EPISODEINTERVIEW
17

Make India our second founding location and second home.

Carna Medical Database Pvt. Ltd.
Director

AKANE KATO

AKANE

KATO

The spirit and experience of the medical business that KONOIKE has developed in Japan is now being expanded globally, to the vast field of India.

Currently, we provide consulting services such as on-site surveys and medical device registration support to Japanese medical device companies planning to enter the Indian market, as well as wholesale services such as export and sale of devices from Japan to India. We provide better services to our customers by leveraging the Group's strength in being a comprehensive support for everything from research to medical device registration to export and sales. From the very start of our company's establishment in India, we focused on the problems within the Indian medical industry and prepared a comprehensive catalogue of medical materials that did not yet exist in India. At that time, there was no comprehensive information on medical supplies and the procurement staff of each hospital spent a lot of time searching for and purchasing just a single medical supply. Post several of meetings with medical supplies wholesalers, the information was developed and the "Medical Products Dictionary", which contains approximately 10,000 items, was successfully produced. An environment that allows hospitals and other medical institutions to search for different types of medical supplies and their distributors has been established, and we now possess information on 200 companies and 50,000 items. Today's corporate medical consulting business evolved from this track record. Solving customers' problems is the spirit that KONOIKE has developed throughout its history. In India, we are also leveraging the experience and wisdom of the medical business built in Japan on a global scale.

AKANE

KATO

Our differences in language, culture, and customs can still bring us together as one team. I am grateful for the mutual respect. I have with my colleagues and customers.

From the time I was working at the head office in Japan, I have been to India multiple times for hospital research projects. Then I was asked to go to India as part of the local business promotion .
Even before joining KONOIKE, I had worked in the medical field, but I thought I would be able to help more people by being in a part of project by company rather than working as an individual. That is why I joined KONOIKE. Since then, I have always worked on medical business. When I first came to India, the language culture and customs were completely different , and the atmosphere of the team was very different from what it is now.
Every day, I communicate with the team whenever something happened. By doing this I felt the moment when each team member began to change gradually.
That was my rewarding experience. I have worked hard myself, but the staff members have also made the effort to understand me, and I am very grateful to the current members of the team who embody the idea that we can be "one team" even though we come from different countries, have different customs and speak different languages. Even though I do not speak Hindi, I truly value the words "Namaste" and "Dhanya Vaad". A number of Indians have complimented me on my style of greeting them with both hands together and saying "Namaste". When you respect the culture and customs of the country, they will also respect you. That makes me feel good and gives me hope. I am very grateful.

AKANE

KATO

Today's KONOIKE has been built upon the foundation of its long history. We want to be able to call India, our second founding location and second home.

There is a company in India that has a 140-year history, similar to that of KONOIKE, and their business field is very similar. When we introduce ourselves, we often get respect when we tell people that we are a company that has a history similar to this Indian company. We once again feel the weight of KONOIKE's history and are grateful for its accumulation.
KONOIKE is a company in which individuals from different fields and job sites are constantly thinking about how to create new businesses in a new era, while solving customers' problems and advancing together with them. I would like to make Carna Medical Database, KONOIKE known to as many people as possible in the Indian medical sector, so that we can call India our second founding location and second home. This is my goal for the future.