Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Focused, therapy-based expansion: Since 2015, AlSultan United Medical has pursued a specialization strategy, building deep partnerships in specific therapy areas rather than accumulating many agencies, notably with Siemens across imaging, diagnostics, and radiotherapy, and with Medtronic in surgical technologies, including robotics.
- Public sector dominates the Kuwaiti market: Around 80%+ of business now comes from the public sector, especially after the cancellation of the retiree insurance program that had briefly boosted private healthcare investment.
- Distributors play a strategic, not just logistical, role: Successful distributors must contribute to local market knowledge, customer insights, and strategic feedback, acting as a bridge between multinational manufacturers and local healthcare systems.
- Balancing corporate short-term goals with local long-term investment: Local partners are better positioned to make longer-term investments and adapt strategies to national policies, market dynamics, and regional uncertainties.
- Data and reputation as key competitive advantages: In a market with limited reliable data, AlSultan United emphasizes ground-level data collection, analysis, and strong customer trust, supported by technically skilled teams and long-term relationships.
EF: Give us an overview of Al Sultan United Medical Company and how it has evolved over the past decade.
HA: The company was established in 2015. At the time, I was serving as Head of the Sales Department, covering the Siemens imaging portfolio in Kuwait, and later assumed the role of General Manager at Al Sultan United. This year, we proudly celebrated our 10-year anniversary, marking a decade of steady growth and success. Our strategy was first to stabilize the Siemens Imaging business in the first two years, then expand rationally.
Looking at Kuwait's distribution history since 1991, after liberation, hospitals needed everything, so distributors tried to acquire as many agencies as possible. In the 2010s, the turnkey projects phase began as Kuwait built new hospitals. We started in 2015 and decided not to repeat what other distributors were doing.
We said this is the time of specialty - we do not want to be everywhere or sell everything. We need specialized solutions. We built our expansion based on therapies rather than general products. We started with Imaging and planned to expand every two years into new therapy areas with major partners. The closest was Siemens since we already had Siemens Imaging, so we went from Imaging to Point of Care, then Lab Diagnostics, Radiation Therapy (Varian), and others. We are among the few distributors in the Middle East and Africa who represent the complete Siemens portfolio: ultrasound, imaging, lab, point-of-care, and radiation therapy. Building on a legacy of excellence, our technical support team has been recognized by Siemens with the Outstanding Performance Award for two consecutive years. The second area was surgical with Medtronic. We started with two lines and now represent seven lines. We began with bariatric surgery, which was popular at the time, and expanded from there. Our latest partnership with Medtronic is in Surgical Assisted Robots. We are early adopters of this technology and introduced the first and second machines in Kuwait, which have been a big success. Last month, we received the Medtronic Strategic Partnership Award-EurAsia for the 2025 fiscal year, recognizing our achievements in robotic surgery. This is our expansion strategy: select therapy areas, select partners, and focus on long-term relationships with customers and partners.
EF: How do you balance priorities between Kuwait's public and private healthcare sectors?
HA: Traditionally, the split was 70% public sector and 30% private. About eight years ago, the government introduced Afya insurance for citizens, specifically retirees. This spurred significant investment in the private sector, and we saw a surge in private-sector business. The balance changed with this insurance program. However, last year, the Ministry of Health ended the Afya Insurance program for various reasons. They focused resources on the newly established hospitals that MOH built, which are now ready to receive patients, so there was no need to privatize the service. Although the private sector is going through a downturn, we expect it to recover gradually, as sustainable healthcare systems depend on balanced participation from both public and private providers. While the Afia insurance program brought a high volume of patients to the private sector, the focus moving forward will need to shift back toward quality rather than quantity through good care and investing in specialized services.
Kuwait has been sending students abroad for medical training and education for more than 40 years, and we are seeing the fruits of that investment. We have specialists in many hospitals, with major hospitals adding specialty after specialty. The new generation is doing a great job at all levels. The private sector has a high bar to achieve to catch up with the public sector. Business-wise, we are standing at around 80% or more in the public sector nowadays.
EF: How has the relationship between distributors and multinational partners evolved beyond simple licensing agreements?
