Author Archives: Hari

Innovation in Healthcare – How India is thinking different?

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In an interview someone asked Dr. Devi Shetty, the Founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) as to why the Healthcare costs are increasing in India and he said “Over a decade ago, a heart surgery costed over Rs. 2 Lacs; and today it costs a little over half”.

Over the last decade, the Healthcare landscape in India is considerably changing. Healthcare is reaching to more people than before and many are benefitting with the new and innovative models Healthcare organizations are adapting.

One of the innovative models Healthcare organizations are adapting is the Hub and Spoke model. In this model, the central facility is situated in the urban area with all the specialists available. The Spokes are the smaller centers which are situated in smaller towns with connectivity to the Hub.

With this model, Specialist Hospitals are able to provide quality Healthcare to a larger population.

This one illustrates how India is innovating in its Healthcare reach. There are numerous data points which illustrate how India is behind in Doctor to Patient ratio, Number of beds to population, shortfall in the number of nursing staff etc. We are behind in most of the WHO metrics when compared to the United States and even with China.

Even though traditional methods are helping, reaching the over Billion population in the country needs different thinking.

Hospitals are increasing their reach and this does not mean we are compromising on the quality of the outcomes.

To add to these innovative models, startup’s in Healthcare are helping to bridge the gap even further. Over the last two years, there are more than 200 startup’s which have been addressing this problem. More than $500 million has gone into funding these startups. What also gains our attention is that these startups are not only focusing on care, but also building systems which connect anyone with a smartphone to the best of the care.

How to think? – Challenge assumptions

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In the first part of How to think, we started with Questioning. This is the first step towards improving our thinking. What’s next?

The next step to sharpen our thinking is to Challenging assumptions.

Challenging assumptions is developing our curiosity quotient. How do we practice curiosity? Start by asking Why? to things around. Why are we afraid of what we are afraid of?

Let me share my story. Long ago, I was afraid of the middle sex. When ever I saw them on the road coming towards me, my heart would pound. One day when I was with a good friend of mine, she noticed it and asked me. I told her. She asked me if I reasoned as to why I am afraid? I said no. The next week on a Saturday, she invited me to come to an NGO. I went. This was the NGO which was run by the middle sex for various social causes. She introduced me and told the gathering that I would be teaching them Fundamentals of Computers. With my inhibitions, I started to teach them. Over the next 2 months, everything changed for me. I got to know them better and I realized how wonderful and nice people they are. My fear was absolutely baseless. They loved me so much that after my sessions were over, they actually called me to come back few times.

Look around, start by asking simple questions. There are mostly no questions which have no answers. We just need to spend time with the question and we will get the answer.

If you are an Entrepreneur, ask yourself why you are solving the problem. If you work for a company ask why you are doing what you are doing.

Developing curiosity enhances your ability to challenge assumptions. When you challenge the assumptions, the way you look at dealing with things completely changes.

Asking the question right..

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All of us ask questions. Is there a right or wrong way to ask? I am sure once in your life you heard – “That’s a very good question”. How do we different the questions? Is there a logic behind asking what we want to ask.

The answer is Yes. There are patterns in which we ask questions. Few ask to know if the other person knows the subject or not; few genuinely ask; others ask to confirm if they understanding is correct and few ask for the sake of asking.

If you have taken a course on How to do presentations or teaching a class, you would have definitely covered the topic on how to manage your audience. Based on the tone and involvement of your participants, you know the genuinity of the question.

Asking the right question comes with the understanding of the subject. If the subject is new, the questioning pattern comes from inquisitiveness.

Based on my experiences, I identified 3 attributes which make it best.

– Start with the situation (Set the stage) – Before you ask a question, it makes it easier for the narrator/speaker to understand the context. So, highlight what he/she said and then start the question.

– Repeat what the other person said before you ask the question (Providing clarity) – After setting the stage, ensure you repeat the last line what you heard and then start with your question. This will help in connecting the story with the situation.

– Close the question with your understanding (if possible) – After the question is answered, close it by repeating what you have understood. This gives confidence to the speaker that their effort is valued.

How to think?

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During my +2 days, my Mathematics teacher used to write a problem on the board and turn to us and ask “How to think?”

