Healthcare and life-sciences industry

Health care and life sciences has been a focus industry of The Decision Group since its founding in 1997. Over the past years, The Decision Group has created a solid reputation in both the Dutch and international healthcare and life-sciences industry.

Our experience has taught us the importance of working for all significant players in the complex and specific ecosystem of the healthcare and life-sciences cluster. This means we work for both innovative companies in the industry, such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as for healthcare providers (e.g., hospitals, GPs) and health insurers.

Ambition

Our ambition in the healthcare and life-sciences industry is (1) to be a thought leader, especially in the field of dynamics of competition; (2) to preserve and strengthen our position in the cluster by serving market leaders, technology leaders and challengers in the complete industry ecosystem.

We help decision makers in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotech companies, hospital management, healthcare branch associations, healthcare insurers and governmental institutions during their moments of truth. We are also asked to help clients that are building up a competitive position in serving the healthcare cluster. For these clients the healthcare cluster is not their core client base.

Knowledge

The players in the healthcare cluster operate in a continuously changing competitive landscape. It is our professional belief that we can only perform successful strategy consulting projects in the healthcare cluster if our consultants have an expert cluster-specific and up-to-date knowledge base.

Research projects on changes in the cluster and the impact on the strategic agenda of players are conducted to maintain our industry knowledge in the field of strategy. In these studies we aim at close cooperation with national and international business schools and universities such as Harvard Business School, North Carolina State University, George Washington University and Nyenrode Business Universiteit. Some of the key ongoing research projects are:

1. The Nyenrode LSH Biotech Outlook 2010; monitoring and improving the red biotech cluster (2009)

The Outlook is created for the ‘Life Sciences & Health’ innovation program (LSH) by The Decision Group and Nyenrode Business Universiteit. The Outlook contributes to the success of the red biotech cluster by 1) monitoring the performance and progress of the cluster in the international context and 2) improving the cluster by providing actionable recommendations for the government, academia, and the industry in selected key business impact areas.

2. The Biotech Challenges Research (2009)

The Biotech Challenges Research is created for the ‘Life Sciences & Health’ innovation program (LSH) by The Decision Group and Nyenrode Business Universiteit. The research is used to identify the main challenges that innovative companies face in order to become more successful.

3. Changing roles and Configurations of Hospitals; from direction setting to managing future perspectives (2009).

Hospital strategy and hospital configurations are strongly affected by the introduction of competition in the Dutch healthcare system. One of the key results of this ongoing study is that a model was developed to make successful hospital portfolio decisions. The model is validated and used by hospital boards and medical specialists in the Netherlands.

4. The future of the Dutch Healthcare System; Options and Roles of Health Insurers (2008)

Recent changes in the Dutch healthcare system give health insurers a more central role. One of the main results of this study is the identification of different roles for health insurers in the new healthcare system. Four archetypes of roles for health insurers have been developed. Health insurers can steer on six key drivers, depending on the role they choose to play in the healthcare system.

Examples of recently finished projects:

• For a leading medical devices company we developed a pan-European service strategy. Core question of this project was how to stay ahead of competition given the changing focus of this industry from product-focused to a more service-oriented approach.
• For globally leading pharmaceutical companies we helped develop a strategy to deal with the increased uncertainty in their market, partly due to increased regulations.
• We helped several small and medium-sized biotech R&D companies to develop successful business plans, exit strategies, etc.
• We organized an executive session (board level) in which members of the board of healthcare insurers, opinion leaders, patient organizations and policymakers in the government, developed a long term vision on the Dutch healthcare system from a business strategy point of view.
• For a pharmaceutical company we advised the management team in developing a new business and sales model to be competitive in a rapidly changing Dutch healthcare environment.
• We helped the board of a major hospital to deal with the effects of the changing health care environment on their competitive position towards other hospitals and “ZBCs” in their region.

Other examples of past projects:

• Helping with the development of post-patent strategies for a pharmaceutical company
• Development of a business model in order to optimize the R&D portfolio
• Development of pre-marketing approaches
• Workshop to streamline sales and R&D
• Biotech portfolio analysis
• Pricing study of a new drug
• Marketing Strategy Workshop in order to define the business plan for a new product launch
• Brand Strategy Learning Program
• Development of a new business model at company level
• Optimization of sales force
• Study on the effects of changing legislation under various scenario’s
• Company specific lectures
• During preparations for negotiations with healthcare insurers, we developed a business model that enables GP’s to calculate and optimize the cost of various chronic disease treatments

News, links and publications:

• Video of the presentation of drs. Merijn Stouten at the autumn-congress of the KNMP. (October 2007)
• Case study in FD Strategie: "Zorgstelsel vraagt nieuwe rolverdeling" (June 2007)
• “The future of the Dutch healthcare system: options and roles for healthcare insurers”. / “De toekomst van het Nederlandse zorgstelsel: Opties en rollen van zorgverzekeraars”.(Currently only available in Dutch, April 2007)
• Case study in FD Strategie: "Zorgstelsel vraagt nieuwe rolverdeling" (June 2007)
• “The future of the Dutch healthcare system: options and roles for healthcare insurers”. / “De toekomst van het Nederlandse zorgstelsel: Opties en rollen van zorgverzekeraars”.(Currently only available in Dutch, April 2007)
• Website of the long-term study to the increasing dynamics of competition in the Dutch healthcare sector. This study at the Nyenrode Business University is under the direction of prof. dr. Fred van Eenennaam.
• Video of the presentation of Prof. dr. Fred van Eenennaam at the spring-congress of the KNMP.  “The dynamics of competition in the Dutch healthcare sector: Strategic Choices for Pharmacists” (March 14^th 2006)