This story reads like the monk who sold his Ferrari, only in reverse, where unlike the Monk in Robin Sharma's version, who first tasted success and then gained spiritual solace, Suresh Vazirani first went to follow his higher calling, almost became a monk, and in the process, stumbled upon a business idea which brought him fame and fortune.
In reality, Vazirani started with humble beginnings and spent nine years in voluntary work where he happened to meet Jayprakash Narayan, an independent activist, social reformer and political leader in the 70s. In due course of time, JP as Narayan was called had kidney failure and had to undergo regular dialysis. One day, Vazirani found the doctor extremely agitated. He learnt that the dialysis machines weren't functioning properly. This was crucial as JP needed the medical procedure at any cost. Just like we see in the movies, Vazirani volunteered to help fix the machine. Using his engineering background, he was able to fix the machine in a couple of hours.
This was Vazirani's eureka moment, where he realized that in search for purpose of his life, healthcare in India would be his calling. So it dawned upon him that prevention of disease is something that India needs and this is when he decided to start his diagnostics company TranAsia Biomedicals.
It wasn't an easy start however; Vazirani wanted to find an answer to India's healthcare but had no experience, only inner conviction. And to add to scenario, he had a meagre capital of only Rs 250! But as Alibaba's founder Jack Ma says, "Where the opportunity is, is where the complaints are. Where the trouble, there's the opportunity."
Help came in the form of a friend, who offered him Rs. 1 lakh. Mr. Vazirani then wrote to around 400 companies worldwide, asking for help with diagnostic technology for India. He then went around the world for 6 months and visited 70 companies.
Two companies believed in him and made him distributors for India. Within few days, the company had 3 orders from 3 doctors. This is what set the ball rolling and the rest is history as they say.
TranAsia Biomedicals started operations in 1979, has till date made 11 acquisitions in the last 6 years and today has 90% of the product range that a diagnostic lab would need. In developing countries after-sales service plays a big part. With the company establishing it centres in almost every town in India, it is able to deliver after-sales support in a window of 4 hours, unlike competition that take up to 48.
And though, TranAsia Biomedicals has spread its wing in many countries, Vazirani feels the real action lies in emerging markets. In 5-10 years they see themselves as the leader of emerging markets for diagnostics. The vision of the company is bold, as of now, around 50 crore people do blood test on equipment made by TransAsia Biomedical and by 2020 it wants to turn that number into 250 crores. Similarly, while today it is worth around Rs 1000 crore company and by 2020, Vazirani aims to turn it into a Rs. 5000 crore behemoth.
In this episode of Luxury of Poverty AB Ravi, Editor - Special Projects, CNBC-TV18 speaks to Dr A Velumani, Chairman of Thyrocare Technologies wherein he decodes the success mantra behind TranAsia Biomedicals success.
Watch out for the show on 6.30 pm only on CNBC-TV18 on May 22.
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