Zubin Karkaria’s innovations have made government services more accessible
Farrokh Jijina
"One of our latest innovations is the launch of a mobile app for Dubai visas for passengers of Emirates Airlines – the first time the mobile channel has been used for visa applications,” states Dubai based Zubin Karkaria, chief executive officer (CEO) of VFS Global and the Kuoni Group. Karkaria’s consistent innovation and enterprise that saw the creation of visa facilitation services have earned him the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) award from the President of France in December 2016. VFS Global has "managed visa processing services for the government of France since 2004,” states Karkaria in an email interview with Parsiana. Karkaria was appointed as CEO of the Swiss Franc 3.3 billion (nearly Rs 22,400 crore) Swiss travel giant in November 2015, having worked in various positions in the Group since 1991.
Zubin Karkaria (r) with French ambassador Alexandre Ziegler
Offices and visa centers
In 2014, "the Bombay Municipal Corporation was our very first client for citizen services,” he says. The company operates 25 citizen service facilitation centers for the municipality which offer 113 services to citizens and local establishments: processing birth and death certificates, shop and factories licensing, public garden approvals. "Overall, our association has been very positive,” he avers, highlighting that VFS also processes building plan approvals for the Bhubaneshwar Development Authority and provides services to the ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. The CEO states that in South Africa VFS is successfully managing a foreigner registration drive to legalize the stay of people from the country of Lesotho. Similarly, the company manages a Bank Verification Number initiative for Nigerian bank-account holders in eight countries and processes foreigner permits for Ghana’s National Identification Authority. Explaining their new ‘Identity and Citizen Services,’ the CEO notes that their services can be used for passports and visas, national identity cards and driving licenses. As governments move to bring technology, transparency and speed into their systems, he states that VFS is "well positioned to support these initiatives.”
The company has 51 client governments and manages over 2,300 visa processing centers in 125 countries. "We are the very first company in our industry to hold innovation workshops for our client governments to showcase new-age solutions and discuss futuristic trends” during an annual event in Dubai, he says. Karkaria states that the single most important success factor is "our team’s ability to deliver solutions and services in a reliable manner” and "to have retained their entrepreneurial mind-set right from the early days.” VFS has developed software for document processing in partnership with the Finland foreign affairs ministry. Mobile biometrics (mobile services secured by biometric authentication) and centralized video interviewing system are other innovations the CEO refers to. He clarifies that they do not store visa applicants’ data for a long time and are not involved in the decision of granting a visa or not.
From left: Silloo, Zubin and Tarana Karkaria
"It is quite an honor to lead the Group executive board,” acknowledges Karkaria, the first ever Asian to head a Swiss company. In 2015, the global company divested its traditional tour operating business. "It was both challenging and fulfilling to be a part of that decision-making process,” he says. "It is my role to ... secure the Group’s future.”
Setting it up
The 48-year-old travel industry professional, who conceptualized and first set up the visa facilitation services, has seen this business grow to become one of three major divisions of the Group worldwide. Karkaria explains that the business "was born in 2001 out of a single core competency -- of understanding a traveller’s basic needs and the visa process.” Establishing the service was easy, he continues, but "convincing the first government to allow us to run this service for them took 18 very long months,” he recalls the early days. "After our first couple of meetings with our first potential client, we actually realized that we had a viable business solution which may be acceptable to governments. That, I would say, was our a-ha moment.” Karkaria shares that the US consulate in Bombay was VFS’ first client, and later they took on the visa processing for Delhi and Madras. By 2005, they were processing visas for 11 client governments in India, including the UK, Canada and Australia, and Karkaria became CEO and managing director of the company, then called Kuoni India. In 2007, the UK government outsourced visa processing across 33 countries to the company, flagging off their global journey.
Did the idea find support instantly within Kuoni or did he have to do a lot of internal convincing? Karkaria explains that the company has a strong entrepreneurial culture and was not risk averse. "When I pitched the idea to our management team I was able to build consensus fairly quickly.” He explains that it was a challenge to convince staff to leave a highly successful tour operating business and join something completely unknown. "That was when I learnt first-hand that most people do not like to move out of their comfort zone,” he says. Karkaria is proud that "almost all key members of the team who worked on the project in our first year are still with us.”
Being part of the travel services business has its advantages, states Karkaria: "It allows me to meet and explore people and places from different (parts) of the globe. But the time I really unwind is on short holidays with my wife Tarana and three kids, Simran, Simone and Zeus. Between the kids’ school schedules and our busy routines, we don’t always get too much time to spend together, so we really look forward to these holidays to re-energize ourselves.”
To young Zoroastrians who want to make a mark in the travel or BPO (business process outsourcing) industries, he advises: "Set your goals and put dedicated, whole-hearted efforts into achieving them. Be true to yourself and true to your purpose. Be humble in your achievements, as that is the one true measure of our value as good human beings. Create genuine value for your organization and for society. Dare to dream, but back it up with action. This will work in any industry or in any endeavor.”
Schooled at Don Bosco in Matunga and an alumnus of H. R. College of Commerce and Economics, Karkaria grew up in Dadar. His father Jal was an engineer by profession and mother Silloo a social worker. A priest by training, "I am a strong believer in the Zoroastrian faith and try and live my life by the key tenets of good thoughts, good words and good deeds,” he says.