SBenegaL

Blog

  • Interview – Plan my health – A student run venture @ NSRCEL IIMB

    Sachi: Good evening Sandeep and Abhay, thanks for coming on to this interview. This is the first in the series of entrepreneur interview that I intent to take. To begin with, I would like you to tell us a brief background about yourself and then follow it with giving us an update about your company.
    Abhay: Basically I completed my graduation from NITK Suratkal in 2008, then after that I have worked for a startup which is a start up funded by Accel partners. They are a team from IITs and IIM. One of the reasons I was working with them was to understand how businesses run and started from scratch. Basically my interest in working was my interest in entrepreneurship. I worked there for around three years and then I’ll started this, co-founded this venture called planmyhealth.com along with my colleague. This much is my background.
    Sandeep: Hi all, My name is Sandeep Raj, I am a Mechanical Engineer from  PSG Tech. and post which I worked in a company called Ashok Leyland – one of  Premier automobile manufacturers in India and then after that I am doing my post graduate programme in management now. I am in the second year right now. This is my resume background, and then to tell about more about me, so I have more passion about a lot of things. One of course is the organizing things that I did right from college. Post that after my engineering group of friends started an education start up, We went to some second tier engineering colleges, and taught some people there, and this motivated me that yes even we have a capacity to do something my own and entrepreneurship is not really an unknown region where no one can really enter into – I got such a feeling post that. And post that in IIM Bangalore, I was fortunate enough to be in one of the key organizing members of the Business Festival here, I mean it gave me a wide opportunity to interact with a lot of corporate people and new entrepreneurs, based on which I decided ki, if this is not the time, I wouldn’t get a better time to start up a company.  So I came across my friend and started up company together, and it’s been doing pretty well for the past 6 months. So this is a short background about me
    Sachi: Could you tell what your company does?
    Sandeep: Basically, we are into the online healthcare space. We started the company to provide full information on diagnostic to whoever accesses our website, but then slowly move on into a kind of home diagnostic delivery model. So what we basically do is, anyone in Bangalore can give us a call or book online, any kind of diagnostic test they want. What we do is, we send the phlebotomist to collect the blood samples to the person who has booked the service, when we offer a wide range of options to the customer as well.  Like, the customer can choose which lab he wants to give his blood samples to, and then once the blood samples is delivered to particular lab; we get back the report and give it to the particular patient whoever has asked for the service. There are two modes of operation right now, one is the corporate model and the other one is the apartment model. In the apartment model what we do is, we go there not on a week day but weekend or any public holiday so that many people are available, and then we do sufficient promotion for over a period spanning one week or two week and whoever wants to a preventive health care or regular diagnostic test can contact us. We then, we enable the diagnostic test to be done right at their doorsteps. This is the one of the core value in the offerings. In the corporate model we haven’t tried it out fully, what we plan to do is – offer a host of wellness packages to the corporate employees there.  What we want to do is not just to be the diagnostic provider there, we want to be on the lines of someone who can really take care of issue like employee wellness, the employee motivation, kind of have some target for them – health targets. We will be focusing more on the health goals of the companies, which is currently lacking, in the short survey by us in and around Bangalore. What we found out is that people give least importance to health. We would like to one of their health partner not just diagnostic partners and take up the entire health and well being of their employees – which we feel that taking care of health is the prime most importance and health comes before anything else. So we want to motivate employees through that route.
    Sachi: Something that I found interesting is that you both are Engineering background, why did you choose health care as your space?
    Abhay: Well with my past experience care, when I was working in the last start up, I got a chance to work in the diagnostic space especially, and we figures that is a space which is a little unstructured with respect to customer needs. The way the current services is delivered by diagnostic labs and the convenience that is provided to them, it is not very promising. That is one gap we observed, we studied in fact, did a survey, met people in hospitals, diagnostic labs and we figured. And we figured after doing this study that there is lot of issues which could be addresses, and diagonostic services could be made really smooth and structured. And ya we have definitely been able to achieve it to an extent. We are looking to make it better.
    Sachi: Another interesting thing is, You are from Surathkal and he is from PGS Tech which is more South right! How do you people get to meet people each other?
    Sandeep: Basically we got a chance to meet during our CAT coaching classes which was in Coimbatore. So, post that he moved on to Bangalore, and I also came to IIM Bangalore. We were constantly in touch and discussing few ideas about what could work out and what not? and then like basically the idea of starting a company as such and we never thought that we were going to be partners. Just wanted to tryout, just experiment something and then decide what to do later. I was always of the mentality that nothing be decided in the first step. It is always like dancing, In a dance, you take the first step; your partner takes the second step – that’s how you carry it forward. So we thought anything is a good learning experience, and it was evident from whatever has been my experience from under-graduation and post graduation. So trying out new is definitely going to be a new experience, which not most people would have an opportunity to try out. So then we thought based on our time commitments, like I had to manage my studies as well but Abhay was ready to work on it full time. Then we thought, if we are starting a company we have to be really serious about it, We are operating in a space which is very critical – health care. So not many would consider this – like if its pizza delivery if it’s half an hour late or one hour late, people are just going to do away with it. It needs kind of a permanent commitment from someone so I thought; Abhay would be a good match. Knowing him since past 2-3 years, I know he is quite sincere in whatever he does, so I thought this would be a good combination.
