Business strategy. Startup advisory. Healthcare expertise.
We help startups, doctors, clinics, nursing homes, and hospital groups with business planning, GTM strategy, financial modelling, and due diligence — founded by Ex-BCG, IIM Calcutta & AIIMS alumni.
Six core practice areas covering the full spectrum from strategy to execution.
Four practice areas where we go beyond general advisory. Hover or tap each card.
Northstar Consulting is a lean, expert-led advisory firm at the intersection of healthcare, business strategy, and growth. We don't just advise — we diagnose the real problem and deliver decisive moves.
Founded by an Ex-BCG Management Consultant, IIM Calcutta MBA, and AIIMS-trained physician, we bring a rare combination of clinical credibility and top-tier business consulting rigour that no generalist consulting firm can replicate.
We work directly with you — no junior relay, no lost context, no billing surprises. Every engagement starts with a written brief and ends with a deliverable, not just a presentation.
We've sat in the chair you're sitting in. That's what makes the difference.
Original analysis on healthcare strategy, business operations, and growth — written by our team. No external links.
After reviewing dozens of hospital transactions across India — from sub-100 bed nursing homes to 500+ bed tertiary care groups — one pattern is consistent: the risks that destroy deal returns rarely show up in the financial model.
In a typical Indian hospital, 3–5 senior consultants drive 50–70% of inpatient revenue. These doctors usually have no binding contracts, no non-compete clauses, and full freedom to walk across the road to a competitor. When a PE fund acquires the hospital, the assumption is that revenue is sticky. It often isn't.
What to look for: Request a consultant-wise IP revenue breakdown for the last 24 months. Map revenue concentration. If the top 3 doctors drive more than 50% of IP revenue, this requires specific mitigation — retention bonuses, partnership agreements, or equity stakes — before close.
A lapsed NABH certificate can cost 15–20% of cashless revenue overnight. Insurance panels can delist a facility within 30 days of accreditation expiry. We have seen transactions where this risk was identified only after signing, leading to significant revenue haircuts in year one.
What to check: Obtain the current NABH certificate, verify the expiry date, and request the last two assessment reports. Repeated non-compliances signal systemic governance issues, not one-off events.
The gap between reported revenue and actually collected cash can be 15–25% for scheme-heavy facilities. Government scheme billing is a significant source of revenue inflation in Indian hospital P&Ls.
What to verify: Request scheme-wise gross billing versus net collection for the last 24 months. A sudden spike in high-value procedure claims in the 12 months before sale should be investigated thoroughly.
Financial due diligence teams rarely have the clinical background to assess governance quality. Adverse event history, mortality review processes, infection control practices — these predict future regulatory and reputational risk. At Northstar Consulting, our clinical DD is led by a physician, not a generalist analyst reading a checklist.
I have built AOPs for hospitals ranging from 80-bed nursing homes to 1,200-bed tertiary care groups. The single most common failure mode: the plan was built top-down, departments received targets they didn't set, and by April the organisation had moved on to managing variances instead of executing the plan.
Finance sets a 20% growth target. That number gets distributed to departments. Department heads nod through the planning meeting and return to work. By Q2, variance explanations replace execution conversations. The problem is not the target — it's ownership. A target that a department head did not build is a target that department head does not own.
Our framework starts with department-level workshops. Each department head is asked: What is the maximum revenue your department can realistically generate? What are the top 3 operational constraints? What would you need to remove those constraints? The answers become the foundation of the AOP.
The plan is only as good as the review process. We build a monthly review template into every AOP — a one-page department scorecard with 5–7 KPIs, actual versus target, variance explanation, and the corrective action committed for next month.
The critical monthly metrics: bed occupancy by specialty, ALOS by specialty, OT utilisation, ARPOB, material cost as a percentage of revenue, and collection efficiency by payor segment. These seven numbers tell you almost everything about operational health.
We work with health-tech startups that have great products, strong clinical evidence, and enthusiastic pilot relationships — and still cannot convert a single pilot to a commercial contract. The pattern is almost always one of four problems.
The hospital CIO cannot deploy what the CMO does not want. Technology decisions require a clinical sponsor — a department head who believes in the product and advocates for it in the management committee. Fix: Identify and commit the clinical champion before approaching IT or procurement.
A free pilot with no conversion clause is simply free work. Fix: Structure every pilot with a written agreement: defined duration (90 days max), measurable success criteria agreed upfront, and a clear commercial pathway.
Per-scan and per-patient pricing makes sense to startups but hospital CFOs hate variable costs. Fix: Offer an annual subscription with a fixed monthly fee and defined usage cap — predictable, easy to budget.
Tier-1 hospitals are increasingly refusing to deploy AI/ML clinical tools without CDSCO SaMD status. Fix: Begin the CDSCO SaMD classification process now, even if pre-revenue. It takes 12–18 months and is a significant commercial differentiator.
No hidden fees. Scope agreed upfront. You pay for outcomes, not hours.
A 45-minute call — free, no commitment, no pitch. We tell you honestly whether we can help and how. If there's a fit, you get a written one-page proposal within 24 hours.