by Dr. Iain
Corness
Chitra Chandrasiri is an energetic career woman who
proves that size doesn’t matter. Only 5 foot tall, she is a management
training consultant who conducts distance training for the world. She is
also a wife and laughs a lot!
Chitra was born in southern Sri Lanka in Ambalangoda.
She was the second child in a family of two boys and three girls born to a
Sri Lankan doctor and his educator wife. She was a good student, and since
her father hoped that one of his children would follow him into the
medical profession, Chitra seemed the most likely. “I was selected
because I was the best (in the family) at my school studies.”
She sat the entrance examinations for university, but
being of the aforementioned energetic nature went to hotel training school
while waiting for the result. “It was just something to do to keep me
busy.” That decision was to change her life forever, both personally and
career-wise. A young lecturer came to the school, called Ranjith
Chandrasiri. There was an immediate attraction between them and they began
to go out together. Whilst in Sri Lanka at that time arranged marriages
still existed, but were in the minority, no thoughts of marriage could be
entertained without parental approval. All thoughts of medical school were
forgotten and Chitra’s parents regretted sending her to hotel school;
however, Ranjith was accepted by them, Chitra’s father being the doctor
for Ranjith’s family.
However, Ranjith had itchy feet and wanted to leave,
but not without Chitra. The parents were won over, and the 20-year-old
bride left for Australia with her new husband. Ranjith to work in a hotel,
while Chitra went to Macquarie University to do a three year degree course
in Hospitality Management and Tourism.
During this period of study, Chitra worked part-time in
many hotels, but her big break came in 1991 when she snared the position
of assistant department head for the opening of an international hotel in
Sydney. This in turn led to a post as department head for another hotel
opening. “It was an exciting time for me. It was a big step. I was very
young to be a department head. I was only 25 and I wasn’t very big
anyway!”
She worked hard in the position, devoting many hours to
the hotel. Meanwhile, husband Ranjith was also working hard in another
hotel. “We worked in the same city, but sometimes all we could do was
have a cup of coffee together in a restaurant in the evenings. When I was
coming home, he was going.” During this time, she took out Australian
citizenship, “Sydney was where I started my career, and Sydney is where
I call home.”
The next step in both Chitra’s and Ranjith’s
careers came with an opportunity for Ranjith to be on the opening team for
a hotel in Cambodia. I asked innocently whether Chitra managed to find a
job there as well, to be met with an immediate, “Of course I did! At
that time I was very career focussed. I became the consultant to the
opening team, to set up the rooms division, otherwise I wouldn’t have
left Sydney!”
She found the time in Cambodia very interesting and a
challenge, with many of the staff never having seen a hotel before, let
alone actually worked in one. “We had to train them from the very
beginning.”
The interesting times did not end with just the work -
there was a coup in the country and the hotel management group sent as
many ex-pats home as they could, not willing to take the risk. So Chitra
ended up back in Sydney, while Ranjith was left in Cambodia.
Back in Australia, Chitra did not spend her time
twiddling her thumbs. She joined a training institute as a training
consultant in hospitality and management, but then after the Cambodian
situation had settled she accepted a position as the executive assistant
manager to open yet another hotel, back in Cambodia. “That one year was
so exciting. I was involved in four hotel openings!”
However, slowly without really realising it, Chitra’s
focus was moving from hotel management to hotel management training, and
in June 1998 she and Ranjith arrived in Pattaya to work at the Royal Cliff
Beach Resort, where Chitra became the training manager for the resort.
Proudly she spoke of one of her training programmes that is still
continuing today. “Customers Are Really Everything (CARE) was my
training programme.” The observant diners and guests at the Royal Cliff
Beach Resort will have seen the CARE badges worn by the staff there.
By this stage she could see clearly in which direction
she was heading. She returned to Sydney in 2000 and finally set up a
consultancy service with Distance Education as the concept. “These
internet based courses are accredited for hospitality training by the
Australian authorities.” Now she was free to manage these training
courses via the ‘net, from any country in the world.
Now with that freedom of work base location, she
returned to Thailand to rejoin her husband. “My (own) career and my
relationship with my husband are both important.” For Chitra, success is
simply to have a good balance in her relationships with her family,
husband, career and finance.
This she has now managed, and is enthusiastic in her
role as an educator. “I get up at 6 every morning, ready to get on the
net and work. I like sharing my knowledge with others.” Her hobbies she
also keeps in balance, with the physical sides of gym, exercise and tennis
offset against reading (anything) and movies.
She is not letting her own personal education slip
either and is planning on doing a Masters degree in hospitality through
Macquarie University next year. And after that? “I haven’t thought
that much. My consultancy (skill) is very portable.”
Make no mistake about it, she may be small, but there’s a big woman
in there, with enormous capabilities!
