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 Essential Healthcare Management (EHM) is a healthcare business development firm with a focus on national account strategy, implementation and new business sales. EHM connects suppliers with key decision makers to accelerate the time it takes to secure a contract and drive incremental sales and market share. In addition, EHM has launched EHM Global Solutions that helps companies overcome challenges and accelerate their sales growth globally.
EHM Global Business Solutions: Accelerate Your Global Expansion Initiatives and Drive Profitable Sales Growth
Did you know that exporting companies expand faster and are financially stronger than their counterparts? Studies consistently demonstrate the many financial benefits of selling outside your home market. Companies that sell overseas are more productive, have less volatile earnings, and are, on average, three times as profitable as those that only sell domestically.
EHM has created a new Global Business Solutions offering to help healthcare companies profitably accelerate their global sales. Whether your company or client is thinking about exporting for the first time, or has started to export but wants to grow faster with fewer challenges, EHM can help.
Doris Nagel and Vivek Bhargava, both highly accomplished and experienced experts in international expansion have joined EHM. Together, they bring nearly 60 years’ experience in more than 65 countries, successfully helping companies expand their international sales by double digits. They also leverage a wide network of strategic partners to provide cost effective solutions for companies expanding outside their home markets. As a client you are able to pick various options of services and markets to help your business goals.
Doris, who focuses on market entry strategies, risk identification and mitigation, cross-border negotiations and agreements, and regulatory and compliance, observes “Many companies just don’t know what they don’t know.” Many smaller companies are very proud of the business they’ve built, and have a “we can figure it out ourselves” mentality.
“If you ask companies that have started exporting if they are successful or could use help, they’ll normally tell you they are successful and really don’t need any assistance. But if you begin digging a little deeper, asking them if they face challenges, then you start to see areas where they would benefit from a helping hand.”
While it’s true that you can eventually figure it out, it’s likely you’ll spend more money, make more costly mistakes, and spend a lot more time and resources than if you selectively hire a guide who can teach you the formula. Doris estimates that a couple hours of her or Vivek’s time could easily save companies 2-3 months. Both Vivek and Doris have seen most of the pitfalls companies make when expanding internationally, and they are passionate about helping companies grow faster with fewer risks by avoiding these costly mistakes.
Vivek focuses more on developing and implementing global expansion strategies, establishing and reorganizing sales channels (direct and distributor), moving businesses from distributors to direct sales models, overcoming operational, trade, and regulatory barriers in major markets.
According to Vivek “the most challenging task for a company is to balance an appropriate strategy and drive sales growth. A lot of time companies focus on getting orders without understanding the key strategic components of product registration, finding the right partner, and having the right portfolio for the market.” This is where the EHM global team can help companies find the right balance and drive profitable sales growth.
Profiles of EHM’s Global Solutions Consultants
Doris Nagel: Doris began her career at Sidley, a multi-national law firm, working on cross-border transactions. Subsequently, she held senior global business roles at Baxter Healthcare, Allegiance Healthcare, and Cardinal Health. Doris helps bring big-company global expansion know-how to small and mid-sized companies.
She is a Certified Global Business Professional, a former adjunct professor at DePaul University, and is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer on international expansion, as well as the author of a popular blog on global growth: http://www.blueskyconsultingservices.com/blog-ezine/blog/
Vivek Bhargava: Vivek, originally from India, has worked for Baxter Healthcare, Allegiance Healthcare, Cardinal Health, Briggs Medical, and Devicor. He has successfully advised PE firms, large corporations, and small companies in U.S., Italy, U.K, U.A.E, India, Singapore, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
He has guest-lectured at universities on the topic of global expansion, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Jounral in 2011. In 2008, he was selected by the U.S. Commerce Department to join Illinois’ District Export Council, where he was active in supporting local companies seeking to grow their exports for eight years. He is also an entrepreneur, founding MedEvolution, a medical products supplier, as well as Global Business Circle, a global network of professionals in the healthcare industry.
Case Study: Global Growth Strategy
The Challenge
We were engaged by a family-owned business specializing in women’s health consumables, monitoring devices, and respiratory products who was planning to expand
Internationally. The company wanted assistance assessing the global opportunity for their products, as well as help in developing a plan to take advantage of the opportunities.
