Travel runs in his blood. It's a journey to gather experience and reach the ultimate destination. He has been travelling since 1968 when he got just his BA degree. His travels have taken him right to the top - the CEO's post in travel MNC Kuoni's India subsidiary. In the course of his 37-year travelling career, Ranjit Malkani has been there, seen all. In 1981, he took over SOTC and made it India's principal outbound tour operator.

In 1996, he was a ppointed chairman & CEO of Kuoni India when the latter entered the country by acquiring SOTC. In his tenure as the India head of Zurich, Switzerland-based company, Malkani turned the company in to a leader in status in the country's outbound, inbound and business travel markets. Not surprisingly, the folks back in Zurich realized that he was destined for greater things.

In 2002, he was made Kuoni's CEO (Asia). He now manages the Kuoni Group's businesses in Asia. Besides managing Kuoni India, he is responsible for the management and leadership of P&O Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok and to seek fresh opportunities in the travel and tourism industry across Asia - especially in China, Malaysia and Indonesia. He has also been appointed as a member of the management board of the Kuoni Group. In the process, he became not only the first Indian, but also the first non-European member of the Group Management Board of Kuoni Travel Holdings. Malkani is excited at the growth of the travel industry in India.

"The coveted number one destination slot can be ours as we have the potential, resources and the professionals to make this a reality, but for this, a long-term plan for sustained growth must be developed," he says. With Malkani at the helm, Kuoni is planning big for India. The travel house, which had recently acquired SITA world travel, has now prepared a Rs 400-crore war chest to buy more travel firms in the subcontinent. Malkani is clearly relishing the challenge.

"We have targeted around 30 per cent growth year-on-year for the next nine years and we do not expect to achieve it through organic growth alone. We will be achieving this growth through acquisitions and by widening our client base and getting into new segments of the market." Apart from his job at Kuoni, Malkani has other responsibilities too. In 2002, he was appointed m ember of the International Advisory Council for Tourism (the Singapore Government's advisory body for tourism).

The next year, he became chairman of the Indo-Swiss Business Committee and vice-president of the Swiss Business Forum. For a man whose life is travel, travel and more travel, his hobby is reading. He also enjoys teaching management and philosophy. What then is the Malkani magic? They say it is his foresight in identifying and developing new market segments, and also his abilities to continuously anticipate market needs in advance and engineer innovations and precautions.