1. You took over as VP of Kohinoor Hospital almost a year ago. How has the experience been so far?

In my journey of last 15 years with Kohinoor Group, I have handled various positions and assumed various assignments. I have worked as Head-Sales & Marketing for 'Kohinoor Global Campus Khandala' for 4 years. There on from September 2005 I was handed a new responsibility, that of Head -'Kohinoor City Project'- A project that prominently put Kohinoor Group on the Real Estate map of Mumbai. I have cherished every moment of seeing Kohinoor City shape up. The next feather in my cap was the inclusion of the group's landmark Project-Kohinoor Square in my portfolio. Kohinoor Square gave me the opportunity to verse myself with the launch and sales cycle of high end residential and commercial spaces. And, finally on 1st September 2016, I was conferred the opportunity to manage Kohinoor Hospital.

Kohinoor Hospital has both been my most interesting and challenging assignment to date, this is because, until now I had only been heading particular departments, but in this stint I was made responsible for the functioning of a complete Business Unit- Kohinoor Hospital.

A Hospital is a 24x7 live environment and all departments are practically running round the clock to deliver best patient care. I initially saw this as a challenge because I didn't have a healthcare background, however, I took over a running hospital, which worked in my favor and I only had to better the processes and systems.

2. What were some of the initial challenges you faced in the new vertical you were handling?

My qualification of being a CA and an MBA in marketing came in handy in taking this challenge head on. Initially, on starting work here, I was bogged by the sheer scale of operations and the number of processes to be understood. The Hospital seemed like a huge, self-operating factory to me where production happens 24/7.

The other bone of contention for me was to understand the people working at the Hospital- Doctors, Nurses, Technicians and other staff. It was important to know their sentiment about the Hospital, so I started taking rounds of the hospital, interacting with people, understanding various functions, terminologies, and other nuances of the trade. I had realized by now that the key to successful management of the Hospital was to include and engage all stakeholders, as a result I started holding monthly catch up sessions with Consultants, Nurses and other employees. I also stayed at the Hospital one night to understand service levels at non peak hours. However, only studying internal processes would not be enough to benchmark the hospital with other leading healthcare brands, so I studied our immediate competition very closely to identify service gaps and took necessary corrective action internally.

All work and No play makes jack a dull boy, keeping this in mind I also initiated an offsite team building exercise for breaking the ice and shaking up all the dull Jacks into action.

In healthcare, every day is a new opportunity, a new learning and a new challenge, there is always something new going on. It is a very demanding setup where decisions have to be taken both accurately and in the nick of time. I am certain that working at the Hospital has just raised my bar both as an individual and as

a professional.

3. What are your future plans?

The good part is that in the month of October we recorded highest revenue in the history of Kohinoor Hospital. For the first time, we ended 2015-16 with a positive EBITDA figure. We also successfully aced the NABH surveillance audit.

From a patient care perspective we have included some very interesting features to our service offering like a Café Coffee Day Kiosk within the premises, a separate financial counselling room manned by a dedicated resource to assist ones in need, thereby enhancing customer experience at the Hospital . We are also in the process of extending free Wi-Fi facility to the patients and their relatives. Inclusion of an Online Doctor Consultation platform is also on the cards. All these, coupled with the primary aim of increasing the number of tertiary care beds from 200 to 500 by 2020, will help meet the healthcare demands of a burgeoning population. In effect, 5 new tertiary care hospitals are also in the pipeline.

This however, is only the beginning. We have taken some tough decisions and assumed challenging targets for FY 2016-17. I can with utmost confidence say that, with the team of professionals working with me and support from the management, we shall not only achieve but surpass our targets.

Having said that, I must point out that none of this could have been possible without the constant support and continuous mentoring from our CMD Shri Unmesh Joshi. He is indeed the guiding force behind all my professional accomplishments.