Dr V Social Entrepreneur and Management Guru
Volume 18, Number 3 Article by B Mahadevan September, 2006
Dr V Social Entrepreneur and Management Guru :
Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy (Dr V to his friends and admirers throughout the world), passed away on July 7, 2006. In his passing away, the business fraternity in India has lost an important personality. As early as the mid 80s, Dr V showcased the now well understood paradigm of tapping the huge business potential at the bottom of the pyramid. I fondly recollect the few meetings that I had with Dr V in connection with an interview that we published in IIMB Management Review, Vol 17, No 3. In my opinion, the country has lost one of its greatest social entrepreneurs, a fine gentleman, a humble person and a management guru of recent times.
In many ways, Dr V has made a lasting impact that will transform the future of health care in this country. The Arvind Eye Care system founded by Dr V three decades ago challenged the established wisdom and demonstrated that it was possible to perfectly balance the profit making urge with the fulfilment of social obligations. This assumption is key to the business model of Arvind Eye Care in which two thirds of the patients are treated free of cost with high quality service while the remaining customers are charged only a reasonable fee.
The role played by Dr V and his team in shaping the values at Arvind Eye Care is inspirational. A careful study of the success of the Arvind Eye Care System reveals many lessons for aspiring business leaders (as evidenced by a number of case studies written on Arvind Eye Hospitals by the top business schools in the country and abroad). It represents one of the finest examples of how innovation can reward organisations and lift them above the pack. At the age of 87, after coming out of a coma a few weeks before he passed away, Dr V was seen going around the hospital on a wheel chair and treating outpatients. Through several such examples, Dr V has amply demonstrated how passion and the propensity to think big are essential ingredients for creating world class organisations.
I believe that business managers, young management students and consultants will have much to learn from the business model of the Arvind Eye Care system. Dr V will remain a role model for aspiring entrepreneurs with big dreams to realise.
One indication of the high growth of the Indian economy is the increasing interest in entrepreneurship. Our Round Table feature in this issue addresses this and provides multi-dimensional views on the theme. The companion paper addresses some of the conceptual issues of interest to practice. We continue to reveal new paths in corporate transformation through our Interview feature. In this issue, Mr Lakshmi Narayanan and Mr Francisco D'Souza of Cognizant Technology Solutions share some of the issues pertaining to managing cross-border firms. As in the past, the current issue brings to readers a set of interesting research papers and an award winning student essay. I hope readers will find these interesting and useful.
We had a very successful IMRC 2006 International Conference on Outsourcing in July, with the participation of nearly a dozen CEOs from prominent firms in the area of outsourcing and about 35 academic papers being presented. Several authors have expressed their keen desire to publish their conference papers in the journal. I hope to bring a sub-set of these papers in future issues of IMR.
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