Healing The World, in India
Championing special initiatives for over seven years, she had directed the company's – which her father started in 1983 – diversification into several new domains, all of which have been largely responsible for Apollo's emergence as one of Asia's leading integrated healthcare organisations.
Ahmad Shariq Khan | March 2016 Issue | The Dollar Business
Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise“Every single day, he revitalises us towards our quest for a healthier India,” says Shobhana, for whom the hospital was the fruition of her father’s vision of bringing world-class healthcare to India, and his mission to ensure that Indians won’t be denied access to quality healthcare just because they could not afford to travel overseas.
“The first Apollo Hospital in Chennai took a lot of effort. My father often said that every brick stood for the several struggles he had to overcome to make Apollo Hospitals a reality. We saw our father and the founding team at Apollo Hospitals create magic, we had a ringside view of the revolution that Apollo catalysed in Indian healthcare. There was never a doubt in my mind – I wanted to be a part of the movement that was transforming healthcare delivery in India,” says Shobhana recalling the Group’s initial days.
Describing her journey with the Apollo Group so far, she feels change has been the only constant for her. “My journey with Apollo has been characterised by change, defined by subtle nuances in philosophy, attitude and approach. The initial years were all about passion and learning. The middle years were all about balancing consolidation and growth, and today we are Asia’s largest and most trusted healthcare group. We are the leaders who are sounding the clarion for a healthier India. Long-term vision and being a leader is the key focus today,” Shobhana reminisces.
While championing special initiatives at Apollo Health Resources Limited (AHRL), she has directed the company’s diversification into several new domains, many of which have been largely responsible for Apollo’s emergence as Asia’s leading integrated healthcare organisation. She attributes her success mantra to her family values. “Right from the very beginning, we learnt the value of hard work from our parents. My father always says that there are no off days in healthcare, and this is true. We worked hard, we found pleasure in the work we did, and pride when we did the job well. And we believed in leading from the front,” she opines.
Shobhana, along with her three sisters, now leads the Apollo Group from the front, and is equally proud of the warm bond that exists in Reddy family, saying, “Our parents instilled in us all the love and respect for each other. This has helped us stay so close, and at the same time develop very distinct personalities”. Putting a lot of emphasis on family values, Shobhana believes families are built on legacies and it is the duty and responsibility of each generation to nurture the legacy and pass it forward.
TDB: What were the lessons you learnt from your overseas market outreach experience?
Shobana Kamineni (SK): Honesty, integrity and transparency are the hallmarks of any successful business. However, these qualities become even more critical in the overseas context. Quality is non-negotiable when one has to work with partners from abroad. The culture of quality is ingrained in most overseas markets and they place a very high premium on your reputation. Companies that demonstrate a propensity to excellence gain the trust and goodwill in international markets and these are the players who will do well.
At Apollo Hospitals, we always believed that trust is a result of consistent long-term effort, and this philosophy has helped us immensely internationally.
TDB: You receive a large number of patients from abroad. Which are the major markets for you overseas?
SK: Apollo Hospitals has touched lives of patients from over 121 counties. We are trusted by patients from all over the globe. Currently, Africa is a major focus area in our international roadmap. We believe that our brand of world-class affordable healthcare is the perfect solution for Africa’s healthcare gap. We are expanding our reach into Africa by devising innovative healthcare delivery models there like telemedicine, as well as facilitating medical tourism from Africa to our centers in India.
TDB: Please tell us about some of your short term and long term professional priorities.
SK: My priorities revolve around the mission of Apollo Hospitals which is to take an international standard of healthcare closer to every individual in need. In addition, I work very closely with the CII and participate in addressing national challenges, critical to the growth of our economy and success of our country.
A focus on wellness and healthy living needs to be a priority for India, a country at the precipice of colossal disease burden. Hence, inculcating this culture into my personal family and into that of the Apollo family and all those in our circle of influence is a key priority, as is championing the Billion Hearts Beating Foundation.
TDB: Please tell us about the marketing strategies that the group employs while venturing abroad. How is the overseas market different from the domestic one?
SK: The essence of healthcare delivery stays the same whether we are operating nationally or internationally. The pillars of Apollo’s healthcare delivery rest on our 3 Cs – Cost, Clinical Outcomes and Compassion.
Affordable healthcare has been a constant at Apollo. We still offer world-class healthcare at a fraction of the costs in the western world. This becomes a driving factor in pushing international patients to travel to us for medical procedures.
Our clinical outcomes match the best in the world. When we market our offering in the global market, our adherence to clinical excellence helps us gain the trust of patients.
TDB: What do you think of India’s strength as a leading world destination in medical care?
SK: India’s strength has always been the high calibre of the doctors and medical staff in the country. This, combined with the quality standards of clinical excellence in India’s private healthcare has led to India emerging as a healthcare hub. The cost advantage adds an additional value to the story. A promising trend in India as a medical tourism destination is that patients are coming to us for complex and cutting-edge treatments.Additional manpower, infrastructure and a more robust wide-spread quality accreditation system are the need of the hour for India to increase its stake in the global medical tourism pie.
TDB: In the domestic market, how do you view competition? What are you doing to counter it?
SK: A quick glance at any healthcare report will present very ominous statistics for India. We are woefully short of doctors, nurses, hospital beds and several other important parameters to adequate healthcare cover. In this context, competition is the least of the worries for the Indian healthcare fraternity. We are more concerned about covering the shortfall. India needs more hospitals, more beds, double the doctors, triple the nurses and quadruple the allied health resources.
TDB: In your industry, apart from technological excellence, a warm patient-centric approach is the key. How do you ensure that across all your hospitals in India and overseas? 
SK: Compassion is a vital pillar of the Apollo Hospitals experience. We started the Tender Loving Care (TLC) movement to make our patient experience unique and friendlier. It continues to be a silent revolution that sweeps through our corridors, across our hospitals.
At Apollo Hospitals, we have a wider point of view on the idea of being patient-centric; we think it is more than just a fuzzy feeling; there is pure science behind the perfect patient experience too. We leave no stone unturned to develop and perfect protocols that make a patient’s journey in Apollo smoother and safer. We institutionalise our best practices to ensure that there is a standard quality of delivery and experience at all touch-points, across all Apollo Hospitals.
to success.