#WayForward with Chrysanth Sulzberger, CEO imito, Zurich, Switzerland

In the #WayForward series, CEOs tell us what’s on their mind in coronavirus times. Read how Chrysanth Sulzberger, CEO imito, sees things.

We’re a startup, 4 years, and there are no big reserves. The lockdown was a shock for us and the hospitals, our clients. At first, it seemed they would stop all future-oriented projects. Fortunately, things are now looking better again. However, in 2020 all major industry events are postponed or cancelled.

We were bootstrapping until 1 year ago. That means we financed the launch ourselves and reinvested the profits. If you can bootstrap, you can also handle a crisis. For startups, every day presents itself with new challenges and growth opportunities. You don’t plan for stability, you plan for progress. It’s a great mindset.

The biggest business opportunity is that digitization is changing gears. In the past, hospitals were ready only to take tiny steps at a time. But this crisis helps to overcome some hesitant behaviour.

My tip for CEOs is to embrace the new constraints and make the best of the situation. I was travelling a lot and can’t do that anymore – and I like the focus that comes with staying put. Also, I meditate almost every day. It works for me.

Chrysanth on digitization in hospitals: “Our service works like an internal Instagram for hospitals. Health professionals use our app to document and discuss the patients’ cases – chronic wounds, for example – easily and in compliance with data protection laws. That’s one use case of digitization in a hospital among many others. The availability of mobile devices is crucial for the use of clinical apps. Many projects got stuck in the past as soon as management had to decide how to handle mobile devices. I think Covid19 brings a much-needed mind-shift and this will hopefully make things easier for us.”

#WayForward Table Of Contents: Click here to get to the #WayForward series’ Table of Contents with all the posts we did with CEOs plus recordings of media events where the WayForward insights are discussed.