Welcome to episode 168 of our podcast, The Executive Edge with Shanil Ebrahim
Shanil is a partner in Deloitte in Canada and has extensive experience in the field of healthcare. Traditionally Deloitte has been thought of as an audit and finance company but in fact has long since been involved in supporting and advising businesses. Their strategy has been to help determine the value proposition of the companies they work with. This is to enable them to meet the demands and future trends of business.
What does he do?
He works with organisations, implementing AI and health solutions to prepare business for the workforce of the future. It’s no longer about accounting because today is about consulting. His role leads in life science and healthcare. It’s rooted in helping companies solve some of the biggest problems in life, and healthcare has some big challenges. Principally, to enable pharma and hospitals to provide excellent services.
He believes in changing lives and how digital and service providers can improve processes. The healthcare sector is one of the toughest in this regard because of the multiple demands on them. This is through their processes, and their treatment offering. It needs to be timely and confidential, keeping records up to date and looking to future needs for people. Digital technology may help support processes for pain management and mental health. He feels its about improving lives.
Deloitte are spotting challenges and determining areas they can help with because they constantly meet with businesses. They discuss the top priorities and how they can support them. Hiring the right people may be the issue for example, but the solution may not be simple. A more innovative idea could lie with delivering an online service that enables anyone to access it This would be without needing to wait on lengthy lists or always see a Dr as opposed to a Nurse. It could be easier to get an answer to a simple question which doesn’t need a Dr. So hiring enough personnel may not be the solution, so much as coming up with a different offering.
The Benefit of Forecasting
Shanil also feels true understanding of the problem they are presented with, is as much about analysing the issue itself. It is about looking to the future and attempting to predict what will be needed then. That way, the solution they come up with fixes something for some time to come and doesn’t stick to a short-term fix.
This pragmatic forecasting makes people seek Deloitte so that they get help with a transformational process. Currently he’s looking at AI powered diagnostics. This is particularly for early symptom identification. The benefits of this are huge and may result in earlier detection of major illness. That has huge implications for people as well as service providers.
Shanil did a great job of helping us identify where Deloitte and his team are working to enhance our lives for the better. You can hear more of this episode here
