Evolution of Love 2

LEADERSHIP WITH HEART

The unparalleled work done by the Bombay City Commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal to counter / minimize the lethal effects of the Pandemic in Mumbai, is stuff Legends are made of. Here is Mr. Shiv who was the ex CEO of PepsiCo India and now working for the Birla Group conveying his admiration and respect for Mumbai City Commissioner. I'm sure the sentiments expressed by him will evoke positive responses from all Indians....

Dear All

You know the pandemic is sweeping across the world and specifically in India. I have seen that whenever there is a crisis or challenge , people tend to externalize and give excuses vs managing what’s in their control. I want to give you the story of Iqbal Singh Chahal, The Bombay city commissioner who started his job on 8 th May 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Mumbai has no parallel, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai come close, crowded cities, breaking at the seams. Here are the lessons:

When he took over, his office was getting 15,000 phone calls a day. He broke Mumbai down into 24 wards, and each ward into 10 zones. Each ward was equipped with 10 doctors, 10 ambulances and a 30 line telephone center. He got a dashboard done for each ward, put doctors, ambulances in each ward. He calls this being decentralized and data driven.
Mumbai had 180 hospitals, of which 40 were government and 140 were private. He called all the CEOs of the private hospitals for a meeting and told them to handover 80 pc of the beds to him and 100 pc of ICUs to him. He told them that the new rate would be the government rate , i.e. Rs 4000 ( $ 56 per day). He asked them to ensure that their costly doctors were not charging more. Surprisingly, the private CEO hospital CEOs agreed , you know why? He told them that if Mumbai didn’t handle this covid crisis well, then their medical tourism business where Mumbai attracted people from across the world will drop dramatically because MUMBAI REPUTATION will drop. Think about the longer term and the larger picture is his lesson.
He then did something which was controversial. He decided that consumers would not get their test reports directly from the labs. Instead the report would come to his office and then that information would go by next morning 8 am to the ward where the consumer lived. The report would then go to the consumer with a doctor if the consumer tested positive. His reason for doing this – to avoid panic, consumers were panicking and going all over the city. This decision was challenged in the supreme court of India but Chahal convinced them that this is a better system. Lesson – challenge the norm and change things.
On 16 th April 2021, he had 168 patients who needed oxygen and would die if oxygen didn’t reach time in two hours. This was his darkest night. He them mobilized all the ambulances , got them oxygen , shifted all the 168 patients to a place and saved all 168 lives overnight. He looked at his oxygen requirement, worked with corporates, didn’t add more hospital beds but added oxygen facilities. He ensured that each of the 24 wards had access to their own oxygen. So an oxygen tanker could move to a local ward hospital in 20 minutes. Clarity on critical resources and the ability to mobilize this, break the problem down to the details.
He continuously worked with the chief minister, the special task force and his team. He realized he couldn’t do it alone and needed everyone to be aligned. Lesson – in a crisis, lean on your superiors, pick their brains and commitment early, keep listening to the experts and move ahead.
When Mumbai had the highest cases, all his batchmates were laughing at him. They told him ‘ you are one of a kind”. When asked what kept him going, he said the expert doctors told him, that this is the start, what Mumbai is seeing today, the rest of the country will get it in a few weeks. He took solace in their advice. Lesson – There are people who can tell you what the future looks like, listen to them. Don’t say I am doing everything, this is tough, you don’t understand my situation.
In wave 1 no one thought we needed oxygen, in wave 2 oxygen became important. So look at variables that will unfold in this crisis, new ones will come to the table. After wave 1, most cities dismantled their care facilities, Chahal didn’t do it because he said the experts told him that a second wave could come. He was prepared. Lesson – a crisis is never truly over till it is over. This covid crisis will be with us till at least Middle of 2022.
He calculated that he was spending Rs 200 Crores ($ 30 million) per month on running the 11 jumbo hospital facilities he put up. He went to the Chief Minister and said, this pandemic will not go away. Why don’t we float a global tender for vaccines. Since we are spending Rs 600 crores a quarter , it’s better to get the vaccines and vaccinate people , then we can save the money running these hospitals. The Chief Minister agreed, and Chahal floated a global tender, in which he specified the temperature , the cold storage etc. He recognized he had enough cold storage. Wonder of wonders, the central government agreed in 24 hours. Lesson – when you do what’s right for the company or society , people will change the rules to help.( In India, no state government can order vaccines!). Lesson – see how you can use the same resources better, don’t ask for more.
He recognized that vaccinating people is key. He has vaccinated 2100 people in the Mumbai high court through mobile vaccination, with a van standing outside the high court and vaccinating them. Mumbai has a 9 million population and he plans to go and vaccinate people direct to home, by getting vans parked in home localities and vaccinate them. He feels he can easily vaccinate 300,000 people a day and in 50 days, he will vaccinate all of Mumbai. That will be a miracle. Lesson – look at the challenge differently, and seek new answers.
Last learning, he was asked , what’s his one lesson from this – he said “ In a crisis, stay one step ahead, that way, covid cannot catch you”. Mumbai has started planning for children who could be impacted. Last week the Chief Minister held a zoom call with 625 pediatricians in Maharashtra who warned that children could be next in wave 3. They are developing a standard Operating Procedure to deal with this if it happens and they are circulating this to every doctor in urban and rural Maharashtra. Chahal recognizes that when children come to a hospital, their mothers need to come with them. So, he is converting 40 % of the jumbo facility beds into cubicles so that mother and child can have privacy in the hospital. Think ahead, plan and be ready. He told his team let’s prepare for the worst, if the worst doesn’t happen, that’s luck.

So, my colleagues, an individual can make a difference, he has to step ahead and take charge and not offer excuses. People will ridicule you when you do new things, but charting a new path is important in a crisis. What was Chahal’s mode of communication – whats app, he would redirect all message she received within 5 minutes to his person in the right ward. Be responsive, we are in a crisis. Technology of having dashboards and splitting Mumbai into 24 wards and each ward into 10 further dashboards helps because you can address the problem at a micro level and also provide resources at that level. Transparency is key, share everything and people will see the combined benefits.

I think Iqbal Singh Chahal will go down in history as someone who saved lives but more important saved the reputation of the IAS community and saved a city and its reputation. Each of us can emulate him in our own area using his lessons in this crisis. Every business is challenged in this crisis, handle it.

All the best

Feedback welcome