VISHNU ERA 12

ISSUE 12 JULY 2016
ground services in other cities like Vizag, Ongole, Nellore.
We will gradually replicate to other cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi
and to similar developing markets overseas.
We heard that CallHealth provides single-point solution to all wellness
and healthcare needs? Could you explain?
The end-to-end integrated approach to healthcare enables CallHealth to
provide a one-stop solution for all healthcare needs across a customer's
life span and across the healthcare spectrum – Prevention, Wellness
and Cure. Thus, creating a partnership that is life-long and not
transactional in nature. We brought all components of healthcare under
one roof. We are like Amazon of healthcare for the spread of offerings
with the ease of usage that an Uber provides.
What according to you is disruptive innovation in healthcare? How did
disruptive innovation affect your company and health care system?
In the past, doctor was at the center of ecosystem and the entire health
care eco system was distributed around him / her. The patient was
outside this circle and often had to run between different points in this
eco system to complete a health check-up. In our model, we have
brought the patient to the center and have
placed the entire eco system around him.
That's what technology has enabled us to
do. We have flipped whole table. This is
disruptive.
Who is your real source of inspiration
behind your success?
Frankly, I can't name just one. I have been
inspired by freshers in my team as much
as from peers or people above me. What I
learnt from all those I liked was the
relentless drive and passion for results.
I worked as HR for 20 years and we
became best employers in our industry.
Then, I wanted to challenge myself and
see if I could succeed in other fields. HR
was all about inside-out. In 2007, I moved
to marketing which was completely
outside-in. In 2013, I moved to a highly
complex business role as the consulting
head, where the team helped me double
our revenues in 3 years.
After almost 3 decades in technology
services, I have now decided to provide
leadership in the health care sector.
The inspiration comes from the fact that I disrupt myself continuously
and have to prove to myself that I can succeed.
Currently you may have thousands of employees. What are practices
you follow to retain the best talent?
Currently, we are below 1000 in number.
Our differentiator is that we have a flat organization model where there
is no hierarchy of people; we only have hierarchy of opportunities. At
CallHealth, our Officers are empowered and expected to take
responsibility for a range of areas in their daily routines that are
traditionally considered 'managerial decisions'.
We have brought in a continuous assessment model – not a periodic one
and have digitized most of our internal transactions. Work is still WIP
and we will achieve 100% very soon
Excluding yours, what is your most admired company?
Personally, I love Google. They think brilliantly ahead of the times and
innovate products or services. The few people at Google I have met are
passionate about their company and the way they are building the
products is awesome. I would love CallHealth to bring that culture and
exceed our stakeholder expectations. Apple and Tesla are the other
ones.
How are Google different, in your opinion?
They seem to be thinking of doing things that appear almost impossible.
Imagine talking about providing Wi-Fi through the Loon Project! When
we first hear about it, we would probably think how stupid can that be!!
Then we turn around and realize that they have made it into a reality. It is
sheer absurdity of an idea converted into a reality.
CallHealth is on a journey like that.
How would you like your company to be remembered by the people?
Just like Facebook for bringing people together, Google for bringing
information together, we would love to be remembered for bringing the
healthcare ecosystem together.
You must have faced many challenges in your professional life. What
was the toughest one? How could you overcome?
Only time I probably felt stress was during 2009 Satyam episode. It was
period of time where because of the event one's professional credibility
was also questioned. I had to prove them wrong and resurrect myself
and be a part of the team that resurrected the company.
I had a steep fall, but I climbed back. It was all three dimensions -
professional, personal and financial.
“
Our model integrates all
constituents of the
healthcare eco-system
(doctors, diagnostics,
Medicines, physios,
hospitals, Insurance, etc.)
What are your expectations from an entry
level employee?
I don't give much priority to academic score,
even though it is a nice indicator of student's
performance in academics.
I look for people who challenge and can take
risks. I love people who, when they fail, say
“it is only half time in the game, the next half
time is going to be my game.” (you know,
the outcome of many football games are
changes in the second half!).
I seek game changers. I want the Dhonis of
the world who consistently deliver under
pressure (imagine scoring 23 runs in the last
over to finish off the game - he has done it
often); people with firmness of spirit that
says “I can and will do”.
I don't look for individual heroes -
collaboration is the key. In short, I am
interested in people who are Risk takers,
Can maintain their cool, Have a 'never say
die' attitude & are a pleasure to hang out
with at work.
