“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu
The above quote, in its own way, gives us a vivid definition of what and how an ideal leader must be. It makes us comprehend that leadership does not always synchronize with authority. What sets leaders apart is their ability to be considerate, compassionate, cooperative, and all those aspects that brings out the best in themselves and their followers. The following article brings into spotlight, an individual who is an embodiment of these aspects.
Samuel Williams George, the CEO and Director of GESCO Healthcare, is a fervent leader who believes that the roles of a leader have evolved to much more than what a designation defines, and he implements this thought within his company.
Mr George has a comprehensive list of accomplishments and accolades to his name pertaining to his role as CEO. He spearheaded GESCO to make it the largest spinal implants manufacturer in the country. He initiated and successfully established the first Indian Spinal Implants manufacturing in the early 90s. He also Initiated the Trauma division with the Halifax Nail, making it the first US and Japanese patent approved orthopaedic implant in the country.
Additionally, Mr George led the Global Sales team at GESCO to initiate International and OEM business in over 20 countries. He has led the CDSCO audit to become India’s first Sterile implants manufacturer. Subsequently the company has successfully faced US FDA, CE and several CDSCO inspections and audits. Under his leadership, GESCO was awarded one of the Top 10 companies according to Prime View magazine and Insights Success magazines, twice consecutively (2017 and 2018).
Exhibiting True Quality
GESCO Healthcare is a 58-year-old organisation, incorporated, with a vision to Transforming Lives Every Day. The company is respected world-wide for the revolutionary contribution it continues to make in the critical field of manufacturing Neuro, Orthopaedic and Spinal implants plus an extensive array of high-quality Surgical instruments. Accreditations such as Indian FDA, ISO 13485, 9001, CE marking, US FDA, WHO-GMP are a testament of the quality of products that the company offers.
GESCO is the only Indian company in the Orthopaedic implants sector to have been awarded Patents by Japan and the U.S, besides, other countries. The accolades that the company has won are a consequence to the notably, remarkable infrastructure, and the attitude of the management to not only invest heavily in cutting-edge manufacturing technology, but also focus on Innovation and Research and Development, in the organisation.
Coming to GESCO’s research and development section, it is one of the finest and the best equipped in the industry as the company believes in being proactive to incorporate innovation and support evolution.
“At GESCO, we envision to worthily claim the position of being the pioneer of our industry, and, for this we ardently engage in making sumptuous investments for Research and Development. We constantly aspire for ground-breaking technological evolution of product and process. Living up-to our commitment to provide mankind with the best possible transformations, we meticulously choose to adopt, produce, and serve them with the latest and the best,” says the team at GESCO.
Surpassing Adversities
“There is no denial to the fact that, COVID-19 Pandemic and the lockdown, has had an elevated impact on the healthcare sector as compared to the other sectors,” says Mr. George, when asked about his opinion on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Talking about how GESCO tackled the challenges and limitations imposed by the pandemic, Mr George says, “The nature of work we are committed to, the kind of accountability we feel towards the society, and owing to the trust vested in us by our patrons, we could not stop, but continue. So, even when all kinds of movement, like that of staff or material, became extremely tough and restricted due to the unprecedented conditions, we were at work. Rather geared up, to extend our capacity and maximise our contribution to help the society overcome the unpleasant state of affairs.”
“We stretched our limits and paved ways to provide surgical instruments and other orthopaedic and spinal implant requisites for the patients whose treatment could not afford delay. Besides our regular line of commitment, gazing at the exponential need of COVID-19 safety kits, we initiated to manufacture Face shields and PPE kits. Along with, the financial help, we thought it wise to provide society with the vital necessity,” he adds.
GESCO, being a compassionate organisation, employee welfare has always been at the top of its priority list. Hence, while the pandemic forced out empathy and benevolence from the hearts of a lot of industrialists and businessmen, GESCO remained true to its fundamental essence.
The entire management team of GESCO, with its admirable promptness, came to action and took charge. With their astute prioritising of activities, proper chalking out of work-shifts, and apt distribution of work, among different departments and the related workforce, they could soon secure the reigns of the business, back into their safe hands.
However, amidst all the uproar, high alertness of prescribed norms, of social distancing, frequent usage of sanitizers, wearing of masks and face shields were being constantly and carefully observed. The company had also carried out regular COVID-19 testing. Safety of every single employee was placed first and given foremost importance.
Minimum employees were summoned to work with maximum measures of safety. Both individual and environmental sanitation was carried out at regular intervals. As a dutiful organisation GESCO even managed to design and roll out COVID-19 safety products to fill their paucity in the market and reduce chaos and panic being caused therefrom.
“It is, the result of the undeterred loyalty, immaculate coordination and cooperation between the management and the staff and the undiluted passion of all our employees, to serve humanity, that has made us sail through the crisis with minimum impediments,” says Mr George.
Bequeathing the Keys to Success
We asked Mr George what advice he would give to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the medical device manufacturing sector, to which he says, “It’s great to see so many start-ups these days run by fantastic Entrepreneurs. Some advices I would give to medical devices entrepreneurs are:
- Ensure that they focus on the product – ask the question, how will my product add value to the surgeon/patient? If it does not add better value than your competitor, then it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
- Market Understanding: It is important to have a good understanding of the market so that you choose the right product. Several times entrepreneurs enter into a very crowded market with the me-too product, without any clear understanding of the product or the market.
- Quality – It is also critical that the products can be manufactured with the best possible quality, consistently. Do not compromise on quality. This maybe a short-term gain but will hamper your growth in the long run. Always remember, that any medical device product is used to restore a patient’s health in some way or another – so be as honest as possible.
- Regulatory Compliances – Understand what regulatory compliance requirements your products may have.
- Focus on R&D – DO NOT stop innovating. If we don’t innovate, we don’t progress too far. We are living in an extremely competitive world. The world of Medical devices is no different. With so much of competition, it is critical that there is continual improvement on products.”
Envisioning a Bright Future
Talking about the future of the medical device manufacturing sector post the pandemic, and how GESCO is strategizing its future operations to align with that future, Mr George says, “the pandemic showed us how ill-equipped and untrained we were to handle a critical contingency. It has given a wakeup call to all, especially industry members like us, who are actively involved and directly related to the well-being of the society. Though we have sustained the crisis pretty decently, we could have been swifter and better, if the community on the whole was more prepared.”
“As for the future strategies, we are going to stick to our vision of Transforming lives every day. Though revised norms of employee-presence, rearranged work-shifts, redistribution of material and other resources etcetera, has been considerably accomplished. Designing and development of a strategic division, consisting of experts from different work processes, responsible to plan, organize and ensure free flow of work during any such contingency in future, is still in process.”
“It is too early to talk about the future changes that the manufacturing device sector might face post pandemic, but I can assure you, that, we at GESCO, remain determined to continue transforming the way that the world views healthcare, with a promise to present it with a novel perspective towards leading a healthier and a happier life, we are focused on our endeavour to revolutionise medical standards across the globe,” he adds.
As a step further into its commitment, GESCO has strategized to leverage the collective genius of medical community, to tap into the future potentialities for innovative solutions. And since, its objective is strengthened by precious contribution from the community, the progressive stakeholders, partners, employees, and users, the company will energetically continue to engage, along-with them to innovate, develop and provide, topmost quality, affordable solutions to its users worldwide.