question hour

The age of mHealth

I work in the healthcare sector. We have branded hospitals and aggressive players in this space. What are the trends you have seen here?

Kolkata

Yogendra, the healthcare sector has seen frenetic growth over the last decade. This is seen to be a sunrise sector in India. The idea is to capitalise on the value-added healthcare sector that the evolving society we see is craving.

The major entrepreneurial mindset change in the last five years is really the fact that businesses have morphed from old formats. In the old days, it was all about business-to-business commerce, then in came business-to-consumer commerce, and now it is really the day and age of consumer-to-consumer commerce. We have morphed from B2B to B2C to C2C. Healthcare has valuable lessons to learn and teach here. Healthcare in the future is all about reliability and trust.

Two factors that used to be the high-grounds of healthcare management and delivery in India in the old days. Not any longer. Reinvesting in these two aspects through C2C recommendations is the task ahead.

Healthcare will move from the physical to the virtual. In the beginning was the family doctor. And then came the bigger hospitals. Then the speciality hospitals. Now, things will morph slowly in two directions. 1. Back to the family doctor and 2. Into the e-format. Mobile apps will treat a fair number of conditions, just as mobile apps will track and find a 360-degree solution to larger ailments. There is plenty of traction and money in the space of the mobile. mHealth is surely one way to go.

There is much copying of ideas in advertising. Is all originality dead? Is everything original over?

New Delhi

Shampa, I join you in your cry. Originality is at a premium. At the same time I do not believe that everything original is over. The new route to originality is contextual.

An original idea is an original idea. The moment you see it, you will tend to tell yourself it is unique, different and refreshing. Ideas such as these are rare.

And then there are inspired and cross-pollinated ideas. One creative idea from, say, auto paves its way to give rise to a similar idea in a different category context. Now that is not really original, but even that passes. You say you have seen it before, but you excuse it. And then there are ideas that have worked in the West and find their way into India. Not original, but context refitted. You excuse it as well.

Harish Bijoor is a brand strategy expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Send your queries to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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