Metropolis will be happy to partner with government for Coronavirus testing: Ameera Shah, MD

Ameera Shah, Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare, talks about women contribution at the workplace at Metropolis, coronavirus, price hikes and acquisition of Shraddha Diagnostic Centre among others during a candid chat with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business. Edited Excerpts: 

Q: How important or significant is the contribution of women workforce in your organisation?

A: Around 4,700-4,800 people are employed at Metropolis of which more than 50% are women. Apart from this, the maximum of people employed in our laboratories is women. And, I always feel that the women are not needing anything special done for them except little bit of concentration, thoughtfulness and flexibility but more than anything women just want the platform to be able to prove themselves to be able to earn their way in their career and they don't need any negative bias against them. Metropolis at their end try to provide facilities like work from home in the case of maternity to women by creating that flexibility, we do rotation of jobs, change roles to assist her, so that she can do both to make sure that she doesn't compromise her child for the work or her job to look after her child. So, whatever we can do as an organisation to support that transition, we are happy to do. Women just need a place, where she can work, get an appreciation for the work and get the career movement upward. And, we try to provide that at Metropolis. 

Q: You have achieved so much and did a lot for Metropolis. What would you like to say in order to motivate the young women professionals in India? 

A: Women have progressed a lot today in terms of their mind, courage and dream. However, unfortunately, something that hasn't changed or is stagnant is in case of the men, where the man in the family either in the workplace or at hope haven't progressed in a way that they can understand that women are able to both, i.e. they are able to be a good mother, wife, as well as a professional and can, balance both. In fact, sometimes the man has a hard time being a good father, husband and good at work. So, I think as long as both the sides understand each other and try to help each other to become better, then I think the gap between the man and the woman will end. As long as every husband is trying to support his wife in whatever her dreams are in the same way as they support their daughter there can be a big change in women in India. I think, there are challenges for women professionals like pressure at home, work as well as pressure to travel in major markets like Mumbai and Delhi. They also have an internal pressure that they are not doing good at the home as well as the workplace, they have guilt for the same. So, there are few things that we would want to change for women like they should be more confident and there is no need to fear the guilt and think that they are doing the best that they can and they need not be a perfectionist in everything that they do. As long as the things are manageable they need not be a perfectionist. If at the husband and the in-laws are not supportive then we have to stand-up ad find the way to get that support, so that we are able to pursue our dreams rather than giving in to it and saying I agree with everything that you say as it will not keep her happy in her life. So, as corporate' we should try to make this transition easier for women. At the same time, the women are changing themselves and their ecosystem to be able to take more opportunities and dream bigger and not give-up easily. So, the change should happen from both sides for there to be a better place for women in India.   

Q: Coronavirus threat is expanding and your business is quite related to it. So, what is your view on corona threat globally and in India and how prepared are we, the government and the industry, to deal with such a challenge? 

A: Coronavirus is a global issue and has spread very fast in many countries across the world. In case of India, there is a very high chance of it spreading very quickly because our density in cities is very high, i.e. a person can meet with 10 people every day in New Zealand and Australia every day but this number will go up to 400-500 in India, whether we are in public transport or in a movie theatre or we are with our neighbours at our home. So, the density in India is very high in cities and that is what can possibly spread it as fact. We as an individual can do without waiting for it for the government is to go to a government hospital and get the tests done if we get the symptoms of coronavirus. At the same time, we must keep sanitizing our hands and making sure that we are not spreading our germs or picking the germs of others all the time. These are the things that are under our control. When it comes to government's preparedness then I don't think that it is out in the public domain but I am sure that the government must have done a lot of works behind the scenes. We are not aware of the same or they haven't disclosed it but I have heard that they are setting up one lab in each city in every state for testing and I hope that they will do it very soon. Off course, the private sector can always help them in this like Metropolis Labs is fully equipped to do all kind of specialized testing. So, if we work to do the coronavirus testing then it is not difficult for us to do and we will be happy to partner with the government to provide that support. But, now, it is up to the government discretion and guidelines as they want to do so. 

Q: There a price hike in October 2019, which reflected in Q3FY20 results. So, any price hikes plan in your services now?

A: Yes, we took a small price hike in a few cities in October after a gap of 2-3 years. The price was hiked just for inflation and the customers are well aware of the services and its quality that is provided by Metropolis and that's why they didn't face any problem with this price hike. 

Q: Earlier you have said that you want to increase your B2C revenue from focus cities from 54% to 65% in time to come. What strategies will be adopted to achieve it?

A: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Surat are our focus cities and we are the leaders in the markets of these five cities. We are positioned at the top in all these cities except Bangalore with a market share of 10-15%. I feel this market share can be increased as we are the leaders and that's why our market share should be higher to at least 20-25%. This is an opportunity and for the purpose, we are going deep in these cities, for instance, we have 350 centres in Mumbai where patients walk-ins happen and we also have another 350 centres in doctor clinics. I believe this number can be increased and this is what I wanted to say that we can increase the density in these focus cities by going closer to the patients and by opening a centre that is convenient for them and this is the way through which we can get access to the new markets in the cities where we are present. So, we will try to increase the productivity of each centre and open new centres as well. This combination strategy will help us in increasing our market share in these cities. 

Watch Zee Business live TV below:

Q: What can we expect that acquisition process of Shraddha Diagnostic Centre Pvt, Ahmadabad will be completed and how you will support its financials? 

A: Shraddha deal was signed in January and such deals usually take 90-100 days for closure. So, we will try to see, if we are able to get it done by April-May. Interestingly, these acquisitions don't add a lot to our revenue and volumes. Actually, these acquisitions are more for entry points into new markets. We have a small business in Ahmadabad and we haven't focused a lot on the city in the past, so we had two options here and they are either we invest there and create labs, team and infrastructure or partner with Shraddha and bring them with us and take it ahead. This gives us a different benefit because we have a local partner, infrastructure, brand and we think that the combination of the two, Shradhha and Metropolis, will be quite powerful in Ahmadabad and we will be able to increase our volumes from here. The reports published by us will be very useful for people of the city as we feel that certain things are missing there like test menu, quality of report and we can be better on specialised tests. So, we can add a lot of value to patient and doctors in Ahmedabad.