I was just surfing the net when I came across this piece of news on forexpros.com about Cayman Islands (more popular as one of the tax havens) which said that a famous heart surgeon has decided to build a 2000-bed health care city in the country. Logic behind the move: it will come as a boon for patients and health insurers in US, as the cost of the same medical treatment will be a fraction of what one has to pay in US. In fact, the founder in his interview said that the insurance company, apart from footing the medical as well as the travel bill will be in a position to offer a two-week holiday in the country and all this at less than fifty percent of cost in US!
People talk about blue ocean strategy of making the competition irrelevant, this is a perfect example. And what makes even harder or almost impossible for others to replicate it, is the experience of the founder in handling this business model successfully before and anyways how many people can boast of having taken care of the most compassionate heart in the world: that of Mother Teresa! No doubt this is a brilliant idea and deserves all the publicity that it can get, but what prompted me to write this post was the fact that this feat has been achieved by an Indian born surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty. He is the same person who founded Narayana Hrudayalaya in Karnataka and helped the Karnataka government design the world’s cheapest health insurance scheme at Rs.5 per month for the poor farmers of the state.
Low-cost and high volume model is something that has constantly inspired people in India. Not content with the success Swach (the water purifier) Tata has now tied up with an MIT professor whose team plans to generate electricity out of waste water at a cheaper cost. We have also seen the success of Arvind eye care in India.
But this particular example of Cayman Islands can not be treated as serving the bottom of the pyramid like Swach or Arvind eye care as health care-cover costs in the US are not low and can not be afforded by anyone who wants it. So the people who will actually make it to the Cayman Islands are not exactly poor. Same is the case here in India, where Tata Nano and Air Deccan are put in the same bracket as Arvind eye care and Tata Swach. But it is not the case I feel, as the Nano and Air Deccan (now called Kingfisher Red) are serving the “aspiration category” which is constantly trying to improve its standard of living by trying and taking that one step ahead. Somebody who is driving a bike wants to buy a Nano or somebody who has been traveling in an AC compartment of train wants to use a low cost airline and mind you they are not poor or the ‘bottom’, as the poor in India still can not afford a bicycle. The idea behind writing this post was not only to highlight the achievement of Dr. Shetty but at the same time I wanted to convey my apprehension about confusing between the ‘middle’ and the ‘bottom’ of the pyramid. It is irritating when media attaches the ‘bottom’ word with people who buy a Nano or use a low-cost airline.
People talk about blue ocean strategy of making the competition irrelevant, this is a perfect example. And what makes even harder or almost impossible for others to replicate it, is the experience of the founder in handling this business model successfully before and anyways how many people can boast of having taken care of the most compassionate heart in the world: that of Mother Teresa! No doubt this is a brilliant idea and deserves all the publicity that it can get, but what prompted me to write this post was the fact that this feat has been achieved by an Indian born surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty. He is the same person who founded Narayana Hrudayalaya in Karnataka and helped the Karnataka government design the world’s cheapest health insurance scheme at Rs.5 per month for the poor farmers of the state.
Low-cost and high volume model is something that has constantly inspired people in India. Not content with the success Swach (the water purifier) Tata has now tied up with an MIT professor whose team plans to generate electricity out of waste water at a cheaper cost. We have also seen the success of Arvind eye care in India.
But this particular example of Cayman Islands can not be treated as serving the bottom of the pyramid like Swach or Arvind eye care as health care-cover costs in the US are not low and can not be afforded by anyone who wants it. So the people who will actually make it to the Cayman Islands are not exactly poor. Same is the case here in India, where Tata Nano and Air Deccan are put in the same bracket as Arvind eye care and Tata Swach. But it is not the case I feel, as the Nano and Air Deccan (now called Kingfisher Red) are serving the “aspiration category” which is constantly trying to improve its standard of living by trying and taking that one step ahead. Somebody who is driving a bike wants to buy a Nano or somebody who has been traveling in an AC compartment of train wants to use a low cost airline and mind you they are not poor or the ‘bottom’, as the poor in India still can not afford a bicycle. The idea behind writing this post was not only to highlight the achievement of Dr. Shetty but at the same time I wanted to convey my apprehension about confusing between the ‘middle’ and the ‘bottom’ of the pyramid. It is irritating when media attaches the ‘bottom’ word with people who buy a Nano or use a low-cost airline.
Nice Article.. and an apt title !!!
ReplyDeleteYou can write a book on this title yaar :)