1. identify opportunities in MedTech market development
If you want to develop your company further, you should seriously consider entering the high-growth, high-margin medical technology market. It offers the best prospects of increasing the company's value and can also strengthen the company's reputation at home and abroad. The MedTech market is already quite differentiated and the medical products are correspondingly diverse. So the first step is to identify the market segment in which a market entry is promising.
For example, if you process plastic, you could enter the market for disposable medical devices such as face masks. If, on the other hand, you are a metalworking company, you could enter the market as a supplier of turned and milled parts. Software companies could enter the data acquisition or networking segment of the "Internet of Things".
In either case, a detailed analysis of your company is necessary, which takes into account know-how, processes, employee structure, machinery and the like. Such an analysis not only makes it clear which segment of the medical technology market would be suitable, but also the effort you would have to make to enter the market.
2. Develop a viable business model
Once you have identified a market segment in which it would be worthwhile becoming active, you can start developing a forward-looking business model. To do this, you must first consider whether you want to become active as a supplier for other manufacturers or as a distributor of your own solutions. One special feature of the medical technology market is the legal regulations to which medical devices are subject.
As a supplier, you only have to implement the measures of the ISO 13485, which is based on the ISO 9001 standard and contains regulations on product safety, product effectiveness and the protection of patient-related data. If, on the other hand, you want to market your own innovations and solutions, you must also implement the EU Medical Device Regulation, the "Medical Device Regulation" (MDR), which involves significantly more effort and is not recommended as a first step.
Once you have decided on the approach, you can use the usual tools and procedures to specify the business model. In the medical technology market, the expansion of an existing business model using value proposition design, i.e. further development based on the benefits for the customer, has proven successful, for example, by developing companies from simple suppliers to component service providers with added value. For example, they no longer just supply turned and milled parts, but also provide finishing and component assembly, so that these companies offer the customer added value as system suppliers.
However, you should also consider more sophisticated strategies to develop your business model: For example, tapping into a previously non-existent submarket, an untouched "blue ocean", by redefining an offering in order to reach completely new customer groups and avoid the competition. However, the application of these and similar methods requires good to very good knowledge of the market.
3. Design a market entry strategy
The actual market entry strategy is usually based on the idea of the profit center: the part of the company that is pushing into the medical technology market should think and act like a separate company. On the one hand, this has organizational advantages, as it allows the business unit to be better managed. On the other hand, it enables a better assessment of the profitability of this division, as the costs can be directly compared with the division's income. In any case, a structured approach with generally agile project management is important so that market entry can take place quickly and in a targeted manner.
Suitable pilot projects open up market access. They not only serve to validate all workflows and processes in collaboration with your pilot partners, but also as a "success story" for marketing measures and as a starting point for scaling your business. In order to access such pilot projects, you should definitely work with an industry expert who has the necessary network for project acquisition.
4. Prepare your employees for structural change
The mindset of your staff is also a factor in the success of your market entry. Apart from the fact that the internal structural change will only succeed if all employees have understood what is at stake, special expectations are placed on the quality of medical technology products. However, these can only be met if your employees are appropriately motivated. This is why you should make your employees aware at an early stage that medtech products are used in human medicine - which means nothing other than that human lives can depend on their quality.
5. Regularly review your business model
Nothing stays the same, and trends or even megatrends can have a serious impact on your business model. First and foremost, digitalization comes to mind. After all, medical devices are already cutting-edge precision engineering products, but the increasing data collection and networking of real and virtual products, the "Internet of Things", is influencing both product development and market development and sales. For example, the number of digital and software-based MedTech products and innovations is constantly increasing.
But regulatory market changes can also destroy established business models and/or enable completely new models. You should therefore keep an eye on such developments and regularly review your business model by subjecting it to a rigorous analysis that reveals both weak points and potential for improvement. In this way, you can adapt to changing markets at an early stage without becoming hectic or even getting into a substance-threatening imbalance.
And not only that: change that is already underway often offers unforeseen opportunities that you can exploit for your company.
