September 13, 2012: From being a neurosurgeon to being the CEO of Max Healthcare,Dr Ajay Bakshi has traversed many paths. He shared his thoughts on some of his choices with the ISB community at Mohali recently while speaking on “Leadership and Dreams.”

“Life is forward looking”, he said, on his decision to move on from the medical profession after having invested almost 12 years in it. “And it is also very important who your spouse is. You are always fighting with the world, with the system and with your future, you don’t want to fight with your wife as well!” he added in a lighter vein.

But his background in medicine did help him later in his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, when he had to advise the Bahrain government on setting up hospitals there. Dr Bakshi’s study was subsequently formally instituted in Bahrain’s constitution.
Talking about leadership, Dr Bakshi emphasised that it was not always about leading. “Sometimes being a follower is just as important”, he said. According to him, there are three kinds of leadership styles:
Representative leadership, which is a democratic representation of a common thought. He cited Bill Clinton as an example of “representative leadership.”
Leadership driven by dreams: “If you don’t have a dream, how will you pursue it?” However, just having a dream is not enough, it is important to be determined in the pursuit of the dream. Just as important are other qualities such as curiosity, openness and humility.
Leadership driven by luck: Through luck many opportunities will present themselves, it is important to be able to recognise the opportunities and avail of them.

In the question-answer session that followed his talk, Dr Bakshi spoke about the state of healthcare in India, which he felt lacked good managers. He added that he was keen to work with ISB to fulfill this need and help in the expansion of Max Healthcare.