This is an inspiring saga of a hospitality industry veteran whose unwavering commitment to excellence, people, and purpose has redefined industry benchmarks. Vikas Sharma is a name that is most aptly associated with innovation, integrity, and value-based leadership.
Early Foundations
Vikas was born into a defence family and was raised in an environment where discipline, dedication, and a sense of responsibility were not theoretical concepts but tenets of faith. His early years at The Army Public School, New Delhi, imparted to him a robust sense of adaptability and character. Choosing to follow a path of his own, Vikas graduated in Hospitality Management from the prestigious Institute of Hotel Management, Bangalore in 1993. This was in contrast to the conventional route of his family, reflective of his independent character and his capacity to embrace the unfamiliar.
His hospitality career began as a Hotel Operations Management Trainee at the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai. He worked in some of the most iconic Indian hospitality locations—The Chambers, Zodiac Grill, Golden Dragon, Apollo Bar, and Banquet Sales. These early experiences laid the foundation for his understanding of service excellence, operations discipline, and the fine art of creating long-lasting guest memories.
The late 1990s marked a period of transformation in India’s hospitality sector, and Vikas was at the forefront. As a member of the pre-opening team for India’s first Radisson Hotel in New Delhi, he played a key role in launching the specialty restaurant I’Ching in 1997—a pioneering venture that set new standards for culinary innovation and guest engagement. Being part of Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) also contributed to his experience, with leadership roles at senior levels in Taj Mahal Mumbai, Taj President and Taj Exotica, Bentota (Sri Lanka). Having been selected for the elite Taj Management Development Program in IIM Bangalore in 2004 was a testimony to his leadership skills and commitment to continuous learning.
The Genesis of a Hospitality Visionary
As Vikas embarked on his career in hospitality, the industry was not the conventional career route, especially for someone with a defence background. Yet, with passion ahead of plan, he embraced the challenges and possibilities of the hospitality industry. He recognized the similarities between defence and hospitality—discipline, ruggedness, and pride in service—that shaped his leadership style.
For Vikas, the core motivation has also been constantly in the pursuit of creating outstanding experiences and leading with integrity. That passion converted a leap of faith into a career spanning a lifetime of purpose and pride. While the majority of his peers diversified into IT, marketing, or corporate selling, Vikas remained a part of hospitality, enjoying every minute and embracing its challenge and dividends.
Balancing Professional and Personal Commitments
Hospitality is a challenging profession that demands long working hours and sacrifices, typically at the expense of personal achievements. Vikas appreciates the hardship of missing out on family events but believes in prioritizing quantity over quality of time spent with family members. He recalls a senior colleague uttering words of wisdom, “I don’t know how tall my son has grown, but I know how long he has grown,” a phrase that encapsulates the sacrifices endured by professionals in the services sector.
Despite all of these hurdles, Vikas has faith in making every moment count. Over the years, he has perfected preparing short but meaningful family gatherings over weekends and making the most out of moments of quiet with the people he loves when there can be no noise or disturbance.
At his core, he is a service economy warrior—always prepared to return to the front lines when called back. That preparedness and mindset allows him to lead purposefully, while establishing the most important relationships. It’s not easy, but it can be achieved with discipline, empathy, and a deep regard for the job done both in the workplace and at home.
Appetite for Business: Nurturing Growth with Vision
Vikas’s business appetite is driven by a passion for growth, innovation, and creating better guest experiences that drive financial results. He thrives in high-energy environments, identifying and seeking out new opportunities—whether venturing into new market spaces, driving maximum revenue streams, or developing strategic partnerships that drive the hotel’s brand and bottom line.
He is a results-oriented, data-intuitive business developer constantly monitoring market trends, competitor performance, and guest behavior to make every property competitive. Vikas has an interest in driving top-line growth across all revenue-generating departments—rooms, F&B, events, and spa—and cohesively steering them with one commercial strategy that delivers short-term goals as well as long-term sustainability.
The Passion That Fuels Excellence
What drives Vikas is an unwavering dedication to service excellence and a belief that people—the guests and associates—are the cornerstone of any successful hospitality business. He states, “Offering great service isn’t a standard; it’s an attitude.” He is passionate about creating memorable guest experiences that are individualized, dependable, and emotionally connected. That sort of service is built on a culture of excellence, responsibility, and pride in all aspects.
Likewise, Vikas is highly motivated by capability—finding it, building it, and growing it. Maybe the most personally fulfilling aspect of his work is discovering others’ potential and transforming them into future leaders. Through coaching, explicit development plans, or simply listening and counseling, he takes pride personally in seeing individuals succeed and deliver more than they thought possible themselves. He is a believer in growing from within and empowering individuals to become their own career owners.
His greatest motivation is the “fire in the belly” to keep learning. Vikas perceives each situation—be it a guest complaint, an internal team conflict, or a shift in the marketplace—as an opportunity to grow. He makes sure to learn from wins as well as losses and reminds his team to do the same. The hospitality industry is constantly evolving, and staying curious, humble, and open has played an important part in his growth and the success of the hotels he has overseen.
Resilience in Times of Crisis: Navigating The COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 devastated the hospitality industry globally in a way both deep and historic. During the first wave, Vikas was a part of the leadership group at Hard Rock Hotel Goa, where the highest priority was enforcing strict COVID-19 protocols according to international brand standards. Guests and staff safety took precedence, and he worked closely with ownership of the hotel to safeguard livelihoods of the most prized asset—manpower. Even though financial pressures had presented challenging decisions about salary consolidation and curtailed operations, the aim was to keep the critical team and morale intact. Transparency, communication, and empathy emerged as leadership’s most important tools.
