Bill Drayton, celebrated business leader and founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, firmly believes that the life purpose of a true social entrepreneur is to change the world. It is after him that the term social entrepreneur is coined. It is also a term that Tan Sri Dato’ Dr R Palan, another respected business leader, likes to use to describe himself. Social entrepreneurs believe that they must come up with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing issues, and work until they have changed things around. In this cover interview with India Empire Magazine, Dr Palan, an enduring name in Malaysia’s business fraternity and beyond, and an international speaker of repute, talks us through his life story, and this need inside him to do things that would make a difference to the lives of others. Today, as Executive Chairman of the SMR Group in Malaysia, he runs the popular Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences based in Selangor. His group employs 1,000 people from 25 countries across the world. The SMR group that specializes in education, technology and HR professional services has developed several software and applications in human capital management, and business intelligence dashboards. Dr Palan has studied across four continents and tells you with much depth of understanding that it is not about acquiring degrees, but about lifelong learning. Being a social entrepreneur that creates value for shareholders, he believes that at the end of the day it is about giving back to society in some form or other.