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EFFICIENCY AT ARAVIND
Aravind’s efficiency is a case study at the Harvard Business School. During one of his trips to
theUS,Dr.VsawhowMcDonald’s operated and was inspired by it.He decided to runAravind
on the same model. “The aim is to provide a high-tech, low-cost service to all people, while
maintaining the same quality standards. My model is McDonald’s. They serve the identical
hamburger, with the same efficiency, at thousands of outlets.” The surgical procedure of
correcting the cataract problem in a patient is simple and takes about 20 minutes. It involves
cutting of the eye, removal of the clouded lens and replacing itwith a new, artificial lens...
THEORGANISATION
Apart fromthe five hospitals atMadurai, Theni, Pondicherry, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli,
Aravind also has an intraocular lens manufacturing facility called Aurolab. Intraocular
lenses were introduced in India in the 1980s, but had to be imported at $600 each.Aravind
Hospitalsmanaged to negotiate withmultinational firms to have the lenses at $40 each, but
it was still too high a price. Then, David Green, amember of the Seva Foundation, an NGO
started by Dr.V procured the technology to manufacture the lenses in India...
FUTURE PLANS
Dr.V has set high goals forAravind. “We want to go global,” he says, and adds, “I think in
these days of technological advancement, barriers of countries have been demolished. So
I have set myself a target of eradicating needless blindness (blindness due to cataract,
glaucoma or other infections, which can be cured) by 2010.” He intends to achieve this by
replicating theAravind model in as many parts of the world as possible. “Our hospital has
worked well, not only as an institution which is able to help the poor in restoring sight, but
also as a business model,” he says. “We cannot open anAravind everywhere, but what we
can do is replicate theAravind model...
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