    To put in Sunil Hande’s words – who has been one of my biggest inspirers, What he said was – Whenever you are forming a team, the ideal size of the team should be two. Make sure that your functionalities or specialties don’t overlap with each other.  You choose a field in which, you choose a partner in who exactly complements whatever you have. In the sense that if you are good at marketing your other partner should be good at finance, or If you are good in the sales part, the delivery part the other one should be good in operations part and knowing the local flavor and things like that. So we thought we are a good combination and we have the potential to pull it through. So this was one of the main motivations.
    Sachi: The last part of its saying one complementing another, so let me ask you how you complement each other?
    Abhay:  With time we have been able to figure out as to what roles we would take going forward going forward. Right now, with respect to operations, I am taking care of the operations and Sandeep is taking care of marketing part of it. And in fact there has been lot of inputs with respect to, Sandeep’s acads and there has been guidance from IIM Bangalore also. The kind of academic inputs he has got from there and the kind of intellectual inputs from our side, our own studies, our own observations and execution of operational issues We together have been working on it, It has been going great.
    Sandeep: Just to add to what Abhay has told Initially we were totally clueless about what is our role what is our part – I would come back to the point again – if you don’t know something just try it. Initially we started off our pilot operations in August, we were running around, I was missing classes so, but then I find it totally worthwhile an experience. I completely know my strengths right now. In the sense – it might be an over statement but I am pretty sure that compared to around six months back, I now know my strengths far better.
    Sachi: Could you tell us why to choose health care as a sector? 
    Sandeep: To tell about why did chose health care as a sector, basically I wanted to be a doctor but then I had to forego it due to academic reasons. I also realized that one of my main motivations was to offer convenience to the customer in which ever segment we operate. We were also closely evaluating some of the segment that were not tapped – examining things like education, retail and these had sufficient innovation there. But then, in the healthcare space we surprisingly found that in-spite of there being such a huge need, not much of innovations has happened or, service delivery improvement has been done.  We then thought this is a good segment for us to operate on, and considering the fact that India is a huge country and lot of people need health services – especially elderly people and others in real need. Right now, it might be fascinating to order something from flipkart, but when you realize it, it’s not really an important need. You can always go to the book shop and buy books that you are ordering interest of ordering it on flipkart. Whereas in health care, there are people who can’t even walk or, they don’t have caretakers. So for them we wanted to offer some service offering. May be it started off with a social mindset – let’s start with a service and then take it forward. And then we decided, since we were offering a service, let’s put a service charge and we were giving good businesses to labs and hospitals, then we said, we will get some commission from them and then it evolved as a business. So it is basically a stage from ground zero to level one I would say, And then based on continuous search for business opportunities as well as realizing the fact that there is a good need in this segment, Then we decided to get into healthcare.
    Sachi: What other sectors did u evaluate?
    Sandeep: Other businesses, ya like I was saying, one of important things for startup company is that you are making sure that you are not observed in the bigger picture. For example, If we are go and operate in a retail space of something there is always a possibility that some bigger retail payer is going to come to market or he is going to observe me. We don’t have cash also. But then, evaluating this business model what we found was we were not getting into any other person’s shoes, We are pretty much on our own. In the entire value chain of the entire health segment, you are just another value provider. None of the others saw us as a competitor or something. That way we thought, compared to other segment, where we could potentially cut the value chain and be a primary value chain provided, we now we operate as a secondary value chain provider, pretty much complementing all our stakeholders – that is the doctors, the clinics, patients
    Sachi: What is your message that you want to give to anybody who is aspiring to be entrepreneur?
    Abhay: The first thing I would like to suggest is to become an entrepreneur, you need a vision. That is the biggest motivation. If you have some dream to make it big, If you are really passionate about doing something of your own, It might not only be a financial dream but it might be a passion of doing things for yourself, and making a mark in life. Apart from that Once you are into the game, once you have started something and we are working on it, we need to be focused. And definitely you need good guidance, you need people around, whom able to guide you, mentor you well. Fortunately we have got support from NSRCEL mentors and we have been doing well on that front. Apart from that, commitment – where, you know what exact actually you are doing, and you are actually executing it.
    Sandeep: Yea, my message on lines of entrepreneur would be, one of my Professor quotes I would say. What Professor Want says is “If you want to start a something don’t just wait for the right idea, the right idea is never going to strike, at 3AM in the morning or at whatever time. So it’s always about trying out something, and then experimenting with it and improvising it. So I would say always go for it, even if you have 1% motivation to be an entrepreneur, just go for it. To be little contrary to what my partner said, you really need a vision or you really need a big dream – even if you have 1% inclination, even if some part of your body says, – “why am I not the right guy to try it out?” Just go on – hit the road.  It might even be the smallest of things, so you would have heard the story of Mr. Sharath from IIMA. He was a student of IIMA but then he still used to sell tea to his own classmates. How many of us have the motivation to do it? We would think there is an ego issue and all that, what he would have had in his mind are – he wants to try out things. It is the same message I want to say as well. Start off something small; never really say it is small. Whatever you might start of you never really know if it is a big idea that is coming off? So once you hit the field, you might be in a better position to judge if this is the right path for you? Or whether you can take it forward?
    Sachi: Thanks Sandeep, Thanks Abhay for your time.

