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The Irrepressible Leader

Brigadier Joe Curian (61 years)
Group President, Global Hospitals

This is one leader who sparkles irrespective of the organisation he works for. While people of his age would prefer to go little slow, work in a relaxed job and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, Brig Joe Curian still thrives on challenges. The tougher the challenges, the more determined he is to overcome them and then he leaves his indelible mark of success, before moving on to his next destination. Known for calling a spade just that, once he told us: If a hospital is running in loss for long, the CEO should be asked to quit.

This outspoken but charismatic leader has had an interesting career graph. While most people prefer hopping from good to a better organisation, Brig Curian kick-started his career with a successful organisation, then took on the challenge to turnaround two loss-making organisations. While he is surely sought after by many groups, in November, 2007, Brig Curian, CEO of SL Raheja Hospital, surprised everybody by choosing to join Global Hospitals, a group that is just making its pan India presence felt.

His current role at Global entails setting up facilities in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. He is involved right from project evaluation, market survey, financial planning to commissioning of the projects. Right now, he is working on operationalising, marketing and branding of BGS Global Hospitals in Bangalore. "Since, this hospital is on the outskirts of the city, we are devising strategies to convert the so called ‘disadvantages’ to USPs for attracting patients to this hospital," reveals Brig Curian.

His 14-year long association with the healthcare industry began after his retirement from the army. He started by joining Apollo Hospitals, Chennai in 1993. After two years, he was offered the job of being the first CEO in Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. "I grabbed it with both hands. That was a difficult task, where I had to commission the hospital and make it cash-neutral in two years," he reveals.

Encouraged by the success, he moved on to the next goal by the end of 1998. That was to turnaround the Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai as the CEO. After that mission was accomplished, in 2003 he joined SL Raheja Hospital, which was bleeding. "When I joined the hospital, it was facing a loss of Rs 2 to 3 lakh a day and today, it makes a profit of Rs 1.5 lakh per day," he says with pride.

Raheja Hospital was a long stay for him. Why would a visionary like him stick to Raheja for such a long time, when the Group does not have any further path chalked out in healthcare? Was it only because of the lucrative pay packet? "No, it was because of the commitment that I made to the trustees and my team there. I had to be there till I brought the hospital out of the woods. Before leaving, I developed a cadre of people who now would be able to manage the hospital in my absence, provided the trustees support them. It gives me tremendous satisfaction to learn about the success stories of my young team-mates. Many of them are in the top rung hospitals of the country," he adds. He clarifies, adding, "I never work only for money. Automatically, money follows those who excel at work. I work for the challenge and try hard to excel."

Does that imply that he would never join a successful group? "I prefer working for a group where I have many challenges. In case a group has reached a plateau and there is no further vision for growth, there is no excitement for me," he opines.

This leader is revered for his knowledge, vision, professionalism and a no-nonsense attitude. It is no surprise then that young hospital management graduates want to work for him for free! "I try to make the team members accomplish impossible results and make them feel like heroes. I make them work till the last drop of sweat, and I don't feel guilty, for I do the same myself," reveals the tough taskmaster. And what is the single most important attribute that he cultivates among his team members? "Integrity—both professional and personal. Everything else falls in place thereafter," he says.

Whatsoever organisation he works for, in whichever city he resides, he would continue to enrich the industry.

The Start-up Man

Somnath Chakravorty (46 years)
Director- Operations
I-Ven Medicare India Private Ltd, ICICI Venture

From the COO of Artemis Health Institute to COO of Hinduja Healthcare to Director-Operations of I-Ven Medicare, ICICI Venture, Somnath Chakravorty traversed various roles and organisations—all in 2007. "After working for the last 17 years in hardcore healthcare projects and operations, I am now enjoying the role of advising on funding and growth strategy for various healthcare organisations," he avers.

He has had a very fascinating career graph, associating himself with multifarious projects. He has been involved right from the drawing board stage to the commissioning of the project to operate as a profit centre head, but closest to his heart are start-ups as he enormously enjoys the process of ideating and then seeing his dream project getting transformed into a reality.

Chakravorty started his career in the pharmaceutical sector as a Medical Representative in 1985 with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Kolkata. He was in the first batch, when the company started its operations in West Bengal. After a brief one-year stint in Glenmark, he joined Dabur Pharmaceuticals, another start-up, where he worked for four years. Here, he ascended from being a Medical Representative based at Kolkata to Area Sales Executive to Area Sales Manager of West Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan. His next stint was as a Marketing Executive, in the Duncan Group, which was planning to set up a Duncan-Gleneagles Clinic and Hospital in Kolkata. "It was here that I learnt about the nuances of healthcare and the functioning of various equipment and departments," he reminisces. In this organisation, he had grown from being a Marketing Executive to Administrator of a standalone diagnostic cum day care centre with additional responsibility of a tertiary care hospital project co-ordination.

In 1999, he left Duncan and moved out of Kolkata to join as one of the founder members of Max Healthcare. Here, as Chief Administrator- Ambulatory Care, he conceived and commissioned ambulatory care to secondary care facilities in areas like Panchshell, Pitampura and Noida. "During my stint in this organisation, I also handled project planning, business planning, technology planning for tertiary level hospitals of the Group as GM - Projects Planning," he informs.

