MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The first workshop of the program, Growth Sources, helps participants identify market and organizational growth drivers and barriers. Select the dominant strategy to follow by starting with the basic options of pursuing differentiation or expanding the market. Participants identify the key drivers and barriers to growth and leverage the design thinking approach (Stanford School of Design). They learn to empathize deeply with the target groups that they want to engage, define the challenge, ideate possible solutions, develop prototypes, and test their approaches to accelerate growth. This forms a foundational framework for the program, enabling the creation of a growth opportunity map focused on short-term, low-resource expansion prospects aligned with the organizational objectives.

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Objectives

01. Market Growth Drivers – Analyze trends, technology, and competition to identify opportunities for business expansion.
02. Organizational Growth Drivers – Achieve growth through leadership, innovation, efficiency, strategic partnerships, and customer satisfaction.
03. Fundamental Strategic Choices – Market Expansion or Differentiation: Make strategic choices balancing market expansion and unique value propositions.
04. Design Thinking Methodology – Apply a human-centered problem-solving approach to foster creativity and innovation.
05. Empathy with Customers – Prioritize understanding customer needs deeply for product development.
06. Define the Challenge – Craft a clear problem statement using affinity mapping and prioritization.
07. Ideation – Encourage creative thinking for diverse and unconventional solutions.
08. Prototype – Bring ideas to life for iterative improvements and user interaction.
09. Test – Gather user feedback to refine solutions and make informed decisions.
10. Develop a Portfolio of Growth Projects – Create a growth project portfolio aligned with organizational objectives.
11. Create a Growth Opportunity Map – Visualize growth opportunities, users, challenges, solutions, metrics, budgets, and resources.
12. Prioritize Short Term and Low Resource Requirements – Efficiently allocate resources by prioritizing short-term, low-resource growth opportunities.

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Strategies

01. Market Growth Drivers: Develop an approach to capitalize on emerging market trends and technological advancements, positioning the company as an industry leader.
02. Organizational Growth Drivers: Implement strategies focused on fostering a culture of innovation, optimizing operational efficiency, forging strategic partnerships, and ensuring exceptional customer experiences.
03. Fundamental Strategic Choices: Market Expansion or Differentiation: Formulate a careful balance between market expansion initiatives and the creation of unique value propositions to enhance competitiveness.
04. Design Thinking Methodology: Integrate Design Thinking principles into the organizational culture, fostering a collaborative and innovative problem-solving approach.
05. Empathy with Customers: Systematically gather and analyze customer feedback, ensuring a deep understanding of their needs and expectations throughout the product development lifecycle.
06. Define the Challenge: Utilize affinity mapping and prioritization techniques to articulate a well-defined problem statement that guides subsequent ideation and prototyping processes.
07. Ideation: Encourage and channel creative thinking within the team, ensuring the generation of diverse and innovative solutions.
08. Prototype: Employ rapid and iterative prototyping to bring ideas to life, allowing for continuous refinement based on user feedback.
09. Test: Establish continuous feedback loops in the user testing process, enabling the refinement of solutions and informed decision-making.
10. Develop a Portfolio of Growth Projects: Align the growth project portfolio with the overall organizational objectives and priorities.
11. Create a Growth Opportunity Map: Strategically visualize and analyze growth opportunities, users, challenges, solutions, metrics, budgets, and resources to inform decision-making and resource allocation.
12. Prioritize Short Term and Low Resource Requirements: Allocate resources strategically, prioritizing short-term, low-resource growth opportunities to ensure efficient use of resources in achieving strategic goals.

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Tasks

01. Go through the Study Guide and Distance Learning lessons first and make notes.
02. Identify the key stakeholder groups to ensure project success.
03. Determine needs, critical drivers, concerns, and interests for each stakeholder.
04. Maintain and deepen these relationships regularly, test ideas, ask for targeted inputs and feedback.
05. Before the end of the workshop, schedule a meeting of all participants to meet and review the workshop within 30 days.
06. Participate actively and provide their best input to accelerate growth during the workshop.
07. Set a deadline for determining and analyzing the time commitment for each of the participants and key stakeholder and input groups.
08. Review design thinking methodology resources and select at least one area where you will incorporate it in your regular work, starting within 72 hours following the workshop.
09. Experience the opportunity of identifying growth opportunities through cross-functional interaction.
10. Gain a cross-functional perspective and appreciate the challenge of aligning priorities from different points of view.
11. Discuss the results and process with the group and share your personal experience.
12. Complete the project by identifying and prioritizing the growth opportunities.

