CONNECT GOA – Business Plan Competition 2009

The students of Marian Institute of Health Care Management (MIHM) won the 2^nd place at the first pan Goa business plan competition organized by Connect Goa Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. The final round of this competition, the first of its kind in Goa, was held at the Goa International Centre at Dona Paula on 15^th November 2009. The prize winning project proposal to set up a GERIATRIC HOSPITAL AND HOME was developed by Ashwin Furtado, Syam Thomas and Siddharth Cunkolienkar. It covered the developmental, financial, legal, marketing and operational aspects.

Apart from winning the confidence of Mr. Christopher Fogg, a venture capitalist manager for Connect Goa, the team also attracted investment proposals from other well known industrialists and company representatives.

Connect started in San Diego and has assisted 1500 entrepreneurs raise over $10 billion to set up and develop their businesses. Connect Goa sought to identify high potential business proposals by students of institutes in Goa—BITS, GIM, GU, MIHM and PCCE—and support the projects financially and intellectually.

The MIHM Team is looking forward to developing the project over the prescribed timeline of 3 years.

The Team (L-R: Syam, Siddharth, Ashwin)

Elton Pinto (Times Wellness)

On 31^st October 2009, Mr. Elton Pinto, Editorial Coordinator for ‘Times Wellness’ (print and online) Mumbai, spoke about:

• Wellness as a new sector in the health care industry &
• New age media tools used in marketing: websites, forums, blogs, media sharing websites, social networking websites

Mr. Pinto used examples from industry to highlight the potential and power of new age media tools – as beneficial to and detrimental to marketing efforts. He provided insights into how ‘Wellness’ was developing into a robust and promising new sector and the factors that were fuelling this growth.

On 31^st October 2009, Mr. Benzi Alex Mathew - Account Manager, Cognizant Life Sciences, US West Coast, interacted with the faculty and students of MIHM in a highly informative session about the core business drivers in the pharmaceutical industry today.

Mr Benzi Alex Mathew (Cognizant Life Sciences)

He spoke about the role of IT and BPO services at different points of the pharmaceutical value chain and highlighted the need for specialized business analysts who have a thorough understanding of industry specific characteristics and dynamics.

Mr. Benzi Alex Mathew has been part of Cognizant’s Life Sciences practice for close to eight years and some of his current clients include Amgen, Genentech, Roche, Abraxis, Gilead and Elan. He shared his valuable insights about the opportunities for IT and BPO services in pharmaceutical discovery, pre clinical development, clinical development, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance, sales operations, regulatory compliance, validation, IT Processes, HR and security processes.