In early 2021, immediately before the second wave, Vikas was appointed the pre-opening General Manager of Radisson Blu Resort Dharamshala. It was a very challenging period—overseeing a pre-opening during a recurred pandemic. The staff made the smart move of incorporating hygiene, social distancing, and safety protocols into every operational SOP and marketed these as “Radisson Safety Protocols” to gain guests’ and staff’s trust. The ultimate success of opening the resort during such hard times was a testament to their resilience to adapt and recover.
In the rearview mirror, the pandemic was a learning, innovation, and closer team bonding catalyst. It challenged every aspect of leadership, but allowed Vikas and his teams to emerge stronger, with a renewed focus on agility, safety, and human touch.
Strengths and Learning Grounds: The DNA of Leadership
One of the strengths that contributed to Vikas’s success as a General Manager and industry leader is his strong analytical capabilities. In a high-speed, high-detail business, staying rooted in facts and figures encourages decision-making. Rather than making decisions on the spur of the moment, he steps back, analyzes situations objectively, and develops solutions that are strategic and durable. This has enabled him to solve complex crisis situations, navigate complex stakeholder relationships, and lead organizations with confidence and clarity.
Vikas believes that independent thinking is of utmost importance. Alignment with senior management and collaboration are essential, but he does not believe in being a ‘yes man.’ Leadership for him is about expressing opinions respectfully, especially if backed by reason, operational common sense, and factual data. Owners and executive boards have thus come to trust him, and his teams have been empowered to think independently and act responsibly.
He concedes that something he still learns every day is his tendency to call a spade a spade. Honesty and bluntness are essential, but he has learned that manner and timing are also essential. There have been occasions when his frankness, well-intentioned as it has been, needed more tact. He considers this a failing, but one in progress—a field where emotional intelligence has to make up for professional candour.
Lastly, Vikas operates with an aim to be a part of the organization’s success in the long term. He is convinced of cultivating a culture of accountability, decision-making based on information, and respect for one another—a mindset that helps goals get achieved and induces enduring impact.
Achievements and Accolades
Vikas’s hospitality career has been rewarding and enriching, with the propensity for excellence, strategic thinking, and people-oriented style of leadership. He considers each milestone a testament to team achievement and relentless pursuit of operational and service excellence.
Recently, Vikas has been featured in “Trending 2025” and “Sol Luxury Magazine – Prestige Profiles 2025,” distinctions that reaffirm the impact of consistent performance and leadership. He has been responsible for the successful pre-opening and operation of many of the most iconic properties in his career to date, with a track record of consistently delivering excellent financial results, guest satisfaction scores, and employee engagement metrics. His leadership has been acclaimed not only by industry colleagues but also by the countless people whose careers he has shaped and inspired.
In 2009, Vikas received wonderful recognition owing to his dedicated endeavors. He was among the Top 5 General Manager’s in India in contention for the “Hotelier India” Annual Hospitality Awards. He guided The Chancery Pavilion to claim the “National Award for Best Marketing Strategy”. He also received the “Best Management – Training and Development Award” at the 5th Hospitality India & Explore the World Annual Awards. In the same year, he was awarded “Best Professional in Hospitality” by Safari India and in 2010 as “Best General Manager” for outstanding leadership at aloft, Whitefield Bangalore. Furthermore, he was recognized and awarded amongst the Top 12 Hoteliers in India by Safari India.
His strict adherence to excellence was once again recognized with the “India’s Best” Top Choice Leadership Award in 2018 given by Trinity World Biz and with the “Goa’s Best Senior Officer” Award by the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence & AAYUSH at the “Best of India” Biz Awards in 2019. Convinced, as he is, about creativity and innovation, Vikas is thrilled to have thought out and launched S.H.A.C.K., a trendy alfresco resto-bar at the Taj Exotica Hotel, Bentota, which has become a number one experiential dining destination. For him, it is greater than bringing medals home. It is rather the lasting testament of culture, capability, and reliability that he leaves behind—each medal as a soft reminder to be humble, to lead with integrity, and to set the bar higher always.
The Road Ahead: Vision for the Future
As Vikas leads Moksha Himalaya Spa Resort and Timber Trail Terrace & Heights into their next chapter—culminating in the much-anticipated rebranding as a Grand Hyatt by 2028—he remains steadfast in his commitment to excellence, innovation, and people development. His vision is to create a hospitality ecosystem that sets new benchmarks for guest experience, operational excellence, and talent empowerment.
He believes that the future of hospitality is about adopting change, nurturing a culture of continuous learning, and harnessing technology to improve guests and employees. Vikas is committed to growing the future leaders, with integrity, compassion, and service excellence remaining the guiding principles for the industry in many decades to come.
Personal Reflections: The Man Beyond the Manager
Beyond career achievement, Vikas is a devoted husband, father, and mentor. His story is a testament to the power of resilience, the requirement to stay firm in one’s principles, and the transformative impact of authentic leadership on individuals and organizations. Whether slicing through the fluctuations of the hospitality industry or spending quiet time with loved ones, Vikas infuses every aspect of life with purpose, pride, and an unstoppable commitment to making a difference.
Words of Inspiration
While advising the emerging professionals of tomorrow, Vikas says: remember, all that glitters is not gold. Success in hospitality—or any field—requires patience, perseverance, and passion. His mantra has always been Lead with purpose, think with clarity, act with integrity. He advises the young professionals, “Stay curious, stay committed, and focus on creating value every single day. Growth comes when you embrace challenges, lead with empathy, and never stop learning. Keep moving forward—your journey itself will be your greatest achievement.”
