Evolving Models – Will it help shift the cost base of Healthcare?

Couple of months back when the democratic and republican candidates were fighting over their turf, healthcare was one of the agenda on the boxing ring. Both the candidates proposed their plan for healthcare which was taken sides by people who find it favorable to them. Patient Protection and Accountable care act, publicly known as Obamacare, has been named aptly with addition of over 30 million people into insurance net and being protected from pre-existing condition as well. Accountable part is also interesting as it incentivises the healthcare provides to improve the quality of delivery and outcome upon which their reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid will be provided. On the other hand, Romney with his voucher system is shifting the mandate of providing healthcare from government to the private health insurance. This is as well a good decision as any government should provide the framework and should not be a sponsor. It should let competition decide on the premiums for insurance. But the imminent fear in the minds of people on the thought that the excess cost has to be taken care from out-of-pocket expenses has caused trouble.

The other complementary act in terms of HIPPA, HITech act and ICD-10 enabled the rapid adoption of IT systems though at a lower base. The establishment of HIE for exchange of information between providers about the patient at any of their clinics within an alliance or provider network has helped in getting first-hand information about the patient and avoiding repeated tests. Establishment of EHR is also the right step in this direction so that the patient will have the choice to move around his complete health history to any of his visiting physicians. The increasing collaboration between providers and payers is also witnessed with private insurers such as Aetna and Cigna taking lead on this direction. The focus of care management that eliminates repeated and unnecessary readmissions tats costing billions of dollars in hospitalization costs and bringing case management to the fore.

The problem with the existing setup is the dearth of primary care physicians and long time spent in processing insurance documents. This prevents physicians from paying enough attention to the patients. Increasing queue and lesser time spent with patients is also making the system unsustainable with the Obamacare act as the numbers of insured patients are going to rise. There are also evolving models such as “Concierge Medicine’ that might possibly address this condition to an extent. Please refer the link from Business week dated November 29^th 2012, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/is-concierge-medicine-the-future-of-health-care. The article also mentions how the fees paid by patients in advance is eliminating 80% of documents as they don’t have to fill in any insurance information. Also, these physicians were able to spend longer time with patients and also providing them with extended care in terms of visiting their home, talking over phone at any time, consulting through web and sending prescription to the nearby pharmacy. They are also charging a very lesser amount per month and the patients get increased attention and care from his physicians. The article sows seed in terms of having a two tier approach where essential primary care costs can be taken up by patients with the above mentioned low cost models and secondary care costs being borne by insurance players. This is interesting with the current premium levels are increasing and are bound to increase with wider risk pools on the addition of new people into individual mandate.

The private equity investors are investing in these low cost concierge models. This raises a question on the sustainability of the model as they focus on profit margins. They may also be the best people in the business who understand the ways to cut down on the costs of healthcare by having a lean operation across the value chain. Extending the thought on the similar lines, Is it possible for people to become investors as well as patients at this setup? They could possibly raise a collective investment fund that could support the fees to be paid to physicians. Government could step in with subsidies for the investments in equipments and other facilities. Physicians and surgeons should be provided with incentives to be part of this model. This brings a model that is self-sponsored by patients and supported by government with subsidies and increasing the focus of government on education to raise new set of doctors (which should be the primary objective instead of healthcare). 

The raising healthcare costs, supply and demand mismatch on the availability of physicians, cost of drugs and growing chronic conditions, it becomes important to find a fit on the healthcare delivery models to curb unnecessary costs and focus on preventive care. I am not sure which one will stand out before it becomes a big mess for the government to handle with complicated laws and regulations.

P.S. These are personal views and not an expert in this field.

Reality Makes Dreams Loftier

There was a huge applause and uproar after the great speech that inspired awe on the faces of every director and business heads present. The strategic meeting of the top retail company in South India was held at the top floor of the majestic Le Meridien, Chennai. The feeling after the emphatic speech was so high in the ever so tranquil mind of the Chief Executive. The eyes were brimming with glory on the thought of the direction which his company is set to march in the future. With superordinated ambitions and resplendent expansion plans, it was a feeling of the same as the Napoleon Bonaparte to conquer the world. Though unsure of the way his conquest of expanding business empire northwards, it was a coalesced thought. The imperial outlook in his mind and a glass of fine Italian wine, the view of the city at night was spectacular. As he was sipping wine with deep thought, there was a huge smack on the back. Still not recovering from the anguish caused by the hit, he was staring at the person who got guts to smack on a Chief executive of the company. Rubbing his eyes, Anbu saw the same scary face he frequents back at home. It was his father who was jolting him from sleep on reaching the destined place. He riposted with the same numbness on his face as every day at home.   

