Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Aravind Eye Care System: Giving the Most...

Manikutty, S, Vohr...

Case

Aravind Eye Care System: Giving the Most Precious Gift

Manikutty, S; Vohra, Neharika

IIMA-BP0299 | Published October 28, 2004 | 32 pages Case

Collection: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

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Learning Objectives

The case describes the vision of Dr. Venkataswamy, the founder of Aravind Eye Hospital at Madurai, Tamilnadu, and the history of its development of places the present activities of what has grown into an eye care system in the context of the eye problems in India especially blindness. The ability of the hospitals to perform free surgeries to the extend of 60% yet keep the prices highly affordable is highlighted, and the profane reasons embedded in the case. The structure and systems are described in detail. The case ends with the future directions and the actions needed to take the hospital further and fulfill Dr. V's vision of "total elimination of needless blindness in India".

The case is best used for bringing out how a mission statement can be operationally linked to strategy, structure, systems and culture of an organization to produce remarkable results. Thus ideally it should be used at the end of a strategy course to tie up various aspects of strategy formulation and implementation. The teaching objectives could be to appreciate how mission statements need not remain just on paper but can be effectively used to convey the purpose of the organization to all its members; To illustrate how a mission statement can be operationalized to develop a strategy; How the structure and systems can be made to align with the strategy; How the culture can be made to support the strategy, and how the organization needs to pave a combination of sound 'hardware' and 'software'; To appreciate the role of the founder and the key members of the management in building a sound system that can have a high degree of institutionalization.