The health operator: Meet Sangita Reddy, Joint MD of Apollo Hospitals

Reddy talks to Pavan Lall about collective thinking, the power of the family constitution and why private healthcare is often misunderstood

With our meeting cancelled at least twice because of mismatched travel schedules on both sides, when Sangita Reddy has a window for a quick coffee while passing through Mumbai, it is quickly confirmed. We schedule to meet at the coffee shop in the lobby at the St Regis Hotel in Worli. I arrive early, and first. Reddy arrives later, but on time. Dressed in a flowing purple outfit, matched with what looks like a Basra pearl necklace and designer shoes, the youngest of the four Apollo sisters looks very different from her photos.

“I was too busy and never focused on diet and all that earlier,” she says. “But then I decided I would. Over the last three or four years, I’ve lost... 18 kilos.”

Focus is clearly central to her role as joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals, one of India’s preeminent hospital chains with over Rs 14,700 crore in revenue, Rs 63,000 crore in market cap, and a healthcare network of 10,000 beds, 400 clinics and 5,000 pharmacies. 

Pandemic blues over, it's now unbearably loud at the lobby-level café, thanks to ‘revenge business meetings’. So, we agree to move to another one at a higher floor, where I order a black coffee and Reddy fresh orange juice. 

Both Reddy and Apollo have had an action-packed last few months, she shares, adding that one of her three sons got engaged, her grandson was born, and Apollo turned 39. 

Reddy’s childhood included growing up with her siblings in “a small house” in America where her father, Prathap Reddy, practised medicine. She now lives in Hyderabad. I can’t help but ask her if she has seen Succession, a series about heirs to corporate empires? And whether she’s the Apollo patriarch’s favourite kid.

I get a big smile as an answer to the first question, and to the second, I’m told: “I would say that his fifth child is probably his most favourite, and that's Apollo.” She adds, “We all used to tell him that he brought us in as cheap labour because my starting salary was Rs 500 and it remained unchanged for years.”

Then comes a more serious explanation about the role division: the idea, she says, is to think as a family rather than as individuals. “Also, we did define that our decisions must be made based on what's good for the company, and not for any one of us, or our family, because the family is 78,000 people – or even 100,000 people, if you count the contracted employees,” says the 59-year-old.  

Also, she says, “the four of us have a good working relationship. We have all evolved and stepped into each other’s shoes. Preetha was earlier MD; now Suneeta is. Then Shobana was looking after pharmacies, and I was doing digital." 

The Reddy family owns about 30 per cent of Apollo’s stock.

Her orange juice has arrived, but my coffee has not – still being brewed, I suppose. 

Currently, Reddy runs human resources, operations and technology across the globe. “I’m also looking at innovation and new initiatives, such as Apollo Health and Lifestyle, which is our avatar of unbundling the hospital, as well as Apollo Diagnostics, Apollo Spectra, and most importantly, the clinics,” she says. 

Of course, there is a family constitution. “Because of this, from a financial perspective, all siblings are equal. That takes the money out of the game, and then it's just about what's good for the company, what you enjoy doing and how you can contribute the most,” she says. “When you place that methodology, things become more objective.” 

A science graduate from Women's Christian College, Chennai, she did postgraduate courses in hospital administration from Rutgers University, Harvard University and the National University of Singapore.

Now my coffee is running late but I notice that Reddy hasn’t sipped her juice yet.  

How does a person who works in science and medicine view the almighty, given the risk of getting a god-complex since you’re ultimately saving lives? “I don't think I can describe God or religion in a single word or in absolute terms. It's a realm, and kind of a foundation to our existence,” she says. “In our work, we combine it with the humility to say, ‘I've done my best, now I surrender this to you because the outcome is not in my hand’.”

My coffee finally arrives, and it's only then that Reddy takes her first sip. 

A devout Sai Baba believer, Reddy says healthcare is what engages her entire day. “Now, in a way, start-ups and innovation are sort of my other hobbies. I have invested in a few start-ups and I kind of counsel and mentor some as well (she doesn’t reveal their names despite my prodding)."

She also likes watching films. Prominent Telugu actor Ram Charan is her sister's son-in-law.

Like her, her sons are in healthcare: one is setting up a nitrile gloves plant; the second is working on the phlebotomy team and in diagnostics and apps at Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd; and the third is studying to be a doctor in the UK.

Why has Indian healthcare not tapped foreign markets the way the IT sector has? Reddy's eyes light up as she says that it's her general vision to take Indian healthcare to the world and bring it up to a level where it becomes a contributor to the services that India can export. 

"Healthcare doesn't get subsidised loans, or subsidised power. So, it's important for us to look at innovative new models to reach people,” she says, adding, “I feel that private healthcare is misunderstood.  There is a perception that we are very expensive, but when you go abroad you see that prices there are ten times that of India."

Apollo, named after the Greek god of knowledge and healing, began its overseas overtures long back. About 10 per cent of its current income comes from international patients. As an example, I'm told Thai hospitals earn almost 50 per cent of their income from foreigners. Apollo has hospitals in Bahrain, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Dubai.

In February, Reddy says, she and her father met the Prime Minister for a programme called ‘Heal in India’, which the government will unveil shortly. She says it includes everything medical-related: faster visas; special helpdesk at immigration; a new portal that lists all hospitals; a marketing programme behind that portal; and an accreditation methodology for healthcare facilitators. There's even a push from the health and tourism ministries towards it, she adds. 

We are almost out of time, so I fire one last question. Any unforgettable lesson that her father drilled into her? She smiles: "One day at a swimming pool, he said, ‘You will jump off the high dive or you will attempt a proper dive. None of you is going home tonight until you do one of these’. One of my sisters told me to just go there and jump. And so I did."