Where there’s a will, there’s a way: My journey setting up a Covid ward in India

Where there’s a will, there’s a way: My journey setting up a Covid ward in India

4 August, 2021

Contributed by Saravanakumar Periyasamy of EO Oman, director of Zawawi Powertech Engineering. In 2019, he became the director of Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai, India.

My journey begins

In 2019, I was sent to Chennai, India, as part of the team assigned to turn around a once prominent, now ailing, hospital brand in South India. Personally, transitioning from the oil, gas and energy industry to the healthcare realm alone was a significant adjustment. And then, in early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck before I had fully acclimated to my new environment.

The magnitude of the pandemic, both globally and personally, was unprecedented and beyond any scale of imagination. There wasn’t one economy or region that was immune to the ravages of Covid-19.

While most citizens were advised to remain indoors to tame the virus spread, some of us―the frontline workers―had to answer the call of duty. And though I had not worked in the healthcare industry before, suddenly, I was a frontline worker in an essential job who had to show up in person to work.

The first wave

Although the first wave of Covid was daunting, we would eventually learn it was mild compared with the gravity of the second wave. As the second wave hit, something inside me said, now that my family had invested in the healthcare industry, not playing our part in the pandemic wasn’t right (in terms of not having a designated Covid ward in our hospital to help to save lives).

One year into the crisis, people had grown complacent and adopted a lethargic attitude―which gave birth to the second wave. By the time the second wave hit, the healthcare system was overstretched and overwhelmed.

Our hospital, Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai, has a single specialty―cardiac care. Therefore, we didn’t have a designated ward where we could treat Covid patients. As a non-medical professional, I lacked many of the necessary skillsets to set one up. Even so, I resolved to make my contribution to the crisis by setting up Frontier Lifeline Hospital’s new Covid ward and ensuring its smooth operations.

Categories: Crisis Entrepreneurial Journey Make a Mark

Tags: EO Chennai eo community EO India EO Oman Frontier Lifeline Hospital frontline worker

5 Signs you (or a CEO you know) may need mental health help

30 July, 2021

Contributed to EO by Shawn Johal, an EO member and former chapter president in Montreal, and Julia Pimsleur, a scaling coach, mindset expert, and best-selling author. Johal and Pimsleur also contributed 3 Ways to Strengthen Your Mental Health and Happiness Right Now.

Many entrepreneurs are now experiencing a second wave of Covid-fueled anxiety and depression as we realize that we’re no longer in survival mode. After being in fight or flight mode for 18 months or more, we now have to make it all work again―often with a smaller financial cushion due to hemorrhaging cash during the pandemic, a new sense of fear that this could happen again, and many employees not wanting to return to the office or dealing with pandemic fallout themselves.

If you don’t take care of your mindset, your body will send you a stern memo in the form of headaches, backaches, an upset stomach or worse. One of Shawn’s clients is Reza (not his real name), the CEO of a fast-growing distribution company in a wildly competitive space. He worked crazy long hours for over eight years, often missing important family events and skimping on sleep and healthy eating. He didn’t try to have any type of work-life balance, as he felt that he needed to “lead by example” and outwork his team each day.

When the pandemic hit, Reza’s sales came to a screeching halt. He began to seriously panic when he realized he had a team of 40 to support. This was before any government support was offered. Unwilling to show any sign of weakness or share his feelings with his team or even his wife, he buried his darkest thoughts. He became short-tempered and super impatient with his team and at home, and started saying he wished he could just “walk away.” He was exhibiting classic signs of depression but did not want to seek help or dial back his long hours.

Around that time, Reza began to feel a constant pain behind one of his ears. He thought it might be a bad headache or a migraine but after a week it was getting worse. When doctors ran a brain scan, they found an acorn-sized tumor behind his left ear. Thankfully it wasn’t cancerous, but it needed to be dealt with immediately. The doctor said the tumor was due to stress and anxiety, explaining he needed to immediately change his lifestyle in order to heal.

