Leaders in MedTech: Richard Dasselaar talks about Digital Transformation and its Roadmap in Healthcare industry

Today we have a Q&A discussion about Digital Transformation, Medical Devices and Value Based Healthcare with one of the Digital Strategists Richard Dasselaar who engages a PhD from the Erasmus University, Rotterdam and finished executive programs at Harvard Business School, Value Based Healthcare strategies and finance and MIT Sloan School of Management specialized in Digital Business Strategy, platform and AI. Having worked for 2 leading MedTech brands Zimmer Biomet and Philips, Richard has a unique opinion about the market and where it is heading next.?

Stan: I think when you talk about digital transformation, it is still very futuristic for some and quite an unknown territory for many businesses. However this topic has a lot of history already based on my research and our conversations.

As a result the very first question is what has been done in the past from the digital transformation stand point and what have we learnt from it so far?

Richard: I think that it is a relatively broad question.

But if we look at the Medical Technology industry and a hospital sector, in my experience as a digital transformation and strategy leader and also an internal consultant in various companies, I have noticed a trend towards platform-based organizations. Now, what does that mean? We've seen faster changes from product to launch to realization, more unpredictable forms of innovation due to the competitive landscape. And with that, I mean both on the horizontal level and on the vertical level.

For example, we have seen companies in the photo camera business branching out and manufacturing their own digital cameras due to the advancements in technology, which has reduced the cost of production. This same trend can be seen in the digital health space, where is established medical device companies are struggling to maintain their dominance in the face of rapid advancements. So what are you looking at? You're looking at a competitive advantage and I think what the digital health space has done is lowering that bar.

Digital technology in that sense is more of an evolutional way of transforming the world than a revolutionary way.

One of the key things I believe in is keeping an eye out for weak signals that indicate future changes. These changes tend to be gradual, but it's important to recognize them early on and not to assume that the future will be a linear progression from the past.

So not to assume that what you've done yesterday you will do today and, therefore, will do tomorrow. Transformation is?ideally about a non-linear innovation and execution.

But there are several theories or contingencies in practice there is I think sales or marketing teams will be the front row of the company who will observe that relatively early in the game.

In the last 10-20 years, we have seen tremendous advancements in the field of digital health, including AI, machine learning, and digital twins. However, some companies are still trying to catch up, and this can be a strategic mistake. Instead, companies should focus on what lies ahead and not just try to win today. This means that they should focus on a few key areas where they have a competitive advantage and use their resources to maintain that advantage.

For smaller to medium size enterprises, they can maintain this advantage by diversifying their product portfolio, making them more resilient to the challenges of digital transformation. However, pivoting a company in a different direction can be a logistical nightmare and requires careful planning.

This is where the horse analogy is very handy. Sometimes Management or Sales departments already know that the horse isn't able to compete anymore.

So what we do is we assign a new horseman who can hit the horse harder to make it go faster or we redesign the scope of intended use for the horse, however we do not want to change our horse completely. The desire to change for any company in that sense requires to have hard conversations internally and in most cases there is a tendency to keep the status quo and revert to the original strategy. It is a very human undertaking.

There's no wrong, there's no right. But I think what digital transformation can offer is the opportunity to manifest a better future for the day after tomorrow. In other words companies should play a long game.

Stan: The next question would be how would you execute a digital transformation strategy within an healthcare organization and how sales and downstream marketing strategies can be calibrated towards the digital transformation going in a second place?

Richard: Sales and marketing play a crucial role in any company when you are transforming the organization to digital. They are the driving force behind what the company does. As a result, it's important to understand and support our colleagues in these departments. In order to make changes within a company, a coalition of willing individuals is necessary. This can be achieved by implementing military or corporate strategies and tactics. When a company is going through a transformation, such as the shift from physical products to digital products, it's important to identify the individuals within the company who have the aptitude and mindset to make the change happen.

These individuals can become advocates for the change and signal the benefits of the new way of working. In this case, a data-driven approach may be necessary to make the sales team more agile and able to understand complex matters quicker. It's important to accommodate the passions and skills of long-time colleagues while still making changes to evolve the sales team in a new direction.

The metrics we use to measure success, the capabilities we require of our employees, and the products the team transfers to clients are all important factors to consider. When it comes to sales, there may be small incremental changes that can be made to acquire new customers with a different mindset for digital products. It may be necessary to find innovative customers or hospitals to transfer to digital products.

The strategy behind the transformation is just as important as the delivery. We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, and senior leaders and executive teams need to adopt this mindset. The company must be willing to make the necessary changes to gear the teams towards new directions. It's important to look internally and ask what can be done differently without playing the blame game. These can be difficult conversations, but the alternative is to continue down a losing path.

In order to succeed in the digital era, a company must be willing to embrace change and be open to new directions. It's not just about one person, but the entire company working together towards a common goal. The important thing is to be open to the change and willing to see it through.

Stan: That leads to the most difficult question how do you achieve profitability?

Richard: So, let's talk about the product portfolio, particularly the blood pressure devices, which has a certain revenue and efficiency. We need to look at what we can do in our operations today to improve and collaborate with the teams to find the answers. We should take a step back and look at the situation from a different perspective. This idea reminds me of my childhood when I used to play with Lego at my grandmother's place. My grandmother used to tell me that if I couldn't see something, I needed to take a break and come back to the situation later.

In our busy daily routines, it's challenging to take the time to think and make strategic decisions. For example, we need to consider raising prices, lowering prices, offering product extensions, or product package deals. We need to understand the implications of these decisions and make them measurable. However, it took me several years to understand how to make things measurable, even after studying at MIT and Harvard.

I've started my career and worked as a regional manager for about 5 to 6 years. Which has been a great benefit for me. Sales is all about communication and being good at the transactional side of things. However, adding too much pressure to a sales process may not always yield the best results. I recall my general manager telling me that pressure and heat create diamonds, but my colleague Gary later told me that too much pressure and heat create dust. I've experienced both of those situations.

Let’s take an example; there is a company with a blood pressure product in their portfolio, it's important to be sensible with the margins and make practical decisions, such as reevaluating the customer base or shuffling the geographies of the team members. These are complex products with both product and price perspectives, and they tend to have longer periods of marketability.

As a sales leader and a downstream marketing strategist, I would advice you to “sell the strategy” and provide proof of concept early in the game, because the Company is by definition a competitive arena with limited or in demand resources. My suggestion is to create the bandwidth needed by providing this proof of concept and reducing the administrative burden on the team, which frees up thinking space.

In terms of strategy execution you would want to realign the customer base and make sure the value proposition aligns with what the customers’ needs are and which jobs are needed to be done to achieve results.

I would recommend to shift from a lagging indicators to a leading indicator and capture the imagination of leadership and teams. We need to ask ourselves which direction we want to set sail what resources we have for the journey ahead, and how we can make shifts in line with the wind, which in this case represents the digital transformation and changing in condition in a vuca world. I recommend making an actionable planning on both upstream and downstream strategy and execution- plan for the next three, six, nine, twelve to twenty-four months and detail pivoting.

If your company is revising its strategy or digital transformation processes I would love to learn more about it.

Stan: Thank you Richard for the discussion and we will see each other next time soon continuing to uncover the digital transformation domain.

Stan Kalinin draws on an extensive track record of more than 14 years of search and executive team-building expertise. He is the host of MedTech Opinion Leader supporting growth of MedTech industry and creating insightful stories with key market executives forging alternative narrative about the sector current and future trends.