Transforming the delivery of Professional Services Worldwide | Zain Ali
December 21, 2024
CEO & Owner
LS Enterprises is an International Health Cluster, born in Portugal, which manages a diversified portfolio of businesses, with a particular focus on the distribution of pharmaceutical products at an international level, common denominator and starting point of the group, but which over the last decade has been diversifying and internationalizing, with emphasis on its operations in medical services, through its hospital unit in Portugal, which stands out for the reception of international patients, in an International Patient concept.
The LS Enterprises Group has solid family roots and an ambition for permanent progress, in close collaboration with its business partners, including the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Its culture and its modus operandis of being in business, in a transversal way, is the link that makes the group recognized in any business that presents itself or geography.
From a business point of view, the shared values are in line with those of the founder and his successors, with dynamism and constant investment at its core. “Think, Do, Be Different…” They are the pedigree of the educational and succession process, with a search for a legacy, for the future, and in the creation of long-term economic value autonomously and independently with all stakeholders.
LS Enterprises has several business areas, such as its own pharmacy network, pharmaceutical products distribution companies in various markets and geographies, pharmaceutical laboratory with its own brands, food and FMCG distribution company, real estate management and investment company, in addition to operating, more recently, in the provision of medical services through its Hospital unit, among other branches of activity.
In addition to the companies in Portugal that make up the LS Enterprises Holding, the group has companies outside Portugal and is actively internationalizing in several markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with the aim of diversifying and boosting its business areas, as it considers the Portuguese market of residual value, unattractive and with strong constraints on investment, in contrast to the effect of globalization and market asymmetries, which create the ecosystem conducive to a greater and better investment, capable of generating sustainability for the LS Enterprises Group and its diverse constituent companies.
I believe that the success of the LS Enterprises group is in particular Biols Pharmaceuticals and LS Hospital Medical Center & Research, companies that assume the verticality of our activity, but it has been the austere respect for the code of conduct that we imprint every day in our relationships and with everyone who interacts with us, from suppliers, customers, service providers or even “competitors”, which has been a factor of high success, particularly the transparent and raw relationships, which are uncommon these days.
Our suppliers have knowledge and confidence in the markets we supply, in the type of customers we have, the fact that we adjust our performance in domains and geographies that our suppliers do not have know-how or skills gives a market elasticity without exposing them to risk.
In addition to the rigor of strategic thinking and the execution, I believe that the deep thought process has been our key to success, allowing us to have different perspectives on markets, which has been an incubator of opportunities that we explore, create from scratch, or recover when no one takes a stand.This differentiation in thought combined with current practices and the financial independence of the group, which operates only with its own capital, has guaranteed the success of each of the group’s companies, which continues to permanently believe in doing more, better and differently.
The routine of thinking in a disruptive way and standardization has been the biggest challenges of the group, to create an endogenization of group culture, in people with different life experiences, accustomed to organizations crystallized in time and mostly not very proactive and competent, where government policies in Portugal stand out, for example, in a transversal way, and which goes from labor law, the bureaucratic and outdated regulation and regulation of the activity, also accompanied, for example, by the high tax burden in Portugal that only subtracts companies and castrates them in their investment capacity.
These factors are a concrete example of “non-growth factors”, which affect our companies, but also the competitiveness of our economy and even our society, but it is these difficulties that push us and generate energy to increase more dynamism and diversification in an “out of the box” concept.
I admit today, as when I founded the LS Enterprises group and each of its companies, that to think small and the same is to think less. Something that makes me uncomfortable and stimulates my vision and search for the less obvious.
Geopolitics in the last hundred years has assumed and fostered the discovery of new worlds, new opportunities that we have to envisage in an adapted way, but based on firm values and some watertightness.
Thus, internationalization and investment in areas or in the business that create synergy to what we already have is what will dictate our course in the next 10 years.
