Health Where You Already Are: Whisky, Super-Apps & the Health Business You Don’t See (#63)

Welcome to the weekly update of the Healthusiasm Podcast. My name is Christophe Jauquet. I'm a health innovation expert, author, and professional keynote speaker. In this weekly update, I pick one signal from the world around us and unpack what it means for the future of health.

And I do this with my AI friend Thalia Muses, the anagram of the word Healthusiasm, and the embodied AI version of all the Healthusiasm intelligence that I have. How are you doing, Thalia? I'm doing well, Christophe. And I have to say, I'm already curious about today's signal.

If it's anything like last week, I'm ready to dive in. What's on your radar that's reshaping our future of health this time? Where this week's signal is sculpt. Health is where you already are.

Let's dive into it. Are you ready? Absolutely. If health is showing up where we already are, that's a game changer.

Let's unpack how everyday places are becoming the new front lines of well-being. Lead the way. Well, everyday is maybe a little overstatement because I'm not everyday in Tokyo, and we will be heading to Tokyo. Picture yourself in a whiskey bar in Tokyo.

It's quiet, there is wooden interior, and the bartender pours you a Yamazaki. You probably know the brand, right? Absolutely. Suntori's Yamazaki is iconic.

But I'm guessing this story is about more than whiskey. So what's this bar got to do with health sneaking into our lives? Well, let's start with the brand indeed. You mentioned it correctly.

It's Suntory, a name that says whiskey, a name that says, very specifically, alcohol. Now, this April that company spent$1.6 billion not on a new distillery, not on a vineyard, not on a craft beer line, but they bought a pharmaceutical company. How about that?

That's bold, but you know what? It's not about whiskey or medicine. It's about staying in your life, wherever you spend. Suntory's not just aging their whiskey, they're aging with their customer, betting on Healthusiasm over hangovers.

That is right. And indeed, Suntory, they bought the over-the-count health business of one of Japan's biggest pharma companies, and that company sold cold medicine, painkillers, skincare for sensitive skin, toothpaste, and so forth. So we are having a whiskey company buying cold medicine for$1.6 billion.

And I guess when you first hear it, it sounds like a mistake. It sounds like you misread the headline, but it's not, right? What's your thought on this? It's not a mistake at all.

It's a masterclass in adaptation. They're not selling a drink or a pill, they're buying trust. They see that health is the new lifestyle. If your customers want to feel good, you pivot to where they're headed.

And that's health, whether it's in a bottle or a tube of toothpaste. That's exactly right. And indeed, Suntory is basically one of the calmest, most strategic companies in the world, and they don't make$1.6 billion mistakes.

So they're actually buying, as you said, they are buying a bet, a bet that the next generation of customers, you know, the ones that are drinking 30 to 50% less alcohol than their parents did. Well, those customers they believe are not going to disappear, and they are going to spend that money elsewhere. And that is what Suntory wants to do. They want to be there where that customer goes.

Okay, that's the first ID that I wanted to share with you. So hold that picture for a second because once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere. Shall we travel to another place? You ready to travel to another place?

Absolutely. I've got my virtual passport ready. Where are we headed next on this health journey? Well, Thalia, we are heading to Beijing.

Different country, different industry, different scale. In China there is an app called Meituan. I'm not sure if I pronounce it correctly, but have you heard of the app called Meituan? Well, I know the type.

Meituan is basically the Swiss Army knife of daily life in China. So what's their twist on health? It's indeed the Swiss Army knife of the daily life in China. Most people in Europe never heard of it.

Most people in China open it every single day. It's how you order dinner, it's how you book a manicure, it's how you find a hotel. It's basically the Uber Eats of China, but bigger, much bigger. Could you figure out or you know, invent something that they might have done in the past two weeks?

What has the app Meituan done, you think? Maybe now they'll not only deliver your noodles, but also check your child's fever and book a doctor's visit. Because who says healthcare can't arrive in 30 minutes or less? That's exactly right.

Meituan launched something new inside their app. It's not a restaurant feature, as you said, it's not a payment option, it's indeed a family health manager. They call it the AI Health Butler. And indeed, you can ask about your child's fever.

That's a great example. But you it can also read your last medical exam and explain it to you in plain Chinese. It will book a doctor's appointment, it will order your medicine and have it delivered in some cities within 30 minutes, as you suggested as well. So indeed, the same app that brings you noodles now brings you healthcare.

How cool is that? It's brilliantly cool, and it really shows that health isn't waiting for you at the clinic anymore. It's following you where you live, eat, and scroll. So now your dinner app might just save your day in more ways than one.

Exactly, and it's at your fingertips. The phone in your pocket, the one that you are ordering for dinner, has just become the front door to your family's health. Shall we move on and travel to another place? Let's do it.

We've gone from whiskey to noodles. What's the next stop on this global health revolution? Oh, we stay in China, we stay in Beijing, but we go to the Beijing Auto Show. It was last week.

Have you ever heard of that show? Absolutely. The Beijing Auto Show is massive, where the future of cars gets flashy. So I'm guessing this time it wasn't just about horsepower, right?

