NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, May 20, 2013

The next time you hire a cab and find the chauffeur keeping time, being courteous and keeping the vehicle clean – things you generally don’t expect of cab drivers – there is every chance that he may have gone through a training programme.

One that focuses on soft skills for drivers rather than teach them how to drive. And, offering such a service is Global Travel & Hospitality Education Network (GlobalTHEN), the brainchild of 40-year-old Ram Badrinathan.

Ram obtained a civil engineering degree from NIT – Surat and joined the advertising industry in Kolkata. Then he was involved with a firm that was developing interactive multimedia for marketing communications for its clients. An urge to obtain a management degree took him to Hong Kong, after which Ram got into an e-business consulting company. It was here that he got involved with the travel and tourism industry, which was the launch pad for his idea.