Leadership Lessons: There’s no substitute for passion, in any line of work

Having joined his father as a young medico, Dr Mohan is today at the helm of a major healthcare chain, headquartered in Gopalapuram, with branches across Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad, Orissa and Muscat as well. He opens up on how he built his brand and the way forward. 

“Globally, almost 550 million people are affected by diabetes today, while the figures in India range between 69 to 70 million adults. At our centre, we have as many as four lakh diabetic patients registered with us. However, to treat such a huge population affected by the ailment, we need thousands of more diabetologists. During my father, late Dr M Viswanathan’s  time, the disease had not assumed today’s epidemic proportions, but he knew it was a science worth pursuing. I had joined his practice as a student of medicine at the age of 18. My father had moved on from Stanley Medical College, during the early 70s,  with the ambition of starting a private clinic to treat diabetes.” 

“My father, during his years of practice, believed that if you had one clinic, it was good enough as patients would come to you for treatment. However, I believed that we needed to have multiple, local branches of our clinic. The reason was that diabetes is a lifelong disease that requires check-ups every two to three months. Having a local clinic ensures that patients living in far flung places, do not drop out from the treatment.” 

“One of our big challenges has been to discover something new every day. It must be said that our brand witnessed a slow and steady growth, as nothing happened overnight. I had branched out from my father’s practice and had started off on a rented premise in Royapettah in 1991. Gradually, over the years, we brought in trained professionals and management teams to consolidate our operations. We are currently present in 22 locations and we are targeting rapid expansion with close to 100 centres in the next five years. The choice to avoid the franchisee model in our healthcare setup was a conscious one as we were keen on maintaining our standards. Thanks to this model, we are able to see almost 1,000 patients a day collectively.” 

“Being in the healthcare sector, we understood early on that our biggest differentiator was our focus on research. It led to the creation of our Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, which is our R&D wing. We also realised diversifying into the healthy food segment would eventually turn into a necessity. Offering people an alternative to white rice, which is known to be a common cause of diabetes, we introduced a product called Dr Mohan’s High Fibre Rice. It is one of our flagship products and is a one-of-a-kind offering globally. We realised that people in India had no access to information on the nutritional values present in meals. So we conceived an Atlas of Indian Foods, a ready reckoner on the constituents of such foods.” 

“I have always believed in choosing the right person for the right job. Following ethical business practices is something we have prided ourselves in for the last 40 years. The youngsters who have trained under me as diabetologists are now at the helm of our various branches across the country. As a leader, one of my character traits that tend to rub off on people who I work with, is my contagious passion for the job. I prefer working in the firing line, i.e. leading from the front as there’s no other way to do it. If I can inspire a few people with my enthusiasm, I would consider it a blessing.”