'We hope to have 50 centres in the country' Twenty years ago, Dr Mahajan drew gasps of disbelief from his family when he talked of setting up a multi-crore MRI centre. Coming from a middle-class background, he had no previous entrepreneurial track record. But he was determined to press ahead, because he had spent a year on a fellowship in Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the USA, and he realised that if he was unable to work in the field, his entire training would go waste. Today he has six MRI centres in
Delhi, and five years from now he hopes to have about 50 centres within India and a few outside in countries where the NRI population is large and medical facilities are inadequate. He believes that the healthcare industry in India is in its infancy and there is much scope for rapid growth.
What led you to set up Mahajan Imaging?
I did my radiology training at PGI Chandigarh and then went for a fellowship in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in Houston, Texas, USA in 1987. When I came back after a year, there was only one MRI machine in the entire country and I thought my whole training would go waste if I was unable to work in this field. This started me on the road to setting up an MRI centre on my own and was the precursor of Mahajan Imaging Centre.
What landmarks have you crossed in your entrepreneurial journey?
We were the first to set up a super conducting MRI scanner by Wipro GE Medical Systems in 1992, when GE as a company was hardly known in India. This gave me an opportunity to get to personally meet Mr Jack Welsh, Chairman of GE, and Mr Aziz Premji, Chairman of Wipro.
In 1997, I convinced GE Medical Systems to give me their best MRI technology for a new centre. It was unprecedented that the best machine that GE had ever made and the first one out of the factory was first installed in India and then subsequently in the best centres in USA. In fact, this was such a landmark decision made by GE, that Mr Jeff Immelt, then head of GE Medical Systems and current Chairman of GE, himself came to ceremonially hand over the machine to us. This machine also brought the capability of Functional MRI into India.
In the year 2000, I felt that the future lay in opening up imaging centres within hospitals and set up a Nuclear Medicine Centre at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi. At the present we have six centres, including two within Fortis Hospitals.
How long were you a doctor before you became an entrepreneur?
About seven years. However, I still continue to actively practice radiology on a full-time basis. A doctor can never really pull himself away from his profession and become solely a manager.
What are some of your future plans and where do you see Mahajan Imaging Centre three to five years from now?
I believe that the healthcare industry in India is still in its infancy and mostly unorganised. There is scope for rapid growth but we at Mahajan Imaging feel that we want to grow organically and in the first 2-3 years keep a close watch on the bottom line. We hope to grow within hospitals in both the government and the private sector and with outside financial assistance and maybe equity. We plan a more rapid growth after we've achieved a critical mass. Five years from now we hope to have about 50 centres within the country and a few outside in those countries where the NRI population is large and medical facilities inadequate.
'A doctor can never really pull himself away from his profession and become solely a manager'
Dr Harsh Mahajan,
Promoter, Mahajan Imaging Centre
