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By:

Bhalchandra Chorghade

11 August 2025 at 1:54:18 pm

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker,...

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker, mentor and philanthropist — Dr Samudra has balanced many roles with commitment. While she manages a busy medical practice, her deeper calling has always been service. For her, medicine is not merely a profession but a responsibility towards the people who depend on her guidance. Nagpur to Panvel Born and raised in Nagpur, Dr Samudra completed her medical education there before moving to Mumbai in search of better opportunities. The early years were challenging. With determination, she and her husband Girish Samudra, an entrepreneur involved in underwater pipeline projects, chose to build their life in Panvel. At a time when the town was still developing and healthcare awareness was limited, she decided to make it both her workplace and home. What began with modest resources gradually grew into a trusted medical practice built on long-standing relationships with patients. Fighting Diabetes Recognising the growing threat of diabetes, Dr Samudra dedicated her career to treating and educating patients about the disease. Over the years, she has registered nearly 30,000 patients from Panvel and nearby areas. Yet she believes treatment alone is not enough. “Diabetes is a lifelong disease. Medicines are important, but patient education is equally critical. If people understand the condition, they can manage it better and prevent complications,” she says. For more than 27 years, she has organised an Annual Patients’ Education Programme, offering diagnostic tests at concessional rates and sessions on lifestyle management. Family, Practice With her husband frequently travelling for business, much of the responsibility of raising their two children fell on Dr Samudra. Instead of expanding her practice aggressively, she kept it close to home and adjusted her OPD timings around her children’s schedules. “It was not easy,” she recalls, “but I wanted to fulfil my responsibilities as a mother while continuing to serve my patients.” Beyond Medicine Today, Dr Samudra also devotes time to social initiatives through the Bharat Vikas Parishad, where she serves as Regional Head. Her projects include  Plastic Mukta Vasundhara , which promotes reduced use of single-use plastic, and  Sainik Ho Tumchyasathi , an initiative that sends Diwali  faral  (snack hamper) to Indian soldiers posted at the borders. Last year alone, 15,000 boxes were sent to troops. Despite decades of service, she measures success not in wealth but in goodwill. “I may not have earned huge money,” she says, “but I have earned immense love and respect from my patients. That is something I will always be grateful for.”

Ownership or Just Queuing?

In the 2nd part of our ‘Let Go to Grow’ series, we explore how founders stall teams—not just by blocking autonomy but by creating a culture of invisible waiting.

A few months ago, I met a founder who said, half-jokingly, “I could leave for a week if I wanted to come back to a fire.”


Revenue was up, and clients were happy, but everything still needed her: approvals, nudges, celebrations, and corrections. Even after hiring senior managers, she was the backup plan for everything.


It did not look broken; it just looked busy, but it wasn’t ownership; it was queuing.


The Quiet Cost of Founder Proximity

In some teams, the founder is not a leader. They are the search bar, the spell check, and the emergency escalation path. While the team is not lazy or incapable, they are only optimised for the founder’s presence. And when you are always present - in Slack, on calls, in the wings - the team unconsciously starts deferring, just a little.


"Let me check with her." "He’ll want to review this." "Better wait before sending."


It looks like alignment; however, it is actually a slowdown loop.


Designed to Wait

At PPS, we call this the Queue Effect: when teams look productive, but no one moves until the founder signals. It is not dysfunction; it is by design.


If your systems do not have built-in check-ins, role clarity, and decision rules, people default to what is safe: waiting.


One founder we worked with ran a multi-location services business. Her team had tools, dashboards, and even a weekly ops huddle. But nothing moved until she reviewed it herself.


We did not add more meetings; we added rhythm:

• Mid-week check-ins where managers reviewed and resolved without her

• Clear escalation slots (not 11 PM WhatsApp dumps)

• Owner-tagged workflows that made the action visible


Within two weeks, decision lag dropped, and so did her weekend stress.

Everyone’s Busy, Yet No One’s Moving.


Founders often confuse busyness with motion. People on calls, Slack threads flying, deadlines on Notion.


But when escalation logic is fuzzy and SOPs live in someone’s head, teams start building habits around the founder. And like any queue, the longer it gets, the slower the system feels. The danger is not chaos but an invisible inertia.


Rahul wrote last week about override loops - how even one exception tells the team that the system is not final. Over time, those exceptions become expected. That is how queues form: not from poor tools, but from conditioned ambiguity.


It is a bit like a flickering traffic signal. When the light’s unclear, everyone slows down - even when they know the rules. Someone eventually steps in to wave people through. In most companies, that someone is the founder.


And unlike a traffic cop, you don’t even get the whistle - just three new Slack pings and a mystery calendar invite titled “Quick Sync?”. At least traffic cops get a vest and a bit of respect.


And it compounds every time a founder says, "Loop me in just in case."


We’ve seen this in businesses with the best tools and intentions. One SaaS founder told us, “We have Asana, Slack, and SOPs. But I still feel like a router - everything gets pinged through me.”


The team was not unskilled. They had simply learnt, over time, that no decision moved without his pulse check. It is a pattern we call structural dependency - when the founder’s silence stalls motion more than a missing process ever could.


If your team waits for you before moving, you have not built a team. You have built a queue.


Here is what helps break the queue loop:

• Document key roles and responsibilities so ownership is visible, not implied.

• Set decision windows that do not depend on the founder's presence.

• Define what “done” looks like for recurring tasks - so no one waits for a green light.

• Create standing check-ins where issues surface and are resolved without escalation.


Autonomy is not gifted; it is engineered.

Next week, Rahul digs deeper into delegation. What if you did not actually delegate? What if you just deferred responsibility - with your name still in the loop?


(The author is Co-founder at PPS Consulting and a business operations advisor. She helps businesses across sectors and geographies improve execution through global best practices. She could be reached at rashmi@ppsconsulting.biz)

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