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Introduction

Overview

This first workshop of the Accelerate Growth program has been developed to enable you to find sources of growth, both external and internal. It builds on a structured analysis of market and organizational growth drivers and barriers that then enables to select a dominant strategy—either differentiation or market expansion. Employing the Stanford School of Design’s Design Thinking approach, a five-step process is introduced in detail: empathizing with target groups, defining challenges, ideating solutions, developing prototypes, and testing approaches. This practical methodology leads to a thorough understanding of target audiences and makes possible effective problem-solving.

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The program emphasizes a comprehensive approach tailored to the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medtech industries, providing participants with tools to navigate industry complexities. By integrating Design Thinking, the workshop fosters creativity and innovation while offering a practical framework to systematically address the growth drivers and barriers, aligning with industry needs for user-centric solutions.

The workshop’s outcome is a strategic growth opportunity map aligned with organizational objectives. This map prioritizes short-term, low-resource expansion prospects, ensuring efficient resource deployment. Through the adoption of a Design Thinking approach, Accelerate Growth delivers practical and strategic insights, equipping participants with skills to drive tangible growth in a competitive landscape. The workshop serves as a catalyst for transformative thinking and action, empowering companies to thrive in the dynamic pharmaceutical, biotech, and medtech sectors.

History

The growth trajectory of the pharmaceutical, medtech, and biotech industries has been marked by a dual approach, combining disruptive innovations with strategic incremental strategies. Disruption, catalyzed by technological breakthroughs and regulatory shifts, has been a pivotal growth source, ushering in personalized medicine and transformative medical technologies. Concurrently, industry leaders have demonstrated the effectiveness of incremental growth through franchise-building strategies. This involves synergistically expanding indications, incorporating new uses for medical devices and drugs, and tapping into diverse patient populations.

Key to sustained success in these industries is the recognition that growth extends beyond traditional boundaries. Companies that excel actively seek inspiration and learning from other industries, incorporating best practices and novel perspectives into their approaches. Additionally, effective lifecycle management plays a central role in unlocking incremental value. Combining both medical and commercial perspectives, companies engage in strategic planning throughout a product’s lifecycle. This involves not only optimizing clinical benefits but also identifying and capitalizing on market opportunities. By proactively managing the entire lifecycle, from development to market maturity, companies ensure that their products evolve in response to changing healthcare landscapes, thereby maximizing their impact and value. In essence, a dynamic interplay between disruptive innovation, strategic incrementalism, cross-industry learning, and comprehensive lifecycle management is imperative for sustained growth and success in these dynamic industries.

Current Position

The pharmaceutical industry finds itself at a crossroads, grappling with productivity challenges such as rising research and development costs and lengthy timelines for drug development. Growth drivers include breakthroughs in biotechnology, the expansion of precision medicine, and increased focus on rare diseases. Leading companies are leveraging innovative technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics to streamline research processes and enhance decision-making, accelerating their growth cycles. Strategic collaborations, both within and outside the industry, have become pivotal for accessing new technologies and expertise, allowing effective companies to navigate challenges and drive meaningful advancements in drug development.

Biotech companies are experiencing a surge in demand and investor interest, driven by a robust pipeline of novel therapies and advancements in gene and cell therapies. Despite productivity challenges related to the complexity and cost of biologic drug development, the sector benefits from a dynamic ecosystem that fosters innovation. The most effective biotech companies emphasize strategic partnerships, tapping into external expertise, and adopting agile development approaches. They actively explore niche therapeutic areas, harnessing genomic insights to tailor treatments. This flexibility and collaborative mindset enable biotech companies to adapt quickly to evolving scientific landscapes and capitalize on emerging opportunities for growth.

In the medtech industry, the current landscape is marked by a dual focus on technological innovation and value-based healthcare. Productivity challenges include navigating complex regulatory environments and addressing reimbursement uncertainties. Growth drivers involve the integration of digital health solutions, advancements in minimally invasive procedures, and the increasing demand for connected medical devices. The most effective medtech companies are embracing a holistic approach that combines hardware with software and data analytics. They prioritize user-centric design, demonstrating a commitment to improving patient outcomes and enhancing the overall healthcare experience. Strategic acquisitions and partnerships are key tactics employed by successful medtech companies to broaden their portfolios and accelerate growth in an evolving healthcare ecosystem.