It was a fine Monday afternoon when results of one of the toughest entrance exams for b-schools had been announced. After heavy lunch, Anbu and Vasu were on their way back to office. It has been more than two years when Anbu and Vasu had befriended and got glued well like adhesive. Of course, the contrasting feature of reticent Anbu and expansive Vasu had made them as thick as thieves. Both of them had exhibited their brilliance at the work. They joined one of the biggest outsourcing companies in the country at the same time. It was January 7^th 2007, the first batch for the year when they had met. There had been a pernicious doubt in the mind of Anbu who has been from a mechanical field if he can fare well in the software industry. He had never learnt any programming language. The general phobic atmosphere over the strenuous training at the company has spread out far and wide. Vasu who was from Industrial Engineering background also exchanged the same thought except that he had some flair for the programming. As the days progressed in training, they felt that the programming is just a language to execute your analytical and logical mentation. At the end of the training period both had emerged as toppers of the batch and they had rewritten the rule that “Mechanical people fare better than the software guys with their inherent analytical thought”. The success made them more confident and they joined the same team working for one of the biggest US banks. It was after a year at the company, they starting thinking about doing further in their life. They felt that MBA would be a right choice to give a fillip to the career. Their plans were strong as the base of the Pyramid and the preparation has been as sluggish as a snail. Finally the exam date has arrived and the attempt was made with infallible belief to fail. The one hundred and twenty minutes of rigorous thinking at the exam hall made it clear that if it had been a five hour exam they would have cracked. The time had come to clear the hall. With heavy heart of tragic attempt and blaming on the innocuous time, both strolled to enjoy the moment with ice-cream. Now, they suddenly remembered about the announcement of the result from the yesterday’s newspaper on the way back from lunch. They opened the exam result site and keyed in their registration numbers. The four eyes were wide open with gaping mouth where a fly could pay a visit, kiss the tonsil and take its own time to fly back to the refreshing outer environment. The results had been exceedingly well except that it lost its fuel before reaching the final leg of the race. Both have scored above eighty percentile and Anbu’s score was close to ninety percentile. It was a mixed feeling on the eyes of Anbu. He had neither attended classes nor prepared intensively except for the intenseness was felt in the planning stage. The score was good enough to land in one of the top rung B-schools in the country. As Anbu had not expected any spectacular result on his standing-out attempt, he had not applied for any colleges prior to the exam.

Trichy is an historical town and supposedly considered as a venue for the capital of TamilNadu. Before narrowing down on the college, Anbu had done his preliminary research on the place as well as the college. Of course, not many options left. Basically, Anbu was juggling between the three choices. He was not sure of which one to choose. Mysore, being close to his heart considering the lady he liked works at Mysore. It was a very embarrassing situation when the lady turned down his liking for her. It was a death knell as the heart struggled for a moment having forgotten its function. Eyes gave a darkling glance and mind choked off at the incessant thought of her which has been shot dead in a minute. The thought that germinated deep inside had grown strong to be just weeded out. It was a painful ordeal and Anbu was keen to take sweet revenge. The revenge in becoming the boss to her, watching her work every day and keeping her at his sight, was the instant ideation. Trichy on the other hand was close to his home town and he can travel frequently. Also being in the home land with the local people is a wonderful thing to happen. Pune was bit of a distant option. Thanks to TamilNadu politics. At their fervent struggle, the national language has not been given the importance at the school levels. Neither did they succeed in promoting Tamil in any way except on those stages of self praise and immolation. Language might become a problem as Anbu had not known much of Hindi. But heard more about the beautiful chicks and rattling chill weather. This was drawing attention to the place. Eventually, Anbu decided on Trichy owing to financial reasons. Return on Investment is one term which no-one would ever forget when going for a big investment and this figure was very much favourable to Trichy. Having made up mind, the form was duly filled and sent to the institute. Wearing his lucky gray shirt, attended the interview and the group discussion held at the college. This was a batch which had nearly 30 people from different companies and places. Soon after the process, Anbu was confident that he had performed well and would be selected. As expected the result was in line and the time for joining the institution was short. Resignation was aptly submitted to the reporting manager and a copy was sent to the HR head. After the exit interview, it was time for celebration. A small party was thrown with close friends and managers were invited. Memories still etched up strongly, Anbu packed up the baggage. Getting down the train they marched to the exit gate. With heavy luggage for the hostel stay, both of them were using their mitochondrion power plants to pump up the cells and get some movement up the stairs to the gate.

