On educating, hospitality, and innovation: An interview with Dipra Jha

If you didn’t know already, the International Man of Hospitality makes his home as a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Dipra Jha. Read Dipra’s story to learn the purpose behind education, the secret to true hospitality, and the reason innovation is key to success.

The bespectacled, always impeccably dressed and smiling Dipra Jha entered into my life soon after I began my job at UNL’s Office of Global Strategies in September 2018, at a meeting on for virtual exchange at the university.

My first impression upon meeting this International Man of Hospitality: Wow, I can’t wait to pick his brain on all sorts of things.

Since then, I’ve had the pleasure to pick his brain about a plethora of topics: cross-cultural competency, menu options at Hiro 88, videography, traveling and more. In fact, I often joke with him that I need to have a map just for “Where in the World is Dipra?” But as I mention at the end of this post, there’s still many more topics I’d like converse on. So when I was brainstorming a faculty member to interview for this project, Dipra was an obvious pick for me.

Thankfully, the timing worked out great and I got to pick his brain on his life story and factors critical to human success after his recent return from a six-month professional sabbatical around the world.

On educating

Dipra Jha is one of the rare and lucky people who can summarize his life story in one sentence: “I grew up in India, came to the United States as a graduate student, fell in love with teaching and learning, and decided to become an educator.”

This is how he begins our interview, and I’m impressed by the clarity he had about who he is. So of course, my first question is did the young Dipra who grew up in Kolkata, India know he was destined to teach in Nebraska?

“Absolutely not!" he chuckles. "I never saw myself becoming a university professor in Nebraska—but that’s the beauty of life, where life takes you!”

As a child, Dipra had many different dreams: military pilot and celebrity chef, to name a few. He quickly realized that those dreams wouldn’t work out for him (thank goodness for me), but found a home when he began studying hospitality.

After earning his Bachelor’s degree in India, Dipra decided to pursue graduate education in the United States. He tells me that when he began the inevitable question of what’s next after grad school, his choice was influenced heavily by two factors. Throughout his graduate programs, Dipra was surrounded by great mentors who nurtured and instilled a love for teaching and learning. At the same time, he realized his own delight in the opportunity to influence youth as an educator.

“Not only I had the support from mentors, but also at the same time, I found that I have a passion for teaching and I think I’m going to enjoy this. Both came together, and the rest is history.”

In 2006, Dipra began his teaching career at North Dakota State University as an Assistant Professor in Hospitality and Tourism Management. But the part of his journey I’m really interested in, perhaps selfishly as a Husker, is his arrival to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dipra interviewed at UNL for the Hospitality, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM) program in 2012, when the program was just six years old. There are a lot of things I love about UNL I’m sure impressed Dipra when he came for the interview (and it’s not just my Husker bias, I promise), but what really sold him was potential.

“I saw it was a young program, but a lot of potential, a lot of vibrancy. In the seven years I have been here [at UNL], the HRTM program has established itself as a one-of-its-kind.”

Thanks to dedicated faculty like Dipra, senior leadership and the passion of the students, HRTM at Nebraska has become a truly “boutique program.” As for what keeps him coming back to Nebraska, it’s the community of not only the University, but also the city of Lincoln.

“Irrespective of how much I travel, I always find it a joy to come back to ‘The Good Life.’”

I find Dipra to be a stellar example as a professor, not only for his approachability and expert authority, but also for his dedication to continue learning himself. Through his own research, Dipra has found that explaining context is equally, if not more important, than the content when teaching. He believes that without context, content has no meaning at all.

“Learning styles are changing. Learning needs are changing. Continuously updating myself in terms of content and course design is incredibly important.”

Dipra’s pedagogy has also transformed to a style similar to storytelling. Although it may be more difficult to tell a story instead of just presenting information, he continues with the approach because students are much more receptive to stories. Many times, he uses his own travel and professional experiences as an example, such as talking about a robot at a restaurant he interacted with instead of just lecturing on automation in the hospitality industry.

Another example of Dipra’s dedication to innovative teaching practices is his involvement in Nebraska’s Global Virtual Classrooms Project that brings virtual exchange into courses via video chats and other technology between students at universities around the world. After concluding his highly successful “Three Countries, One Classroom” course in fall 2018 through UNL’s Stevens Initiative grant, Dipra is also one of six inaugural awardees of the university’s internal Global Virtual Classrooms grant.

This fall 2019, Dipra will continue his “One Classroom” project centered around his Introduction to Lodging course with not three, but five countries present through partnerships with The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in the United Arab Emirates; Oman Tourism College in Oman; Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands; The Oberoi Center of Learning and Development in India; Sumy State University in Ukraine; and Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom.

“Programs like virtual exchange are the future. Global Virtual Classrooms is the best example of you are sitting here in Nebraska, but bringing the world into your classroom,” he explains to me passionately. “That is why virtual exchange is so powerful.”

“Education is more than just collecting a toolkit of skills. Those skills are absolutely, extremely important. But it’s more than that—it’s the ability to see beyond and have a much broader perspective.”