We used to make fun of the question.

Fast forward 20 Years, here I am pondering on the same question. Over the last few years, this question has been coming back to me regularly. How to think? can be a tricky one at times.

How to think is a very genuine question we don’t usually ask ourselves. In the Indian system, we have been bought up with a tradition of not asking why, what and how? to our elders. At home, when parents tell us to do something and we ask a logic for it, we get back the answer “Our elders said so” and at school when we ask a question, we get a reply “So, you think you are intelligent eh?”. All these have deep impact on our thinking and we are continuing to follow the same in today’s world.

What we need to focus on and make effort is to change is the way we approach the questioning part. Asking questions is the way we need to think. What we need to accept is that we do not have answers to all the questions we have, and usually, the easiest way is to conclude. Instead of concluding, when we start questioning, many things open up and the complete approach to dealing with life changes.

So, the next time someone asks How to think?, the answer is Questioning.

Questioning is an art and it needs a lot of practice.

Dealing with failure. The way I did.

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Failure is the biggest fear we have and at any point of time we hate failing. But, failure is part of life and we need to accept the fact.

Everyone wants to succeed in life, but only a few prepare.

During the preparation process, we need to embrace failure. We need to accept it. But how to deal with it?

When you hit the unexpected lows, keep the focus on what the low is teaching you. It is very difficult to be practical but this is what one needs to be focused on. I have had failures and low times. At times, I try fighting to change things, but many a times, just sit down and think why this is happening. Both have not resulted in good for me. Luckily, from few sources, I understood how to look at failure a little more objectively.

The next time I encountered failure, I wrote down what failed and why I attributed it as a failure for me in the center of the page. Around the page I wrote down what are the possible situations which could have come out of the failure. Did few iterations and then finalized a list of reasons as to what I did not do right and why things did not happen the way I want them to happen. This gave me a holistic view of the failure and helped me think more objectively. I improvised the next time the same situation came.

At times, you do feel that you are right and the situations/people around are not identifying the correct result. Look at this as the area you need to work on because this is the perspective you need to deal with and we will need to address the failure, not as a failure, but as a situation where people can see what you actually wish to communicate.

How to Innovate (Cont.)

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One of the big factor for Innovation is finding your Inspiration.

Inspiration comes from anything & everything around us and it becomes very important to pay attention. Once we have the ability to see what inspires us, solutions come from unexpected corners.

The inspiration for Dr. V to create a process oriented eye care centre came from watching how McDonald’s was able to provide the same taste of burgers anywhere in the world. The inspiration to create a car came from wanting to have a vehicle to go places faster for Henry Ford.

The inspiration for Elon Musk came when he realized that the future of mankind was three things – Internet, Solar Energy and multi-planetary life. The inspiration to understand gravity came after watching the apple fall from the tree for Newton. Every innovator in this world has had his share of inspiration come from facets in life.

Today, what we need to keep eyes on are the small things which make a difference and understand them to create a better way to deliver.

The idea for this post came after I noticed the small magic book which was sold on the road yesterday.

Innovation comes from the ability to understand the why and what of the problem you wish to solve. What becomes important is not just identifying the problem, but finding the approach to solve the problem. This comes only when you understand the length and breadth of the subject.

How to Innovate

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Innovation is the buzz word. Every organization and every person on this planet is innovating right now, the very moment.

Today morning as I was stationary at a traffic signal, a lady was walking with a comic book with the characters in the book moving. Correct. You read it right. When you open the book, the character printed on the left side of the page is moving on the right page. I opened the window and asked how much was the book and she replied Rs.50. I immediately paid and picked up. What fascinated me is the very fact that the person who created the comic of 2 pages is sure thinking different and wanted to understand what lay inside.

There is no job in the world which is not worth Innovating for.

How to we Innovate?

Innovation needs hunger. A hunger from the heart with desire to create something new or better something which is already existing. When Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (fondly called Dr.V of Aravind Eye Hospitals) noticed that the Mc Donald’s burger tasted the same anywhere he ate. He was inspired to create what he created.

The very fact of survival pushed the person to create the comic book.