The campus was quite far away from the station. The one brownie point about this college is that it has been started with industry collaboration and has been in existence for a longer period of time. Boarding a cab they reached the isolated and dilapidated structure within the industrial zone. The college has been surrounded by couple of heavy industries and large clusters of small and medium enterprises catering to these heavy industries. Though the facade is not impressive the administrative offices and the class rooms were given adequate window screening to cover up the old rubbles. After going around the campus and having met few administrative staff, Anbu returned to his so called dormitory where he is going to live for the next two years.

The hostel has once been the quarters for the employees of industries located near the college. As soon as the college has been established the quarters have been made available for the students. The rooms are little cramped for four members. The first day has been exciting with new room-mates around and new faces from different places. First tryst lasts long and that’s where Anbu saw two bright faces. In fact the faces were too bright to be seen in the dark moon. Arjun and Mithun had known each other when they attended the interview for the selection at the same venue. They were walking towards Anbu. After the habitué of introductions, they were talking some serious stuff. With one saying that I would want to be a financial analyst while the other saying that he wants to be a marketing expert. None of them did know that life takes you to different places. Life is one aspect where you can’t board with any destination. It throws you surprises and preparedness is important to take the stride with life.

With the antiquated bathrooms and rusty restrooms, it’s been a different way of life altogether for many of them. Being the first official day, Anbu woke up pretty early which has been a practise since his childhood. After crossing the first hurdle of taking bath in the dungeon, lit by a dull sodium lamp, Anbu dressed up in his favourite pale blue formal shirt with neatly pressed dark blue pant. The Mithun is a sleeping giant who is insusceptible to any noise at his sleep. The bulletproof jacket may sometimes fail and get pierced but not Mithun’s ear drum. It’s a real hard task in the morning to wake him up. Arjun is relatively active person who would wake up just 30 minutes before the session. Both got dressed in neat formals and nicely polished shoes that would glitter under the bright sunlight. Three went for breakfast. The food was better on initial days and familiarity breeds distaste which they felt after few days at hostel. After gulping down few idlis and a glass of coffee, three strode down to the college.

The orientation programme was attended by Director of B-School, Professors and a divisional head of a nearby heavy industry. As traditional goes, goes the long speech on the life at college, learning and host of other draggy stuff. Anbu is a guy who wants to experience learning whether its pain or a joy rather than to these discourses. Learning is effective when you do or see it on your own senses. Of course the learning’s of the past gives you direction but not the wisdom. After the eliteful internal rumbling with the mind, the time had come to glorify the speechers with hard hand clasping and thank them with bouquet. The schedule has already been drawn for the class room sessions. Luckily, Anbu, Mithun and Arjun were put in the same section at the college.

The initial days were more broad-based in terms of guidance on how the sessions will be in the forth coming days, syllabus, case study discussion, presentation and slew of other assignments. The syllabus is lot of theoretical names or looks like they haven’t changed in the last few years. Team formation is a big hurdle in the first few days with no-one knew the other much beyond their names and places. But then it’s all instantaneous and how well you could cope with new members in a team. Intellectual discussions rather happen few a times with most of the times just gossiping around. Anbu, Mithun and Arjun had formed their own with couple of others. Colleges in TamilNadu fare very badly in terms of statistics which is cherished by budding youngsters. The good looking chamakchalo s’ (girls are less) are far less than anticipated. Over the period of time, the situation has become like the dry broken arid land that ogles for water. Nevertheless, Life sculptures you to face any kind of situation.

The college has become a rendezvous for both the genders to fall for infatuation. The emotional blindness and for some complete blindness is seemingly common for anyone at the age of twenty plus. The much felt liberty had eluded for pervert activities. The late night discussions and assignments have sparked lot of fire in many of the hearts but the resultant effect is not wide spread owing to the inherent problem in the selection of candidates, the deficit of fairer sex. Anbu remembers a saying in Tamil, “Beauty and Intelligence doesn’t go together”. The semester exams were getting closer as do the people.

