MPW 2023: Why Apollo’s Suneeta Reddy and her sisters didn’t study medicine

“An astrologer looked at my mother’s hand and said, ‘Don’t name it Apollo Hospital, make it Hospitals. It will never be one. It will be several’,” says the hospital chain’s MD Suneeta Reddy. And there certainly have been—71, to be precise. Not to forget the 5,600-plus offline pharmacies, nearly 3,000 clinics and specialty centres, as well as digital platform Apollo 24/7 that make it the largest omni-channel integrated healthcare network in India.

Suneeta, Founder and Chairman Dr Prathap C. Reddy’s second daughter, has been involved in the business from her final year of college, when she helped prepare the project report to set up the first hospital. Now she spearheads corporate strategy and finance of the group, which generated revenues of Rs 16,612 crore in FY23.

“We first came up with the name Sushruta. And I thought to myself, imagine a sick patient having to say ‘Sushruta’!” Even at that time, Suneeta was sure they would have to list, and it would be a good idea to have a name starting with ‘A’.

True to the astrologer’s words, they had set up three hospitals within five years of the first one, and realised the need to bring in FDI. Suneeta counts that as one of the crowning glories in her journey so far. “At 21, being able to get approval for FDI validated that the concept of corporate hospitals will work,” says the soft-spoken Suneeta, seated at Apollo’s corporate office in Chennai.

The top focus now is to ensure that Apollo 24/7 brings together the entire network to benefit patients. High-end testing such as genomics, preventive and predictive healthcare to address India’s growing burden of non-communicable diseases as well as re-entering the insurance business are all on the table. But expanding the network is top priority. The group plans to commission an additional 2,860 beds at a cost of Rs 3,435 crore till FY27. “We are looking at projects beyond that, too, and have plans till 2033,” says Suneeta.

But why didn’t any of the sisters study medicine? “My father didn’t want us to because there was no one to manage healthcare in India. ‘Only the four of you get it’, he used to say because it was a challenge to start the hospital,” she says. 

@SaysVidya