At this stage, he wanted to switch gears from strategy to operations. This took him to his next job—Medsys Management Ltd in Dubai as the CEO for a group of hospitals in the MENA countries. But this job was not meant to last. "After shifting to Dubai, I was told to shift base to Jeddah. Being the father of two daughters, I could not agree to move my family to Saudi Arabia," he shares.

He returned to India in 20 days and joined Max Healthcare once again. This time, he dabbled with the arenas like collaboration, joint venture (both in the domestic and international market), besides planning in new projects. "I am proud of bringing in the new technology intra-operative MRI in a cost effective manner in India, which was also first time in the entire South East Asia," he enthuses.

In 2005, he was recruited as the COO of the upcoming Artemis Health Institute. "I was asked to commission the project within 14 months. I accepted the challenge and completed the project in 18 months," he reveals.

Just before Artemis was commissioned, he left the Group. "I realised that the difference of opinion with some of the members of senior management was widening every day in the area of operational understanding. This affected mutual respect required for smooth functioning of the project," he sighs, when asked why he left Artemis.

He mulled over starting his own healthcare business in collaboration with one of the leading healthcare providers from Singapore. "But after three months of working with the Group, when the project was put on hold for a year due to their internal issues, I decided to move on," he says. Soon, he got an opportunity with the Hinduja Healthcare as the COO. But before he could take off in this new job, he met a senior team member of ICICI Venture, which changed his career path.

He got an offer to join ICICI Venture's I-Ven Medicare, a company with a corpus of $250 million that will direct ICICI Venture's investments and buyouts in the healthcare space. Besides the lure of working in a different industry, what motivated him was a statement made by a senior member of ICICI Venture which he remembers by heart: "You could not start your own business because of non availability of funds. Here you have funds—judiciously use them to get returns, besides functional value addition in the invested hospitals with your long experience in healthcare."

Besides infusing funds, his role entails strategic advice to the invested hospitals in functions such as medical technology and informatics, accreditation, marketing and PR, HR and training.

When asked to elaborate about his many jobs, he retorts, "Who says I changed too often? I need to be passionate about my job and if that ceases to exist, I never hang on to the institute just because I get a good remuneration and a comfortable lifestyle," he asserts.

For this ambitious man though, it is not his professional milestones and achievements that he cherishes the most. It is the people that he had identified and mentored in various organisations. "Today, when I see them doing well professionally in their respective functions, I am filled with pride. That is my reward," he gushes.

As long as he has fire in his belly and a searing passion, Chakravorty would carve new paths every day.

A Born Teacher

Dr Narottam Puri (60 years)
President, Medical Education
Fortis Healthcare Limited

They say once a teacher always a teacher. Dr Narottam Puri started his career as a teacher of ENT and after dabbling in various roles that comprised ENT physician, entrepreneur, hospital administrator, medical director and a sports critic, he is back to his first love—which is being involved with affairs related to teaching. Immediately after he stepped down from the post of Executive Director (New Projects), in October, 2007 at Max Healthcare following his superannuation, he continued practising as a senior consultant in ENT at Max. This was soon followed by the news of him joining Fortis as the President, Medical Education in December. In fact, his role related to teaching just got bigger and better. While earlier he was only teaching ENT, today through the institute he would be responsible for imparting training to nurses, healthcare management and bio-tech students and paramedics, besides medicos as part of Fortis's foray in healthcare education. Besides sharing knowledge, he likes teaching as he loves to communicate. "I also like to mould students," he avers.

His career as a teacher began in 1975 as a lecturer of ENT at his alma mater-Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC). He was happy doing this job till 1981, when suddenly he was transferred to Pondicherry. At this juncture, he decided to leave MAMC and started private practice. "I would have continued as a teacher for the rest of my life had it not been for the transfer. I could not move to Pondicherry as I did not want to uproot my family," he reveals. He started private practice at Moolchand Hospital in 1981 as an ENT specialist.

He tested his entrepreneurial skills in 1983, when he started the 25-bed Maan Hospital in North Delhi and a modern polyclinic (Medicos Centre) in Central Delhi with some friends. While his career as an ENT specialist and an entrepreneur was flourishing, he also attained fame as a sports commentator on radio and then TV. He has authored 18 books on sports and continues to write his column on a sports website. About his liaison with sports, he muses, "what started as a hobby completely took over as a parallel profession. But that does not mean I neglected my practice or patients."

In 2000, he established and headed the ENT department at Sant Parmanand Hospital, where he was also the Advisor and a part of the management committee. "This being a trust hospital, the dynamics of running it was different," says he.

In 2003, Dr Puri joined Max Healthcare as the Medical Director and the very next year he was promoted to the position of Executive Director (Medical Services). His love for teaching made him found Max Institute of Medical Excellence (MIME).

About his new role in Fortis, he says, "I wanted to be in a leadership position, where my decisions would be deemed important. My current job provides me that. Being a citadel of learning, it also quenches my thirst for being involved in setting up teaching institutions," he reveals.

His responsibility entails right from designing the teaching institute (where it does not exist), helping in setting the curriculum, hiring faculties and even set up the medical college, along with equipping it. Amidst all this, he did not give up practising. "I need to keep myself abreast of the latest if I would be training the future generation," he informs.

If a few more senior people had a similar zeal for teaching, then the industry would not face a dearth of skilled manpower.