Deepak is a tall handsome fellow from candour and cryptic Chennai. Good looking has its own flaw of being trapped by some of the noble looking women on the street. The anticipated event happened when Deepak was being proposed by outwardly good looking Smitha. It was a beautiful day for Deepak as he liked her since the first day he saw her in the college. Both accepted their liking at the sight of proposal. The other attraction which Deepak exhibited at college is his flavour for learning. The romancing started when Smitha had some doubts on CAPM model in finance. Deepak being a fin-freak explained her in a simple and effective manner. The natural charm of Deepak had first sowed the seed on the other wet-heart of the lady.

Smitha invited Deepak to join her for lunch after the session. Smitha started the conversation on Finance which remained a favourite hunting ground for Deepak. Deepak never did realize that he was being hunted on his own turf capitalizing on the gentle weakness of man’s heart. The friendly chat commenced and sprouted broader and deeper on various subjects. They wanted to be on the same team for the class room assignments. Anbu being a close companion of Deepak had always teamed up with him.

Anbu had a strong conviction on the syllabus and the way the teaching has still been continued at B-Schools. The questions were not really thought provoking in nature. The questions were not eliciting the analytical and critical thinking rather testing the brain cells for their exact recital. Much of the class room sessions are still good old days of teaching style and restricted without inciting real thoughts and views on the subject. The strong feeling that one day, the difference should be made to the system has strongly penned in his mind. Surprisingly, He has made it in the top three in the ranking list in the first trimester exams. This set a precedent for a good impression among professors. Impression management is important to score good marks is never understood and luckily it fell in place for Anbu.

After a short holiday, the college reopened for its second trimester session. Every trimester is like a long test match between the students and professors. You never know who gets bowled out at the end of the trimester. Few professors get bowled by charming ladies while few on the intellectual level. Of course, for students the only way to get bowled is on the exam answer sheet. What runs in the minds of professor while correcting answer sheet is one of life’s greatest mysteries? The question paper is set for descriptive answers and enthusiastic students writing whole lot of good, sad, ugly, flimsy and serious stories of their life and others in the answer sheet, Anbu wondered about the grit exhibited by professors in skimming through these papers. Maybe the answers would likely take them back to their student days and a reminiscent of their thought, “I should never end up as a teacher”. Anyway Anbu appreciated the respect for the professionalism exhibited whether it is liked by students or not.

Extra-curricular activities have been life line for many away from those drab lectures and dire assignments. Formation of various committees including one for entertainment apart from the others such as placement, sports, IT and Mess is part of the college for over a decade. Anbu never wished to be part of this committee’s as he finds engaging with folks and making comments on the people and committees is real fun. David, Anbu, Arjun, Mithun and couple of other champs would while away most of their times on running commentary followed by huge laughter. It was real fun. Anbu prayed for the lovely times like this to stay forever in his life. Moreover, there will always be strong two people in any committee who are really committed to the cause and the rest are herd folks.

At this time, a new professor, Mr. Sekhar has been inducted into the teaching portfolio. The process would be conducted every now and then to fill the seats and boost teacher-student ratio. The handsome professor has been taken for handling Brand Management sessions. Can Brands last forever? Is it just a tactical black magic thrown in to minds to seize them? You never know. Ten-fifteen years back there were not much of players but today hundreds of dozens of sorcerers in the market. But MBA grads should know both sorcery and jargons. Of course, it’s the ad agency who quests for the insights to strike the gullible people with their commercials. How much harder and deeper you could hit, the ad is considered successful to that extent. Anbu gave a stroke on his head and stopped the above quizzing about brands in his mind. Brilliant is the thought at the end of wake-up as he considered to have mastered brands within a short slumber. Anyway as marketing is not his cup of tea he left the thought at that juncture never knowing that he would develop a strong association with brands.

He used to greet the brand professor on the way to class when he spots him. He learnt that he has been in the industry for more than a decade and orchestrated some of the successful launch of brands in retail industry. The food and baby products have been his turf in those several years of successful work. He left the vice president, marketing and sales at one of the largest retailer during his peak career. Sekhar had natural enchantment for teaching. His parents have been in the teaching profession and had a strong desire from his childhood. Having gained sufficiently quantum of money for retirement, Sekhar decided the time has come to quit from industry as soon as the request from Director of the college had come. He made his cameo every year for special guest lectures. Students liked the teaching and insights offered on his live experience on the field.