Whatever the economic situation is, only the person who is hungry to do something better is the one who is innovating.

Along with hunger, Innovation also needs understanding of the subject matter. For example, even though I am hungry, I cannot improvise on a Cardiac operation because I am not a specialist nor a Doctor. Understanding the problem completely is very important, else we cannot address what we want to address.

Innovation needs patience and perseverance. When trying to build something new or improvising an existing solution, having a buy-in and testing the hypothesis is very important. When Starbucks was entering China, it needed them ten years to make a tea drinking nation just to want a Coffee. This is Business model innovation. Ten years is quite long, but what did it get Starbucks in return? Its market share along with creating a change in lifestyle of the Chinese.

…to be continued.

Why should you bootstrap?

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From the time we are born and till we complete schooling, parents bootstrap. When we get to college, we do not have Credit Cards (Funding), but we do odd jobs to support ourselves. When the biggest and the most important aspects of life are arising out of bootstrapping, then why not our Ideas? Why do we look for funding?

Bootstrapping is often misunderstood word. Bootstrapping is just not our own money. Bootstrapping also covers money we borrow from family and friends. This money is very crucial for us to do what we need to and we have timelines when we return the money. This money comes because people around us buy into our idea. They are our first customers.

Even when we startup, going to family and friends first to raise some equity to build what we want is very important in many aspects.

– We have the confidence we have our first customers.
– Getting support from people we know gives us the motivation that we are on the right path.
– We will also develop a social commitment and work towards making the idea successful because we need to return the money.

Bootstrapping is not only associated with the Money, but also associated with our credibility. What happens when you have a new idea and share that with your Manager? Your Manager evaluates and after he invests and buys into your idea, he takes it to the Senior Leadership. Your Senior Leadership trusts you because your immediate Manager also thinks that your idea is worth it. They allow you to work on your idea. It becomes your moral responsibility to not let your Leadership down because you might not get another chance.

So, next time you have an idea give it your best shot to BootStrap rather than looking for funding or passing it on to someone else in the team to do the execution.

Creating your market segment

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Any idea starts with identifying the key pain point it is going to solve and which segment of the consumers will it help. Identifying the segment of consumers is more important then the execution plan for the idea itself because, execution plan changes according to your consumer.

There are two ways to do it, either work with the existing segments or create your own market.

Take Audi, when they entered Indian market with their flagship Q7, they did not go into mass advertising.They first identified their segment of consumers – Film Starts and Influential people. Why? Because usually people aspire to be like their favorite stars and successful people. They want to use the same brands like them and they wish to be successful like them.

Audi wanted to create a niche market for themselves and so, they went door-to-door with their sales team. Over the last ~9 years, they have not only build a niche, but created a complete different market for luxury cars in India which Mercedes could not do being here for a long time.

In the recent times, I have seen Big Basket doing the same. They invested in roping in Shah Rukh Khan for their Radio ad. When SRK himself uses Big Basket, why will his fans not?

This is how you create your market. Identify whom your Product relates to and then start from the top.

Choosing the right Health Apps

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There are more than 165,000 apps to track your health and fitness available. Of these only 36 apps account to more than 50% of downloads according to a study by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics which analyzed 26,000 apps.

Interestingly, only 10% can connect to a device or a sensor and only 2% sync with any providers systems.

I have been tracking my steps, calories burnt and fitness (Running and Training) very sincerely for over 2 years and have been tracking my food off and on.

There are a variety of apps available and my recommendation would be to try few before you finalize on what you wish to use.

It will be interesting and exciting to be using and tracking activities in various apps, but over the period of time it will become monotonous and you will start to be away from them.

Which apps to select?
First, identify your goals (Food, Steps, Calories, Running, Walking, Swimming, Cycling and workouts). Then look for apps which provide you with the information you wish to track and the ease of use and then finally settle down on what you wish to use.

I personally use a Garmin Vivofit, so I use the Garmin iOS app. Over the period of time, I also bought a Triathlon watch (Garmin Forerunning 920) and hence it became more easier to track all my activities. For food, I use MyFitnessPal which integrates with Garmin App.

In summary, use the apps which motivate you and your data syncs to the servers instead on being remote on your device.