It is true that today looking at 10 years is a long time, given the accelerated change that the world is experiencing and the new geo-politics, but as we act surgically at the base of the pyramid of human needs and we are clothed in adapting to the circumstances, I believe that in the next ten years we will have an interesting path to be reviewed in retrospect
I believe that, in one way or another, I have been an inspirer and advocate of the pain of thinking, not only at the level of our internal customer, but also of our ecosystem. Some of our competitors try to keep up with some of our movements in the market, while some suppliers run the blind risk of accompanying us on new journeys. The long working hours and monitoring of operations, in detail, have been a penalizing factor for me in personal terms, but I believe that this capacity for sacrifice, capacity for work, rigor, method and discipline has generated enthusiasm for those who accompany me.
Success or failure can only be achieved in mortality, life is made up of falls and getting back up, it is made up of yes and no, but above all it is made up of whys and hows.
Even today, in the so-called successes of yesterday, I wonder how to do it better and why, what I could have done differently… My success tomorrow is yesterday’s failure and I don’t waste much time on the positive result, but on making that result even more positive tomorrow and the day after.
Throughout my professional and personal life, success is not what worries, nor is the time it will consume me, so I don’t consider myself to have achieved success yet.
I believe that it is the impact of the work and the pain of thinking, translated into value for people, that is the true success, I believe that we will only realize it in the mortality of the action, because of our success. When we stop doing, when we stop creating value for people in our business, then we can measure how long it takes us to succeed and whether we achieve it.
“The Wizard of Menlo Park”, Thomas Edison, I think is the reference to personality, leadership and entrepreneurship that adjusted to many of the life lessons I had, and therefore adjusted me to who I am today as a person and professional.
Failing, starting over, persisting, abneging, creating, and a lot of perspiration have been my role model, common denominator, that I find in the mortality/success of Tomas Edison as well as a set of other modern and more recent personalities.
It’s a difficult question, but I believe, without pretending to take any lead, that my role model is my “I” and the work created yesterday. I don’t worry about others more than is necessary, which is essential to be able to detach myself enough to improve and do more, better and different, based on my ethical standard and conduct. The processes that I get involved in and I am particularly involved in the search for an original solution do not allow me to pretend to copy and be the same as something or someone.
Our mission is to create value! Value for people, in the satisfaction of their most basic needs and that passes through our area of action in health and well-being, creating economic value without hypocrisy, creating social value …. to create value of nostalgia, the value that, someday, in retrospect, may be remembered as impactful for people, whether those who benefited from our action or those who created an impactful action for others through the LS Enterprises group.
In the area of health, the change goes through scientific knowledge and technology, for example more “intelligent” and precise drugs are a reality today and will continue to be tomorrow, the same happens in the surgical procedure. In this way, it is only up to us to follow the trend and invest in people, procedures, knowledge and technology, so as not to lose the energy and dynamism that human evolution and its industries increase daily.
We just have to be focused on distributing what the breeding industry develops, this is valid in the food area, in the pharmaceutical area or in the area of medical services, but we always try to “distribute” where value can be created.
I am confident that we will provide and distribute medical services through our hospital unit, LS Hospital Medical Center & Research, in the future in a different way than we do today, for example the doctor will be an operation controller and not a pure surgeon as we are today. Precise surgical robotics is in such a great development and so close to what we considered scientific fixation a few years ago. Bringing this innovation to all those who need it is our priority and sustainable business model.
It is up to us to follow this evolution and these changes in a proactive and realistic way, for this we must be permanently investing and distributing in “out of the market” markets
LS Group and myself have to undergo a mindset revolution, we have to go through a process of acceptance that the digital age no longer has a brake or great future setback.
Digitalization and technology will no longer be a repetitive and standardized process, but will have autonomy of creativity.
Right now we are absorbing information and knowledge to make future decisions on how we will incrementally start our digital age and that of our companies.
Our objectives today are the same as when we started in an embryonic way, without hypocrisy, to create economic, sustained value for our companies, for the markets, for our suppliers and customers.
The difference between the targets of 10 years ago and today is that we want those targets to be multiplied by 2 every year.
It will always involve continuing to invest and have a presence in other markets in a more direct way than we have today, but above all it will involve consolidating the results we have had and the investments we have made.
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