In India, becoming a doctor is one of the ardent dreams of several students. Parents are ready to pay for elite universities. Coaching academies are a critical part of this medical fad. Not only do they guide students through insightful learning, but they also enhance their conceptual understanding for admission to prestigious institutes like AIIMS. DR. BHATIA MEDICAL COACHING INSTITUTE arrives on the scene as a cohesive force, guiding learners towards performance improvement. They foster a one-on-one learning model to enhance learning and development through increased self-awareness and a sense of personal responsibility, establishing a supervisor-learner rapport. With the industrious experience of our educationists, DBMCI has expanded its wings to every corner of India.
Dr. Nachiket Bhatia (CEO)
“It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar
This man has revived the business which was on the verge of closing. Dr. Nachiket shares how he has struggled hard to keep DBMCI alive and how he has ensured that business is not only about fulfilling his dreams and making money but helping several aspiring doctors to get successful.
Nachiket says, “Changing the world is a tall order for me, so I started to mend the paths of my own world first – DBMCI. Becoming a doctor was always in my books but life carved a different path for me. So, from the day that I stepped into this incredible venture created by my father, my driving force became to help the ambitions of every aspiring doctor in the world fly high.”
Recently we had a detailed interaction where we got to know more about DBMCI and Nachiket’s entrepreneurial journey.
How did the idea of business come out?
In a buoyant economic environment with ever-growing multiples, active management will always be required for private organizations to make a healthy and impressionable presence in the market. When my father established the seeds of DBMCI in 1996, it sparked an interest in entrepreneurship in me. And with time, DBMCI became a huge chartbuster on the educational front and enjoyed massive success till 2013 but when it started limping, I knew it was my turn to do active management to make sure our organization weather the storm and come out much stronger and bigger.
The past few years have seen an explosion of Edtech startups within the higher education space who are disrupting collegiate ecosystems. The occurrence of the pandemic made the necessary and remaining push to make digital education enter the Indian education sector space. E-Gurukul is the outcome of four laborious and institutional years that we put to help e-learning enter the domain of conventional education in medical studies. We aimed to build a strong competitive ecosystem based on the ideals of quality education, by using a well-thought-out strategy and scientific approach to develop competent professionals. Finally, the never-ending hustles brought us to open the doors of e-Gurukul.
How have you revived DBMCI from the verge of closure?
Being in business is a riveting roller coaster of emotions with tremendous highs and at times, difficult lows. So, when DBMCI was running low on its gas, I had to seek other alternatives that could maintain the remaining fortunes of DBMCI and complement the education coaching sector in India simultaneously. When the pandemic opened up avenues for digitization and innovative propulsion to glide through the pandemic, understanding the spread of e-learning in medical settings was the winning card for me. Then years of hard work, research and working side by side with digital revolutionary technology led us to the initiation of e-Gurukul. With e-Gurukul, DBMCI has successfully made online education its predominant model of education. That’s how a vision became our reality.
What are the tips to build a successful customer base?
Any edtech company essentially aims to score two aspects: learner achievements and the company’s success. Here at DBMCI, we strive to stay consistent with the market dynamism that’s why we are tenacious in process refinement and improvement, making R&D a critical element. India’s education sector is aggressive, forcing institutes to be innovative and competitive. Leveraging R&D enables DBMCI to explore new ideas and utilize resources to develop and redefine offerings to address critical problems most efficiently. Our quench of exploring new possibilities in the medical realm, the latest technologies, and medical advancements that can enhance the learning experience is what makes us stand ahead in the game. Simultaneously, that helps students in their studying and living their dreams.
What kind of work culture have you established within your organization?
As a new-age institute, DBMCI places a premium on innovation but prioritizes its employees above all. After all, their versatile knowledge and unwavering dedication keep our wheels in motion. Besides being subject matter experts, the team is creative enough to unfold new ideas to address complex topics. Some of their inherent qualities include social expertise, communication skills, professionalism, honesty, and integrity. This fosters confidence, reliability, teamwork, and self-awareness. And everyone is always learning and up for new challenges. Cutting it short, DBMCI prefers employees that can be an integral asset to the team. We provide a responsible environment to keep up people’s motivation and morale. That’s why we always try to create a very inclusive environment where ideas thrive and the future of thousands of aspiring doctors nourishes.
What motivates you most?
Seeing the young minds carving their path for becoming the new generation of holistic doctors and creating a better tomorrow for themselves. And going through the arduous journey of once reporting a 5 crore loss in 2018 to building a 77 cr profitable business by 2022, this is something that still motivates me and powers my vision to keep going on.
How do you balance your work and family?
As an entrepreneur, one of the hardest parts of my job is maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Earlier I often tend to get stuck in a place of thinking about work 24/7 and forget to come up for air. But the hustle culture of today quickly leads to burnout and even mental health issues if not addressed early on, that’s why in the early stage of my entrepreneurial journey I learned to create work boundaries for myself. I strictly work only in my working hours and if I am having trouble tearing myself away from work, I try scheduling my personal time with my family or a quick outing.
Being an entrepreneur and getting to work for yourself is an incredible experience, but balancing it with the right proportion is even more important, as this is the key to growing and managing a successful business.
What do you feel are your set of responsibilities and targets for the next 5 years?
Globally, there is a growing digital divide between rich and poor, urban and rural, developed and developing that threatens to undermine the incredible potential of technology advances. To bridge that distance has always been my priority and responsibility. Fortunately, the education industry is now moving towards a greater reliance on subscriptions and online classes and DBMCI is on the right side of the trend. When we came up with e-gurukul our primary basis was to improve the accessibility of education, especially for economically vulnerable students. And taking a step ahead in the same direction, so far, we take immense pride in helping more than 1000 financially challenged students with free classes and offering a scholarship worth more than 2 Cr for EWS students to empower them with education.
Fostering the idea of “Education for all”, the institute is also helping students who lost their parents in the pandemic by offering a 2.5 Cr Scholarship and free coaching classes to students who are affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Going forward, DBMCI has plans to introduce AR & VR in medical studies with upcoming editions of E-gurukul. We aim to leap further beyond and revamp the traditional brick-and-mortar coaching model. Through Edtech, DBMCI is also set to foray into new fields like nursing, NEET-UG, UPSC-CSE, etc. This will bolster market resiliency and nurture more talents from different walks of life.