By Ainul Rofidza Ibrahim
IN my 21-year stint in the corporate world, I have the privilege of meeting amazing entrepreneurs.
They seemed like superheroes to me – fearlessly embracing the unknown, charting their own paths for something they believe in. The size and type of business doesn’t matter- whether I met them in Kuala Lumpur, Keningau, Mukah or Bario, the commitment to pursue their whys remains strong.
They make real impact to the society – providing jobs and opportunities for their community and some develop new technologies that can make real differences to people’s lives and more.
These people have inspired me to become an entrepreneur myself which brings to life Data8.
Data8 is a tech start-up focusing on healthcare solutions. As part of managing the risks of the unknown, my co-founder, Rajifah and I surrounded ourselves with experts and mentors of various background. Our mentor recently suggested for us to shift our focus from health technology application in developed countries to emerging economies. A lot of case studies have been done by Harvard Business School on entrepreneurs in developing countries making great impacts despite obstacles, limited resources and bureaucracy.
For the past few weeks, I have included these courses as part of my 5am routine. Cases presented are some of the best examples on how entrepreneurs make positive impacts.
Opportunities to improve livelihood
Among my favourite case studies is how a small village of Dongfeng in the Hunan province of China became the first village there to be engaged in a large scale e-commerce.
It all started when Suh An quit his job in the city and returned to the village for good. Inspired by IKEA, he started a furniture shop online on Taobao platform, a Chinese equivalent to e-Bay. Collaborating with carpenters in the village, he started selling low-cost furniture online. His success inspired neighbouring village to do the same.
Alibaba Group then created Taobao Village programmes so that farmers and rural villagers can sell agricultural products, handicrafts and manufactured goods online.
After ten years, this dedicated programme produced amazing results, changing people’s lives. As of August 2019, there are a total of 4,310 Taobao Villages in 25 provinces in China. The total sales generated amounted to RMB700 billion in the 12 months ending June 2019 and created 6.8 million jobs across the value chain. Taobao Villages have successfully leveraged on technology and e-commerce to drive more inclusive economic growth in rural China.
Making healthcare affordable
In Mexico, an entrepreneur, Victor Gonzales saw the gap in providing affordable healthcare to lower income groups. Gonzales provides solutions to expensive medicine and long waiting time to meet doctors by having a unique concept of pharmacy called Farmacias Similares. He introduced two innovations then. One, by providing access to generic medicine that is more affordable.
Second, next to his pharmacies, he placed a clinic that gave access to a primary care doctor for only USD2 per visit. With the mission of making healthcare affordable combined with great marketing and strategic location, Farmacia Similares is now a USD1 billion business with more than 4,000 pharmacies all across the country.
Serving the underserved
Meanwhile in India, there is a heart surgeon who successfully built a billion- dollar company by making healthcare affordable to everyone. Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, pioneered inexpensive cardiac surgeries by creatively and efficiently driving down costs, thus putting life-saving surgeries within the means of thousands of poor Indians. He believes everyone should have access to quality care with technology being the key.
Leveraging on economies of scales, creative tier-pricing models, Dr Shetty provides payment system based on patient’s affordability. Some patients can pay for full surgeries; other patients can pay nothing. In terms of efficiency, surgeons in his hospitals perform 30 to 35 surgeries a day compared to one or two in a US hospital. No wonder The Wall Street Journal has nicknamed him The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery.
Stories such as these, are inspirations for entrepreneurs like myself and my co-founder to continue our mission.
At Data8 we want to create and develop innovations for people to have better access to healthcare using technology. Our solution cHEART, is a personalised health application that allows people to have access to our own medical data so that we can make better decisions about our health. Our solution is built on blockchain technology to ensure data security and safety.
cHEART is now being used at Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Hospital Sungai Buloh for post-discharge patients. Patients can meet doctors online and doctors can still monitor patient progress through vitals shared. This innovation saves time, money and resources used for patients visiting the hospital. cHEART is now used at PKRC MAEPS to monitor Covid-19 patients. In addition, we have started having cHEART at Pusat Internet Komuniti (PIK) in Indera Mahkota as pilot projects before we roll out the programme to cover wider rural areas nationwide.
For me, the stories of successful entrepreneurs show that they might be a bit Crazy (having wild ideas), but highly Committed and Courageous, with the heart and mission to better the lives of others. As the new kid on the block, I pray that I am also blessed with the 3Cs to make a difference.
Ainul Rofidza Ibrahim is co-founder of Data8 Sdn Bhd.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of TVS.
