“As a result, we are asking some of our impacted colleagues to move to a new career outside of Oyo,” he further added in the mail. Here's complete text of the email sent by Agarwal to employees announcing lay offs.
Dear Oyopreneurs,
It's been almost two weeks since the New Year started. As we enter 2020 together, I'm writing to update you on our strategy which Oyo leaders agreed upon when we came together for the 2019 Global Leadership Meet in December. We had a single-point agenda - to plan on how Oyo will continue to drive its success in 2020 and beyond.
2019- a year of significant growth and learning
But before I come to that, let me take a step back and spend a few moments on the year gone by. I would also like to ask for your patience as you go through this detailed but critical note.
As a young, 6-year-old startup, Oyo has naturally and actively evolved as an organization. We are proud of the hard work, dedication and passion of every Oyopreneur who has helped us achieve our goals so far. The company has today become one of the world's leading hotel chains, serving millions of guests across the world including in India, China, US, Europe, SEA, ME, Japan, and more. We increased our y-o-y revenues 3X and moved to rooms across the globe by the end of 2019.
Oyo was rated by brandZ as one of the most valuable new brands in India. We strengthened our leadership by adding some of the best talent in the industry as key CXOs and VPs across the organization. We established a strong base for the vacation homes business through our first major acquisition.
But, of course, a journey like this is never easy. As a company that has experienced significant growth, 2019 gave us an opportunity to reflect on our journey and introspect. We realized that that we continue to deliver positive impact and enable millions of middle income travellers and city dwellers to experience #LivingTheG00dLife.
I have no hesitation in admitting that, growing at the pace at which Oyo has in the past few years, we sometimes went ahead of ourselves and Our organization at multiple levels. This year, we are taking steps to address this.
Recent article in the press about Oyo
Given our bold dreams and humble beginnings, Oyo has always been written about. Recently there have been a few questionable claims in a publication and today I want you to hear about them from me. The said article described behaviour that would violate our Code of Conduct. We take all the allegations very seriously and are looking into each and every one. We, of course, continue to be subject to regular external audits and have reached a stage as a company where we are making significant investments in compliance, training and governance that ensure operational consistency and accountability. We are - and will always be -committed to Oyo the right way.
I also want to call out to all Oyopreneurs who wrote to me after reading the article to say that, n0 matter how harsh the words may be, as part of this organization, they have a very different view on things informed by their own experiences in the company. I was humbled to see that we all share the same conviction about what we do everyday. Without going into ‘why’, we would rather focus on ‘what’ has been said and come out stronger together.
2020 roadmap and priorities
This is where the learnings from the Global Leadership Meet 2019 will help all of us. We had a productive day session with Im Oyo leaders from across the world. We have a clear roadmap to continue driving Oyo's success this year and beyond. As we enter 2020, we are taking steps to optimize and strengthen our business. We have heard what our guests, asset owners and colleagues have to say and are fully committed to delivering by focusing on the following strategic objectives:
1. Growth: Balance the speed of growth with our operational capabiäties, to ensure our growth is sustainable.
• We have built world-class capabilities since we started and in 2020 we are forming a Global Capabilities Team for each core function that will dramatically shorten the learning curve of Oyo market through knowledge sharing and drive consistent strategy and execution across our brands, teams and locations.
2. Operational and Customer Excellence: Leverage technology and data insights along with our culture of service to simplify operations and drive consistent, high-quality execution. Drive uniform adoption of our own tech products across different geographies. This also makes our guests, ‘hotel partners’ and our lives easier and efficient. Move 90%+ hotels from Oyo to >7/10 rating through network planning, technology enabled tools and targeted investments.
3. Profitability
Increase efficiency while focusing on core businesses and rationalizing growth avenues
Focus on profitable locations and buildings and avoid growth that dilutes our margins
Further reduce operating costs
4. Training and Governance: Enable Oyopreneurs with the right tools to drive productivity, consistency and governance, while building a high-performing and employee-first work culture