Dr. Keren Priyadarshini, GfK HealthCare Asia, Singapore

Many of us only know Singapore as a stopover point on the way to Australia or New Zealand. However, this melting pot of different cultures is a veritable El Dorado for market researchers. Nowhere do the mysteries of Asia come as close to the rest of the world as here. This is where East meets West. Accordingly, Dr. Keren Priyadarshini, Managing Director of GfK HealthCare in Singapore, is convinced the city state offers unrivaled potential.

Market research, sure, but perhaps not as we know it! Standardized approaches are a virtual impossibility here, but the fieldwork in this hotchpotch of nationalities and ethnic groupings certainly is exciting. And so while we can find definitions which might apply to Asia in general, Singapore is a special case.

“In my last job, with a non-profit organization called NKF (National Kidney Foundation), which offered kidney analysis services, I worked with eleven different nationalities”, recalls Keren Priyadarshini of the time before she joined GfK HealthCare in Singapore. Keren, a young woman who originally comes from Southern India, had much to learn when she first arrived in this patchwork society more than four years ago. She says, to a degree, you have to “lose your individual nationality” to make it in the colorful cultural mix which is Singapore. Any new arrival will first have to adapt to a certain extent and be open to the different cultural mechanics and customs.

We must learn the country-specific rules

“When we are planning our surveys”, Keren Priyadarshini explains, “we have to be careful to take these differences into account. In India, I can take about half an hour to talk to a doctor, but in Korea, talking for longer than ten minutes is considered impolite. We have to learn these rules and that’s the interesting aspect of working for GfK Asia.”

As GfK Asia is organized in compact teams with around 15 employees responsible for Asia, the work is allocated on an appropriate case for case basis. Keren Priyadarshini joined the company as Managing Director in 2005, however, as she says, “around 40%” of her time has been devoted to identifying new business areas. Singapore’s special status not only makes the work interesting, but also involves a great deal of variety. “We work for international companies, as well as handling regional and local projects”, says Keren Priyadarshini of the multiple facets of this unique region. Local companies commission GfK to examine the healthcare sector and beyond this, to gather and analyze regional data as well. At the other end of the spectrum are the major internationals, interested in setting local and regional data into a global context in order to develop global strategies. Dr. Keren Priyadarshini takes all this in her stride with youthful coolness: “Of all the Asiatic countries, Singapore is the most Western and so it has developed as a regional interface for the whole of Asia.”

It is essential for managers and budget planners to obtain global data from here, because many of the multinationals in the pharmaceutical industry have already made their global headquarters here in Singapore. In the light of this, Keren Priyadarshini concludes that: “It is a major advantage that GfK is represented locally with its own company. This makes clients aware that we are not just present in Europe and America, but that our local presence here can also analyze the Asian market.”

It remains true to say that Westerners still find Asia difficult. The continent simply does not function like the rest of the world and so Westerners prefer to deal with Singapore, because at least here, there is a concentration of available knowledge and expertise concerning Asia which can help decode this mysterious continent. “We can provide a bird’s eye view for US and European companies”, says Keren Priyadarshini of the position. “We circle over Asia and can offer insights into the specific regions.” Keren Priyadarshini attributes the stamina required for this to her former hobby: bodybuilding. Before joining GfK, this seemingly delicate person used to pump iron with her personal trainer. Now, she’s left that behind in favor of wrestling with paperwork, facts, figures and trends which facilitate her work. The former assistant professor at India’s Ahmedabad University is not only ambitious, but in love with figures, statistics and mathematical correlations. Singapore has become her personal paradise. The inhabitants of Singapore are equipped with all the latest technology and are more highly developed than any other region in Asia when it comes to projects and processes. Keren enjoys this aspect, because “when I am involved in market research, I have a very narrow time window and depend on quick answers”, adding: “In this respect, Singapore is very business-driven and people recognize the potential opportunities associated with any particular project.”

»We have to offer more penetrating insights and be consultants rather than pure market researchers, particularly here in Asia.«

Of course, the same applies to market researchers so Keren Priyadarshini’s working day is structured according to the tasks in hand. Immediately after getting out of bed, emails are checked and answered before the working day begins. Between nine in the morning and nine in the evening, Keren is always available to answer any queries. Customer service means everything to her. “It is important for clients to receive an immediate response, even if the time difference means that they are no longer in the office or may even be sleeping”, she says resolutely.

The spotlight is on team work

The variety adds further interest to the job and as Keren says, “Today, I may be dealing with diabetes, and tomorrow, it may be high blood pressure.” This means networking with Europe and the USA, even though a client may only have commissioned a regional survey. “It only really becomes interesting if our global cooperation means I can also offer statistics and trends relating to other global regions.” It helps that she is well-known to GfK colleagues all over the world, for example, through events like the recent “Stay tuned” conference in Canada. Such networking is the mainstay of the team-oriented attitude demanded and promoted by Keren’s boss, Scott Davies, when he maintains: “Whatever we do, we shouldn’t think of ourselves as GfK HealthCare Singapore, but as part of the Group, of the global GfK team.”

Good enough reason for Keren Priyadarshini to spend months without ever taking a weekend off, which she often does, without giving it a thought. After all, the figures 24/7 were also a prominent feature of her previous job. She says with conviction: “There are no competitive advantages any more. Anyone can do what I do. Companies have interchangeable tools and processes which they can use. But the quality of the results varies greatly: so what makes GfK different?” And the young academic is not slow to come forward with the answer: “We have to offer clients more than just market research. We have to offer insights which are much more penetrating and we have to be consultants, rather than simply market researchers, especially here in Asia.”

GfK HealthCare Asia, Singapore

• Established: At the end of 2005 as part of GfK HealthCare Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong
  
  
• Employees: 3 permanent staff members
  
  
• Business division: HealthCare
  
  Qualitative and quantitative custom research in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. As a full service institute, the company’s activities include new product development tests, product positioning, name and brand testing and advertising tracking surveys.
  
  
• Clients: Major clients of GfK HealthCare Asia include Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Astra-Zeneca, Serono, MSD, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb and a series of international research organizations