FREE INFINITE VISION: HOW ARAVIND BECAME THE WORLDS GREATEST BUSINESS CASE FOR COMPASSION PDF Pavithra K. Mehta,Suchitra Shenoy | 288 pages | 07 Nov 2011 | BERRETT-KOEHLER | 9781605099798 | English | San Francisco, United States become a more conscious instrument of your highest calling… | ONE TUSK He was the founder and former chairman of Aravind Eye Hospitals. He is best known for developing a high quality, high volume, low-cost service delivery model that has restored sight to millions of people. Since inception, Aravind Eye Care System a registered non-profit organisation has seen over 55 million patients, and performed over 6. Venkataswamy was permanently crippled by rheumatoid arthritis at age He trained as an ophthalmologist, and personally performed overeye surgeries. InVenkataswamy and partners of Aravind founded Aurolab, [6] an internationally certified manufacturing facility that brought the price of the intraocular lens down to one-tenth of international prices, making it affordable for developing countries. Born 1 October in Tamil Nadu, India, Govindappa Venkataswamy [10] was the eldest of five children in a farming family. He walked two kilometres to school each day and his early lessons were written in sand from the riverbed. The untimely deaths spurred his decision to become a doctor. Venkataswamy earned a bachelor of science in chemistry in from American College, Madurai. In he received his medical degree from Stanley Medical College in Madras, graduating second in his class. He was in medical school when his father died, leaving him the head of the family. After receiving his medical degree, Venkataswamy served as a physician with the Indian Army from to He was discharged after contracting a rare Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion of rheumatoid arthritis. He was years-old at the time. The condition permanently twisted his fingers out of shape, and left him bed-ridden for two years. He decided to train instead in Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion. He held these posts for 20 years. Inat a conference on rehabilitation for the blind, Venkataswamy met Sir John Wilsonfounder of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind later known as Sightsavers International. The latter had been blinded in childhood by an accident in his school chemistry lab. The two established a lifelong friendship. Venkataswamy then led Tamil Nadu's initiative to establish mobile eye camps that took sight-restoring services into rural India. He established a rehabilitation centre for the blind inand an Ophthalmic Assistants Training program in In his clinical work, Venkataswamy personally performed over one hundred thousand successful eye surgeries. With Wilson's support, Venkataswamy also started India's first residential nutrition rehabilitation centre in Madurai where children with potentially blinding Vitamin A deficiency received treatment, while their mothers were given training in how to grow and prepare nutritional meals. Venkataswamy pioneered mobile eye camps with the government, and later implemented this practice at Aravind. Teams of doctors and nurses from Aravind regularly visit rural villages where they conduct 'eye camps' that screen patients for vision impairments. Those requiring glasses receive them on site. Patients requiring surgery are brought back to an Aravind hospital, where they receive surgery, room and board, return transport and a follow up visit at no charge. Each year Aravind hosts over 2, camps, averaging 40 camps every week with community partners. Venkataswamy introduced a tiered pricing Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion at Aravind. There are no income assessments or eligibility criteria for free or subsidised treatment. Patients decide whether they would like to access Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion, subsidised or paid services. In practice, one patient who pays, subsidises the no-frills surgeries and pre- and post-operative care of two non-paying patients. Nurses, known within the Aravind system as Mid-Level Ophthalmic Personnel MLOPare trained extensively in discrete skills, and specialise in different areas of the hospital work flow, including administrative work, diagnostics, nursing and counseling. In the operating room each surgeon, is assisted by four MLOPs. With stream-lined processes, Aravind averages 2, surgeries per doctor per year compared to a national average of Since Harvard Business School has distributed more thancopies of 'In Service for Sight' their original case study on the Aravind model to the top twenty business schools in the United States. Nallakrishnan, R. Janaky, G. Srinivasan, G. Natchiar and their respective spouses, Meenakshi, R. Ramasamy, Lalitha S. Together, they formed the Govel Trust to manage the hospital, and defined Aravind's mission: To eliminate needless blindness by providing high quality and compassionate eye care affordable for all. Namperumalsamy's sister, P. Vijayalakshmi and her husband, M. Srinivasan also joined his work. In the initial years he and his team faced many financial difficulties. Venkataswamy is the founding member of Seva Foundation a US-based non-profit organisationthat partnered with Aravind in the early years by widening the organisation's access to the latest technology, and skilled volunteers. Seva continues to collaborate with Aravind in various aspects of eye care management, education, and research. Venkataswamy never married. He lived with his younger brother G. Today, over 35 members across three generations of Venkataswamy's family work at Aravind. Former President of India A. Abdul Kalam, a friend of his, wrote, "In the Aravind experience I see the path we need to take, a transformation of life into a powerful instrument of right action. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Govindappa Venkataswamy. MaduraiTamil Nadu, India. India: Harper Collins India. Retrieved 28 September Kasturi 1 April Ministry of Home Affairs. Archived from the original PDF on 10 May Retrieved 1 October Business Today. Archived from the original on 1 October The Hindu. Retrieved 29 September Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Illuminated Spirit. Harper Collins. India: Harper Collins. Retrieved 30 September Routledge Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies. USA: Berrett Koehler. India West. Harvard Business Review. Abdul Berrett Koehler. The Wall Street Journal. Archives of Ophthalmology. Blog Pyramid. The Asia Pacific Heart Journal. Recipients of Padma Shri in Medicine. Bir Bhan Bhatia V. Udupa R. Marthanda Varma Mary Verghese K. Dholakia M. Krishna Menon J. Jasbir Singh Bajaj P. Sethi K. Vardachari Thiruvengadam C. Goyal Vera Hingorani K. Mathur N. Antia M. Deo P. Rajagopalan M. Ahuja Sneh Bhargava K. The Power of Creative Constraints, by Pavithra Mehta & Suchitra Shenoy See what's new with book lending at the Internet Archive. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. You must live in your soul and face the universal consciousness. To see all as one. To have this vision and work with strength and wisdom all over the world. Perhaps the white-haired man with curiously gnarled fingers paused here for a moment before scrawling the next line. To give sight for all. The impossible rarely deterred Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy. As a young surgeon he watched a crippling disease permanently twist and freeze his lingers out Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion shape. Those fingers went on to perform more than adelicate, sight-restoring surgeries, but Dr. V, as he came to be known, Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion not stop there. In he founded Aravind, an obscure eye clinic operating out of a family home in Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the Worlds Greatest Business Case for Compassion India. He was fifty-eight years old. Aravind was his post-retirement project, created with no money, entrepreneurial experience, business plan, or safety net. What it did have was 1 1 beds - and an oversized mission. When intuitive goodness is pitted against unthinkable odds, it stirs the imagination and awakens possibility. At Aravind, if you cannot pay for surgery you do not have to. If you cannot reach their hospitals, they will come to you. At first glance it seems a venture too quixotic to be effective. But Dr. V integrated a heart of service and deep spiritual aspiration with the best practices of business. In this way, he forged a high volume, high quality and affordable approach to service delivery that put a serious dent in a problem of global proportions. Today, the Aravind Eye Care System is the largest and most productive blindness prevention organization on the planet. Each year it sees more than two and a half million patients and performs over a quarter of a million surgeries; the majority