Aravind

1. Identify the key factors that lead to Aravind's success. Blindness has been a serious problem around the world, but even more so in poor Asian and African nations. The prevalence of blindness in developing nations was 1.5% compared to a .25% in industrious nations, and the underlying reason for the majority of the cases of blindness in those poorer countries was cataracts. Of India's 850 million people, almost 20 million of those people were blind with an additional two million cases of blindness being added each year. The demand for a solution the India's eye problem was prevalent; all the people of India needed was the supply. Unfortunately, the majority of the people in India with eye problems were poor and unable to access the medical attention that they needed. 1.2 million cataract operations were taking place each year meaning the ophthalmologists could not even keep up with the amount of people being diagnosed each year. This is a large reason Dr. V and the Aravind hospital was successful early on. In just four years the Aravind hospital was able to grow from a 20-bed hospital to a 250-bed hospital. Another reason the Aravind hospital was successful was that the staff was motivated and qualified while also willing to work longer hours for less pay. Much of the support staff for the Aravind hospital was in some way linked to Dr. V. Dr. V's relatives recognized that they would be working for a great cause and that along with Dr. V's passion caused the support staff to buy into Dr. V's vision. Dr. V's sister and husband left their government job to join Dr. V and instead of a pay raise for which is expected when leaving the government to join the private sector, they worked twice as long for half of what they made before. What they missed out on in pay, they made up for in education. Dr. V was very dedicated to ensuring the staff was trained and had an adequate skill set. However, whereas most government doctors were expected to work 30 hours a week,