There is sometimes a moment in life that changes you forever. It can sometimes define the course of your life. Not many have experienced that lightbulb realisation, but Sigal Atzmon has.
"I wanted to be a doctor when I was young," says the founder and chief executive of Medix Group, a global provider of medical management solutions. But her academic strengths were in numbers and philosophy, not science.
Reasoning that it was better to fight battles that she could win, she moved to Switzerland to study law and economics at the University of Geneva, before pursuing a career in finance.
Nevertheless, her passion for medicine and healthcare never left her. It became a burning desire that she knew she would pursue, but she did not know how or when.
After graduation, Ms Atzmon entered the world of investment management and lived and worked in different countries, climbing the ranks at various financial groups. Her last role was at UMB where she headed the private banking group and managed an investment portfolio of over US$4.5 billion.
Following the birth of her third child, Ms Atzmon went for a health checkup and a precautionary mammogram. While she was waiting for the doctor, she received a call from a friend who found out where she was and asked, "Are you afraid?"
"No, I'm not afraid. Why would I be?" she replied.
Then came the lightbulb moment.
"I realised that my life could turn upside down with one diagnosis. From being this very driven executive businesswoman, a mother to three beautiful children and happily married, it hit me that I may suddenly have to cope with cancer," the executive tells Asia Focus via a Zoom call from Tel Aviv during a recent visit to the Medix office there.
Question after question raced through her mind -- "How would I choose the right doctor? How would I know if my diagnosis is correct? How do I know which treatment is the best treatment? How do I navigate the healthcare system?"
Ms Atzmon received the all-clear but the experience shook her into action. The fear was twofold: fear of the diagnosis and of the treatment process that would follow.
"That day really made me realise that healthcare has always been my passion and I wanted to make a difference to society, one that was more socially impactful than I was experiencing in my finance world.
"I started researching and connecting with healthcare experts, to better understand the developing trends and how the system was working between those paying for healthcare, the patients; those treating them, the doctors, nurses and specialists, and the links to the insurers and governments.
"I quickly realised that there are so many gaps in patients' needs, and there was no one to objectively advocate or stand and fight for these needs. Everyone was focused on their own interests."
In July 2006, Ms Atzmon changed career paths, resigned from her finance job and founded Medix Group.
"The success of launching and growing Medix rested heavily on my executive career experience in finance and my studies. Both provided me with valuable insights into the frameworks of the world's healthcare systems."
At last, she was able to follow her passion. "I came full circle and my life experience allowed me to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur."
Headquartered in London, Medix has expanded its services to 90 countries, with a network of more than 2,000 hospitals and 4,000 accredited doctors and specialists serving 7 million customers in 20 different languages.
Medix services range from personal medical case management and digital health solutions to disease prevention management, rehabilitation and mental health support. The company doesn't provide any treatment itself, nor does it replace the customer's primary treatment physician, but rather offers value-added personalised medical management solutions.
The company's offices can be found in major cities including London, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Munich, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne.
In the past five years, Medix has been pursuing an Asia First strategy, with the strong belief that the region presents a great opportunity for it to serve the public and provide better healthcare.
"While there are excellent doctors and facilities in many markets and especially in Thailand, quality-driven healthcare is not always accessible for many people across Asia," Ms Atzmon says.
"A lot of investment in the healthcare system has to be done. People have a very strong need, as not everyone has access to quality medical care.
"Our goal at Medix is to find and provide solutions to people across the region that offer better accessibility, implementation of quality medical care and good quality medical management solutions across the region."
BUILDING BRIDGES
Given the diversity of cultures and people in Asia, operating a business in some parts of the region can be challenging. However, Ms Atzmon sees no difference when it comes to providing quality healthcare.
"In every country, people value lives and health. They are willing to pay out of pocket, go through a huge effort, travel across their own country or to a neighbouring country to get access to the best possible quality care," she says. "Every human being wants to live a healthy life and live long."
At Medix's regional offices, all of the team members are hired locally. For the Thai office in Bangkok, Ms Atzmon says only one of the staff is not Thai. She stresses the importance of hiring locally to fully embrace the culture and understand the needs of the customers that office serves.
"We embrace and integrate with local languages and local cultures." she says. "It is very important for us in every country across Asia that we understand the overall cultures, needs and values of the people.
"We work by adapting every culture into our global expertise and capabilities. We try to seamlessly create an ecosystem and environment that bonds the local culture and our global capabilities, together with the necessary standardisation of very high-quality medical advice and care.
"I enjoy managing a large global group that is not just big in one country or one region, but embraces different countries," Ms Atzmon adds, comparing it to "building bridges".
