Preetha Reddy: Healthcare queen
The chemistry was just right: asked to help out when she was just a housewife, she took to hospital management like a duck to water. Today, Preetha Reddy, eldest daughter of Dr Prathap Reddy, Executive Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, has 45 hospitals under her and has just been named successor to Dr Reddy. And no, 52-year-old Preetha is not a doctor: she could have become one, but as she was married off while still in college, her father figured that she would just waste a medical seat if her in-laws did not let her practice.
Currently Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Preetha recalls her first brush with people management, at Apollo Chennai, nearly two decades ago. Her sister Shobana had to move to Hyderabad after she got married, so Preetha was asked to help out.
Preetha Reddy
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“I was quite naïve—I felt that they must be hungry anyway and asked the canteen to serve them food much against the administration’s wishes. Bellies full, the employees somehow forgot their anger and went back to work,” she says. There was never a protest after that, as Apollo grew to be a 45-hospital group, including a pharmacy chain and its own third-party administrator for medical insurance, among others.
On June 5, Preetha launched her first solo project, the Apollo Paediatric Hospital in Chennai. No buzz. No hype. But within four days of opening its doors, the hospital, built to handle complex surgeries—from the common heart valve replacements to bone marrow transplants—had performed 12 operations.
On Day 1, Dr Neville Solomon, who had just completed a high-risk cardiac surgery on a four-month Nigerian infant, also afflicted with Down’s syndrome, said: “It was amazing to see the streamlined systems in place from the first day. As a doctor, I am more inclined to worry about my patients and would hate to be bothered by infrastructure issues—this way Apollo has been perfect.”
This hospital has been Preetha’s project from scratch—from guiding the building layout, aesthetics and size of the cots to the operation theatres and services around the patient. The successful launch has proved one point yet again: Preetha is a great implementer. One quality she will need when she takes over the reins from her father in a few years.
As sister Suneeta, Preetha’s junior by 15 months and the group’s Executive Director for Finance, says: “Anybody can have a vision, but few can execute. Preetha has proved her execution capability again and again and can take the group to the next level.’’ Suneeta also highlights Preetha’s feeling for people. “She is like a mother to all our children. The success of my daughter’s wedding goes entirely to Preetha, who made it a perfect show.’’
Preetha’s maternal instinct and genuine concern encompasses all those around her—from the staff at all levels to the patients—and she makes daily rounds to note ground-level issues. “If a hospital is just a moneymaking machine, it will never succeed—today, we have third generation of patients and hardly any attrition among doctors,’’ says Malathi Manohar, Secretary to Chairman Dr Prathap Reddy.
For Dr Reddy, it does not matter that Preetha does not have a management degree, as he has put her through the paces personally, making her work her way up. And he is a lucky father: all his daughters are talented and have come up to head verticals of their own. (Sangita, the youngest, is ED, Operations.) In anointing Preetha as his successor, Dr Reddy is just following good corporate-governance practices. “For the benefit of investors, I have to declare a successor. Preetha’s core competence lies with the hospital vertical, which she will continue to head; while as my first daughter, she’ll take the group forward,” he says.
Core competence
Preetha was responsible for putting in place systems, in getting global accreditations, in drawing up patientcare guidelines to be followed by doctors—and also for some good business deals. In March 2008, Apollo got together with Cadilla Pharmaceuticals and StemCyte Inc. for stem-cell therapy. Tough negotiations and endless board meetings formed the foundation of the deal. As Ken Giacin, Chairman and CEO, StemCyte Inc., recalls: “Preetha has always focussed first on making the right business decision while treating and respecting us as equals—she has excellent business instincts.’’
Vikram Chatwal, who was with Apollo Health Street before moving to head Reliance Health Services as its CEO, also swears by Preetha’s dealmaking skills. He recalls how Preetha bid for a Malaysian hospital project and won the contract in the face of stiff competition from global players. Her secret: she was so well-prepared that she left the Australian, American and other overseas bidders in her dust trail.
Asia’s largest healthcare group Prathap Reddy, 77 Preetha Reddy,52 Suneeta Reddy, 50 Shobana Kamineni,49 Sangita Reddy, 47 No of hospitals: 45 Latest available annual figures |
Wealth had never turned Preetha’s head. As a child, when her parents had to be in the US, she grew up in the Chettinad Palace, courtesy M.A.M. Ramaswamy Chettiar, business tycoon and the last Raja of Chettinad. The childless Chettiars were friends of the Reddys and acted as foster parents. Surrounded by an army of servants, it was the young Preetha who cared for them and showed her CEO abilities when just a teenager. At 13, she organised a charity-entertainment show at the palace, supervising the minutest detail.
Nor does she lose her temper, her close associates claim. If she is upset with any official, she couches her sarcasm so sweetly that recipients realise her tone long after. It helps that Preetha allows professionals the space to operate freely.
No contradictions
A great believer in God, Preetha makes no bones of her religiosity. She visits Tirupati upon a whim, and does the famous Tiruvannamalai Hill ambulation every Shivratri, not forgetting half-an-hour’s meditation at the Ramana Ashram. At the same time, she is attracted to Zen Buddhism and Shirdi Sai Baba, visits the hospital temple and follows the south Indian tradition of offering milk and fruits to a snake pit in the vicinity. “I have seen so many miracles at the hospital and my faith in God is reaffirmed each time,” she says.
During Apollo’s Silver Jubilee last year, Preetha organised a sun oblation performance at the beach at 5 am, as 500 guests dressed in white witnessed the sun dance organised with the help of Kalakshetra school of which she is now a director. Among the guests meditating in a tribute to the rising sun were the who’s who of Chennai.
Can’t say no
As Preetha gets set to take the helm, there are some who worry. Worry not about her abilities, but her softness. Close associates say Preetha can never say “no” to friends, families, hospitals’ requirements. But, while she has time for everyone, she never gets stressed for time. “I don’t understand why people fret about time management— I just take things as they flow; but manage to balance what I don’t like with what I like. That way I don’t get stressed,’’ says Preetha.
But this creates an Achilles heel: with so many people—from friends and family to Apollo hospitals—clamouring for her attention, and her penchant for giving time for all, it sometimes puts a squeeze on the time she needs to strategise for the group or deliberate important issues involving the hospitals. Preetha herself is not hassled. Her vision is clear: “We would be change agents and setting standards. We expect to be at least $1 billion (in revenues) by 2012.”
And, so far, she has proved that she is good at executing projects and ideas. But what about the ideas themselves? Can she be innovative? Will she have her father’s tenacity? Depends, on how well she has taken her lessons from her father.