  • Characteristics of Prospector when attempting to handle adaptation cycles

    In the last blog, we took a closer look at the approach taken up by Defenders to handle the adaptation cycle challenges. We shall today move to the next of the categories – Prospectors.
    Continuing to understand our classification and their characteristics better we move on from Defenders to Prospectors. The prospectors in contrast to the defenders have a constant eye on new products and attempt reaching there cautiously. The following diagram is a summary of the characteristics of a Prospector.
    [do download the pic and read the complete text.. apologies for the small font]
    The diagram summarizes the characteristics of defenders (adapted from Miles and Snow – Organizational Strategy, Structure and Processes)

  • Characteristics of the Defender when handing an adaptation cycle

    In the last blog we categorized organizations based on their response to the various stages of the adaption cycle. In today’s blog we take a closer look at the approach taken up by Defenders to handle the adaptation cycle challenges.
    We began understanding the nature of a Defender organization by the way they perceive the various phases of the adaptation cycle. Given that they perceive the situation at hand very differently, it is pretty evident that the solutions they use to handle the challenges in each phase would also vary. Given the solution also varies across the actual intent of the organization at every phase would be pegged at a different level. 
    The following diagram summarizes the characteristics of defenders (adapted from Miles and Snow – Organizations Strategy, Structure and Processes)

    [do download the pic and read the complete text.. apologies for the small font]

    The points in here are pretty encrypted but if we think about this from the angle of how a defender would look at the problems in the phase, it would become pretty evident how this spans out.

  • Classifying organization based on their perspective of Adaption Phases

    In the last blog, we looked at how the organization could manage the adaptation cycle by considering the leading and lagging variables of the phase at hand. In today’s blog, we would do the pretty famous skill of what an analytical manager would do – categorize base on the patterns. 
    Based on the organization’s unique strategy to relate to its chosen market and its configuration of technology-structure-process that is consistent with the market strategy, we can classify the organization into 3 classes:
    1. Defenders
    2. Prospectors
    3. Analyzers

    Instead of defining these categories, I shall use the following table to increase our understanding about these:

    Since we have classified the categories for their behavior the environment, I think this would be the best way to understand the classification.

