Dreams come true – Life is what you make it!
Laxmi Todiwan, Professor & HOD at the Apeejay Institute of Hospitality, learning centre of the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd. She is a corporate trainer and the Founder of IWH – Indian Women in Hospitality.
She completed her Bachelors in Hospitality and Hotel Administration from IHM Mumbai. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Training and Development from ISTD, New Delhi also earned her Master’s in Tourism Management. She is a Certified Hospitality Educator from the American Hotel and Lodging Association and has acquired Cleaning Operators Proficiency Certificate from BICS, UK. She is an Emotional Intelligence coach and an NLP practitioner. She has acquired certifications in Strategic Leadership and Innovation & Change Management from Cornell University, USA. She is pursuing PhD in Hospitality Management.
Laxmi Todiwan started her career with the Taj group of hotels, The Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai and has had a successful career spanning over 2 decades. Learning and Development is close to her heart and she associates herself with Skill training projects of the government. She is a Master Trainer and has worked with American Hotel and Lodging Association and Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council, Tourism Boards of State governments, corporate organisations, Banks, NGOs and CII to name a few. She has spoken at various platforms and forums such as entrepreneurship workshops for MBA colleges, international hospitality summits, the defence services and career counseling for schools and colleges. She has hosted many functions of repute as a Master of Ceremonies and has done a series of educational programs for a television channel. She writes for hospitality journals, international websites and also for columns in the local newspapers. She is a celebrated blogger and expresses her thoughts on her website and blog, www.theiwh.com
At this stage in her career, she is doing everything possible to give back to the fraternity and she is working for Diversity & Inclusion. She has been mentoring young professionals to take up leadership roles and empower women by way of making them employable. She says that she is living her passion; people and organisations have been very kind to support her in her vision. It’s like a dream for her, industry and women in particular have very encouraging words for the work she is doing. Numerous awards, accolades and felicitations are a testimony to that. She loves writing, painting, travelling and meeting people. Her Master Mariner husband Capt. Rajesh Todiwan and her two sons complete her family.
Awards and Recognition
• Awarded the Woman Leader in Hospitality at the V-WA 50 by Vedica Women’s Alliance Awards 2022, June 2022.
• Awarded Wonder Woman by Ladies Circle India, March 2018.
• Awarded top 15 Women in Corporate by WICA 2018, Women’s Web.
• Featured in ‘The most powerful list of Inspiring and Empowered Women on Earth’ by Rumbling HR – March 2020
• Featured in the Hospitality Divas by Raj Hospitality, Sept. 2020
• Featured on Women at Work by AntWak, Dec 2020
• Featured on GBB Venture online series, Changing landscape of Indian hospitality industry for women leaders, Aug 2020
• Featured on Colaborate by HTI, Jan 2021
• Was felicitated by the Lions Club of Navi Mumbai, for contribution towards women empowerment and child education in 2014.
• Felicitated by the Rotary Club of Navi Mumbai on occasion of International Women’s Day 2016
• Was featured on Welink Website for creating success stories for students, 2016.
• Was awarded the Inspirational Personality by the Maritime Union of India –Women’s Wing, in August 2018.
• Founded Indian Women in Hospitality, was felicitated by many hospitality forums.
• Hospitality Biz and Hospitality Lexis carried out interview and write up on IWH on it’s anniversary in their February 2019 editions.
• Cornell University USA featured one of her stories from IWH and tweeted the same through their official twitter handle – 4 Dec 2018
• Blogs have been featured on the Indiblogger Homepage as top posts more than 30 times since 2018.
• Writes for Hospitality Biz, HospiBuz, BW Hotelier, Economic Times Hospitality World and HRA Today journals.
• Was a speaker at many seminars- The Indian Navy National Seminar, International Housekeepers Summit, ITM Business School, Colaborate, ICPAT International, International Chamber of Service Industry etc.
Excerpts from a chat with her, we spoke to her over the phone and had an engaging conversation with her. We are not only impressed by her but also inspired by her work and journey.