Findings
- We identified good growth potential for Women’s health products.
- We determined that the monitoring devices would be more challenging to sell globally, given pricing and the existing competition.
- We identified some areas of opportunity for respiratory products.
Initiatives Implemented
- We established a global distributor network and helped the company begin selling the women’s health line of products.
- We helped the company create global branding for the monitoring devices and improve their cost position, enabling them to plan future global launches of these products.
- We identified distributors and launched the respiratory product line in a few countries.
Results for the Client
- Global sales for the women’s health products grew by 20% over the 12 months after launch.
- International sales of respiratory products grew by 65% in year 1.
- A 10-country pricing analysis for the monitoring products was completed for 10 targeted countries, providing the client with a way to prioritize its global market launches and to focus its marketing strategies in these countries.
Case Study: Addressing and Mitigating Global Compliance Risks
The Challenge
A mid-sized biotech company was notified that by U.S. Customs of an upcoming audit of their corporate import/export compliance program. The company had some import and export procedures in place and some resources, but the vice president responsible for compliance was concerned that there were pieces in place, but that they were not tied together clearly. The company wanted an import and export assessment to identify the gaps and a blueprint to get the company in a position to avoid problems with the Customs audit.
The Solution
We immediately arranged to have the Customs audit pushed back, and mobilized the company to focus on import/export compliance. We conducted a 2-day assessment on a fixed-fee basis, and then produced a report containing recommendations and steps for the company to take to implement them. As time was short and the company already short-handed, we were also asked to help implement a number of the recommendations.
We provided the client with a blueprint for a defensible import/export compliance program, helped the company create many of the elements, and created a practical framework for the company to maintain trade compliance. The company smoothly passed its Customs audit.
We achieved these results for the client by:
- Inventorying the company’s existing procedures and resources related to trade compliance
- Creating an import and an export manual for the company, weaving in processes that were already in place and meshing them with new policies
- Conducting training on a number of import and export compliance issues
- Working with the company “deputize” several individuals to
The Results
The client now has a comprehensive and defensible, yet practical trade compliance program, as well as the tools to maintain this program.
- The management team had increased awareness of the complexity of the trade compliance and the challenges faced by the logistics and supply chain teams, and became more supportive of their initiatives.
- Functions across the company now understood their roles in helping the company stay in compliance with trade regulations, and several of them became owners of processes and trade compliance champions.
- As part of the process, inefficiencies were identified in several steps of the supply chain and were addressed
- The company’s U.S. Customs audit went smoothly, avoiding costly fines and other potential problems in getting their products and raw materials imported and exported
The client was able to cost-effectively implement a comprehensive yet practical trade compliance program, with the tools to maintain it. They were able to avoid potential problems with the upcoming audit, and the program continues to pay dividends to the company. They also now have a more efficient supply chain, fewer problems importing raw materials and in shipping products to foreign customers, and better communication between the product development team and the supply chain/trade compliance team.
What do Data-Savvy Administrators Know about Purchased Services that You Don't
Chris Heckler, President & CEO, Valify
Jim: Nancy, these food service numbers just don’t add up. Your costs are continuing to go up, and food satisfaction scores haven’t moved. I have a proposal on my desk that guarantees significant savings, and I think we need to move forward with it.
Nancy: Jim, we’ve made improvements in a lot of areas, and I don’t see how one of the outsourced vendors is going to improve anything. Remember that we outsourced five years ago and those savings never did pan out. How do we even know that this proposal is the best we can do?
Jim: All I know is that it’s lower than where we currently are, and we can’t wait any longer. Let’s go ahead and move forward.
To Outsource, or Not to Outsource
Oh the age old question when it comes to most of the large Purchased Services categories. It seems to be a very cyclical process. Is this how you run your personal life? “Well, we spent too much at the grocery store over the past 5 years, so let’s try eating out every meal to see if that helps.” No, you would put a realistic budget in place, set a goal to get within the budget over a certain amount of time and then reevaluate how you performed after that time.
What is the best way to decide between outsourcing a service and bringing it in-house? You can develop performance indicators, but how do you know whether they’re good or bad?
Moving from Metrics to Benchmarks
As an example, say that you currently run your own food service department. You know your costs on meal service per inpatient day and your food waste percentages. You can manage the trends over time, but how do you judge whether current performance is within an acceptable range?
