Travelogue – Rediscovery – India + Emirates

Dear Readers,

I am setting off on a short 3 week trip to the Exotic East (Gujarat, Mumbai, Dubai). I will be capturing these thoughts in my new, personal blog: E Tu Vida

Here’s to a journey into my past and towards understanding the current progress and future development of India.

~I

Killing Corporate Social Responsiblity

There is a greater call in this day and age for businesses to incorporate a viable social motto under their wings. Consumers, especially those in the developed world, increasingly desire to purchase socially responsible brands. Yet Corporate Social Responsibility will no longer do. Companies touting their “once-a-month” service days are now greatly seen as merely trying to do PR work to appear as socially responsible enterprises. Additionally, transparency of a company’s dealings due to social media (especially the this just in report breaking capability of Twitter) further exposes whether a company is just temporarily riding the “do good” wave or actually caring about the social footprint that it leaves.

Now is the time for companies to truly embrace the social model into their inherent business and to dedicate some profits to lessen the global pressure felt by an ever-increasing group of dismally poor, diseased, suffering people. These are the firms generating positive press and attitude amongst the masses. And these firms will be the reason issues such as poverty are defeated, if at all.

Increasingly, pharmaceutical giants with a presence in society have begun to truly get involved in mitigating social issues. I often cite GlaxoSmithKline (@GSKUS) and it’s CEO, Mr. Andrew Witty, as being one of the major pioneers of this movement. Ever since Mr. Witty came on board, it has been his goal to make GSK not only a thriving pharma but also one that is no longer solely profit-driven. And he has succeeded in both respects: GSK’s 4^th quarter earnings in 2009 went up by 66% (primarily due to its vaccine arm) and it just recently launched a joint partnership with Pfizer (@Pfizer_News) to deliver essential HIV care to developing nations.

Corporate Social Responsibility needs to be replaced by an actual integration of a social branch into the inherent workings of every business. If the notion is refused, businesses should be pressured into creating such an arm. A 100% cooperation is must to propel humanity into a world where hundreds do not perish due to lack of food, thousands do not die due to lack of shelter, and millions do not expire due to lack of basic human needs. Adding to the greater good shouldn’t be merely a responsibility left for non-profits.

Social and Healthcare Outsourcing

I’m currently reading Thomas Friedman’s engaging book, The World is Flat. It is indeed amazing how creative people have been with respect to minimizing financial costs by using technology – especially through outsourcing and/or homesourcing. Friedman cites multiple examples among which is one that I personally found very interesting. It is about a McDonald franchise situated in Missouri that processes its drive-through orders through by rerouting the customer’s call to not one of its own flesh-and-blood employees but rather to a call-center in Colorado! The man behind this idea, Steve Bigari, has now left the Mickey D family and is focusing full-time on developing America’s Family – a non-profit dedicated to help low-wage workers in America.

Anyway, Steve’s model and the overall idea of outsourcing got me thinking. Currently, social entrepreneurship is thriving due to the enthusiastic, young, ingenious entrepreneurs thinking of creative ways to alleviate social problems. Could one of them potentially tap into the successful model of outsourcing and adapt it to fit their targeted area? Since my interest is in bettering the delivery and cost of healthcare and pharmaceutics, I can imagine a creative fellow setting up shop in a buzzing metropolis of a developing country to serve citizens of a developed country where the healthcare costs are steep (we all know who I mean here). This entrepreneur can hire employees specializing in science, pharmaceutics, and healthcare (M.D.s, PhDs, etc). He can then create a hotline that his “patients” abroad can dial into. Calls would be charged at a cost a mere fraction of the cost of an in-person consultation in the country of the patient. These calls would then be rerouted according to the nature of the problem. Cold and cough? Transfer to the Internal Medicine department. Acne issue? Transfer to Dermatology. The entrepreneur can then extend this idea further by offering medical outsourcing services in addition. If this company is trying to reach out to the poor and low-wage workers, it can have different charges based on the customer type and the salary bucket that they fall into. The profits made by “treating” customers earning more than $x can then subsidize the cost for the people earning less than $x.

Perhaps my idea sounds a bit amateurish. Perhaps a model like this is already in place? I’d love to know as I continue to build my knowledge about this space.

Emerging Markets and Pharma Investment

As China, India, and other developing countries have come better into focus, pharmaceuticals have started to realize the potential wealth hidden amongst these burgeoning economies. It is a stale story, re-washed and hung time and over again, that the pharma industry is stressed. Billion-dollar revenue blockbusters are in transition from going to exclusive patented positions to the common hands of generic makers. Therefore, pharma is looking at several methodologies to reinvigorate its business model—from changing pre-clinical experimental phase to acquiring thriving generic companies.

As money has flowed into the BRIC countries, a new class has started emerging—one that can afford better services in both hospital care and pharmaceutics quality. The percentage of this group with a viable purchasing power has grown (as can be also seen through other booming industries such as restaurants and retail in the same countries). And pharmas have realized this, as they sign off deals to build additional plants or better their emerging markets area. Take for example, Sanofi Aventis and the insulin factory that it bought in Russia late in 2009 to establish a stronger presence in the developing country. Furthermore, to strengthen its foothold, the French company also entered into a partnership with the Pharmapolis project – a project driven by the Russian government to create a thriving pharmaceutical hub in the country. And Pfizer, which purchased the rights to sell several Indian-made generics in Western markets.

There is sense in such investment, especially as the “power of the purse” no longer belongs in the few hands of the developed countries. Will this reinvigorate the struggling big pharmas? One can only hope but it is almost certain that it will not hurt.