Trimesters came and flew away with no time for students to get grasp of things happening around them. Time is such a beautiful thing that teaches you past, present and the future. We were in the fifth trimester and it is the placement season. The expectations of students after doing an MBA and the ultimate salvation for any student is to end up in a good job with a good company. Never did I see many people end up as entrepreneurs straight out of college and neither did college encouraged much on this aspect. Students were all tensed up and going through the subjects which they missed during their trimesters for the interview process. Students have to be groomed with proper suits, glossy shoes and nicely shaved bright face. Though the thought of starting his own business venture was lingering in his mind, Anbu had to appear for the placement as he didn’t hit upon a great idea to delve upon. It was his first company and he went through comfortably. He was lucky to be involved in the discussion with the interview on few financial concepts. His close accomplices David, Arjun and Mithun also got placed on their desired designations of the visited companies.

Final trimester will be lot fun as most of the students have been placed. Never know how a sense of security will make you feel joy to the core. Few bunked classes as they were busy last night drinking strong barley drinks and other yeast variants. Other sincere people attended sessions with their classic style of taking down notes for no purpose. Final exam of the MBA was due and students would finish off soon by filling portions that would fetch them pass marks. Sometimes the questions would be ridiculous. Text-bookish. May be online content with questions that evokes thought process should be set up. Anyway, nothing of his concern, Anbu promptly finished the final paper and handed it over to the supervisor.

Everyone was happy on the final day as the biggest hurdle in the form of exams has been crossed. Time to say good-byes. Some have already packed their things for travel while others are planning to while away their time in the campus for couple of days expressing their deepest love for the place. It was quite different the feeling that evokes strong waves deep inside on looking at the campus, half-empty with no noise. Anbu wondered how he is going to adjust for initial few days away from close friends (David, Arjun and Mithun) and the lovely campus. The question of how the warden and professors are able to cope up with batches passing every year and staying back home for couple of months on vacation? Probably, they become old and they become that place.

Having enjoyed two months at home on long vacation post the MBA degree, an intimation letter from the company visited his home one fine morning. Anbu quickly grabbed the letter and read through the reams of paper. He got to know that he has to join the company within two weeks. It was an ambivalent feeling between the worlds of freedom to the worlds of responsibility. It’s call for shopping to fit in certain apparels and cosmetics for the job. Stuffed everything with couple of suitcases, Anbu is all set to travel to Hyderabad for his new job on offer. He greeted everyone back at home with a smile and heavy heart within as he embarked his journey on a train. Anbu could sense the emotions running between him and his mother. Both know it and both hid it from each other.

In his entire train journey, mind has been oscillating between the thoughts of his college days and difficult days ahead. As the train reached its destiny, the new journey of his life has been waiting at Hyderabad. Caught up with a taxi, Anbu reached his friends place. Stayed there for couple of days and went to office. On his first day, He knows that it will be some form of induction program as usual. Anbu enjoyed couple of days with new joiners alongside his lunch and at the conference room. Then they were spread out and asked to join different teams. Anbu worked for one of the research companies that entails on strategy and market information.

Job was interesting in the initial years and turned into monotonous as years passed by. Roles and responsibility has been rising with his recognition among people in the organization. He has been a top performer all his time at the organization. Five years went away but the satisfaction from the job has been waning away as the waxing candle lit by fire. He doesn’t want to miss the spark before he is completely dried up of his energy. The thought of business venture has been in his mind for very long time and started to take stronghold in his mind.

Marriage happened with sweet lady of his liking. Years have been pleasant with her on his side. She has been a good support since the marriage. They enjoyed their life with frequent outings and road trips to nearby holiday sites. As Anbu likes blogging, this has provided an alternate attraction away from his job. He used to write about the different places they travelled, good things about the places and the residents of the place. This has taken two years of his time.

One thing that appears very vivid in his thought is the path that is set out. The question on the business venture or something micro-business to start with, has been bothering his mind. He has mulling this thought for a while and finally decided that he is gonna do organic farming. Having bought ten acres of land in Tamilnadu with bountiful of water resources close by, he has given this thought a deeper look. Discussed with his wife and parents about this, Anbu finally offered his dream offer letter back to the company. He remembers that “Action speak louder than words” at this juncture and packed his residence back to the village.