What are the biggest opportunities for budding engineers in the next
five years?
The world is in midst of digital revolution. We live in a connected world
today. People should leverage this revolution in their areas of study. You
could be a mechanical engineer today, but we are talking about
connected cars. You could be a shoe manufacturer, but we are talking
about shoes that give you multiple health readings.
Bring your analytical and inquisitive blend of mind to use digital
revolution to create opportunities in your own areas of specialization.
If GOD appears and asks you what or whom do you want to be (other
than yourself), what will be your reaction?
I could wish to be as disruptive as Steve Jobs (it takes a lot of guts to say
“I will remove the physical keyboard from your phone”). Even though he
had serious setbacks in life, he bounced back. He has an extraordinary
creative mind, ability to sense the market needs, integrate product ideas
and come out with path-breaking innovation. When the tablet (Apple
Tab) came, many bought it and I know many who didn't know how to
really leverage it. That is the difference.
To be frank, it' not about wanting to be somebody. I would love to have
the risk taking ability of Steve Jobs coupled with the compassion of my
mother.
GOAL
POST
Maneesha likes
to describe
herself as a
Goddess of
Small Things
(professionwise),
Verbal
Architect
and Vocal
Acrobat
(wannabe
singer).
‘Watch'ing
Swissness
(Blogger at- https://thewanderlustswine.wordpress.com/ )
Switzerland shares a special relation with tunnels and tunnelling. Without
sounding like I repeated myself, I must tell you that they are indeed different
things, 'tunnels' and 'tunnelling'. I shall elaborate about them in just a while.
After completing my masters' studies in Micro Nano Integrated Systems at
Politecnico di Torino, Italy. I found myself at crossroads of what to do next. The
Masters course left me with a micro-nanotech (if I may) hangover and the only
thing I was sure of was wanting to remain with it. So, I took up an internship
opportunity soon after at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
in Switzerland and voilà, since then m here.
So coming back to the tunnels. If you followed the news lately, you might have
heard that Switzerland achieved a huge feat. It finished building the world's
longest tunnel at 57 km, the Gotthard base tunnel (WOAH!). But, it doesn't
start there for the Swiss. Back in the 90's they did something a lot cool. Two
researchers at IBM, Zurich, Switzerland invented the scanning 'TUNNELING'
microscope. This machine lets you peak at individual atoms on the surfaces of
materials (double WOAH!). Just imagine a pen, nano-patterned to an atom
sitting at it's tip. Scanning this tip across the surface of samples you read and
build atomic level information of the material. This is possible thanks to
quantum mechanical tunnelling. Quantum physics tells us that there is nonzero
probability that an electron can be on the other side of a potential
barrier that it sees, by 'tunnelling' through it. So with tunnelling of electrons
between the atomic tip and atoms of the material (surface to be studied)
scientists can get a wealth of information.
But this is the system that the IBM greats made. So, what do you do Maneesha?
I work on tunnelling too. And there ends the similarity I share with those Nobel
Prize winning scientists. I work on tunnelling transistors. In a transistor,
current from one region (source) to another (drain) is mediated by a
controlled barrier (channel) that allows or restricts the flow of charge serving
as an electronic separation between source and drain. Hence, transistors can
be thought of as switches which are used to build more complex circuits,
systems and eventually machines. Tunnelling transistors differ from
conventional field effect transistors as the former are based on quantum
mechanical tunnelling of electrons whereas the latter are based on thermal
emission of carriers over a potential barrier. It's enough to understand that
they have a different switching principle. My research work is to explore these
transistors for various applications. Given the sizes at which they are made
(order of nanometers to a couple of microns), they potentially can sense things
of that length scale. These 'things' can be anything from DNA molecules to
hydrogen or other ions potentially building nano-biological/chemical sensors.
So in my doctoral studies you typically see me reading literature from well
since the beginning of time to today in the field, generating ideas of device
designs/architectures, simulating those ideas and fabricating them in a
cleanroom environment. What excites me very much is the entire process.
Seeing how ideas come alive as real world-devices to do useful things is indeed
fascinating. Delve-in, if you like, there is plenty of space for us in this big SMALL
world.
Maneesha Rupakula (ECE – 2007-11, BVRIT N)
Ph.D Student, Nanoelectronic Devices Lab
@ Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL), Switzerland
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