  • Managing the Leading and Lagging variables in an adapting cycle – Rationalize and Articulate

    As mentioned in the last blog, we discuss today about “Rationalization” and “Articulation”.  
    An old adage in Kannada says – “You cannot get a wooden pole standing if you are in deep slush!”. This reminds us constantly the importance of having a strong foundation and good bedrock to support any new initiative that one may take. The currently blog in many ways tends to communicate the same lesson to the reader.
    If one sits back and looks at the possibility of having an administrative system that could smoothly manage the organization’s current activities as well as allow the system to become ingradined with further innovation, it wouldnt be hard to realize that this is always a challenge. Having such an organization is definitely every manager’s love. To a large extent 3M does maintain this in its culture of intrapreneurship. One could also look at what needs to be done in the current context to move ahead addressing the challenge at hand, instead of only talking about innovation.
    If an organization is really serious about something like this, it needs to look at the system as having both the “lagging” and the “leading” components in the adaptation process. The organization would have to “rationalize” the lagging variable of the adaption process by developing appropriate structures and processes to materialize the strategic decisions taken up in the earlier phase of the adjustment process. As to take care of the leading variable, the administrative system must facilitate the organization’s furture capacity to adapt by “articulating” and reinforcing the path along which the innovation would have to move. 
    If we look at the TV case, the management revamped its approach towards planning, coordination and control processes to handle the “lagging” component, while to address the  challenge of “leading” variable the management got in a storng team for marketing and related activites. 

  • Engineering and Administrative Phases of Organizational Adaptation

    In the last blog we looked at the Entrepreneurial problem phase of the organizational adaptation process. In today’s blog we look at the next 2 phases- Engineering Problem and Administrative Problem.
    Engineering Problem
    The entrepreneurial problem when addressed would involve operationalization of the management’s solution – the creation of such a system is what the Engineering Problem summarizes. 
    The management would have to select an appropriate technology (in the management sense of the word, i.e. input-transformation-output process) for producing and distributing chosen products and services and to form new information, communication, and control linkages to ensure proper operation of the chosen technology  – These are what the system would encompass.
    One should also note that, the three problems don’t wait for a solution of the other to reach and then move it, Even as the Entrepreneurship Problem is in motion, the management would try to adapt a system giving rise to the Engineering Problem which when achieves some progress would attract the implementation of the Administrative system.  It is during the administrative phase that the actual form of the organization’s structure will be determined as the relation between the management – environment is formalized through formal processes for coordinating and controlling internal operations.
    In the TV case again, we find that the company’s redefinition of its domain required a change in its technology from mass-production technology to unit/small-batch technology!
    Administrative Problem
    The primary goal of most organizational administration is to reduce the uncertainty within the organizational system. It could also aim at rationalizing and stabilizing those activities which successfully solve problems faced by the organization during the other two phases. 
    The challenge at this phase doesn’t stop at rationalizing a model, to really succeed in the long run, the company would have to formulate and implement processes which would enable organizations to continuously innovate. 
    In the next blog, we shall look at this rationalization and Articulation process in a greater detail.

  • Entrepreneurship Problem in the organization’s adaptation process

    In the last blog, we looked at the types of challenges an organization could face when it attempts to adapt to the environment around. In today’s blog, we look at the first of these problems – “Entrepreneurial Problem”.
    The adapting cycle is most visible in the start-up organizations. These organizations are in a state of continuous flux, fighting for their survival with the environment in which they operate. They constantly grapple with the challenges at hand, with a lack of structure, processes etc. In a new organization, an idea (could also be called in the current context – “an entrepreneurial insight”), perhaps only vaguely defined at firs must be developed into an organizational domain: a specific good or service and a target market or market segment. 
    When looked into from the context of an ongoing organization, the entrepreneurial problem has another dimension – this is since the organization would have already found a set of solutions to its “engineering” and “administrative” problems. The entrepreneurial energy doesn’t easily get transferred primarily as a result of the stability that the organization would have achieved. If we relate the context with reference to TV case the initial struggle when the company attempted to modify its products and market was constrained by the existing production process and the expertise of the general manager and his staff.
    The entrepreneurial problem of adaptation cycle receives a logical end when the management accepts a particular product-market domain, and it become more evident when the organization commits resources to achieve the objectives relative to the domain. The commitment to entrepreneurial solution in the large ongoing businesses generally is sought through the development and projection of an organizational “image” that would define its market and the approach towards the market. GE’s commitment to only compete in markets where it would be number one or two and leave the others is one such creation of an “image”.

