This article is featured in Special Feature: Nurturing Tomorrow's Innovators

This article is featured in Special Feature: Nurturing Tomorrow's Innovators

From telemedicine booming through the COVID-19 era, the rise in wearable devices to the latest advances in artificial intelligence and big data analytics: digital applications have the potential to unlock immense opportunities for public and private organisations in the realm of healthcare. And startups are well placed to take advantage of such nascent technologies and opportunities.

Innovation is the key to sustained economic prosperity. Beyond the production of greater output and higher productivity levels, innovation can also lead to a higher quality of living (through wage increase, and job satisfaction levels) as well as social benefits such as inclusion.  However, the journey towards innovation-based growth is not an easy one and countries today are facing the extra hurdle of overcoming the challenges caused by the global pandemic, rising inflation rates and climate change.  
 

In 2018, Starbucks was the undisputed leader among China’s coffeehouse chains, with more than 70 percent in market share and 3,600 cafés. The brand’s success was rooted in its core proposition of providing consumers a ‘third place’ (also called di san kong jian in Mandarin)—an escape from both home and the workplace—to relax and indulge themselves. Starbucks had entered China in 1999, and the country (and Asia Pacific overall) was the company’s fastest growing market.