DILATING POSSIBILITIES IN DIALYSIS CARE 

Aseem Garg is transforming India’s dialysis landscape with good old fashioned values like vision, courage and patient implementation – bringing hope to patients and vigor to the industry. 

MEET THE LEADER 

Aseem Garg is the founder of DCDC KIDNEY CARE, India’s leading chain of Dialysis Centres providing dialysis care & related services to kidney patients. The company operates dialysis centers through Stand Alone Dialysis Clinics, In-Hospital departments at private hospitals and Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with Government Agencies. DCDC is the leader in PPP dialysis centers with a network of 114 centres with an additional 30 centers in the pipeline. 

Aseem formed the business plan for dialysis clinics in his second year at IIMB, following which he proceeded to gain work experience from National Kidney Foundation, Singapore before founding the company in 2009. The organization – which currently employs over 1100 personnel across various functions - has been growing at 40% year on year.  It has raised three rounds of equity funding with the latest round of $21million that saw participation from Asian Development Bank and IFU.

We caught up with Aseem Garg, hoping to glean some actionable inspiration as we track and track his growth curve from ‘personal’ angles. Here’s an excerpt : 

THE PHILOSOPHY 

Our first question revolved around a cliché – but a crucial one nevertheless: What is the secret of his success? Attributing the triumphs to “A quest to find success one failure at a time”, Aseem goes on to elaborate more, “Success is built on efforts made over time. Most of the efforts or initiatives fail and each failure brings significant learnings on how to do things right. Eventually, if you persevere through and keep on trying you will find the right way of doing things and be successful. The important thing is to keep on trying.

THE MISSION 

DCDC KIDNEY CARE has its hands full. After all, the scale of the challenge they have chosen to address and correct is formidable. 3,50,000 patients need dialysis due to kidney failure every year. Of the 1.2 million patients in India who need dialysis, 93% do not get it, which vastly reduces their chances of survival. The odds are stacked high, which is exactly how a trueblue entrepreneur likes it. With Aseem’s optimistic attitude, meticulous approach and courageous leadership, the team is getting there in measured steps. 

THE TIPPING POINT 

So why and when did his current initiative become the driving passion of his life. Was there any person or life-altering experience / turning-point that cascaded or triggered it? As always, we are curious to decode the genesis of the disruption, and Aseem helpfully obliges, “I have always been inspired by my Late Grandfather who was a first generation entrepreneur. He started from scratch and became successful at a very young age. I have always believed that it is ok to fail. The important part is to take decisions and keep on moving ahead.”

THOUGHTS… BECAME THINGS. 

How successful has Aseem’s mantra been in driving ‘on-ground success behaviour’ for himself and his teams on a day to day basis? The idea leader hand-holds us through the process, “This mantra has given me the confidence to keep on trying things and keep on tweaking the process. I have tried to reinforce the same belief in my team. Today they know that in the quest of trying new things or making things better even if sometimes things don’t work out in the manner they have hoped it is ok that they have the confidence of their boss. This frees them up to be bold and take decisions.”

ADVICE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS?

“My advice would be to focus on the work/journey instead of the destination”, says Aseem succinctly.

A WORD FOR VOH READERS? 

We sign off the session – which was short in duration but long in inspirational - by requesting Aseem for his views about the Voice of Healthcare, and how tribute profiles such as Idea Leaders are important to add direction, inspiration and positive energy to the healthcare community. Aseem generously shares his mind, “Entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey filled with self-doubt and paranoia. You have to fight scepticism day in day out and there are times when even you don’t believe in yourself. Concepts like Idea leaders are immensely inspiring and I have looked up to fellow entrepreneurs all through my life. Learning about their struggles, fears and their journey humanizes and personalizes the experience for an entrepreneur and inspires them to achieve greater heights.”

*This story is published by VOH team*