Anyone flying Kingfisher will have no doubts at all about who owns the airline with Vijay Mallya popping up frequently on the in-flight entertainment, not to mention the name shared with the UB Group's flagship beer brand. Those flying Go Air can at once spot the owners — the Wadias have proudly painted their heritage on the tail of the aircraft.
But ask passengers flying IndiGo who owns the low-cost airline, and chances are you will be met with a blank stare. However, things could change soon. Fliers on the five-year old airline will soon get to see its promoter, InterGlobe's, new six-colour logo as well as other signs.
Till now InterGlobe, which owns IndiGo as well as a host of travel and aviation services companies, has maintained an absolutely low profile. For those who came in late, InterGlobe's origins stretch back to the 1960s as a general sales agent (GSA) for various foreign airlines — it was founded by current CEO Rahul Bhatia's father, Kapil.
Ever since Rahul Bhatia took over, the company has been on an accelerated growth track. However, he himself has been one of the most reclusive persons in the industry — hardly ever meeting the media, and absolutely taciturn when it comes to sharing information.
And, yet, quietly, unobtrusively almost, the Bhatias have, from humble GSA origins, built one of the biggest companies in travel and aerospace in India.
Consider this: IndiGo is among the three largest airlines in the country today. The group as a whole employs over 9,000 people. It runs six companies – IndiGo being the most high-profile. But others are expanding as rapidly. InterGlobe Hotels, a joint venture with Accor, is developing a network of Ibis hotels. Then, there is the 4,000-people strong InterGlobe Technologies which provides travel- and aviation-related BPO services from eight delivery centres. Through InterGlobe Technology Quotient‚ it runs Galileo, a booking engine in the country. And, the latest in its stable is InterGlobe Established, which has a product portfolio ranging from executive jets to luxury yachts to submarines.
Given Bhatia's known penchant for reclusiveness, it comes as a bit of a shock that the company wants to talk about its re-branding exercise and is sending out feelers.
Creating room for more growth
Of course, true to form, Bhatia is not the one who finally meets BrandLine. Instead, it's Michael Whitaker, Chief Executive Officer, Technology and Travel Services Group, who leads us through why the company has gone in for this exercise. It's not just a brand refresh, we learn, but a complete corporate restructuring exercise. As Whitaker explains, the imperative for re-branding came “because InterGlobe is in the process of making the transition from a promoter-driven business to a corporate structure”.
In the end it all boils down to a single thing: managing the group's growth. Given the steep trajectory at which InterGlobe is growing, there had to be proper systems in place. It can't be run like a dad-son show any more.
“You cannot expect one person to go into the details of six businesses, so you need to put structures in place,” says Whitaker.
He adds, “What we are basically doing is a best-in-class governance structure that helps us to accommodate growth. It also helps put in place controls — be they financial controls or controls over products, marketing or brands.”
In short, what he is saying is that the new structure allows them to scale up further. “Whether you have six businesses, eight businesses or 27, one guy at the top cannot manage all the businesses. Therefore, the need to move to a corporate structure,” he says.
The Fund funda
The corporate restructuring could also help the currently privately-held group look for PE investments or for an eventual listing on the bourse.
As Whitaker explains, “One of the advantages of having this structure is that if you were to do a listing, you are already structured the way you need to be. You are operating the way you need to. Your books are done the way they need to be done. So it is not necessarily linked to a specific intent. But it is a structure that is conducive to that,” he points out.
The re-branding exercise is being carried out by the intriguingly named GrandMother India, which is a Mumbai-based design firm started by Tejas Mangeshkar, melody queen Lata Mangeshkar's nephew, and Kurnal Rawat, and Circus, a London-based strategy consultant.
Alchemy in Motion
Mangeshkar and Tejas explain how the brief given to them was to get all the six companies under one umbrella and yet leave room for expansion into more verticals.
“When we got the brand document, what we found out was that the main core was dependent on six pillars — ingenuity, transparency, future-mindedness, diligence, insight and generosity of spirit,” explains Rawat. “It's basically Alchemy in Action. The six pillars in different colours take different forms for all the various verticals. Even if 10 more companies come, it remains the same alchemy in motion,” he says.
The idea is not to give a final conclusion to the logo but as befits a growing company, to keep it in motion.
As with any such exercise, the vision, mission, values all have got a refresh, and the brand story is now being communicated to employees, stakeholders and partners.
According to Whitaker, while some of the companies in the group had their own board of directors, some others did not. So the re-branding exercise was meant to get all the companies on the same page. “We wanted to ensure that everybody was operating the same way and that the same sort of protocols applied to all of them and they had the same type of representation on the boards,” he adds.
We can't resist asking as we leave, which, for InterGlobe is the star performer. The answer is a diplomatic — “They all hold hands and fly.”
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