mr Jhunjhnuwala wooed the owners of the former Metropole Hotel with $18 million in 2005 before turning it into Naumi.
His two older sisters and a younger one are all married and living in India.
Getting married, too, was a family decision, and an arranged one.
‘Dad really insisted I got married, and he kept showing me some girls and I said, there’s another one I have to see now? I went in with the least interest, spoke a few things and walked out. She didn’t even speak,’ recalled Mr Jhunjhnuwala of his first meeting with his wife with a laugh.
Said Mrs Jhunjhnuwala: ‘For me, he was the first guy I saw. My family fell in love with Surya’s family. They had heard so many good things about them. There was no way of thinking that it wouldn’t work.’
Born into a family that owned iron ore mines in the small industrial town of Hospet, Mrs Jhunjhnuwala went to school in Bangalore.
The couple got married in New Delhi in 1984 – him a young, bespectacled and moustachioed lad of 22, she, a sweet-faced girl of just 19. Their three children, aged 17 to 22, were all born in Hong Kong.
After more than 10 years here, Mr Jhunjhnuwala says he can never live in Hong Kong again. His wife is even considering trading her Indian citizenship for a Singapore one.
Said Mr Jhunjhnuwala: ‘It’s breathable space. Here, the focus is family. In Hong Kong, work is god.’ The Singapore permanent resident carries a British passport.
He used to clock 15-hour work days while in Hong Kong, and even then, he couldn’t top his staff.
The couple now spend the weekends with family and their personal pursuits – golf for him, yoga for her.
Being chapter chair of global leadership network Young Presidents’ Organisation also keeps Mr Jhunjhnuwala busy.
Even so, he makes time for daily 8km runs at 6am, and nurses a growing wine collection in his cellar in the family’s bungalow home in Holland Road.
These days, they have more pressing things on their hands, specifically getting the authorities to let them hire Indian chefs for their two soon-to-open restaurants.
The Government imposes a limit on the number of foreigners a company can hire.
It is something that frustrates the Jhunjhnuwalas, who have 150 staff members in Singapore.
‘I keep telling my friends, you go to London and New York, you can be served by a Colombian or a Jamaican or the chef can be from Hong Kong. You get a whole potpourri of culture. That’s a real global city,’ said Mr Jhunjhnuwala.
‘Here, I don’t know why we have this issue of foreigners are welcomed but not yet that welcomed. That’s something you need to decide. Some people do take advantage of it, I’m aware of that. So maybe they need to look at it from a case-to-case basis.’
Expansion plans are also in the pipeline for the region. By next year, there should be two more Naumi Hotels, possibly in Vietnam and Thailand.
Mrs Jhunjhnuwala’s Rang Mahal and Vansh brands may also partner her husband’s hotels.
The busy Mr Jhunjhnuwala rarely has time to get contemplative, so when asked what he might have been if he hadn’t taken the road his father set out for him, he paused to think.
Still in Hong Kong, probably in the construction or building business, he said.
‘Initially, I always said I had the short end of the stick because I had to come to Singapore. But now, I’m very glad I came. I can’t even remember spending time with my kids when they were growing up. Here, I’m so happy I get to spend time with them.’
He has given his son – a recent graduate in entrepreneurship from Boston’s Babson College – the freedom to decide if he wants to join the family business.
‘My only condition is if he does, he should work a minimum few years somewhere else. If he decides he wants to start a new business, I’ll say go for it, I’ll fund it. Let him find his own niche and work towards that.’
He agrees that he might have been a better businessman had he done the same.
‘I don’t miss not going to university. But if I had worked for a few years in another establishment, I would’ve learnt how they do things whereas I was put in the family business and shown this is the way to do it, not knowing whether it’s right or wrong.’
This is the sixth and last in this series on foreign-born entrepreneurs who have successful businesses in Singapore
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