This is, at its core, is what Dipra believes education does: broadens perspectives. Education, according to Dipra, is not only important for the skills you learn, but also because it teaches you to look at a problem and think it through in more than one way. And when he’s able to instill that in a student, that’s when Dipra remembers once again why educating is his calling.

The greatest validation of Dipra’s career is when he revisits with students he had three, four, five years ago, and they tell him the site visits he took them on or the study abroad trip he led were what solidified their interest and success in the industry.

It’s the same feeling when he gets feedback from parents of his students who tell from a secondhand perspective the impact he’s making on their child. Everyone likes to win awards for what they do (and Dipra is a three-time winner of the UNL Parents Association and Teaching Council’s “Recognition for Contribution to Students”, among others), but the true satisfaction for Dipra comes from knowing he had a small part to play in his students’ success.

“That is priceless. The joy you have to see something like that is… just incredible.”

On hospitality

As he told me earlier, Dipra discovered a great interest for the hospitality and tourism industry at a young age. His areas of expertise include luxury hospitality, innovation in the industry, and global education. Dipra is a known hospitality expert around the world, as exemplified by the various luxury hotel brands and universities who have tapped him as a Professor in Residence or guest speaker; UNL even dubbed him “International Man of Hospitality” in his recent Faculty 101 podcast feature. He teaches a variety of courses at UNL, including lodging, operations, guest service management and tourism, and we’ve already discussed his teaching philosophy and the values he tries to instill.

But what I really want to know is: As a professor, as an industry expert, what does hospitality boil down to for Dipra?

“Hospitality is something very intuitive: it is the care, the compassion and the genuine interest in the wellbeing of others.”

Definitely not a rocket science definition. But while it boils down to something simple, I’m sure there’s still a lot of thought that goes into successful hospitality, even as someone who hasn’t studied the topic before. Good thing I’m interviewing Mr. Hospitality for the expert answers!

**HINT: This is where I’d bring out the notebook for Dipra’s free study guide on success in hospitality.**

“True hospitality is both anticipatory as well as attitudinal,” Dipra begins.

“If someone is arriving at your hotel on a hot summer day, the traditional hospitality response is, ‘Would you like a bottle of water?’ The anticipatory response, the true hospitality answer is to take out a bottle of water and offer it to the guest.”

“Attitudinal is basically that a person can be trained on skills, but it’s very hard to train someone on how to be a nice person. It’s all connected to emotional intelligence and situational intelligence.”

According to Dipra, the best models of hospitality come down to getting the small details right and asking what you can to do make a guest feel great. He tells me of a time where, upon arriving in Bangkok, Thailand after a long international flight, he called his hotel for a car pickup. When he got into the car, he was blissfully appreciative of their anticipatory response to provide him with two bottles of fresh, chilled watermelon juice.

Dipra points to another example of attitudinal excellence in the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, whose credo is “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentleman.” Not guests and employees, but ladies and gentlemen who treat visitors with the respect they would want to receive.

“It is not about, ‘Okay, this person is giving me money and I’m giving them a room and food.’ It’s much more than that. The relationship or experience [in true hospitality] is not transactional, but transformative.”

Wow. It seems that Dipra can not only summarize his life story in one sentence, but also the key to success in an entire industry in one sentence.

Now that my interest is piqued, I want to see what insight Dipra can give on the future of the hospitality and tourism industry.

“The industry is getting much, much more experiential,” he tells me. “The deliverable is no longer food or a hotel room or an amusement park ride; the new deliverable is memories.”

To be successful in this new era of hospitality, Dipra informs me, brands need to focus on the experience the guest has while eating food or staying in a room. There are still a variety of tourists and each type may seek something different but overall, there is an increasing demand to experience pieces of local culture and tradition. For example, during a recent personal trip, Dipra noted that his JW Marriott hotel in Cusco, Peru offered a daily cooking experience for guests to learn about and try traditional Peruvian cuisine from one of their chefs.

Social media is also continuing to influence the industry as well through its ability to highlight incredibly beautiful places or showcase parts of the world that were not traditionally considered as tourist destinations. On the other hand, social media has also introduced a few challenges for the industry to combat, including the “doing it for the ‘gram” phenomenon of people being disrespectful at sacred places just to capture the best photo for Instagram. Another recent development is that of “begpacking” where young, typically Western tourists from Europe buy themselves a plane ticket to get to developing countries like Cambodia and Thailand, then travel around living off the hospitality and kindness of locals who are often much poorer.

Despite these obstacles, however, Dipra remains overwhelmingly positive about humanity and the benefits of tourism.

“There are always people in every society, every organization, in every family who probably lack the consideration in all these things we’re talking about. But overwhelmingly, my belief in humanity is reinforced every time I travel. Regardless of where they live or what their background is, people are kind, friendly and hospitable everywhere.”

To help combat such challenges, Dipra encourages everyone to be a responsible tourist when traveling abroad. This means doing a little bit of research before arriving at your destination, or asking the local concierge what some of the cultural do’s and don’ts are. When you arrive, show an interest in experiencing the culture and tradition of the place.

