Digg It - Business

Are you planning your business or are you planning your growth?

If you are like many high-performing business people, you have an annual ritual to set your plans for the coming twelve months. Some people do it in December, others at weird, miscella

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

neous times of the year, but most -- me included -- tend to do it the beginning part of the New Year.

It doesn’t matter exactly when you do this, but it is important you do it sometime soon. It has been said all the way back to the time of the ancients: goals an

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

written plans for their attainment are the surest way to speed up your accomplishments. So skipping this step is not an option!

As you buckle down to this critical task, consider: are you planning for business as usual or are you planning for wonderful, extraor

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

inary, growth? Many people feel kind of beaten down by the past three years of economic mis-performance and think a year in which profits don’t retreat will be a good year.

Others--most people--will plan to do something very much like they did in 2003; perhaps t

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ey will try to do it a bit better. They may look at the surplus resources they have available (if any) and try to figure out how they can eke out a little more performance, profit and revenue -- without taking any big risks or doing anything radical. And for the

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ost part, it will be business as usual.

Ho hum...

Don’t be either of these types...

Plan to do something extraordinary!

Plan to extend or expand or excel.

And regardless of the economic forecast--which in the US is good, and in other places not so good--plan

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

to create a breakthrough in your business.

Sounds good... How?

First, some fundamentals. Unless you have invented something never before seen in the world, there are only four components to having a profitable business:

Have a large enough--and rich

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

enough--market;

Have products or services your market wants and is willing to pay for;

Have a cost efficient way to obtain (and deliver) the product or service; and,

Have a cost efficient way to sell your product or service.

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

l>

And regardless of what you may have heard in the past, there are only three ways to increase your revenue:

Sell to more customers;

Sell more to the same customers with each transaction; and,

Sell the same customers more often.

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

ol>

Think about it...

Because while all of this may seem obvious and trivial, careful consideration of these seven simple statements will provide you some mighty powerful insights into how to have a breakthrough in your business.

Second, your job is to turn th

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

se statements into the right questions.

Questions like, "How can I sell more customer?" Or, "What services can I add to my product mix to increase the size of an average transaction?" Or even, "Am I selling to the right (large enough and rich en

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

ugh) market?"

Asking the right questions will fire off thought processes that can make you money--lots of it--provided you answer the questions and act on your answers.

Say your business sells software to plumbing supply houses. You expect the pace of build

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ng to cool off a bit this year because of global interest rate increases, which will mean that your customers will have less money to upgrade their computer systems this year. "How to sell to more customers" might not be the right question this year. But asking "

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ow can I sell more to my current customers" might lead to an idea to develop a coaching or consulting service that helps them increase their profits--by using your software--even in a down plumbing supply market.

You could potentially sell this service to every

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

single one of your customers! That would be some breakthrough.

And asking, "how can I sell to my past customers" could yield an additional windfall as those guys will really need your help.

Or perhaps you sell web-based information to stock market traders, and

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

he market is heating up again. You know that more "players" will be entering the game, and you know most of them will lose their shirts (again) if they don’t get some help fast.

Asking "how can I cost-effectively sell to more customers quickly" might lead you to

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

some powerful joint-venture strategies. And thinking about joint ventures could lead you the question ’"how can I provide value to my competitors’ products" which could open up a whole new market for you. Another breakthrough.

Can you see how asking questions wi

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

l help you plan for extraordinary growth?

The right questions, answered in the proper order gives you what I call a Growth Strategy Roadmap. This process will direct your thinking to create breakthroughs on demand. Sound impossible? It’s not... I have seen it wo

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

k over and over. In fact, I’ve been helping people grow their businesses for years--by showing them how to ask these critical business-building questions.

The third thing you must do, after you ask the right questions, is invent answers to those questions... and

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

then you have to act on those answers. Of course, putting together an effective growth plan is a time consuming process, and there are lots of places for missteps that will lead to bad conclusions. But the benefits can be huge.

© Paul Lemberg. All rights reserve

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy that aims to get the right products to the right place at the right time and in the right quantity. Lean manufacturing focuses on the reduction of the wastes that decrease efficiency and increase costs. These wastes include over-production, waiting time, processing, inventory, transportation, motion, and scrap. Lean manufacturing has been made popular by Japanese companies who have used these very effectively.

In our last article on Project Management, we looked at the team members that the Project Manager would need to help manage a defence electronics project. In this one, we'll continue with the review of the invitation to tender and the bid/no bid decision.

When growing a company, it is important to solidify your image early on. The public responds best to repetition and consistency, and a company image needs to follow certain guidelines to maintain a consistent and recognizable image.

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