BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION

Ritesh Agarwal (born November 16, 1993) is an Indian businessman and the founder and
CEO of OYO Rooms, a disruptive hospitality company and app. He is known as the second-
youngest billionaire in 2021 in India.
He was born in the Indian state of Odisha and raised in Titilagarh and comes from a family
that used to own and operate a small business in Southern Orissa. He began selling SIM cards
when he was 13 years old. In 2011, he travelled to Delhi for college after graduating from St.
Johns Senior Secondary School. He dropped out of college, was chosen for the Thiel
Fellowship in 2013, and was later named one of the winners of the Thiel Fellowship
programme in 2013, getting a $100,000 stipend. The company was launched as OYO Rooms
in May 2013. Agarwal has received numerous honours and awards for his work, including the
Business World Young Entrepreneur Award. He is a regular speaker at entrepreneurial
conferences and institutes throughout India and the world, as well as a Thiel Foundation
fellow.
Oyo Rooms is now a network of 2,200 hotels in 154 cities across India, with $3.5 million in
monthly revenue and 1,500 employees. According to CB Insights research findings published
in The New York Times, it is also one of the companies tipped to become the next start-up
unicorns. It has raised a total of $125 million in four rounds of funding from seven investors.

Ritesh Agarwal is a man who believes in his own decision. He is a true inspiration to young
entrepreneurs who aspire to be the next big thing. Right now, this man is serving as a role
model for the younger generation.

ANALYSIS OF RITESH AGARWAL BASED ON THE BIG

 1)Extroversion :
I believe he was an introvert as a child when he was bullied at school and was
hospitalised for it. However, the situation has now completely changed. The way he
conducts his meetings, seminars, interviews, technological talks, and so on; he
appears warm and friendly, attempting to enlist the support of as many people as
possible in order to achieve his vision of saving the earth and humanity. He appears
to be energised at all of his events and never fails to discuss his ideas and their
impact. He undoubtedly excels in this area. 

2) Agreeableness:
Ritesh is a threat. He has defied convention and is responsible for bringing about a
technological revolution. Ritesh says he couldn't wait every weekend to sneak out to
Delhi and meet those doing their own thing in Kota (Rajasthan), where he was
ostensibly preparing for his IIT entrance exams. This 19-year-old had spent months
travelling and staying in budget hotels, answering customer calls every day, and
immersing himself in every possible experience to learn about budget hotel
customers and their expectations. That kind of on-the-ground knowledge helped him
pivot Oravel to Oyo. Ritesh dared to question and change widely held beliefs. 
3) Conscientiousness :
He is a dedicated and hardworking individual. Ritesh, a college dropout who once wanted to
take an engineering exam, now leads one of the most valuable start-ups led by someone who
never studied beyond high school. He even sold SIM cards to survive, fearful that his wealthy
family would put an end to his entrepreneurial dreams and summon him back to Odisha if
they found out about his difficulties. As a result, he is undeniably focused on his work.

4) Emotional Stability
Ritesh began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 17 years. He dropped out of college
and founded his first company, Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd., in 2012. Oravel was created as a
platform for listing and booking low-cost lodging. As a frequent traveller, he quickly realised
that the budget hospitality sector lacked predictability. Competitors include chain hotels,
OTAs (online travel agencies), tour operators, and, of course, another aggregator. However,
he believes that it all begins with an idea and that it is only your will and hard work that
keeps you motivated to achieve your goal.
We can truly appreciate the magnitude of OYO's growth when we consider that it grew from
a single hotel a few years ago to 5500 hotels in a relatively short period of time. Ritesh, on
the other hand, never gave in to the pressure and eventually triumphed. As a result, it is easy
to conclude that he remains calm and confident, and that he is optimistic about his failures.

5) Openness :

He is an explorer, as evidenced by the goals he has set for himself. There were business
challenges, and many imitators arose, but he created a product that customers adore. He has
investors who believe in his vision and a team of extremely talented people assisting him in
running the business. He won't say it's been stressful; rather, it's been very exciting, and
seeing people buy into his dream or ambitions is a very gratifying feeling.
There are numerous such ventures from which we can easily conclude that he is dreamy and
inventive, and thus willing to venture into new territory.

MOTIVATIONAL SOURCES

He was motivated to start OYO Rooms so that he could be in control of the TV remote, which wasn’t possible when he
stayed with relatives when he was a child. 

LEADERSHIP DURING COVID:

OYO was hit by the pandemic for the first time in March and April 2020, when its gross
margin in dollars fell by more than 66 percent. That was something that had been built up
over a long period of time and had dropped significantly.
They determined that the best way to deal with the crisis would be through care, cash, and
evolution.
Let me begin with money. Within cash, the company worked to ensure that they spoke to
customers and owners in order to protect and recover whatever revenue they could, and as a
result, they discovered that there were four or five types of customer trends going on.
Staycations were becoming more popular.
OYO doubled down and made certain that all of its marketing, products, and supply were
geared toward staycations. Second, they recognised a rise in work-from-anywhere and thus
prepared work-from-anywhere as its focussed concept. It also saw a significant shift from
offline to online and, as a result, doubled down on digital-based reservations. Because value
for money and healthcare were critical, OYO introduced initiatives such as 'Sanitised Before
Your Eyes,' which allows people to see their rooms being sanitised in front of them. It also
recently launched VaccinAid, which is a chain of hotels where the entire staff has been
vaccinated. And the revenue at these hotels has skyrocketed. These are the things that OYO
did to be focussed on revenue during the pandemic times.