Initial days to adjust with slow village life have been difficult. Nevertheless, father having worked initially as farmer before turning into business man came handy. He offered sane advice on farming and helped in establishing the farm area for organic farming. Anbu started using the MBA technique on “Systematic Investments and Planning”. He started devising harvesting and planting of crops as well as plantations with an idea on regular income. Started with cows for his daily income as the co-operatives used to buy and pay them on weekly basis. This is quick cash and also planted vegetables on half acre for household consumption. Planted tree sapling such as teak, rosewood, pine all across the fences in his ten acres and also within the farming areas close to the water banks that would fetch him income after 3, 5 and 10 years. This is for long term income. Also coconut trees and arecanut plantation has been carried on five acres. This gives him annual income. Meanwhile on the other four acres were used for experimenting with organic farming of rice varieties and sugarcane.

Organic farming on the first year itself has resulted in increase in yield by about 5 to 10%. As years went on, the yield has increased by more than half and profit has increased as the money spent on artificial fertilizers and pesticides has been curbed. Meanwhile, there has been a different stroke happening on the milk business. It has become much more profitable with increase in number of cows as a result of breeding and populating activities. The milk prices also on the rise as the demand kept on increasing with urban consumption climbing manifold. That is when Anbu heard about certain government schemes that offered 50% subsidy on milk equipments. Anbu invested about crore rupees on the milk production and packaging activities with other one crore came in the form of subsidies.  Investment amount has been raised from his savings and loans from co-operative banks. The competition during the period was very low with milkmen delivering it to houses in towns.

The milk packets were produced with the name “Komadha”, meaning cow. It was circulated in the southern parts of the state on the initial days. Some big margin has to be allotted for the retail outlets for stocking his brands and slowly business started making some profits. The cash has been ploughed back into the business in terms of immunizing cattle against diseases, milk testing centers, cold storage units and automation of processes. Milk has been procured from about 1000 cattle in his 100 acre plot and about 3000 households with 5 to 10 cattle. The supply chain has been studied extensively to save on transportation and other freight charges.

The idea of further value addition sparked on his mind. Why don’t we make curd, lassie, buttermilk, yogurt, milk powder and milk items under the same name? This is the time the unit has been further extended by another 50 acres with separate units for each of the items. Company has followed quality techniques and was awarded certification in his fourth year of operation. The management team also was expanded with couple of friends from college taking important positions in marketing and finance functions. Company started spending extensively on marketing campaign and providing better margins to its retailers. After 8 years of its business, Komadha became a household brand in the TamilNadu. The path has been totally difficult with plenty of time, effort and money has been spent on the business. There were plenty of hiccups in terms of milk quality, low marketing spend on products and cattle diseases in this long journey. It took tremendous amount of courage and will to get back to business with further initiatives to improve and fix on the falling items with long term solution. This was the time the professor on “Brand Management” at his college came to his help. He has been mentoring on establishing brand in the minds of people with good marketing and advertising gimmicks. He also advised on the importance of quality standards, packaging and display of information.

As he was addressing the new management which has been destined with tasks for further expansion, Anbu remembered his dreams when he was going to college and how reality could make your dreams loftier only when we have persistence and passion you could accomplish it. He started enjoying his time with villagers sponsoring for plenty of initiatives such as schools, colleges, and scholarships, cattle financing, helping SHGS and establishing deep rapport with the villagers. Blogging became his favourite activity capturing every day events that brings positive effects on the villagers were updated frequently on the company’s website. It didn’t stop with one village and it has been spread across several districts in TamilNadu. Word of mouth spread far and wide. Milk being a commodity business, differentiating it in terms of value addition such as enhanced nutrients is vital along with the word of mouth of CSR activities.

With increasing competition and established players in several states, it has become a bigger challenge for the company today than it was. The management also expressed concerns on expansion plans in nearby states. Though the company has established in terms of supply chain and distribution facilities, the further scope for expansion in terms of white space opportunities is limited. Economies of scope have been exploited well enough with the economies of scale. The bigger diary giants also have entered India with their own brands. The time may right for selling of the business and continue to focus on farming having acquired several acres of lands over years along with villagers on various development initiatives.

One fine day, on a friendly talk with his mentor and professor, Anbu mentions his plan to sell off the business and enter into restaurant chain business. Anbu informs his professor that you had been a mentor and you will remain so. The world has become so frenetic that people doesn’t find time to share things, wellness and grief. The path in front of him is becoming clearer day by day. It doesn’t make a difference if we have or have-not in terms of wealth, people and happiness. Eventually the life gradient is more skewed towards lonelier as years pass by...

P.S. Many of the specifics of the business is missing which is understandable. Only hope is to fill the specifics with actuals at some point in my life.