Like executives of all multinational ventures, she has found that overseeing operations in many countries has become more challenging because of the pandemic, given that management travel to various offices has ben limited.
"I usually spend more than two-thirds of the year travelling through Asia, seeing our teams and customers. The inability to travel has meant we cannot enjoy that personal interaction."
The other challenge brought by the pandemic was how to cope with the increasing demand for the company's services which "jumped by triple-digit percentages". Medix was quick to introduce pandemic-focused services, including telemedicine capability, and a data-driven system guided by algorithms.
This innovation allowed Medix team to prioritise patients, based on the severity of their condition and the urgency of the treatment.
"Over the last 20 months, we have provided services to patients and healthcare workers alike and we take great pride that, during this difficult time, Medix is making healthcare more accessible and affordable to so many," says Ms Atzmon.
Driven by the need to care for patients during the Covid outbreak, Medix introduced the platform in various severely hit countries, including India and Vietnam.
"We decided to do so because people need healthcare. The demand for Medix services is growing every day. People are looking more for telemedicine solutions and healthcare on demand from the safety and comfort of their homes. They want to have access to a doctor's advice and information without leaving their house."
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Being a female executive in the healthcare industry is a "competitive advantage", in Ms Atzmon's view. "Women have strong capabilities, and we have demonstrated that in the highest circles.
"It is hard to create a company from scratch but it's a challenge for anyone, man or woman. I have had to fight to make Medix successful and, in doing so, I try to be a good leader, to listen and engage with my staff and create an organisational structure founded on shared values, a strong work ethic and excellence.
"I'm proud to be a female CEO, to lead by example and tell any woman out there that you can be anything you want to be," she says.
"The first thing is that we need to believe they can. And that must start with the woman herself. If you believe you can, no one can convince you cannot.
"I would say, the more you tell me I cannot, the more I'll prove to you that I can and every woman can. We just need to believe and work really hard."
Ms Atzmon describes her management style at Medix as approachable and open -- "I like people to stand up for their ideas" -- yet she is strict about standards, particularly when you consider that a patient's life may be at stake.
"I'm not the CEO that sits in the office with the door closed and no one is allowed to see me. When I can travel and visit a country, I always walk around and talk to people, from the most junior positions to the highest ones."
With a working environment that encourages everyone to speak up and voice their opinion regardless of their position, Ms Atzmon acknowledges that there can be discord -- and that the buck stops with her as CEO.
"There needs to be leadership, yet also a collaborative process where a joint decision is made at the end of the day."
When people cannot reach an agreement, "I always tell them 'I will make the decision if needed and the responsibility is mine'," Ms Atzmon notes.
THREE MOTIVATIONS
As a CEO, Ms Atzmon says, three things make her "happy to wake up every morning".
"First of all, we save lives. We improve the quality of life for so many millions of people around the world. No matter how much money you can help people make," she says, recalling when her days as an investment manager, "nothing can compare to saving lives and helping someone when they're sick.
"The second thing is to reduce the inequality of care," she says. The quality of healthcare service is different in each country and by providing service, guidance and information to patients and supporting doctors, Ms Atzmon believes that everyone, rich or poor, in the city or rural areas, should have equal access to the same quality of care.
The last thing, she points out, is leadership and running a business filled with hard-working people from multicultural backgrounds, who share the same passion for healthcare and who want to make a difference in people's lives.
Away from work, music is another passion. "Music runs through my family," she says. "Not only do we listen to music throughout the day but each one of us plays an instrument: the piano, cello or bassoon."
Her musical tastes vary -- she could be listening to classical music, opera, jazz or pop depending on the day and the circumstances. Her favourite musicians include the pianists Keith Jarrett, Glenn Gould and Martha Argerich and the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, while the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin is a favourite singer. Among classical composers, Vivaldi, Bach and Philip Glass top her list.
Ms Atzmon is also an avid reader. When she's not reading about the healthcare industry, leadership and policy, she likes to read the works of the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. She is currently reading his most recent novel, Killing Commendatore.
When she reads about her chosen field, her primary focus is how the industry is shaping up for the future, particularly with the rollout of the latest innovations. She highly recommends UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance by Hemant Taneja, Kevin Maney and Stephen K Klasko, which explores "health assurance" and "why it should be a priority to assure health rather than wait to treat illness".
"This book represents an attempt by the writers to fire up the debate for innovation and inspire health professionals, entrepreneurs, policymakers and other leaders to take action and join forces in the re-evolution of healthcare landscapes globally," she says.
