PREETHA REDDY- Hospitality Manager

PREETHA REDDY,47, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals group
The first daughter of the founder of Apollo Hospitals, Dr Prathap Reddy, got into the hospitals business quite by accident. Artistically inclined (she finished school from Kalakshetra, the famous school started by Rukmini Arundale), she was understandably fond of dancing, and even today has interesting art objects strewn about her house. Reddy does not go for very expensive collectors' items, but is more inclined towards what appeals to her visually, more basic than abstract.
But that inclination did not alter her educational pursuits. She opted for a chemistry course in college, and got married while still there. After that, she did not join Apollo Hospitals till 1989 - some ten years after having stayed home. Her younger sisters, meanwhile, had joined the business before her - but when sister Sangeetha got married and moved to Hyderabad, Preetha agreed to play replacement.
Not that Reddy was totally unfamiliar with the hospital business. It has been a family preoccupation. "After school, we used to go to HM Hospital where my father used to work, and watch how health care delivery was done," she recalls. While that may have made her familiar with hospitals and administration, managing a business was something altogether different. "I did not have the advantages of a B-school student, all my learning came from the workplace - I learnt hands-on.'' Till today, she remains a hands-on person taking care to listen and learn from people more `senior' in experience.
Apollo Hospitals, meanwhile, has been an enormous success in its role as a private hospital offering quality healthcare services in a market dogged by shoddiness and apathy. "We have always had healthcare delivery as our vision, but we were also running a business. We had banks and other investors who had to have continued confidence in us and could not afford to be careless," says the lady who joined as Deputy Managing Director and became Managing Director five years later, in 1994.
From Rs 110 crore when she took over, the business has grown to Rs 500 crore last year. Along the way, Apollo helped initiate the legislation for cadaver organ transplant, and insurance third party administration, and it is fighting to have the industry defined as an 'infrastructure' one. Reddy has also notched up successes in hospital networking, telemedicine, hospital management, Day Care Clinics, staff training colleges, Hospital BPO and pharmacy retailing.
Typical of her style, Reddy does not hog all the credit. "We work as a team, and my father continues to be the decision maker," she says.
Time for family? She doesn't compromise on any of that. Her husband is the chairman of the board of trustees at the famous Kapaleeshwarar temple, and she helps with the work this involves. Her two sons, meanwhile, are studying overseas.