IWA: Please highlight some notable achievements and key initiatives
LT: Hospitality comes naturally to women, so making a career in the industry can be utilising their strengths to the core.
Indian Women in Hospitality (IWH) was created as a platform for knowledge sharing, networking, ideating, mentoring and empowering. Another aspect being creating awareness about the industry still not understood well; especially with respect to careers for women.
As an educationist, trainer and a counselor I meet many parents who were concerned about the safety of their children joining the hospitality industry; especially guardians of girls. I find it surprising as we are in 2022; where the whole world is talking about rocket science, people are discussing virtual reality, artificial intelligence on one hand; on the other this exists in our society.
There are over 2500 members of IWH – Indian lady hospitality professionals from around the world who are creating benchmarks. It invited for a Keynote at the Indian Hospitality Conclave at Mumbai in 2018. It has been offered a column in the monthly edition of Economic times Hospitality world. At least 3 ladies from the fraternity are conducting their research on the topic with reference to IWH. It is the ecosystem partner for Women’s Web for Women In Corporate Award (WICA), ET hospitality World and BW Hotelier. It has become an empowering platform and the testimonials are very encouraging. The website has featured stories, write-ups, interviews and blogs. The stories that bring about the personal and professional journeys of the women are an inspiration to the others.
IWA: What have been the impacts of these achievements hospitality sector and the community?
LT: The key objectives are clearly mentioned in the vision and mission of IWH.
Vision – Be the global voice for Indian Women in Hospitality
Mission – Amplify the IWH platform for Indian women working in the hospitality industry globally to reach their fullest potential by sharing knowledge and mentoring future leaders.
Collaborate to strengthen women’s roles in all spheres of their lives – personal, professional and the community through self-reliance, dignity and equality. Support social causes for women to play pivotal roles as change makers and path breakers.
Organisations need to take care of their women employees who have a set of responsibilities even after they reach back home. If they don’t get support from their families and work places; it can create unwarranted stress for them. Many a time even women who are star performers are forced to leave their jobs leading to a ‘lose–lose’ for all. Also, women are rarely considered for key positions or leadership roles. It is one of the glass ceilings that women are waiting to shatter!
There is a need for a mindset shift in the hospitality industry as many hurdles are stacked against women. The industry needs to create equal opportunities for women team members.
IWH has been the ecosystem partner with top hospitality publications and the founder has a column where she highlights the issues faced by women and also, she is called on various forums for representing women’s concerns. Organisations are making many changes in their HR policies and functions which are very encouraging. Women in hospitality can contribute to and create great value for their organisations with the right mentorship and given the right opportunities.
IWA: Steps to advance gender equality and inclusion at the workplace
LT: Only 10% women are in the top management roles though the participation of women employees is much higher. Gender diversity, inclusion and equity require our top focus.
The ratios of women leaving the industry surpasses that of men also the ratios of women progressing to the decision-making roles are quite few though the hospitality industry is touted as having long working hours, the impact of the work matters not the number of hours served; this is the much-needed perception shift.
There is good representation of women workforce in the industry but only at the lower levels of hierarchy; it thins down drastically as we move up the pyramid. Organisations need to focus on career path and succession planning for their women employees.
IWH has a great role to play as it has women professionals from the hospitality across geographical locations and cultures. They share information, educate, create awareness and also mentor. There are veterans and the freshers on one platform. There are many role models and inspirational personal journeys of the ladies shared on the website for all to read and take a few pages off their stories. It has a mentorship programme where members connect to discuss and plan their careers or seek advice on the personal front. They also conduct training programs.
IWH urges hospitality organisations to take leadership stance and help build confidence, extend support and opportunity to the women in hospitality to go out and play their best game. Gender diversity and inclusion is the key for equality.
What a lovely conversation we had with Prof. Laxmi Todiwan, we wish her more power. This felicitation from IWA is a token of our appreciation for her and other women achievers like her.