HA: The relationship between distributors and principals is naturally complex. Sometimes we're friends, sometimes competitors. Some use the term Frenemies to describe the distribution/reselling business model. From one angle, the distributor is a customer to the vendor who should be treated as such, but from another angle, the distributor can be seen as taking the vendor's profits and margins. For us, we see our rules going beyond local regulations and logistics services. Our role is to be an active distributor, taking part in market risk, setting strategy, and investing in the market.
And I believe that our main strength is our local knowledge.
A good distributor who understands market dynamics should not be at the recipient end of global strategies set by big companies like Siemens or Medtronic. You need to customize solutions to customers, and who knows the local market better than a good local distributor? You need to balance customer needs with principal requirements through bidirectional communication. If we don't push back, understand the customer, and communicate what works and what doesn’t work to our principal, we're not doing a good job. We must take the interests of the local market and country into consideration. Second, we need to balance long-term and short-term goals. Medtronic and Siemens are corporate entities that care about quarterly results, but as local partners, we have the luxury of long-term planning. We can plan five-year investments with government and private hospitals. If we can balance both perspectives, then we're good partners. The two pillars are understanding the market with bidirectional communication and balancing short-term financial results with long-term investments and country strategy.
EF: What advantages do local distributors have that multinational corporations cannot replicate?
HA: What worked in Saudi Arabia or Qatar doesn't necessarily work in Kuwait, and what worked in South America might not give the same results in the Middle East. There are limitations - even though multinational corporations have financial strength that's tens of thousands of multiples of our ability as local distributors, they cannot focus and dedicate investment for long-term periods, especially with uncertainty. A good local partner knows the market better and will invest and wait for results. Another point, rarely mentioned due to corporate pride, is that we accumulate experience from multiple principals. There's a wealth of knowledge among good tier-one partners and distributors in the region that can benefit various principals.
EF: What kind of talent and leadership approach do you need in such a dynamic regional environment?
HA: I look for decent people - that's something I usually say. Our strategy is built on long-term relationships with principals, customers, and end users, so we need trustworthy people. If you look at our company profile, we say we are a trusted partner. Trust and confidence are what you have in a small country where your reputation plays a major role in how you do business and how customers perceive you. I look for decency, trustworthiness, and the ability to build long-term relationships. We build our business model with deep technical knowledge of the products we sell and put significant effort and investment in education. We also hire people in this area. There's also a major factor beyond employees - the shareholders and owners of the business. They understand that you must have long-term business thinking, invest and reinvest a portion of your revenues and profits in the market, and invest amid uncertainty. Sometimes you have to trust that the future will bring good things. It's a combination of shareholders who understand long-term relationships and investment needs that the market requires, and a team that is technically knowledgeable, trustworthy, and will stay long enough to see the results and fruits of their investments.
EF: You mentioned that you are a data-driven company. How important is accurate market data in your region?
HA: We are a data-driven company, and I mention this in almost all meetings with principals. Accurate local data sources are scarce. Some manufacturers rely on tools like COCIR Market data, where multiple major manufacturers report their orders across different countries to calculate market share metrics, but I don't see that they have specific tools to interpret these figures. This is where local partners come in: to collect data and validate it. We can not say we have certain dynamics in Qatar and assume they apply to Kuwait, or that Egypt’s dynamics are similar to Kuwait’s.
One of our strengths is that we're always collecting data individually on the ground. Our salespeople go door-to-door to collect consumption rates and market share data, and we conduct our own analysis. This is a strength of partners who have accurate data and can interpret it properly to act accordingly. When we acquire a new business line or company, we follow three steps. First, we assess and collect as much data as possible, going deep to understand the market we're entering. Then we interpret the data correctly, considering why certain things happened, why there are spikes here or declines there, and all the historical dynamics that affected the business line or field we're approaching. Second, we put a plan in place to sustain the business, then build it up and expand.
EF: Reflecting on 10 years since the spin-off from Siemens, what key principles have guided your growth?
HA: We want to keep looking at ourselves as a startup. We don't want to relax. We need to maintain this young company spirit with new ideas, with people moving around and building their careers. We need to keep pushing decisions down to frontline people and use our experience to create a second and hopefully a third generation in the company. We need people who can stay for the long term because this company is built on long-term investment. We need an educational and intelligent approach to our customers. We represent leading principals with high-quality products, and the more we invest in raising our customers' knowledge, the more they will appreciate our products. We must focus on customer service. Again, we are in a small country where your reputation will catch up with you if you're not doing a good job.