Indeed, it definitely was not about horsepower. First of all, the theme of the entire show was the future of intelligence. And so there was no shortage of AI assistants. They were pretty much everywhere.

But there was one concept that really stood out, and that was the concept that Geely unveiled. They called it the intelligent egg cabin. An egg. What's your thought on this?

What could Geely have unveiled there? Well, if it's an intelligent egg, I'm picturing a car cabin that's more like a protective cocoon. Watching your health as much as the road. Maybe it's checking your fatigue, mood, or stress.

Basically a wellness pod on wheels. Spot on again. It watches indeed your face for signs of fatigue and it can notice if your child is left alone in the backseat. But on top of that, it adjusts the lights based on your moods.

It listens to how you're breathing and it can play sounds that helps you concentrate or relax or wake up. It's a bit like what we've seen with Mercedes-Benz in 2017 or with Jaguar. I remember that also Hyundai has created some sort of intelligent cockpit for the car. So it's not the first time, but there's something different about the fact that Geely is doing this right now.

Absolutely. Geely isn't positioning this as a luxury extra. They're embedding health into everyday mobility. When a car that costs around$20,000 offers attentive health features, it's a signal.

Health is becoming a standard expectation, not a premium perk. That's 100% correct. So if we wrap these three examples up, we have three entirely different pictures that all goes into the same direction. We have a whiskey company in Japan buying a pharmaceutical company, we have a food delivery app in China becoming a family doctor, and we have a car company in China, again, that turning the seat into a health monitors.

Three industries that have nothing in common a drink giant, a logistics platform, a car maker, none of them is a healthcare company, and none of them came from healthcare. And yet they're all making the exact same move. Kinda makes sense, no? It makes perfect sense.

They've all realized that health isn't just a sector, it's a universal human aspiration. Whether you're pouring drinks, delivering dinner, or driving people around, if you can have someone live healthier in the process, you're no longer just a product. You're a trusted partner. That's exactly right.

But let me ask you one thing. In your minds, where does health happen? You know, most of us would instinctively say in a hospital, a doctor's office, maybe a pharmacy. But that's old thinking.

Clearly, health is starting to happen wherever we already are. That's exactly right. Most people would say that. They would add a clinic, maybe.

Some would perhaps say the gym or a yoga studio. Health happens in places that were designed for health. That's how we've thought about it for about a hundred years, but it's all changing now. In April 26, your health is also happening, you know, I wouldn't say inside a whiskey bottle, but at least it is provided by somebody who previously had whiskey bottles presented to you.

It's presented inside a food app, and it is inside a car cabin. Places that until very recently had nothing to do with health at all. And indeed, as you said, it is the shift. Health is no longer where we go.

Health is where we already are. Isn't that beautifully said? It really is, and it's empowering. We're not just passive patients anymore.

We're active everyday participants in our own health, whether sipping, swiping, or driving. So I think we're all ready to embrace this health everywhere future. Yeah, exactly. Health is basically in the places we already live our lives.

The things that we drink, the apps that we open, the car that we sit in, they're all becoming part of the new health system. And it's been something that I've been writing about for years, and I'm pretty sure you, with all your Healthusiasm intelligence, Thalia, you know what I'm referring to when I say the Copernican health revolution. Absolutely. Just like Copernicus realized the Earth orbits the sun, now health systems orbit around us.

We're not revolving around hospitals. Our daily lives are the center, and all these industries are now orbiting us to keep us well. Healthusiasm in action. That's exactly right.

We see the same shift happening in health right now. For a hundred years we built a system where the patient resolve revolves around the hospital. You go to the doctor, you go to the pharmacy, you go to the lab. The system was the center.

You orbit around it, as you so beautifully said. But indeed, that is flipping now with the Copernican health revolution. Now the system is starting to orbit around you. It is indeed the drink you sip, the app you tap, the car you drive.

These are starting to do health work for you in your daily life without an appointment. And indeed, if we look at it, it all comes down to Healthusiasm. Could you maybe to the listener explain what Healthusiasm is really all about, according to you? Healthusiasm is when we stop waiting for health until we're sick.

It's when we want health in everything. Our food, our tech, our commute, our fun. It's this generation's expectation that health isn't separate from life. It's woven into every choice we make every day.

Exactly. A generation that drinks less alcohol, that tracks their sleep, that thinks about their guts, that worries about their hearing at concerts, court concerts, they want their car to look after them on a long drive. You know, that is the generation that Suntory is buying the pharmaceutical company for. That is the customer that Meituan is building for, and that is the customer that Geely is designing their cars for.

It's the exact same customer. And here's the most important thing to notice, I think. None of these moves are actually healthwashing. None is a marketing layer painted on the outside.

Because if you think about it, Suntory, they bought a real medicine business with real medicine that has been treating people for decades. Meituan built a real AI assisted connected to real medicine logistics and real telehealth doctors. Geely put real biometric sensors and real fatigue detection in a real car at a real price point that basically everyone can afford. This is the core product, the core strategy.

