HealthyOrg, a health consultant services with a digital platform won the Kasikorn Bank’s 2018 Biz Plan challenge

24 กันยายน 2561

KBank Group, in collaboration with the Central Department of Small and Medium Enterprises Development, hosted the KBank Plan Challenge 2018, with the aim of promoting SMEs in Myanmar. HealthyOrg, a health consultant service with a digital platform, won the competition.

KASIKORNBANK (KBank) is a Thailand based financial institution with extensive experience working with Small & Medium Size Enterprise (SME). Myanmar Business Today was able to sit down with representatives from KBank to talk about the event. 

Mr. Pattanapong Tansomboon, the First Senior Vice President of KBank explained, “Financial literacy is important in helping a country to move forward. It’s what helped Thailand get going. Our program will help show the importance of financial literacy here in Myanmar.”

This event is the culmination of three years of work to shepherd the teams. It was done through three sessions. The first session was launching the idea. It involved talking to the media, and partners to seek potential candidates. 

The second event was training those candidates. KBank provided one day of training, free of charge, to equip the candidates with presentation skills. At that time there were still 270 candidates with 270 business ideas. Each one needed to be able to write a business plan, showing the rational behind the idea as well as marketing strategies. From the second event we were able to filter the 270 candidates down to ten finalists. 

The committee in charge of selecting the ten finalists was made up of representatives from universities and the SME Development. The committee scored each of the 270 candidates and the ten with the highest score were invited to the “Advanced Day,” the third and final event in the program. 

Talking about the final ten candidates, Mr. Tansomboon said, “There were very interesting ideas presented, and innovative. I was very impressed!”

Some of the business ideas included apps to help farmers; an app that helps with e-waste, by buying and selling old electronics; and another app that sells your unused space in checked-baggage when flying. 

For the presentations, each of the ten finalists needed to go before a panel of five judges. They were able to show a one minute marketing video to start with. They then had three minutes to give a verbal presentation highlighting their business plan. It was finished off with a five minute question and answer session with the judges. It felt very much like watching Shark Tank, an American reality television series where aspiring entrepreneurs pitched their ideas in front of famous business people, only with a slightly different format.  

Mr. Tansomboon travels often to Myanmar to coordinate with Mr. Nuttaphong Visitkitchakarn, KBank’s Chief Representative to Myanmar for the last 6 years. Mr. Tansomboon said, “I personally, I like this country. I get a warm feeling traveling here. I have friends here that give me a very warm welcome.” 

Many foreigners have said similar things about Myanmar, and we applaud KBanks efforts to help improve Myanmar’s SMEs. 

KBank’s program was not limited only to training, the winner was awarded with $10,000 USD. The winner as well as the three next-best teams were invited to travel to Thailand to consult with SME experts and to receive additional training. 

KBank works really well with SMEs. The proof is that they have the number one market share of SMEs in Thailand. 

In conclusion we asked Mr. Tansomboom, “What’s next for KBank in Myanmar?” He said, “We understand the nature of SMEs, and we want to continue to share our strength with the business community in Myanmar,” He also talked about a new unit within the bank created for digital marketing that is being rolled out in Thailand first. He then said, “When we find the right path, we will introduce this to Myanmar as well.”

We asked if there would be future Biz Plan Challenges, and he said, “First we will monitor the progress of the finalists, then we will see, its possible.”

Daw Aye Aye Win, General Director of Central Department of Small and Medium Enterprises Development said, “We selected the winner based on how much the project is beneficial to the people. We also have plans to host these kinds of contests.”

Daw Aye Aye Win; U Aye Win, auditor from UMFCCI; Daw Khin Moe Myint, Program Director of Renaissance Institute; Mr. Pattanapong Tansomboon, Vice President of KASIKORNBANK; and Mr. Wisarute Srirojanakul, President of Beacon Venture Capital, served as judges.

 

(Myanmar Business Today: https://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/healthyorg-wins-kbank-s-2018-biz-plan-challenge )