Categories: HEALTH members PEOPLE/STAFF WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION

Tags: EO Canada EO Montreal julia pimsleur Shawn Johal

4 Lessons learned from building a sustainable business model

23 July, 2021

EO is an avid supporter of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)―17 goals and 169 targets to eradicate poverty, reverse inequality and halt climate change by 2030. Entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to transform our world. EO has a framework for sustainability and how it will become net positive by 2030.

James Keirstead, an EO Edmonton member, is a former EO External Relations Sub-committee chair. He is also the president and CEO of Levven Electronics Ltd, a company that makes home ownership more sustainable and affordable. James shared his journey around establishing a viable, sustainable business:

As a Canadian born in the late 1960s, I grew up in the land of abundance. I was fortunate to land in an industry that was taking off at the beginning of my career, and I’ve learned a lot about manufacturing. Looking back, I would say that, growing up in Canada and manufacturing a product―hot tubs―that represents the height of consumption, I never truly considered the impact of our company on the world. Hydrotherapy benefitted people with disabilities, physical challenges and those who needed to relax, and that was enough for me.

When I left the hot tub industry to pursue a new manufacturing venture in electronics, global climate and waste issues inspired my thoughts around pursuing a path that would contribute to reducing carbon footprint while being a viable, sustainable business. We had developed considerable intellectual property in connecting spas to the internet before it was coined the Internet of Things (IoT). While doing so, we had researched the residential construction industry because home automation was gaining momentum and represented a much greater market.

To develop a business model that would meet my goals of reducing climate change (SDG No. 13) while building sustainable cities and communities (SDG No. 11) is no easy task. We chose an industry that had not significantly changed the way it wired a home in the last 100 years, nor were builders and tradespeople very interested in changing their proven process. The even bigger issue to making home automation ubiquitous is cost: Since 2000, the cost of homes has outpaced household income in all but the years 2007–2012. So, home affordability is a real issue that is top of mind of every production builder in North America.

Categories: Entrepreneurial Journey Inspirational Legacy Make a Mark

Tags: EO Canada eo edmonton James Keirstead Levven Electronics Sustainable Development Goals UN SDGs

GSEA Studentpreneur Camilo Salinas: Entrepreneur first, business after

14 July, 2021

At EO, we’re committed to helping entrepreneurs at every stage achieve their full potential. One way we encourage and support young entrepreneurs is through the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), EO’s premier competition for college and university students who own and operate a business. The competition culminates with the Global Finals―held virtually this year―where “studentpreneurs” from 38 countries competed and connected with both seasoned entrepreneurs and their fellow competitors. Camilo Salinas of Colombia, founder of Residia, was awarded the 2021 GSEA third-place prize of US$5,000. We asked Camilo about his entrepreneurial journey. Here’s what he shared:

Describe your company.

Residia is a community management platform for residential complexes and condominiums. It’s a multiplatform application with over 15 functionalities to facilitate internal processes and ensure effective communication in residential communities.

What inspired you to start your business?

My dad was the main inspiration. Residia’s objective of bringing neighbors together and helping ease the management of gated communities came to my mind while watching my dad struggling with the management of his own residential complex.

Were there specific factors or events in your childhood that inspired you toward entrepreneurship?

Yes. Since I was little, I was always looking to build things. For much of my life, I believed that I should’ve studied architecture or civil engineering―literally building things! But then I came across the video game Minecraft where, from nothing more than my tenacious passion, I built my first venture: a Minecraft community that I converted into a business. That experience taught me that I could build things in other ways, so that’s how I came to study Computer Science.

During my last year of school, I took a class called “Business,” where each student proposed a business idea and created a business plan around it. It was one of the only practical classes that I took in school, and I found what I learned to be eye-opening.

Categories: Entrepreneurial Journey GSEA Interview STARTUP

Tags: Camilo Salinas EO Bogota EO Colombia gsea GSEA Bogota pitch competition Residia startup studentpreneur

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