Innovative in a price sensitive world

Close you eyes and imaging yourself in the following dream for a moment: You are attending a big meeting at the Ministry of Defense, you know, shiny shoes, sharp uniforms, lots of guys with very short hair, everybody sitting straight. The meeting has been called by the Air Force procurement department and is intended to inform defence contractors about its development program. The general gets up, silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming. As you are aware, we will need to replace our fighter jet in about 15 years. We called you in today to let you know that it is time to start the development process. Now, we don't know exactly what the threat scenario will be in 15 years and so we cannot tell you for which capailities and features we are looking." 
"And we cannot predict how many planes we will buy and at what price. This is a joint European procurement project, so please keep the needs of our allied forces in mind when designing the plane. However, I caution you that they might be looking for different products and pay differently. I would encourage you to obtain their guidance as well."

"So how about you start developing and come back in about 10 years with prototypes? We will then tell you whether they are airworthy and we can talk about prices and volumes a few years after that. We are unable to answer any further questions at this point."

Sounds absurd, yet vaguely familiar? Have you just spent 10 years and a tidy amount of money developing a product, and a now trying to navigate the competing interests of patients, providers and payers while keeping regulators, health technology assessment agencies and politicians happy? You will be in good company during the 4th EPP Life Sciences Forum on  June 4th and 5th in Montreux, where we will discuss how to remain innovative in a price sensitive world. 

Follow this link for more information on this event

Soeren Mattke is the Managing Director of RAND Health Advisory Services, the consulting practice of RAND Health and a Professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His work focuses on improving chronic illness care through redesign of delivery systems, payment reform and better products and technologies. Dr. Mattke serves as adviser to several international organizations, such as the OECD, the WHO, the European Commission and the World Economic Forum. Prior to coming to RAND, Dr. Mattke worked at the OECD in Paris, in the healthcare practice of Bain & Company and at Harvard University. He trained as an internist and cardiologist at the University of Munich and received his doctorate in health policy from Harvard. He lives in Boston with his wife Katharina and their three daughters and keeps his heart healthy with walking the dog, red wine and daily aspirin.   

Geared up for profit optimisation at AMAN2014

Pricing professionals, active in the Aftermarket and Manufacturing were in for a treat between March 17^th and 20^th in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Not only was it the home of the industry focused pricing event of the year, there were also none less than 3 pré forum pricing master classes to choose from.

The best week for any European pricing professional took off on Monday, March 17^th with the Advanced Pricing Toolbox training  by Nicole Huyghe from Solutions-2. This 2-day interactive training, filled with discussions and real-life examples offers you all the tools you could need to fix or improve your pricing.

Next up were the Spare Parts Pricing and Services master class, by Danilo Zatta and Martin Gehring from Simon-Kucher & Partners and the B2B Value Calculation master class by Pol Vanaerde, president of the European Pricing Platform, on March 18^th. Where the first one focused on offering useful frameworks and approaches to optimise your pricing and make difference in your organisation, the latter one focused on building the right tool to calculate your value and, equally important, how to communicate this value towards your customers. Saying there was something for everyone, would be a cliché.

On March 19^th and 20^th, it was finally time for the 3^rd EPP Aftermarket and Manufacturing Forum 2014. The expectations were high, but certainly met, thanks to new interactive forums and approaches, focusing better than ever on problems and solutions, pricing professionals are looking for. But you don’t have to believe is, take a look at what our participants had to say:

“AMAN2014 was a perfect organised pricing forum. I can recommend every professional who is working within pricing to participate in this kind forums. “
Bas de Jong – Pricing Manager at Wartsila The Netherlands

“Hearing about the experiences of other companies and pricing managers gives you ideas and motivation for your own projects going on. It was a really pleasant atmosphere to get to know new people and talk about all kind of pricing topics. It seemed to be really well organised.”
Laura Mayr – Aftermarket Pricing Manager at Stihl

“It is the best pricing event in Europe to meet, brainstorm ideas, as well as to learn practical method and tools from notable professionals and organisations.”
Sonny Supriyadi – Group Pricing Expert at Luvata

Ready to discover more? Visit www.pricingevents.eu. 

Contact nicolene.barnard@pricingplatform.eu or call +32/51.32.03.72 with any questions or remarks.