  • Problems of an Organization Adapting to change

    In the last blog, we had a case of TV which we would begin using for the next few blogs to understand the concepts of management. We begin today’s blog with the very famous question – Does strategy drive the organization structure or does the Organization structure drive the organization’s strategy. The school that believes Organization behavior is only partially preordained by the environmental conditions and that the choices which top management makes is critical determinants of organization process and strategy is called the strategic-choice school. 
    To link the context to the TV case, it would be easy to understand that TV had to experience a change in its products and markets, to handle these it had to change the technological processes, the administrative structure that used to plan, coordinate and control the company.
    The general focus over the next few blogs is again the process of organization adaptation which we call as the “adaptive cycle“. Specifically the adaptive cycle could be thought of as comprising of 3 problems listed next.
    The choices that the organization’s top management is many, but for the sake of simplicity to understand how the organization adapts to its changing environment, we could clarify the problem of Organization Adaptation into 

    1. Entrepreneurial Problem
    2. Engineering Problem
    3. Administrative Problem

    It would be hard to state where one problem ends and the other begins, and many a times the management of the organization would have to simultaneously handle multiple problems. Just for the sake of understanding these better it would be a good starting point to analyze these 3 separately.

  • Chunchi Falls

    It had been over a month and half since I had been to Kudremukh along with a few of my relatives, this time I was looking for something closer, something that could be done within a day.

    I had been to Mekedatu and Sangama while at school, and while searching for some places to visit around Bangalore, in addition to these I found this place – Chunchi Falls.
    Chunchi Falls is lacated around 75 km from Bangalore. This falls is formed by the river Arkavathy which has its origin at Nandi Hills. With the rapid urbanization of Bangalore, the catchment area of the river is seriously affected.
    This river joins the River Kaveri at Sangama and later flow through rapid stone gorge called Mekedatu. We shall discuss this in some other blog on travel and trek. Today’s blog is about our journey to Chunchi Falls and the experience there in. 
    It had been long since I had spent time with my family and so decided to get going on a trip with family. The location choice was mine – Chunchi Falls. I had heard about the falls a few times when I was planning some treks, trips over the last few years but had never made the move to reach the place. 
    From the blogs I had read, I had gotten to know that the falls would be around 75 Km from Bangalore and one had to cross Kanakapura Town and move in the direction of Sangama. 
    We set out on 24th December around 11 AM from our home towards the falls. It was car drive and together with me on the trip were my parent, my spouce Sahana and my cute niece – Pratiksha. We drove pretty steadily through the traffic in bangalore before we hit Kanakapura road. 
    It was probably the first time my parents had driven out in our car on the Kanakapura road. We moved past the Metro, before the traffic began to subside. The rest of te drive was pretty peaceful. You move in front of the Art of Living campus, then beside the campus of APS College of Engineering etc before we reach Harohalli. 
    Another 20 minutes drive from Harohalli we reach Kanakapura. Just as we enter the town of Kanakapura, we cross a bridge across the River Arkavathy. All along the journey this far, we find hills which appear to recemble various creatures – depending on your imagination!

    We reached Kanakapura a few minutes after 12:00 noon. We moves through the town’ main road and then came to the road taking us to Sangama. We move for quite some time on this road till, we find an arch (not in the general sense of the word – but more to indicate an entrance). This is where we need to take a left turn and drive down the narrow road till we reach the parking lot. (The roads are bit narrow and its good to keep an eye for the vehicles coming from the other side).