I love this advice so much, and it’s something I truly believe in and try to ascribe to every time I travel. In my opinion, part of the power of the tourism industry and traveling is that it can help overcome the fear of the unknown and expose people to different cultures and perspectives.

“Tourism and hospitality can help overcome barriers by bringing people together through experiencing each other’s cultures, food and other traditions.”

As Dipra more eloquently puts it, “When people are more exposed to one another, there is less likelihood of antagonism and conflict and misunderstandings. Tourism is a great leveler in terms of the issues we’re having these days because if people are traveling and experiencing other cultures, they come to the realization that, ‘Wow, this culture may be different from me in food, dress or worship, but at the core, these people are similar to me.’”

And so, we come to Dipra’s final lesson on hospitality and tourism: we should practice hospitality in our everyday lives.

“Practicing hospitality is very simple. You can do it by demonstrating gestures and engaging in simple acts of kindness. For example, just acknowledge people by smiling at them and saying hello; holding a door open for someone or offering them a bottle of water on a hot day. These are very simple things, but making them a part of your daily habits creates that experiential piece of it.”

On innovation

As I interviewed Dipra and write his story, there is one common thread I see underlying his passion for hospitality and education: his dedication to innovation. 

“When I think of my legacy, I’d like it to be as someone who always thought out of the box and made an effort to stay ahead of the curve.”

As an educator, Dipra is often at the forefront of trying new technologies and teaching techniques, such as the Global Virtual Classrooms projects or using a technology grant for a telepresence robot in his virtual exchange classes. According to him, technology has become undoubtedly integrated into higher education and learning. Perhaps a telepresence robot may not be used ten years in the future; but if he sees value added to whatever he’s doing, such as the robot making it easier for discussions with professors and students around the world, he’s going to try it.

Dipra is also always trying new things in his pursuit of innovation in the hospitality industry. He tells me that just the other week he was in Las Vegas on vacation and visited the Tipsy Robot bar to sample a cocktail from their robot bartender. He made it a point to visit this place where he normally wouldn’t, to order a drink from the robot and try it out.

During his visit, Dipra began speaking with a young (human) woman who was also working at the bar with the robot, and asked her how she felt about it. During their conversation, they joked that both humans and robots sometimes break down and have issues. But ultimately, the woman views the robots as her coworkers, and not machines.

That’s a real sci-fi moment, at least for me.

But for Dipra’s future-forward mind, he points to this example as a moment where “You realize that automation or robotics are not going to go away; on the contrary, we should ask if we are consciously thinking as a professional of the future where these [robots] will be our colleagues?”

His dedication to innovation is clear, but now I wonder if Dipra can provide some guidance on how we can teach ourselves to be innovative?

“I’m a big believer of ‘How would I know if I don’t try?’ It’s as simple as that.”

“Be open-minded. It’s easy to say that, but I have come to the realization that a lot of people are so enmeshed in their bubble, in their comfort zone, that they sometimes fail to see the obvious.”

He points to examples like AirBNB and Uber who have dramatically changed the lodging and transportation industries. Even the landscape of higher education and learning is changing, and the key ability that differentiates those who succeed is the ability to think disruptively.

Another strategy Dipra uses is reading as much as he can, and following people who are intelligent and thinking outside the box. For example, Dipra has followed Elon Musk or Richard Branson for a while, even when ten or fifteen years ago, people scoffed at the idea of space travel. But their ability to think disruptively is making space travel more and more a reality.

Ultimately, innovation boils down to survival in Dipra’s perspective.

“We are living in times of exponential change. If we are not staying ahead of the curve in whatever we do, then we are going to be irrelevant and redundant very, very soon.”

What I’ve learned from Dipra

Talking with Dipra is truly always a pleasure for me; I never know where our conversation is going to end up, but it’s always the most mentally stimulating of my day. Even when we began this interview, we didn’t get started for nearly half an hour because he always has interesting news to share, and the interview very quickly turned into two hours instead of one.

Clearly, I have much more to learn from Dipra as it was a real struggle to condense even two hours of his knowledge and experiences into one blog post; but from our time together today, the three most important messages I’ll take away are:

1. Use education to broaden your perspective of the world.
2. The art of hospitality is human nature; genuinely care about those around you.
3. Push yourself to think outside of the box or you’ll be left behind.

Thank you very much, Dipra, for allowing me to interview you and try to condense your story to a few paragraphs. You are truly an inspiration not only as a passionate educator dedicated to the success of your students, but also as an industry expert and lifelong learner. I’m honored to work at the same university as Mr. Hospitality, and I very much look forward to our next conversation and discovering what new tidbits I’ll learn then.

To learn more about Dipra’s work as an educator and industry expert, visit his faculty profile on the College of Education and Human Sciences website. You can also follow Dipra on LinkedIn to stay updated on the latest luxury and hospitality trends, and his global education initiatives.