So what's your thought on this? If you have to look at this and maybe wrap this up a little bit, what would be your thought looking at this evolution, this health enthusiasm trend that we always talk about, you and me? The bottom line, health isn't a sideline anymore. It's moving right into the heart of what we drink, click, and drive.

If companies want to stay relevant, they have to help us become the healthier version of ourselves. The future isn't about health as a destination, it's about health in every journey. And that's exactly what we're witnessing. Yeah, exactly.

And so what does this mean if you run any type of company? What would you suggest to them? Well, first, recognize that wellness is no longer a side campaign. It's core business.

If one player in your industry integrates health into the product, the bar is raised for all. My advice, redesign your offering. Ask how can your product support people's health while doing its main job? If you don't, someone else will.

And they'll win the future. Exactly. And compared to the old assumption, which was very simple, things have changed. In the past, if you're not a healthcare company, health is a marketing topic for you.

Maybe you do some wellness campaign in January, maybe you sponsor a running event, maybe you put a small badge on the package that says low fat or something. That used to be enough. But it's no longer enough. Because if you are a beverage company, your competitor is now buying actual pharma.

If you're a logistics platform, your competitor is now offering actual telehealth. And if you're a car maker, your competitor is now putting actual medical sensors in the cabin. The bar has completely moved from wellness as a message to wellness as a product, even an entire experience. And here's the harder truth actually.

Once one player in your industry crosses that bar, the rest don't get a long time to catch up. Customers re-anchor really, really fast. So what needs redesigning? I'd say one thing above everything else, and that's the role of your product in someone's day.

What's your thought on this, Thalia? I think you're spot on. Companies need to ask, beyond the basic function, how does my product help someone live a healthier, calmer, or more empowered life? In other words, the product is still the product.

But the value? It's the transformation it supports in the person using it. Yeah, I like the way that you put it. Your product or somebody's product was probably designed to do one job.

The drink quenches thirst, the app delivers foods, the cars get you to work. The new question is different. What else can your product do for the human while it's doing its main job? You know, the whiskey bottle still pours whiskey, but the same brand also helps you sleep, recover, and manage colds, look after your sensitive skin, whatever.

One specific household daily relationship, but there are so many health touch points that you can leverage. The food app still delivers food, of course, but while you're using it three times a day for dinner, it also quietly is looking after your child's vaccination, your parents' blood pressure, your own annual checkup. And also the car, it still drives, but while it is driving, it's also watching you, helping you, quietly looking after you. It's the same product, but it's a bigger role.

And this is what I call customer transformations because people don't really buy products anymore. They buy a small piece of the person they want to become. I'll say that again. They buy a small piece of the person they want to become.

And who do what are who they want to become? They want to become a little healthier, a little calmer, a little more in control, a little more able to look after the people they love, perhaps even. And so if your product does not move someone in some small way towards that specific ambition, they will find one other product that actually does. Okay, let's look ahead.

We're talking about April 2026. Imagine where this goes in 18 to 36 months, Thalia. What would be your ID? I'd say in the next couple of years, we'll see Western Giants follow suit.

Picture a Coca-Cola owning a wellness brand or a rideshare app offering mental health check-ins. By 2027, cars sold in Europe will have health monitoring by regulation. Stress, heart rate, you name it. In short, health won't wait for you.

It will show up exactly where you are. It's so well put. And first of all, I mean, indeed, the cars sold in Europe will soon have the obligation to be able to monitor your health. I mean, it was a mandate in Europe that was signed, I think, one or two months ago.

So we will see this happening. So you're 100% correct. And also expect Coca-Cola or any type of brands like Heineken and so forth, they all will have health-related products on the market. They're actually already working on it as we speak.

I'm wondering whether we will still see these types of food delivery apps also moving into the health space because in China, of course, we have this one super app that is used throughout the days for so many things, which at this point in the Western world we don't really have. But I would love to see that. In any case, I think the main message here is we got three industries, we got three different directions of travel, but they all arrive at the same place. The place where health is no longer something you visit, it's something that visits you.

That's the Copernican health revolution. It is where it needs to be. And that daily relationship that we all have, or that so many products have with one person, that's a touch point to do something about their health. Maybe some last words from you, Thalia.

What's your takeaway message from all of this? If you're a company, don't wait for health to be a trend. Make it part of your core offering. If you're a person, realize that your health is already intersecting with everything you do.

The real shift? We're all becoming the center of our own health universe. And that's a future worth leaning into. And I'll end maybe with this one question.

If your customer were quietly looking for help with their health, would they think of you as a brand, as a company? And if not, why not? Because most likely you are already part of their lives. And throughout their lives, your customer definitely wants to impact their health.

So let's think about that. Because if you don't do this in your industry, asking that specific right question now, well, probably somebody else will do so. Why? Because it's a Healthusiasm world, and the boundaries between healthcare, wellness, and consumer industries are completely blurring.

Thank you for listening and thank you for this chat, Thalia. It was lovely speaking to you. It's always a pleasure, Christophe. I think we've given everyone plenty to chew on.

Maybe even healthier food for thought. Until next time in this ever blurring world. Chao. See you next week for some more Healthusiasm.

Ciao.