You need benchmarks for your organization to see how you relate to your peers. If you’re already one of the best performing in your peer group, then your time is better spent elsewhere. If you are under-performing your peers, then you can easily set goals based on the best performance. In the end if you do make the decision to outsource, you should have benchmark data on each vendor so that you ensure that the proposals in front of you are competitive.
Managing with Benchmarks
Imagine that you get reliable information that says that based on peers with similar patient census you could save 15% if you were running efficiently. The best practice would be to go to your Food Service Director, show her the facts and explain that the hospital desperately needs to save this 15%. You give her a 6 month deadline to try and realize these metrics. You also tell her that if she does not meet this goal, then you will need to look at outsourced vendors that can guarantee these performance metrics.
This gives your Food Service Director a fighting chance to right-size the ship before you take drastic measures. Can you imagine the loyalty that the Food Service Director would have, not only to you as her leader but also to the hospital, if she was able to achieve this goal? Most of the time leaders like this get blind-sided when their organization decides to outsource their department. Why not give your directors the chance to realize the necessary savings on their own first? To do this, you have to arm your department leaders (EVS, Biomed, Food Service, etc.) with the data they need to succeed.
Getting Started
The first step is to gain visibility into all of your Purchased Services data through a tool like Valify, so you can clearly see where the opportunities for savings are located. Don't blindly select categories for your contracting team to work on. Arm them with intelligence so they realize the biggest bang for the buck.
If you want to see exactly where the waste is in your Purchased Services spend, schedule a demo with Valify today.
Chris Heckler
President & CEO, Valify 
www.GetValify.com
972-987-1370
EHM News
We would like to introduce you to the newest EHM Team Members:
Avamed 2014 Conference
Nancy Kailas, Executive Vice President for EHM, participated on a panel at Avamed’s 2014 conference, International Seminar on October 9th. 150 MedTech companies outside the US seeking to launch products in the US Healthcare market attended the seminar. The panels provided context and guidance for international companies on navigating regulatory pathways, planning for reimbursement, understanding operational compliance and developing strategic partnerships with industry and government in the US.
EHM New Clients
We believe trusted partners and productive partnerships are not just a priority – they are a privilege. When it comes to new relationships, EHM energetically commits to proving our worth. We honor your trust and value your commitment. We look forward to creating successful and fulfilling experiences with the following companies:
- Kit Check
- KitCheck is the leading provider of automated pharmacy kit processing software for hospitals. Launched in 2012, Kit Check solves the inefficient and error-prone manual process for replenishing hospital pharmacy kits. Pharmacy kits are staged throughout hospitals for rapid physician and nurse access to critical care medications. Kit Check™ customers have reduced replenishment processing times by over 90% while simultaneously improving pharmacy kit accuracy and safety.
- www.kitcheck.com
- Please contact Tom Nolan, tnolan@essentialhm.net for more information
- Pinnacle Business Solutions
- Pinnacle Business Solutions is a full service transportation, warehousing and logistics company with years of experience.
- www.pbs-company.com
- Please contact Stan Schroeder, stan@essentialhm.net for more information
- Incisive Surgical
- The INSORB Absorbable Stapler is a patented skin closure
technology that places a proprietary absorbable staple entirely
underneath the skin.
- www.insorb.com
- Please contact Stan Schroeder, stan@essentialhm.net for more information
- iTacit
- iTacit is a next-generation technology company that builds cost-effective products to connect and engage your team, making your organization smarter. The comprehensive multilingual workforce optimization cloud platform includes Recruitment & Onboarding, Train
 ing & Education, Policy & Compliance, Collaboration & Communication, Performance Management and Surveys. Furthermore, iTacit develops Big Data technology that delivers unprecedented visibility into an organization.
- www.itacit.com
- Please contact Michael Bomstad, mbomstad@essentialhm.net for more information
- Total Scope, Inc.
- Total Scope, Inc. is an ISO 13485 certified direct repair facility for flexible scopes, surgical cameras and rigid scopes.
- www.totalscopeinc.com
- Please contact Jeff Hayes, jhayes@essentialhm.net for more information.
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For More Information about EHM
Contact Jessica Hartman, jessica@essentialhm.net
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