The ethical Path

Another GMAT essay.. 

When you are faced with a decision, often you face choices where you are not sure which one of them is lesser evil. You stand at a crossroads of following your conscience and being ethical or being dishonest for personal gains and treading the path which you know is wrong.

I was faced with such a situation during the inter college table tennis championship where I captained the team to the championship victory. The championship however was achieved only making a tough decision that challenged my ethics.

Our team had reached the quarter- finals and we needed to win the next match by a huge margin to be able to face the weaker team in the semi-finals. However the player who had to play the match got injured and being captain, I had to choose the player to play the match. The first thing that crossed mind was to play myself or choose one of the players close to me. It would have made me look good as well improved my chances of making to the State level table tennis team. However I decided that this would be ethically wrong. The interest of the team was before my self interest and I had to set examples for others and our team had better players who could help us win with a greater margin.  Finally after brainstorming and discussions with the whole team, I chose the best player in the team. As expected our team won by a huge margin. There were a lot of positives that I achieved by taking the righteous path. My team’s confidence in me saw a drastic jump and we went on to become the champions. Though not selected for the state team, I was made captain of the next tournament as well.

My one decision could have affected the entire team’s reputation. Such situations make you realize the importance of including the team in making important decisions. I understood that important decisions should always be made using the consent of everyone who is being affected by it. Considering everyone’s opinion helped me reach a conclusion and take a decisive action. With different minds working on the same problem, there was a possibility that the team might have chosen me. In such a case I would have played the game with confidence of the team backing me without facing the ethical dilemma.

That day, I learned important lessons of life and I am proud of the decision I made whose consequences I can still experience. Even today my professors and my team members commend me for my decision and have trust in me. Personally I learned that being dishonest might bring to you short term gains; it is the ethical path which keeps you in the lead in the long run. A difficult ethical path leads to freedom. The guilt of a wrong choice can imprison you for your whole life, I chose to be free.

Significant Event

A Part of GMAT essays for Boston University

In any field in life one of the most difficult things to do is to bring about a change. It is human nature to resist change and same was the case with my family who were shocked with my decision to pursue Bachelor of Technology after I finished class XII. Essentially, I had the option to either take up Engineering and follow my dreams or take up Bachelor of Arts and take the commonly followed way. It was a difficult decision as it greatly affected how my career would shape in the years to come. Taking the wrong decision would have meant that I spend years in wilderness searching for my identity.

One reason that made the decision more difficult was people’s opinions. Not surprisingly, most of them advised me to follow the “proven” path as was followed by my sisters before and was an easy thing to do. It was difficult to go against the family decisions and follow my dreams. Of course, the advices offered were sincere and meant to help me, but it made me difficult to follow my heart. While I was open to people’s advice, finally I decided to follow my heart. To do that, first I tuned out the outside noise which just contributed more to the already existing dilemma.

I decided to follow my heart and pursue my passion. In cases where different passions conflict with each other and make it difficult to reach a decision, we should go where our passions unify. This lesson helped me make my decision. By pursuing my dream, I was able to go into the technical depth and explore new avenues, while if I would have chosen the other option, I might not have been able to make use of my technical and analytical abilities. I have learnt that if you do something which you like no one can stop you from excelling in the field. 

People who dare to take risk and be different are those who change the world. They are the ones who make history. There is always the fear of the unknown, and it’s not easy to overcome it. I did not want to take up something just to meet other people’s expectations. The situation demanded me to take risk, be different and prove my worth. Sometimes the events in our life give us an opportunity to follow our dreams. I had the percentage and the school curriculum which gave me the extra edge to get admitted to a good Engineering college. I had the opportunity to make a change in my life, and I seized it.

After struggling for some time, I finally made the decision: I took the risk and pursued my dream. It was a difficult decision, but I learned a great deal about making such decisions in life. Following the path never tread before and doing so against your family wishes was a big step I took, but I proved my worth and passed Engineering with flying colours.

Strategies to penetrate the Medical Device Industry in India

Abbott Healthcare is a leading provider of medical devices for interventional cardiology. Its major competitors in the field are Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Boston Scientific with the 4 companies capturing about 60% of the market.

With the expansion of the hospital industry and increased competition in the medical industry, the purchase decisions shifted from the doctors to the hospital administration. The final decision makers considered cost and quality as the major factors to make their decisions. Abbott has till now focused on building relationship with the doctors. With the recent changes Abbott realized the need to concentrate on the administration staff and gain their confidence. The strategies of its other competitors being; Johnson & Johnson focuses on building relationship with the doctors while Medtronic and Boston Scientific focus on nurturing their relationship with the distributors who supply their products to the hospitals.

With increase in government taxes and stringent rules on product quality through TRAI, these companies faced huge increase in their operating costs leading to a reduction in the margins. Thus, cost became a major factor while selling any medical product to the hospitals. Companies are thus aiming for such activities and programs which can help build company trust with the hospital and capture the market.

The research project aims to focus on the above issues namely understand the purchase process of hospitals to understand its target audience and build relationship with them. Secondly, being a highly competitive market each product has a substitute with equivalent quality and reduced cost, thus to survive in this market, Abbott needs additional programs and services which are valued by the hospitals and its administration. Impact of administration and doctors on driving the purchase and usage of newer medical devices. Identify bottlenecks and factors that drive the purchase decisions

An exploratory research is conducted to understand the above facts from the hospital purchase department and the catheterization lab doctors and technicians. This involved a face to face interaction with the sample from hospitals across Delhi/NCR, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The sample consisted of all the hospital purchase managers and head technicians across 52 hospitals.

The results conclude that a standardized purchase process is followed across all hospitals. Doctors still play an important role in recommending the right quality product but their decision is both questioned and verified by the administration and top management. Thus, the autonomy of doctors has reduced. Secondly, the activities most valued by hospital administration are training programs and seminars of product launches and latest technology in the market to the hospital staff including doctors, nurses and technicians. They also value funds received for sponsoring poor patients and other hospital programs.

Next step would be to complete the interviews across all the cities and compile the data gathered from the various hospitals to come out with a strategic plan for Abbott on how to build relationship with the hospital purchase decision makers and the key activities to be performed as the first step towards this plan.