Aravind Eye Care Strategy

* Quality eye care to rich and poor alike.
* Blindness is needless and curable most of the times.
* Start the community outreach programmes.
* No cross-subsidization.

Objective
* Increase the awareness of blindness-cures and need for early treatment.
* Helping other hospitals to increase their level of productivity.
* Increase the %age of IOL surgeries.
* Increase the productivity of doctors.
* Increase learning of doctors.

* Large volumes were necessary for economic viability.
* To provide affordable treatment to all.
* Increase the geographical spread.
* Increase the functional diversity.
* Recruitment of suitable talent.

SWOT
Strengths
* Strong Value System
* Able guidance of Dr. V

Weaknesses

Opportunities
* Large number of people

Threats

PESTLE
E – Significant large number of cases of cataract in India and growing. S – Large % of population is poor. Unable to afford eye treatment. T – No as such technology development. MNC and corporate houses even if engaged tried to protect with patents. L –

E – At such a high cost, giving free or subsidized treatment is not possible.

Vehicles

* Went organically. Developed in-house capabilities.
* No government aid.
* No donations.
These measures helped in maintaining the flexibility and helped retaining the value system. They invested in R&D through LAICO.

Economic Logic
* Number of surgeries done per doctors.
* Surplus in financials.
* Number of Beds.
* Cost of treatment.
* Number of eye-camps.
* Number of complication rates.

Differentiators
* Systems orientation to enhance the productivity of doctors. * Well-trained paramedical staff. At eye-camps, managing huge crowd requires great synchronization. Highly co-ordinated event by paramedical staff and doctors resulted in large volumes. * Software enables patients to choose doctors, dates and incorporate patients’ preferences. It is leading to increase productivity of doctors as time not wasted in back and forth for choices on clash of dates etc. * Strong value system. They do not give preference to recommendation letters. (Fulfilling Objective 10) * Greater exposure to doctors in surgical wards, exchange programmes and collaborative research programmes. Helps in their learning. (Objective 5) * In-house research.

* Backward integration in production and retailing of low cost lenses which resulted in cost-effective treatment. * Quality was prime objective. Number of compilation rates …….. have been low. (Accomplishing mission 1) * Work environment was good. For example, morbidity meetings organized in non-threatening manner. Good understanding between medical and ophthalmologic assistants. (Objective 4) * Integrity which leads to increased productivity and learning. * High degree of standardization resulted in increase in productivity and volumes.

Strategy from 2003-11

Mission

Remained Unaltered

Objectives

It also remained mostly same but some new objectives were added.
* Increase %age of IOL surgeries.
* Increase functional diversity.
* Retention of talent.

Changes in environment
* Incidence of cataract as the major cause of blindness. With increasing awareness, demand for early surgeries is expected to grow. * Reducing demand for free services. Increasing spending power likely to make people move away from free services. * Other areas requiring eye care on a rise.

* Diabetic retinopathy (DR), Refraction correction, Glaucoma
* Prevention and awareness is the best cure here.
* Demand of laser surgeries likely to go high.
* High Cost of Laser equipment.
* Training of doctors
* Competitive employee space
* Salaries of doctors becoming competitive.
* Excellent training and wide exposure make AEC’s doctors high in demand.
* Technology improvement – patients able to be discharged in a day post- surgery.

Initiative 1 –
Arena
We will take Research and Consultancy Projects in eye care domain. We will also take projects to assist other eye-care hospitals to improve productivity.

Vehicles
We will form research alliances with consulting companies in healthcare domain. The working of alliance would be that the consulting companies will find eye care projects from the industry and deal with clients. Researchers and doctors at Aravind Eye care will execute the project.

Differentiators
Expertise of Aravind eye care doctors and researchers is well-known. The positive image and reliability associated with Aravind eye care will attract more and more projects.

Staging
We want to be aggressive here. We’ll start with alliances with 1-2 companies. We’ll also form a dedicated team of researchers for executing the projects initially and then all doctors as per their wish could be asked to allocate a part of their time working on such projects.

Economic Logic
We’ll charge premium prices from corporate clients because of our expertise and image.

Initiative 2 –
Arena
We will manufacture eye care machines like laser machine. We will use it for our expansion as well as we will sell it to other hospitals.

Vehicles
An in-house research in Aurolab for this technology is already going on. On its successful completion, we’ll install the manufacturing plant and start operations with our own expertise. For selling to other hospitals we’ll form a marketing alliance with equipment vendor of healthcare domain.

Differentiators
We plan to manufacture these machines at lower cost and thereby decreasing our cost of buying laser machines at high prices from outside. Also, we will be selling machines to other hospitals at lower price than offered by existing vendors which will act as the differentiator.

Staging
The research is supposed to get completed by 2014, we plan to install the plant by 2015 and manufacturing and selling from year 2016.

Economic Logic
The cost of manufacturing with new technology is expected to be low so we will not only make profits by selling machines at lower price but also reduce the cost of capital expenditure of hospitals of Aravind eye care.

Initiative 3 –
Arena
We will expand in other states in south like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Vehicles
It will be an organic expansion with opening of hospitals in these states.

Differentiators
Our image and our work precede our arrival in these states.

Staging
We will start with one hospital in these three states by 2013 and by 2017; we’ll have 3-4 hospitals in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and 2 in Kerala.

Economic Logic
The business model of hospitals will remain same. The way we are earning profits with high productivity will continue through this expansion also.

Initiative 4 –
Arena
We will work more on customised operations like Diabetic retinopathy (DR), Refraction correction, Glaucoma etc.

Vehicles
Through inner expertise only, this objective would be achieved.

Differentiators
We will start a scheduling mechanism for different kind of operations with cataract operations for three days, 1 day for Glaucoma, 1 day for Diabetic retinopathy (DR), 1 for Refraction correction and 1 for emergency and other kind of operations. This will result in improved productivity.

Staging
The foray into more customised operations and the suggested scheduling will start in 2012 only.

Economic Logic
With better scheduling, better productivity could be achieved and as eye problems (other than cataract) are increasing, it will result in improved profits.