A Booster Dose of Expertise, Insight and Advice
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When Savi first approached the team of mentors at NASSCOM for assistance and expertise, the management team thought that they could gain a few insights in clarifying their goals. But the mentorship program brought them far greater benefits and offered them more guidance than they could have hoped for. NASSCOM spoke to Veena Mahendru, President and Co-Founder, Savi, to find out how the company has been transformed by its experience.
The Savi Group was formed in 2004 to partner with the physician in navigating the complexities of the US healthcare system. From patient appointment, to billing, coding, credentialing, and preparing for EMR, SAVI supports the entire business cycle of a medical practice.
“When we became a member of NASSCOM in 2007, we looked at it as an expert body that would help us understand and leverage the trends of the KPO industry in India,” says Veena Mahendru, President and Co-Founder, Savi Group. Savi’s main objective with the NASSCOM mentorship program was to use the expertise offered by successful corporate leaders to help it develop its roadmap for the future and make a quantum leap into the big league. “It seems almost pretentious to see ourselves as a future giant,” states Mahendru wryly, “but even the Infosys’ and Wipro’s started somewhere and a program like this helps small and medium-sized companies realize their dreams to be a giant of the future.”
“Being a small business and having a small management team, each of us often wears many hats at different times,” points out Mahendru. “And often this means that tactical takes a higher priority over the strategic which is necessary to drive the business into higher elevations of success.”
In this context, the mentorship program offered Savi a forum to interact with successful business leaders and focus on its specific roadmap to growth. The challenges outlined by Savi group were few but critical. The company had in place systems and structures that it needed for its operations; the next step was to develop an effective line of leadership with an experienced Board of Directors and effective middle management. Savi was also looking at how to acquire and retain quality talent. Of great importance was also the development of a good sales and marketing organization: a go-to-market strategy, a sales strategy and a sales team. Savi was looking for advice and expertise on all these fronts.
In the first meeting with the mentors, the Savi team introduced the mentors to details of the business, both operational and financial. They then listed their strategic vision and growth goals, and detailed what obstacles they perceived to their continued growth. From this point on, the mentorship team got down to work in earnest, holding six meetings with Savi to set goals and create the necessary roadmap to growth.
At each meeting, Savi had to get back to the mentorship team on tasks that had been set in the previous meeting or recommendations that had been implemented. The Savi team also reported on progress on these fronts, or challenges faced. Through the efforts of the mentors, the management team of Savi was also introduced to other resources that helped them with their many “how to?” challenges and questions. Additionally, the company also enjoyed one on one time with the various mentors to further clarify and help drive it further towards its goals.
And all these efforts have paid off. “Through this process, we clearly defined the size of the market and our target customer base,” claims Mahendru. “We initially thought that we were targeting different customers for each product, but this process helped us gain insight and clarity – that each of our different products could be an entry point that would then allow us to cross-sell additional products.”
The team also succeeded in reviewing and streamlining their financials. Post the mentorship program, Savi has now set financial and productivity goals, and is currently working on plans to achieve these. Finally, the mentorship program helped Savi identify additional and alternative facilities that it could offer, by clarifying its current position and defining where it ideally wants to be.
“This is an un-paralleled opportunity because in the normal course a company of our size would not have an opportunity to have a conversation with this caliber of leadership, let alone having them focus on the “good”, the “bad” and the “ugly” of our business,” exclaims Mahendru. The team of mentors worked to provide insights and advice that helped Savi fine tune its roadmap, both tactically and strategically.
When asked to quantify the benefits of the program, Mahendru draws an interesting parallel. “Imagine going to an MBA program with the “who’s who” of business in your field teaching the class, and the curriculum customized to solving your business problems and growing your business. What would you pay for such a program?” she questions. “The value of the experience for us is immeasurable. We have grown as a leadership team and as a business, and will see the rewards in the future evolution of our business.”
Contributed by Kritika Srinivasan, Prayag Consulting for the NASSCOM EMERGE newsletter.
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