Business Chief APAC+ANZ Magazine September 2016 | Page 39

HEALTHCARE

“ IT today is less about holding on to your infrastructure and more about leveraging the digital revolution strategically ”

The latter enables R & D to stay connected with the three main regional market needs and innovate accordingly .
For example , in Singapore , as in many Asian countries , the growth of myopia – especially in children – is a big concern . Essilor has partnerships with local universities to study the phenomenon , with trial groups in which we perform consumer experiments , as well as consumer research which is conducted by R & D and marketing teams . Product ideas come out of these processes , based on the real needs of people in the field . From an IT perspective , the company has to make sure that its researchers , its marketers , and other employees can collaborate freely . Someone having an innovative idea in one market should be able to communicate and collaborate with their counterparts anywhere in the world . Digitalisation is important there too .
Future growth Essilor has grown enormously over the past decades , but there is still a great deal of room to grow . The ophthalmic lens business is fuelled by current unmet vision needs : 2.5 billion people don ’ t get the vision correction they need due to lack of awareness and lack of access to professionals , as well as major demographic trends . Among these trends are an aging population needing correction from presbyopia and other age-related sight issues ; growth of myopia among the younger population ; growing middle class in emerging market having more and more access to vision correction products ; and an ever-increasing need by
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