Authority in the Market
Building consumer trust and authenticity in an innovation is the truest manifestation of proper branding. The way a product speaks to the customer about its value is a core process in creating a loyal user base. In healthcare nothing is more crucial in the doctor-patient conversation than trust. Trust in skills capacity above all else. Patients judge the capacity of a doctor based on their internal and external skill sets. The external branding process is relatively easy – clean white coat, spectacles, middle-aged and a wall adorned with foreign degrees. The internal characteristics of a trusted healthcare professional is based on the degree of their soft skills (patient communication, empathy, complex decision making process and emotional intelligence).
A healthcare innovation is more in need of internal branding since the consumer and the producer are not always in the same room, let alone platform (eg. healthcare apps). People may have a defined health problem, maybe they can afford this solution as it provides the right solution but a scalable/loyal financial transaction may not occur, simply because there is a trust deficiency.
The characteristics of a founder or the business executive speaks to the brand as much as any press release or marketing campaign. If a healthcare entrepreneur is not directly connected or associated with the health sector, the customer cannot form the right mental processes to put their lives, or their loved ones to a concept that is clearly a revenue-generating machine (like all successful businesses).
And here lies the value of being a Physician Entrepreneur. As a medical professional, you have the intimate and inherent knowledge that can directly communicate with the wider audience about a concept. The assurance of a Doctor on the health-giving properties of a medicine, instrument, prosthesis, gadget, app or whatever is worth the entire fees accumulated in that doctor’s medical training. The word of an industry representative (expert) is the foundation of creating an authority in the marketplace. A voice to believe in, a face to trust in.
The word of an industry expert is the
foundation of creating an authority in the
marketplace. A voice to believe in, a face to
trust in.
Much can be said about the need for being a business person. Not only for much needed solutions, but also as a potential job creator. Global youth unemployment is the new threat to sustainable development for every nation. In healthcare there is also a rapidly expanding population of unemployed medical graduates, highest rates affecting women, new graduated and also foreign-skilled doctors. There is a culture of impunity in providing substandard work to high skilled doctors in all sectors, either due to incompetent lobbying or as is the case, financial illiteracy does not allow for leveraging the right networks and rescources.
Physician entrepreneurship may in fact be a guiding tool to help highly motivated and dedicated healthcare professionals to create sustainable and gainful employment, even wealth generation not just for oneself but for their comrades as well. The entrepreneur is an artist at creating a canvas of opportunities. The high income skills involved with negotiating, leveraging, learning a new skill, unlearning a false belief, attaining a growth mindset and managing risks and money – are multiplied in effect to the brave physician who wants to be defined more than a degree.
The physician entrepreneur population is itself a minority within a minority. There are so many challenges beyond the obvious that we become complacent out of fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of being inadequate/incompetent. Fear of doing it alone.
But you are not alone.
We are in this together.
When you are truly ready to accept that a better life awaits. When you know you have a much deeper purpose in life. Do one thing right and that can set you up for future success and prosperity.
What is that one thing?
Get yourself a mentor. Someone who has done
it all, seen it all and probably failed in the
same ways that you might.
Contact me so that we can have an impactful conversation about leading your life and career in a new direction. A parallel career path to medicine, that will reward you for your efforts.
Free from injustice
Free from politics
Free from doubt
Dr. Ismail Sayeed
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drismailsayeed/
Twitter: @DrIsmail_VIOS