    The falls is supposedly best between early winter and early summer. One has to keep in mind that the falls is no perennial, and it is the rain-fed river which forms Chunchi falls. We reached the parking lot, just on the banks of River Arkavathy, when we found a localite run towards us with a receipt book – the parking fees for a car is Rs 30/-
    Just as we move towards the river, we first encounter a channel with water. This channel takes water from the small dam upstream to the power-station a short distance ahead. 
    We crossed the channel and began defending towards the river – The river flows along rocky bed of Arkavathy. At various points you would find small deviations from the trek route that take you down to the river. Any point would take you to the big heart shaped pool that the river creates before it decided to take a leap downstream. 
    One can reach to the top of the point where the falls finally makes it leap! The only precaution one would need to take is the smooth surface of the rocks. While the smooth surface is just one of the issues to take note of, the other challenge is that of  broken bottle pieces which the weekend parties of the bangalore crowd leave behind. 
    I still wonder, why we literate people do not understand that they have to be socially more responsible. The various waste that we produced as part of our joy is also our responsibility to dispose them without creating trouble for the others who too visit the place for enjoyment. 
    I some how wasn’t very happy with having visited the top of the falls, I could still see faint strains of another falls close by and being the fall lover I am, I would love to get a view of the other one too. I spotted a view point on the opposite side of the falls. I quickly realized that would give me a view of both these falls.
    We got back onto the return ascent to the channel and then took the jeep track to the view point. Its around a kilometer from the channel, and is relatively undisturbed. 
    The view of the 2nd falls from the view point was something that gave me a good satisfaction. The falls had 2 cascades and had a lot more water flowing when compared to the mail stream flowing.
    We reached the view point, munched the junk food we carried and had some snaps clicked before we decided to return back.  The view point however is not well maintained and if I could say is almost neglected. 
    This place too like many of the other places in Karnataka, has enormous potential but doesn’t get the required attention and dedication towards ensuring that the potential is expiated and also gets little maintenance.
    With these thoughts in the mind we began the return journey, when I woke up to the reality at hand. We had skipped lunch, so we had to get back to a good hotel to have some food that was to get us going back home. 
    We reached Kanakapura, had our lunch at a Udupi hotel that was at the entrance of Kanakapura just after having crossed over the bridge across the River Arakavathy when coming from Bangalore. My parents purchased some vegetables on the way back and we resumed the drive back home.
    The journey was pretty simple till we reached Metro, the rest was a drive through the city traffic and we finally reached home at 7:00 PM. 
    After many days it was a time well spent with family, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I would repeat this and get it to be a routine.

  • Changing Environment – changing response

    In the last blog, we concluded the implications of history to a practicing manager. Now, before we continue with the next set of blogs on organization development, and their process of growth. Let us look at a small case, though a bit old it would be give us a good starting point for the discussion over the next few blogs.
    TV is a semi-autonomous division of a medium sized equipment manufacturing firm which is part of a large, highly diversified conglomerate. TV manufactures a line of heavy duty pumps and some components for fluid movement systems. The company does most of its own castings, makes many of its own parts and maintains a complete stock of replacement parts. TV also does special-order foundry work for other firms as its production schedule allows. 
    Until recently, TV had defined its business as providing quality products and services to a limited set of reliable customers. TV’s GM, a first-rate engineer who had spent most of his time in the machine shop and foundry, personified the company’s image of quality and cost efficiency. In the mid-90’s corporate management became concerned about both the speed and direction of TV’s growth. The management and staff at corporate headquarters began considering two new product and market opportunities, both in the energy field. Fluid movement systems required for nuclear power generation provided one of these opportunities, and the development of novel techniques for petroleum exploration, well recovery and fluid delivery provided the second. TV had in the past done some large for these markets, but the opportunity now clearly indicated growth opportunities. 
    TV initially moved towards exploiting these opportunities tentatively, the GM realized that the contract sales involved extensive planning, field-contact work, and careful negotiation. These didn’t suit the GM’s primary strength or his area of interest. The Parent organization moved the present GM to another position at the headquarters and in his place got a new manager with extensive background both in sales and engineering and who was adept at large-scale contract negotiations.
    Within a year of this changeover, TV landed several lucrative contracts, and more appeared to be in the offing. The new business created by these contracts, however, placed heavy coordination demands on company management, and while the organization’s technology (production and distribution system) has not been drastically revised over the past 2 years, workflow processes and the operational responsibilities of several mangers have changed markedly. Materials control and scheduling, routine tasks in the past are now complex activities, and managers of these operations meet regularly with the executive planning committee. Moreover, a rudimentary matrix structure has emerged in which various line manages undertake specific project responsibilities in addition to their regular duties. Key personnel addition have been made to the marketing department and more are planned, with particular emphasis on individuals who are capable of performing field planning and supervising and who can quickly bring new fluid systems to full operation. Budget of some of the older departments are being cut back, and these funds are being diverted to the new areas of activity.