Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

Devi Shetty inspires

Dr. Devi Shetty, heart surgeon and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya, was the Chief Guest at the 40th Convocation of IIMB, in which yours truly was also conferred a degree. Narayana Hriduyalaya is across 17 cities and 27 hospitals. B School connect- a) Aravind Eye and Narayana are poster boys of India's affordable health care, and both are subjects of HBS cases, b) Narayana also used to recruit at IIMB.

So, convocation and all - much pressure on the speaker. But Mr Shetty rose to the occasion to deliver a touching speech. He's used to it- he touches the heart all the time. Here are some highlights from his thought-provoking address:

-A business model meant for the poorest man in the country (insert Gandhi quote: is your step going to be of use to the poorest and weakest man) is a great model. The rich just follow the poor. Argument bolstered by the success of the Yeshaswini micro insurance plan, under which Devi Shetty drove the Karnataka govt. to provide micro insurance to the poor. For a monthly payment of Rs 5 per person, with the government contributing Rs 2.5, "the scheme offers free consultation, diagnostics at discounted rates and all kinds of operations". Apparently the world's cheapest such insurance scheme. I suppose India is the best place to run such "economies of scale" models, and Mr. Shetty is a champ - Yashaswini and the entire low-cost Hriduyalaya model. He also later talks about how "Charity is not scalable"

-"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing which has" - Margaret Mead. Also added, "If you want to walk fast walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together"

-"God has something better for you". Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (KMS hereon) is apparently a buddy of Mr. Shetty - she donated 30 Cr for his Cancer hospital in Bangalore which is even named after her (for KMS' husband was once a Cancer patient. She's doing a Glenn McGrath here). So, KMS wanted to become a doctor, and she did not clear the entrance exam, and therefore moved on to Biotech et al, and look what has resulted a $1.5 Bn mkt cap, poster boy of Indian biotech. My thought is that when confronted by big decisions, or forks, it helps to take a chill pill by keeping in mind- You will do well either way! Like KMS did.

-"Behave like a thief". Time for audience CP- what does the thief do when he enters first? (No one got it- the degree is here anyway, so who cares about CP marks). He keeps the back door open. So, keep the exit options open, he says. This led to a trail of thief jokes later in the day - "You are supposed to return the gown! Oh, you are keeping it? Ah, think like a thief eh?"

-Couple of nice lessons drawn from his time at the surgery table. I think, for an expert in a field, one can extract such good ideas from their area of expertise/work - "The safest surgeon is one who doesn't operate", and "money is like oxygen. It is not the purpose of life, but you can't live 3 minutes without it"

-"World is not ruined by the activity of bad people, but by the inactivity of good people". My thoughts- think World War II, and Appeasement by Britain and UK. Mr Shetty gives an example of how the Karnataka government imposed a service tax which would have hurt the poor's ability to pay for medical expenses. Mr Shetty and "A few good men" rallied forces and went on street marches, and got the state tax rescinded. While pinch of salt is advised because there may have been Narayana Hriduyalaya bottomline impact driving Mr Shetty's action, the point is well taken.

-Has had some good help from the Indian business ecosystem. I mentioned above KMS' 30 Cr donation. He also mentioned how L&T built for him a super-specialty hospital for $6 Mn instead of the industry standard $20 Mn, and in 6 months instead of the regular 3 years. A doff of the hat to IIMA there - Mr AM Naik, Chairman of L&T, has just awarded degrees at IIM A - he's the KMS equivalent for IIM A.

-Taking notes, or planning to take notes, forces you to listen.

Some good life lessons in here, and I plan to read some of the above and imbibe.

Ceremony light (and tight) moments

• Present in absentia. Madhuvanthi was declared to be receiving her degree "in absentia", but then she showed up uninvited on the stage, creating immense confusion among the august gathering of the IIM B Executive board on stage. KMS, who handed out the degrees, was the most perplexed.
• Handle-barred. Yours truly's mustachio'd pic, which appeared in the rehearsal and caused a bit of an uproar, was removed, thanks to the well-meaning intervention of Prof Pranav Garg (who was quite the Master of Ceremonies for the convo). In place of the macho Harley rider appeared this lame MBA nerd, to the vocal disappointment of the PGP audience. However, the mustachio'd pic still remains on the Alumni card.
• Pro-nuance-ing names. The new PGP chair started off her evening well with a good speech- while everyone else was heaping praises on the Graduates, she turned the tables on them and said the focus should be on the parents, who have done as much, if not more, for their wards to earn the right to sit. Rightly so. However, her day went downhill after that, because she was entrusted with the no-doubt onerous task of reading out 398 names, and she blew it. She did not exhibit any trace of pro-nuance-ation, as she split some common Indian names into English words while reading out. Think Ash + Win for Ashwin - she did this for some names. Her discomfort soared with complex South Indian names
• Light and tight. The graduation hat was very tight and the flourescent lights were blazing, and caused a bit of a headache.

Sentimental musings

I was among the last 10% of the batch to leave. And it was sad to say one goodbye after another. What is striking is that today, the stone-walls, the room, the people, the Park and Eat food, everything means home; but just a day later- you sleep and wake up- and you have to erase that part of your life and all the above stop meaning "home".  I can remember Harsh, the car-driving Bangalorean, packing up with bags and baggage just the day after convocation despite having all the flexibility, because the emptying out of G-Top was understandably too much to handle. What is usually the best thing about campus - you walking around and bumping into random batchmates and striking up a conversation - at NC, at ABP, in the corridors, turned very sour because each of these conversations turned into a farewell.



Ramblings: The best Chief Guest speech ever - Gussie presents the prizes by PG Wodehouse, In Absentia is a great Porcupine Tree album.