CLINICAL PRECISION

Kavita Oberoi left a plum job to set up an IT services company to help doctors

Oberoi Consulting may not be a name that is too familiar in India. But in the UK, the company is well recognised as a provider of IT solutions to the healthcare industry. The company, which was launched in Derby in 2001, aims to treble its workforce this year.

For young entrepreneur and MD of the company Kavita Oberoi, leaving behind a successful career with Bayer Pharmaceuticals was a big challenge.

“I spent nine years working in the pharmaceuticals industry. During this time I was selling a statin for cholesterol lowering. The government produced guidelines, NSFs, on the management of CHD patients. The first step was the identification of the key patients for screening. Whilst selling to general practitioners, I soon realised that they did not have the skill sets in-house to interrogate and maximise the use of their clinical systems to identify key patients for screening. I then set about learning how to use the different software packages used by GP practices. I devised methods of extracting the information GPs needed from each of the packages to assist identifying key patients that would benefit from further screening. I won my first contract with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. They sponsored our services to assist their key customers with cholesterol management of patients,” says Oberoi.

Today, Oberoi Consulting provides services to more than 3000 GP practices across the UK, which is about 20% of the total. The company has seen a dramatic increase in turnover with impressive growth rates being maintained year on year.

When she left Bayer, Kavita was earning around £ 35,000 - £ 40,000 per annum with a company car and other expenses paid for. “I worked out how many days work I would need to do charging consultancy rates to bring home the same pay. This worked out to be around 3-4 days per month. I knew I could get that with the skillsets I had,” she says.

Having worked as a medical representative gave her deep insights and a strong knowledge about the pharmaceuticals industry. That, coupled with her strong IT background, was the cornerstone of her business model.

She had an early interest in computing. She wrote and developed a computer package for chemistry graduates during university, which was published. Not surprising that she is hands on and has developed business concepts herself. Oberoi’s IT solutions for the healthcare industry provide key value to clinical workers, and more importantly, to patients.

Oberoi, obviously, has to go the extra mile with her leadership role in the company. “Every moment that I have, is focused on driving more to achieve even more,” says Oberoi, who apart from being a hands-on entrepreneur is also a mother of two young children.

"Saturday is one day of the week that I devote to the children completely. On other days I fit things around being the best mother and wife I can be. Hobbies are taking a back seat at the moment but fitness training is high on the agenda, usually at 6 am in the morning before the day starts. Holidays when I can fit them in are only for 3-4 days at a time,” she says.

She is a second generation British Indian and her father went to the UK in the 1960s and set up a very successful bathrooms business from nothing. Her husband’s family too set up a very successful business in lighting, Oberoi Brothers Lighting, which is now run by her father-in-law Dayal and husband Deven.

Whilst she is not looking at either setting up shop in India or even outsourcing any IT services, she doesn’t rule out such a possibility in future. “I don’t travel to India as often as I would like to since holidays are limited when you are self-employed. My last trip was 13 years ago before my marriage,” she says.

As for the biggest challenge for Oberoi Consulting today, it’s not really a glass ceiling. “Getting staff with the right attributes is challenging enough in the UK, and the biggest barrier to our growth, but worldwide expansion would be fantastic,” says Oberoi, who has recently been nominated for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2005.