Alisha Moopen Of Aster DM Healthcare: Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be willing to actively ask others for help, including external paid consultants. We brought Senior Consultants from Bain on-board to further redefine our future strategy.

As part of our series about the “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Alisha Moopen.

Alisha Moopen is the deputy managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, managing the company’s operations in India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Having joined the company as a director in 2013, she is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and development of the company, and notably spearheading the expansion of the group into new markets. Aster DM Healthcare is one of the world’s largest integrated healthcare conglomerates with 365 facilities, including hospitals, clinics and pharmacies, across seven countries, most notably in the Western Hemisphere with the development of a hospital in the Cayman Islands.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Before joining Aster, I became a Chartered Accountant from the ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland) and worked with Ernst & Young. I graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with distinction in Finance & Accounting and hold a degree in Global Leadership & Public Policy Change from Harvard University.

My philosophy in life is “Healthiness is Happiness.” I want to enable quality healthcare across the globe through treating people with compassion, precision and excellence. I am dedicated to the cause of women empowerment and mental health. I believe in the diversity of workforce, strength in differences and focused on improving the glass ceilings at work for women. I was instrumental in launching the Women in Leadership program at Aster DM Healthcare which empowers talented and capable female employees with training and growth opportunities, to shape them for leadership roles.

I am also an active philanthropist, being a trustee of Aster DM Foundation and involved in social welfare through Aster Volunteers program which bridges the gap between people who would like to help with those in need.

I am dedicated to ensuring that humanity leverages on advances in science as well as personal re-engineering of self, ranging from lifestyle choices to dealing with the external environment, to staying happy and healthy, both physically and mentally. I believe using technology can enable better health outcomes for population management through precision medicine, connected care and AI.

Outside of Aster, I am a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, I serve on the Board of YPO’s Dubai Chapter and I am also the founder and managing director of the Dubai Healthcare Business Group. Recently, I joined the board of directors for the Thought Leadership & Innovation Foundation, a not-for-profit organization based in the United States working at the nexus of science, technology and public health.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I am grateful for my father, Dr. Azad Moopen, who founded Aster DM Healthcare in 1987, with a small clinic and has grown Aster into a major healthcare company with 27 hospitals, 115 clinics and 223+ pharmacies that sees 20 million patients annually and growing.

I had a family support by way of mom, dad, husband and in laws who supported my every journey. But I had strong external support as well such as my executive coach and mentor as well as my YPO community that helped me always look with an outside in perspective.

To follow in my father’s footsteps, looking after people’s health and fulfilling my role in strengthening communities and contributing to humanity, was absolutely a natural choice.

While my father has been my mentor who has always guided me in the right direction and helped me grow as a leader that I am today, I am extremely thankful to our team of 21,000 passionate Asterians who have been passionately striving everyday to build the organization into a leading healthcare provider in countries that we currently operate.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?

Health and knowledge I truly believe are the biggest assets in one’s lives.

People work in healthcare who are keen to care, give back and show compassion through our darkest moments. I feel very proud of this organization of ours that thrives on making peoples’ lives better every single day.

Over the last 35 years, Aster has created a healthcare eco-system across two geographical regions. In the Gulf region, Aster’s primary care clinics act as the initial touchpoint in the patient journey, while pharmacies and hospitals continue the care. For complex tertiary and quaternary care, patients are referred to Aster Hospitals in India. Within Gulf country operations, clinic doctors can hone their surgical skills at Aster’s hospitals.

We have a caring mission with a global vision to serve the world with accessible and affordable quality healthcare. When nobility of purpose is powered by knowledge and technology, there are no limits. At Aster DM Healthcare, we strive for excellence, every moment, every day to bring great healthcare within reach for millions of people.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?

The COVID-19 pandemic was the biggest challenge in our history. In India, where the country’s entire healthcare system was confronted with challenges to supply oxygen and ventilators and set up field hospitals for the multitude of patients that struggled with COVID-19, I helped lead patients on the road to recovery and was responsible for a remarkable turnaround on behalf of patients at Aster’s hospitals. We launched field hospitals in major hotspots like New Delhi, Kerala and Bangalore in a matter of a few days and had 100 Aster doctors from GCC consult COVID-19 patients in India free of cost. As India braced for another possible surge in infections around its September-November festival season, I worked with our staff to ensure that our Aster Hospitals are prepared to respond proactively, adding beds and working to ensure ample supplies of essential resources are available.

I am also directly responsible for the integration of critical functions in the organization such as human resources, procurement and leading new digital health initiatives. As a result of the integration of these functions under my management, I was able to initiate efforts and execute a wide-ranging array of projects aimed at creating synergy between verticals and reducing cost expenditures across the group. This enabled me to grow the healthcare business into newer service verticals with added revenue streams like home care services, telehealth, labs & pharmacy.

While pivoting to digital health was a key priority for Aster, I accelerated this initiative with the onset of COVID-19 that led to conducting 100,000 consultations, onboarding of almost 800 doctors on the tele consult platform across five countries within the first eight months.

