Brijdid his Electrical engineering from COEP, 1990 batch, worked with Reliance for a few years, and then went to Yale to do his MBA. Spent some time with consulting – switched over to a corporate – and then came back to India in 2000 – to become an entrepreneur. He divides his time between India and the US today.
With his own funding of $ 500,000 he got into the business of insurance. Though he had no prior experience of that sector, he got hold of competent retired PSU Insurance Company Managers as advisors and got the licence from IRDA that was a requirement for becoming a Third Party Administrator (TPA). The sector was just about opening up in 2001. Before 2000 that the concept of TPA did not exist. I asked Brij why would an insurance company not keep its back office operations in-house. He replied that it was because MD India is focused only on the healthcare part of the insurance business. So by concentrating on that, they can get economies of scale, which an individual company would not be able to get, because healthcare is only a small part of their total policies sold. MD India managed to get a contract from one of the PSU giants to become its TPA – and there has been no looking back. Today MD India is India’s largest TPA with a 24 % market share – and more importantly – this was done on entirely Brij’s own funding.
Because of the concerns that US companies had about porting sensitive medical data to India, MD India was not able to get US Business. So Brij started Tella, a setup similar to MD India, to do business in the US. In order to get entry into the competitive US market, Brij roped in a strategic investor. This helped get orders. In 2010, Brij bought out the investor. Tables turned again in 2012, when Tella’s biggest client, who was basically an IT company, decided that it wants to get into services itself. Brij sold out at a good premium – and netted 30 m $. Those funds are used today to invest in other companies – through Lotus Capital, a family office.
The entrepreneur in Brij is still very much alive and kicking though. His latest baby is Express Clinics. With Express, Brij moves from a B2B model to a retail B2C one. Express aims at McDonaldising the family physician. Being a capital intensive business, Brij has roped in Private Equity for this venture. The new company has expanded rapidly to get to 30 clinics in Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore – with the aim of getting to 500 asap. In order to get to the 500 target, the franchising route will be taken. Brij clarified that the franchisee is only an investor partner – operational control will continue to be with Express Clinics. Express’s first franchisee has just become operational in Andheri.
Most people who have stayed a long time in a city have their own trusted set of doctors or a family doctor. But with the new working populations more and more migratory, they need to have a trusted brand for minor ailments when they move to a new city. The company is only 10 months old, so the learnings are still happening. An interesting quip by Brij – ‘It is more difficult to get the receptionist to smile, than the doctor.’ Talent from the hospitality industry is working with Express clinics in order to improve the service experience at the clinics. Goes without saying that irrespective of which Express clinic you visit, your past medical records will be accessesible to the doctor treating you, thanks to investments in centralized IT. Data crunching is happening to identify the better doctors, the ones who are able to drive in repeat business.
50,000 patients have walked into the doors of Express clinics so far. Express has tie-ups with hospitals like Ruby Hall for sending in patients who require something more than primary assistance. Plans for the future for Express Clinics, include leveraging the relationship that Brij has with insurance companies, to get them to start offering policies specifically geared towards OPDs like Express.
Am not sure whether repeat business which is good for Express, is good for the patient. Personally I love the Dr Rajiv Sharangpani strategy – who asks patients only to visit him once. If they come again – he has not done a good job J. Brij was asked about his plans for preventive medicine – and he had a very honest disclosure to make. Nowhere in the world are people ready to pay for ease, they only pay for dis-ease.