Health is not valued till sickness comes. What if we all start focusing on wellness, even when there was no disorder diagnosed, it will be amazing right? To enjoy the glow of good health one needs to persistently make efforts in that direction. In a freewheeling interview with, Ratheesh Nair, Founder & CEO, Watch Your Health.com India Private Limited, an enterprise providing Enterprise-level Engagement and Health Based Rewards in the health domain. Let us read the full interview highlighting his inspiring journey
Overview of the company
The company is India’s primogenital HealthTech enterprise that drives persistency through health based rewards. They work closely with B2B partners on shared value programs to actively engage and create a business using Enterprise-level Engagement Programs, predominantly focusing on health. A phygital solution is provided for customers to build their fitness and wellness journey, motivating them through rewards to cultivate long-lasting healthy habits. The radically distinctive technology and hi-tech digital platform enable their customers to devotedly engage the clients. With their expertise in that field, the company manoeuvres their client’s customers in reaching their respective health-related goals. Both technical, as well as manual interventions, provide a holistic and one-stop solution for clients. The whole essence is to engage customers with the corporate brand by granting them rewards so that they are grossly hooked with the brand, eventually pushing their business growth.
The inception of the company
The story starts in the year 2015 when three founding members, Jay Patel (CFO), Prachi Sheth (Strategy and Research) and Ratheesh got together with this novel idea in the space of health-driven by innovative technologies. The epic journey was started with the sole purpose of dedicatedly transforming lives through unique health and wellness drives. Year after year, they have flourished in the InsurTech and HealthTech domains with utmost sincerity.
Walking the road of an entrepreneur
The very quest and pursuit to adopt the latest technologies was the cornerstone of the current business model they are in today. Throughout Ratheesh’s professional career, he witnessed that corporate clients were never connected with their customers. He could perceive a huge gap in the customer retention aspect and this is what triggered him to take the bold step of making the corporate understand importance of engagement and rewards in retention. In 2015, a lot of Fintech players ventured into their businesses in India, whereas there was no such push in the health segment. He quickly identified the scope for new technology to be instilled in the health domain. He further believed that there was a need to push people to focus on wellness, even when there was no disorder diagnosed. His extensive experience in online consumer behaviour helped him courageously adopt the shift to the online business model. His passion led to successfully curating some intuitive products. During the Covid phase, people realized the importance of health and wellness which gave a big boost to the platform.
Lessons learned from the challenges faced
For Ratheesh, keeping abreast with the latest technology and working on various ways to interface with their solutions was probably the most challenging part. But this allowed the team to grind day in and day out and think of out-of-the-box solutions. Crossing all the imaginative prowess to curate innovative solutions allowed them to set the new benchmark.
The life of an entrepreneur
Ratheesh believes that entrepreneurs are innovators. He says that while turning the pages of history one will find that new technologies were once just an idea but some amazing entrepreneurs have bought life into them. All these aspects have struck his chords deeply. Although as one moves forward, one faces all kinds of challenges that were never encountered before. The stakes get higher but also wants to assure that cometh the hour and you will be able to rise to the occasion. A strong team is required where people can learn and learn from. In the most difficult of times, focus on the great things that success can offer and allow yourself to celebrate the success you experience.
Values and Ethics play a vital role
One ethic that Ratheesh follows is to be responsible, which he believes is something that cannot be forced upon you. Rather one’s approach makes them responsible for the assigned job. To him, if one is to be responsible, he has to see his organization’s success or failure as much as their ones. He adds that one must pledge before any action to commit themselves to a specific result, irrespective of external factors coming along the way.
The perception of success and building habits
Passion, freedom and impact have been the drivers that determine success for Ratheesh. Sheer passion provides a special view of the world that others might not see. Questions like, what is your true passion, what makes you excited are needed to be asked. From the point of view of Ratheesh, passion will create a difference. Freedom will allow one to spend time and money at their convenience. Lastly, the impact should be at the core of the business that is reflected in the business of Watch Your Health.com. All these three key elements work hand-in-hand. Hence the best way is to identify the passion, understand the meaning of freedom and ask oneself what kind of impact they can bring to the business.
Motivation strategies and the working culture
Creating an open environment is key where people feel engaged. The right connection between the team’s objectives and organizational goals is highly imperative. Mini milestones rather than big achievements are what keeps employees motivated each day. As a leader, Ratheesh ensures that employees lead with their ideas and nurture a culture of problem-solving. An ideal work culture with open communication channels is created where people work in teams and valuable contributions are recognized.
The traits of an ideal candidate
Ratheesh speaks about each job requiring a unique set of skills. For their business, integrity, work ethic, communicativeness, technical competence, determination, loyalty and adaptability are the key traits. Being a start-up enterprise, the primary objective is to attract candidates who are wily, tireless and problem solvers.
Milestones and achievements
The company has overwhelmingly managed to improve the persistency ratio of clients by a staggering 20% improving the engagement ratio from 0.83% to 22%. The impact is an increase in the sum insured by the clients witnessed a monumental rise from -4% to 79%. Moreover, they managed to bring down the claim ratio of the clients by 10%, which if converted in numbers, comes to a few tens of crore rupees.
Company’s prospects
They wish to be regarded as the biggest ‘Reward-based Health Platform’ in India and also diversify into the pharma sector. They also wish to replicate this model in all possible sectors with a deeply driven ambition to carry the success to international shores.
Ratheesh says, “Always remember WHY you started. Your answer to it will automatically make things fall in place”
