Apollo God? Alive?! Today?!?

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It’s time to understand that the ancient ‘healer’ lives on...

Greek mythology presents Apollo as the ‘Healing’ and ‘Sun’ God. He was blessed with the power of omnipresence, no matter what the weather... Cut to the present, supernatural powers only seem...well, ‘a thing of the past’. And who’d believe in some ancient Greek God ‘Apollo’ today? Who would?

Surprisingly, many do... and yes, in the present times! Of course, it’s the Apollo Hospitals chain we are referring to here – the largest chain in the whole of Asia with 8000 beds in over 41 hospitals! Today, it’s a name that has come to associate itself with expertise at healthcare! And just as the saying goes, ‘The big only gets bigger,” today, the health major is only geared up for aggressive expansion and mighty investment plans. To ensure that its plans see the light of the day, it is also roping-in many investors – firstly, to create that massive capital pool required and secondly, to hedge total risks involved. The company is also gearing-up to test waters in many ‘untreaded’ health segments. To talk about its infrastructure expansion plans, the group is planning to roll-out a huge 400-bed hospital in Mumbai. And there’s more with the group all-set to expand its muscular arms into the tier-II cities. And none can perhaps beat its excitement about its exorbitant Rs.7 billion investment plan. So does expansion and penetrating into greener pastures spell no risks for the mammoth?

Affirms a company spokesperson, “We at Apollo believe in expanding our services, which (basically) means – taking risks. But we are prepared and each year, as a part of our growth strategy, we try to get into many new areas where nobody has entered.” Hence, merrily banking upon such a strategy, the group is extrapolating an astonishing 40% growth in net profits for the financial year 2007-08.

But here’s a sweet surprise – scintillating financials are not the only reason why the awe-inspiring healthcare titan has stolen the ‘health show’. Compared to its rivals (whose expansion strategy have always rotated around buying-out old hospitals and renewing them), Apollo has always believed in the truth – ‘Old may be gold, but new is diamond!’ And moving along the same line of thought, it has set up many brand-new facilities, and today considers it its secret to success. No wonder, the group has set a target of having a mind-numbing 10,000 hospital beds in India by 2008; from the present 8,000!

However, despite its tremendous growth strategy in place, it should also watch out for competition from many rivals planning a vigorous few years ahead. For instance, Fortis Healthcare Ltd is planning to invest a monumental $500 million to increase its hospitals count by 40 in the next 3-4 years. However, this first-moving giant, who is also credited with becoming the first one to implement the ‘tele-medicine’ concept in India is all set to soar as Sudhir Nair, Head, CRISIL Research agrees, “Telemedicine is one such innovative technology, which if used effectively, would help improve the efficiency of doctors. It was a brilliant move from Apollo indeed...”

Innovative treatment, increased presence, better doctors... the group has everything going for it at the moment. Perhaps, Apollo God lives on... Why? Don’t you think?!

Edit bureau: Angshuman Paul

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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