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Chemist with the golden heart

Firdaus Ali in Toronto

All men must dream.

Dr Joseph C Kurian did that, and managed to convert a modest $8000 business into a multi-million-dollar empire. Alpha Laboratories Inc today ranks among Canada's top-notch medical labs and employs more than 300 persons.

You would think the man behind the industry would be a hotshot, cellular-phone-wielding, pushy business magnate. But Kurian is surprisingly different.

Modest, soft-spoken and articulate about his business plans, he is president of the small medical lab he set up in a two-room industrial unit in Toronto along with his wife Kuttimol, who was one of four employees then.

The business has grown since, and today Alpha is a state-of-the-art medical testing lab with the latest computerised diagnostic equipment. The laboratory recently celebrated 25 years of existence and Kurian has major global expansion plans.

Kurian came to Canada from India in 1961. "I planned to stay only five years, but it's been over three decades that I'm here. Goes a lot to say how impressed I was with this part of North America, which proved to be a land of opportunity for me," he says.

Having got his doctorate in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, he migrated to Canada and began working as a research associate at the University of Toronto. Later he became a technician with a Toronto pharmaceutical company.

In 1971, with his wife's help and encouragement, Kurian set up Alpha. He has never looked back since.

Though Kurian's lab became a success, others in the field weren't as lucky. Ask him about the secret of his success and he is quick to compliment the efforts of his medical staff, consultants and technical experts. Probe further and he smiles broadly: "None. Just hard work, determination and a strong belief in God."

The medical division of Alpha Lab provides high-quality medical testing for Ontario doctors and other health-care organisations. It does more than just medical testing. It can analyse everything from the purity of well water to the vitamin C levels in breakfast cereals. Food processors, cosmetic companies and drug manufacturers are among its clients.

Kurian recently established the Mediquorum software division which helps develop innovative solutions for processing information for medical, laboratory, hospital and scientific organisations.

Alpha Lab Inc was in the news recently for taking the Ontario government to court. The province recently passed a new regulation eliminating competition within the medical-lab sector retrospectively by capping each lab's revenue at its 1995 market share. Small labs, like Alpha, which have grown over the last four years by offering better services and quality testing, are required to refund the revenue earned for services provided to the province, which will reallocate it amongst large laboratories.

"The regulation dampens the spirit of free enterprise and will not save the province a cent. It wrongly protects less efficient labs. In a way successful labs are being asked to pay back profits to their unsuccessful competitors," says Kurian.

Alpha Lab lost the case, but is likely to appeal to a higher court.

Meanwhile, Kurian is also planning for the future -- the future of the poor in India. A philanthropist at heart, he believes he is one of the fortunate ones to have had God's blessings. "And it is my duty to help those who have not been as lucky."

With this in mind, he has started the Alpha Charitable Foundation, which aims to set up a 500-bed hospital in Kottayam, Kerala, called Messengers of Love, to provide quality medical care to the poor. The initial cost of the project is over $12 million. Kurian has roped in several eminent doctors from Toronto, who will spare their expertise and time to help patients in India.

Next: Mahajan's visit strengthens India-Silicon Valley link

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