Revenue management and India: rapid deployment strategies

Purpose – Revenue management has grown in popularity and is now a widely accepted discipline that has brought about significant improvements to businesses worldwide. With globalisation in recent times, there is now space for international hotels, fast food restaurants, automobile companies and other brands to offer their products in India. Educating people who are going to be part of such a process is a huge challenge. The aim of this paper is to present some of the challenges businesses and communities have to overcome. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses secondary sources to explore possible approaches to rapidly stimulate the uptake of revenue management through partnerships between hospitality and tourism businesses. Findings – A growing middle class population and access to better education presents an opportunity to build a wider range of profitable services. Global brands with already established revenue management practices are in a position to share skills and knowledge with new and smaller players. Partnerships will be essential to rapidly and effectively develop the skills and knowledge required, starting with those in educational fields where the resources are already in place. Originality/value – Revenue management has not been deployed widely in India. Being able to learn from the early adopters would allow Indian firms to leapfrog over issues and barriers, thus implementing practices more rapidly and effectively.