Page 33 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL5

Sudi Narasimhan, corporate director of marketing and business development at Bumrungrad International Hospital (BH) in Bangkok, spoke exclusively to Elite+ on the hospital’s long success, its reputation as one of the world’s best in tertiary care and what the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will mean for the hospital when it comes into being at the end of the year.What is your background and how did you come to work with Bumrungrad?I was born and raised in the US. I was trained as an engineer, with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia. I started my career as an aerospace engineer in the US, and worked in engineering, marketing and quality assurance roles, including as director of quality and continuous improvement for Ansell Healthcare, a global medical device manufacturer. I moved to Thailand in 2006, working as an operations director for SSL International, and was the CEO of Metalform Asia (Thailand), a maker of components in the hard disk drive industry.My experience is really in opera- tions, engineering, quality focus, sales and marketing. I look at things from a holistic standpoint, and put myself in the shoes of customers to understand the value to them of what the company provides. That’s basically what I’m here to do at Bumrungrad.Was it hard to switch from manufacturing to service?Whether you’re making something or offering a service, you still have a product. So in our service industry, the product is both the outcome and the patient experience. There are similar elements in what makes a company‘Of the nearly 1.1 million patients seen each year, more than half a million are international, coming from 190 countries’successful in manufacturing and services. Our industry has a lot of competition, especially in Thailand where there are many good hospitals. If we want to compete, we have to be the best.What makes Bumrungrad so respected here and internationally? Bumrungrad is very successful because it has never stopped innovating. There are strong and capable people in many areas, and all the teams work together to make thehospital effective.Our core competency is in a highlevel of tertiary care, with excellence in a wide range of specialities. The high quality and expertise of the doctors and nursing staff is thefoundation of our reputation. We have 1,200 doctors and 900 nurses to treat 1.1 million patients who come to us over the course of each year. Of course we have a very attractive campus with significant ongoing investments in innovation and technology but it is the doctors who make us who we are.Marketing wise, we touch every side of our customers – Thai, inter- national, expats – and digital market- ing touches all of them. We also have referral offices in key countries that work at targeting key customers.And how do you maintain the success?We are a leading tertiary care hospital, we have established andElite+ 31