Leading Kalbe Farma's Digital Transformation, Risman Adnan Explores Human Innovation

"For me, the health industry resonates more because it has a very broad impact on society. Business natureit's not racing like other industries, because we have a long time to innovate."

Risman Adnan isn't completely leaving the tech industry after nearly two decades of a career there. After Microsoft and Samsung, Risman made a significant career transition by joining PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (KLBF) in January 2023. Still in the vortex of his elements, he is challenged to digitally transform one of Indonesia's largest pharmaceutical companies to go global.

Digital transformation, he said, is an innovation marathon with long-term ROI projections. What is happening at this time, many companies go digital, but only interpreted as another IT. Then, what road map has Risman prepared to bring Kalbe Farma to the global level?

Kalbe Transformation

Risman was appointed as Corporate Digital Technology Director at Kalbe Farma, playing a role in encouraging innovation in business Existing and explore new opportunities simultaneously. To carry out these two functions, Kalbe Farma formed a Corporate Digital Technology (CDT) division which is led by him.

CDT is again divided into two large divisions, namely Kalbe Digital University (KDU) for continuous learning in the field of technology; and Kalbe Digital Lab (KDL) for innovation and research development. KDL will help business units at Kalbe Farma to present features/services or commercialize ideas/innovations based on research conducted.

For your information, currently Kalbe Farma oversees various health business lines from upstream to downstream, starting from manufacturing medicines, health products, clinics, to distribution. Kalbe Farma also has digital-based services, such as KlikDokter (telemedicine), Mostrans (logistics), and EMOS (distribution).

(L-R) EMOS, KlikDokter, and Mostrans mobile applications / Source: official site

"After more than 50 years, what are the next steps to survive as the largest health company in Southeast Asia? Kalbe has started to expand outside Indonesia. However, to follow stricter regulations advanced, it turns out that more efficient technology is needed. We have to prepare tech value to be able to compete locally, regionally and globally. "Kalbe has R&D that follows innovation from upstream to downstream," he explained during a conversation with DailySocial.id.

He admitted that he is currently focused on working on the transformation road map and building the capabilities and size of his team at CDT. The focus is not looking pro-hire, but rather new graduates who cannurse talent from the start.

"In Indonesia, talking about people's experiences, they are definitely practical, they don't have a fundamental understanding. They are only familiar with tools or framework. Easy to train, but fundamentals are hard to build. People with practical experience will not bring innovation. If you want innovation, you have to read often paper or academic research."

Life sciences and logistics

Risman observed that many companies are undergoing digital transformation, but only at the experimental stage. Digital services are still seen as an additional business that takes advantage of technology and consumer behavior. He admitted digital mind set the challenge is to transform thousands of employees.

"What is innovation? Does it refer to previous results, industry standards, or academic research? It can be many. At Samsung, innovation refers to 'what you can do in terms of product features and capabilities that your competitors can't do'. At Kalbe, innovation is 'what we can do better compare to before'. "For example, advanced innovation for the sake of humanity, not driven by competition," said Risman.

Risman mentioned two big areas that will be a priority for developing innovation this year, namely life science (relating to living things as well as distribution and logistics. In the first focus, he is currently studying genomics and pathology, also supported by the use of AI technology.

"AI has two big fields, namely computer vision and NLP—yes, that's included too robotic automation. This is important because it relates to human intelligence. We are currently exploring these three competencies for genomics and pathology. In the distribution line, I spend a lot of time at Enseval and BioFarma (partners) to learn and help develop digital products. Broadly speaking, we are focusing on digital differentiation, including applications, services and digital biology."

He revealed that he was incubating genomic products. A little information, genomics is the study of the genome of an organism. It is believed that genomic examination can be an alternative for preventive care because it can determine a person's risk of disease and appropriate treatment. Despite its benefits, he said, it takes a long time to incubate it into a product.

"The equipment [for taking samples] already exists. However, is it optimally used according to current technology? The most complex system is in the human body because there are cells, chromosomes and DNA. There is a network of proteins that regulate our body. Many people are starting to come here now. You can find out, if you are sick, what is the best treatment.

Venture builder

Recently, large-scale companies have looked at developing innovations or new business models through investment participation, ranging from telecommunications, finance, to creative industries. Risman revealed that investing in technology companies is not always the right choice. In the case of Kalbe, for example, investment is not an attractive thing if you look at the company's scale.

The party is currently exploring models venture builder which is considered more interesting for developing innovation outside the Kalbe environment. According to him, it could be venture builder This is an opening for partnerships with parties abroad.

"We are still studying whether [venture builder] suitable for companies, such as Kalbe. With mindset and new work cultures, perhaps innovations incubated before pilots to commercialization, can be helped with venture builders. If it's just an investment, that's not an interesting thing for Kalbe. "Digital is still difficult to calculate the valuation," he said.

Another thing to consider is searching founders, who not only generate ideas, but are also able to execute them and increase the scale of their business so that they can achieve profitability. "So, we have to find the right form to enter the corporation. Bring and scale ideas."

Algorithm wars

In the midst of the internet data explosion, business people are required to better understand the needs of their customers. The market can change quickly, while people want more personalized service.

Reflecting on developments in the technology industry over the last decade, Risman believes that application development is no longer relevant to compete in the future. In fact, algorithms will be a key factor in winning the market.

He gave the example of world e-commerce giant Amazon which built an algorithm to strengthen search terms for its products. This algorithm is one of Amazon's strengths to compete in the market.

In e-commerce services, algorithms can be utilized on use case others, for example improving the shopping experience, predicting next purchase date, or estimate when the seller's stock will run out. 

"I think we are now in the equilibrium phase in the development of digital services via applications, APIs or databases. What next? Ccustomer intelligence, intelligence service, and data analytics inside the application. Creating an application is easy, what is difficult is designing user experience with intelligence features," he said.

The real war next is differentiation of algorithms to improve customer experience. However, according to him, capabilities in Indonesia have not yet reached the level intelligence experience because it requires a higher level of mathematics.