The daughter who could take over the reins at Apollo

Since joining the hospital chain formally in 1989, Preetha Reddy has proved her ability to take the group to the next level, but will the lack of a formal degree in medicine come in her way?

On July 3, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, one of Asia's largest healthcare chains, announced the appointment of 57-year-old Preetha Reddy as its executive vice-chairperson. When Business Standard asked her about her elevation, Preetha, the eldest of the four daughters of the group's founder, Prathap C Reddy, dismissed it by saying, "It's just a re-organisation, not a promotion."

But this was clearly more than a leadership reshuffle, as her 81-year-old cardiologist father confirmed a few hours later when he said, "As things stand today, Preetha is most likely to succeed me as chairperson."

Preetha, being the eldest, was the natural choice to head the company, which has, during her tenure as managing director, witnessed sizeable growth. She joined Apollo Hospitals as joint managing director in 1989. Five years later, she was promoted as managing director and was in charge of planning, designing and funding the group's new projects. Under her, the number of beds at Apollo Hospitals increased from 300 in 1990-91 to 6,684 now while the company's turnover rose from Rs 110 crore to Rs 3,861.6 crore at the end of 2013-14. She played a key role in the group's quality certification process (ISO 14001 and 9001). And it was under her supervision that five of the group's hospitals - in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Dhaka - secured the Joint Commission International, or JCI, accreditation, which is considered the gold standard in global healthcare.

APOLLO’S GROWING HEALTH

• Last fiscal, the company set aside Rs 2,032 crore for capital expenditure. As of March 31, 2014, it has invested Rs 590 crore of that corpus. It plans to invest another Rs 500 crore in the current financial year
• Apollo Hospitals plans to add 12 hospitals to its current 39 and another 2,175 beds to the existing 6,684 by 2016-17. As of now, 5,811 beds are operational and have an occupancy rate of 71 per cent. Apart from its own 39 hospitals, the group manages 11 hospitals with 1,933 beds
• The hospital chain is also open for acquisitions in the Northeast

But Preetha has always maintained that "Father continues to be the decision-maker". While speaking about his daughters, Prathap Reddy is known to often remark, "In earlier days, people used to say, 'Poor Reddy has four daughters and no son to help run his company'. Today, I proudly say that it is my four daughters who run the entire group and it is growing fast. Each of them has performed outstandingly in her respective field.".

The Reddy sisters were groomed into the family occupation early in life. "After school, we used to go to HM Hospital, where my father worked, and observed how healthcare delivery was managed," Preetha said in an interview earlier. She, like her sisters, did not go to any business school. They all learnt on the job. "We were very fond of saying that we were cheap labour," Preetha jocularly said in an earlier interview to Forbes. The four daughters would help their father by overseeing work at construction sites and interacting with doctors and other hospital employees.

Preetha always wanted to become a doctor, but when she went to the US with her father, she ended up in a research position. She reportedly did get admission to Madras Medical College, but her father dissuaded her from practising medicine saying that she wouldn't have a life of her own. Preetha recalls that decision as a "a big blow". She opted for a course in chemistry, got married at 19 to industrialist Vijay Kumar Reddy and later did a master's course in public administration from Madras University. She also trained in the fine arts at Kalakshetra.

Starting small
Apollo Hospitals started as a 150-bed, five-storey hospital in Chennai in 1983. But Preetha joined the business formally only in 1989 to replace Sangita, one of her sisters who had got married and moved to Hyderabad. All her younger sisters were by then already part of the business. Before plunging into the medical business, she was involved with a family-owned hotel that supplied food to the Chennai hospital. From housekeeping, food and beverage to hospitals -the sisters have all been trained across departments.

Preetha's core strength, said her father while announcing her elevation, is people management. He recounted an incident that took place at Apollo Chennai about two decades ago when Preetha was still a raw recruit. She was asked to help resolve a strike called by the employees and succeeded in doing so quickly.

An "unusual" professional is how Rekha Shetty, former vice-president of Apollo Hospitals, describes Preetha. She has a unique ability to bring people together and is easy to work with, says Shetty. "Rather than giving orders, she always gives an opportunity to people and nurtures talent." Shetty, who left Apollo in 1993, continues to work with Preetha on various social welfare initiatives such as healthcare of rural women and children.

To criticism that Preetha is not a qualified doctor and does not have a management background that might be necessary to run an organisation as vast as Apollo, Shetty says in the healthcare industry, empathy and kindness are what matter more and Preetha has both those qualities in ample measure.

All four sisters, she adds, are hardworking and seldom take any time off. "They are very good friends and very close to one another," she says dismissing speculations of any tussle for power within the family. Rafeeque Ahamed, a board member at Apollo, agrees, "More than sisters, they are very good friends." They are uncompromisingly close and influence one another in every possible way, say those who know the Reddy sisters.

Preetha's younger sister, Suneeta, who is now the group's managing director, said in an interview earlier, "Anybody can have a vision, but Preetha has proved time and again that she is also capable of executing that vision and taking the group to the next level." Preetha, she added, "is like a mother to all our children."

Preetha has been responsible for getting global accreditations, drawing up patient-care guidelines for doctors and striking fruitful business deals like those with Cadila Pharmaceuticals and StemCyte Inc for stem-cell therapy. Now, she will assume a bigger role to upgrade manpower resources, which include the organisation's 8,000-odd clinicians and other employees, and review global medical advancement. She will also be tasked with steering the company to make its hospitals a global healthcare destination, besides working closely with industry bodies and state and central governments on policy matters.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

SHOBANA KAMINENI

 

Re-designated executive vice-chairperson from executive director (special initiatives)

She has been looking after the group’s pharmacy and insurance businesses and will continue to spearhead Apollo Pharmacy. She will oversee the planning, design and execution of new projects and lead Apollo Global Projects Consultancy, its hospital consultancy division. She will also continue to be the whole-time director of Apollo Munich Health Insurance, a partnership between Apollo Hospitals Group and Munich Health.

 

SUNEETA REDDY
Elevated to the post of managing director from joint managing director

She will look after the day-to-day business of the hospitals and will continue to handle the company’s financial aspect. She will lead  corporate strategy, corporate finance, funding and investment and will leverage mergers and acquisitions to optimise profitability. She will directly steer the hospital vertical and manage the brand and marketing of Apollo Hospitals.

SANGITA REDDY
Re-designated joint managing director from executive director (operations)

She has been handling the company’s IT initiatives and the clinics network. Her responsibilities will include creating an IT-enabled patient-centric operation across the Apollo network. She will continue to play a key role in the company's research, innovation and healthcare initiatives. She will also spearhead retail health, including health and lifestyle under Apollo Health and Lifestyle, which runs the clinics and mother and baby care brand Cradles. She will also lead the human resource department and IT functions across all divisions and will continue to be the chairperson of Apollo Knowledge, the group’s education vertical.