The Indian diagnostic industry is currently one of the fastest expanding service verticals across the entire healthcare segment. It is in this space that Neuberg Diagnostics provides the vital bridge between service platforms and the people who need them. According to projections the diagnostics segment has been estimated to grow at a staggering CAGR of 11 percent to be worth $9.5 billion over the next five years.

This high growth potential has been linked with various factors including growing income levels, rising healthcare spending, an increased life expectancy, amplified awareness for preventive testing and advanced diagnostic tests offerings just to name a few.

However, another major contributor for the industry's growth has been the efficiency and pace with which service providers such as Neuberg Diagnostics, have evolved with the need of the hour. As was observed during the pandemic, consumer requirements changed overnight. An ever increasing number of the population preferred that diagnostic services be made available at their doorsteps. The industry swiftly rose to the occasion and made the requisite changes.

One such exceptional player that is riding the wave of growth is Neuberg Diagnostics, a Chennai based diagnostics expert organization. At the helm of its operations is Aishwarya Vasudevan, Group COO for Neuberg Diagnostics. A progressive leader with more than 19 years of industry experience across multiple organizations and functions, she currently works towards achieving customer excellence while creating and building on a diverse workforce.

A believer in the transformative power of hard work and perseverance, Aishwarya isnever one to sit chained down at her desk. Instead she moves ahead to take up challenging assignments in order to learn and grow. This route wasn't always easy, yet her hard work eventually paid dividends as her abilities were noticed by the organizations she worked with. Today, she stands tall as an example and inspirational figure within the Indian diagnostics industry.

The Women Entrepreneur Magazine team conducted an in-depth interview with Aishwarya Vasudevan, and spoke to her about her exceptional professional journey. She also shed light on her unique perspective with regards to leadership and the immense growth potential of the Indian healthcare sector.

Introduce Us To Neuberg Diagnostics. What Are The Various Areas That The Company Specializes In?

Neuberg Diagnostics was founded by serial entrepreneur Chairman Dr GSK Velu in 2017. The company reached its first milestone at inception by successfully unifying five of the most reputed regional Pathology brands under the new Global Neuberg Umbrella.

Neuberg possesses capabilities to perform over 6000 varieties of Pathological investigations and promotes Prevention & Early Diagnosis, Focused Wellness Programs and Structured Disease Management programs for rare diseases using the most advanced technologies assisted by Data science and AI tools. True to its name which means New Generation Enterprise (also pays tribute to German Scientist Dr. Carl Neuberg, the Father of Modern Biochemistry) it focusses on New Generation Lab techniques such as Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Digital Pathology and Molecular Diagnostics.

In its journey of over three years, Neuberg currently holds the mantle of being the fourth largest diagnostics lab chain in the country and has 120+ labs, 200+ pathologists and over 10,000 touch points across India, South Africa, UAE, and the US.

Tell Us About Your Areas Of Expertise As A Business Leader. What Are The Different Roles & Responsibilities That You Take Care Of At Neuberg Diagnostics? How Do You Drive Growth Within The Organization As The COO? 

I come with a proven and diverse background in P&L, sales, marketing, operations, training, customer engagement and quality. I believe that the key to every successful business is unwavering passion for customer excellence, and my corporate journey has allowed me to set up many systems to study, measure and improve customer delight.

I find that one of the most challenging aspects of my job is to maintain and ensure a continuous, flawless adherence to quality and protocols. Especially in today's unsure world, with the pandemic that we still continue to battle, it was mainly people management combined with the herculean task of replacing fear within my staff with motivation to move outward and dedicate themselves towards the cause of helping people, no matter where they are. I overcome this challenge by putting up a system of monitoring and control at every checkpoint and thereby build a platform of seamless integration.

I believe gender diversity is essential, and not having it can be detrimental for business. For this, I take my time to build a culture that promotes diversity. A diverse workforce ensures culmination of the best minds assisting a business in dealing with challenges in multiple ways, which in turn will help any company strategize and grow better.

In Your Opinion How Did The Global Pandemic Impact The Entire Healthcare Industry? How Did The Diagnostics Industry Evolve During These Challenging Times?

This Pandemic has changed the way the World does things, be it Industry or Life. While the world struggled with the unforeseeable future, the health and wellness industry dealt with the current situation by being extremely dynamic. For us at Neuberg Diagnostics the focus was to drive and encourage India to be proactive rather than reactive. This structure worked and soon there began to be a surge in the awareness of health and wellness. People started adopting a healthier lifestyle. At the same time, the general population took on the `preventive healthcare' perspective rather than the treatment of disease and disorders.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all ­ in which case, you fail by default”

As this concept started catching on, the health and wellness sector faced an increasing demand for a series of services. From wellness apps to home testing diagnostic kits, the popularity of at-home fitness grew and people have been able to stay more active with the help of fitness videos and fitness apps from the safety of their houses.

This pandemic also made people feel very unsure and unsafe to leave their houses to visit hospitals, clinics, and pathology labs in general. This has resulted in anreactive need to satisfy the increase in demand for home diagnostic services. This in turn helped people to learn how to better monitor their health. It also aided telemedicine as doctors rely on evidence-based treatment. As a whole, the health and wellness industry hence has had a very positive trajectory despite the fact that India was hit very badly by the pandemic. 

How Has Your Professional Journey Been So Far? What Critical Lessons Did You Learn Through The Journey?

My journey has been a roller coaster ride, but the trick has always been not to allow the highs to get to my head and the lows get me down. My seniors had always encouraged me to make mistake but also to learn from them and use that experience to streamline solutions for smarter and greater impacts. This is something I will always be indebted for. I have been fortunate to work alongside doyens of the industry like Dr. Batra. My experience with the industry's best ­ Dr. Velu has been nothing short of Phenomenal. He is by far one of the most hands on and inspirational leaders who I have had the honour to work for.

I also made a strong decision to not be stuck to my desk right from the beginning of my career and hence, this led me to actively take up a range of challenging assignments and excel in them for which I started getting noticed.

As anyone does, during my journey I made my own mistakes but learned quickly from them as I strongly believe and take inspiration from the famous words of JK Rowling, "Some failures in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all ­ in which case, you fail by default".

There were a few occasions when I faced resistance and opposition, but I ignored all forms of negativity and instead focused my energy towards demonstrating my capabilities, perseverance and mindset as well as putting my experience to work to help me reach, where I am today.

Given The Demanding Nature Of Your Job How Do You Manage To Strike A Balance Between Your Work And Home Life? What Are Some Activities Or Hobbies That You Like To Give Time To?

I find it amusing that many people believe that there exists a form of balance between work and life when it comes to running a large-scale corporation. What many don't seem to understand is that proper and profitable management through leadership is a very time demanding process. So, In order to strike a balance in life I play to my strengths. I believe there are tasks which my teammates can execute faster through guidance, and I use this to rely on their strength. Prioritizing my time effectively helps me to be able to make a greater impact as well. This converts to most of the things I do and I make sure that all of them are scheduled in advance. This helps me save time to think about the business from a more in-depth perspective instead of working on any single aspect of the business all the time, giving me ample time personally as well.

As A Successful Business Leader What Would Your Advice Be To Young Women Aspiring To Become Business Leaders And Entrepreneurs In The Future?

Things are changing by the day. As more and more women are joining the workforce, companies are coming up with women friendly policies to accommodate them. Even in politics we have seats that are reserved for women, but most of these noble gestures are only scratching the surface of an issue whose roots are embedded deep.

I would like to say to the aspiring business leaders to change these inherent biases and introduce a system where each & every individual is judged on merit and provided equal opportunity sans gender based discrimination.