Meanwhile, I ensured that the core business of Aster DM Healthcare continued to grow amidst a significant drop in patient footfall, elective surgeries, and international patients.

Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through your challenges? What sustains your drive?

No, I have never considered giving up, rather the challenge pushed me to think of it as an opportunity and adapt quickly with the circumstances to be able to continue serving our patients as per their needs. COVID-19 challenged people to the core and as a healthcare provider Aster had to remain at the center of the epidemic and help humanity cope up with this crisis. Doing nothing was simply not an option for me or Aster at this critical time in our history.

My motivation came from reminding myself that we have had countless accomplishments before the pandemic and we could get through this challenge now. The fact that we had many accomplishments during the pandemic was a major motivator to keep going and finding new ways to assist people and keep Aster on solid ground. I also wasn’t afraid to ask for help from my father who motivated me and kept me accountable and reminding me why we were doing all these efforts. I also connected and worked with experts to ensure that we have the best strategic inputs, ideas and timely execution in place. As a team, we celebrated our successes, both large and small.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during challenging times?

A leader must set a positive tone, acknowledging that is a challenging time, framing the challenges as growth opportunities and displaying empathy. It is also essential to speak openly about maintaining and strengthening resilience as well as listening and understanding to as many people as possible to figure out what is within your control to address.

When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?

During uncertainty, the best way to boost morale is to show gratitude to your team’s efforts because this can increase their sense of wellbeing and ability to manage stress, while acknowledging that they are doing all they can possibly do in these circumstances. Besides work, people have their own personal challenges to handle, so it is key to recognize their efforts and be thankful for them.

A leader can inspire, motivate and engage their team by openly asking them what is and isn’t working for them and working together to find the best solution and help them work to the best of their abilities.

What is the best way to communicate difficult news to one’s team and customers?

I found the best way to communicate is in real-time using team and one-on-one meetings on a regular basis as a way for all to ask questions and raise concerns. It is best to be as transparent as possible and show that you are all in this together.

How can a leader make plans when the future is so unpredictable?

A leader needs to help the team set priorities and realize they can’t be on top of everything at once, while maintaining a collective, long-term view.

Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?

The key is to remain agile, open to adapting to new solutions and maintain a constant connect with the pulse of your customer needs.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make during difficult times? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

One of the most common mistakes is not to maintain transparency with your people during difficult times. This raises suspicions and makes people feel uncertain and fearful and over-communication can overwhelm them when they may be already feeling this way. For us at Aster, we ensured that our employees are constantly aware of the difficult times that our organization is going through and aligned with us on the larger purpose that we are trying to serve.

I mentioned earlier about the importance of having a collective, long-term view so thinking too short-term is another common mistake.

The other mistakes I have seen are lacking empathy and not saying thank you. At Aster, we heavily stress empathy and gratitude at all times because it is part of our organizational culture to treat people well.

Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?

I am directly responsible for the integration of critical functions in the organization such as human resources and procurement and leading new initiatives. As a result of the integration of these functions under my management, I was able to initiate efforts and execute a wide-ranging array of projects aimed at creating synergy between verticals and reducing cost expenditures across the group. This enabled me to grow the hospitals business to newer markets while also looking at added revenue streams like home care services, telehealth, labs & pharmacy.

While pivoting to digital health was a key priority for Aster, I accelerated this initiative with the onset of COVID-19 that led to conducting 100,000 consultations, onboarding of almost 800 doctors on the tele consult platform across five countries within eight months.

Meanwhile, I ensured that the core business of Aster DM Healthcare continued to grow amidst a significant drop in patient footfall, elective surgeries, and international patients.

Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to lead effectively during uncertain and turbulent times? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Stay agile, open to new ideas and solutions and connected with the pulse of what your customers need. During the pandemic, we were quick to identify that patients wanted to seek medical care in the comfort and safety of their homes. This helped us launch our telehealth and homecare verticals.
2. Develop coordinated, high-level plans, implement and evaluate. A good example is Dubai’s Covid Management Strategy and the Taskforce that effectively implemented the strategy to ensure Dubai is one of the first countries to emerge out of the shackles of the pandemic. Being a part of the Taskforce, I have witnessed a seamless management of the situation with precision and accuracy, led by the Visionary Rulers of the UAE themselves.
3. Include others on the leadership team at the table to concisely enumerate what the real issues are and eliminate the background noise. Demand and model high energy and low drama.
4. Be willing to actively ask others for help, including external paid consultants. We brought Senior Consultants from Bain on-board to further redefine our future strategy.
5. Maintaining a direct connect with our frontline staff who are responsible for serving our patients. At Aster we started regular frontline obsession sessions through which we directly get to hear from our staff on what their patients need and how we can support them in doing it better.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Challenge the status quo!

Never just assume that things have to remain a certain way because it’s been like that always.

Always be courageous to challenge and curious to learn more.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can learn more about Aster DM Healthcare and the work we are doing to improve healthcare access around the world at https://www.asterdmhealthcare.com/ and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!