Anna Frisch at Aesch AG Initiating Lateral Change Case Solution

The competitive advantage Aesch enjoys is its constant strive of pushing the boundaries of technology, and what it can do, and how they can integrate changing technology in their product mix and revolutionize their product offerings to the market. This concept and approach of theirs held true in the field of X-ray machines, as well as ultrasound equipment, and computed tomography scanners, along with these technological advances, Aesch enjoys strong footing in the areas of Swiss engineering as the company had always directed its interest in developing the best technology any money in the world could buy.

The case study focuses on the product mix and marketing campaign of Aesch in the German healthcare industry which is dubbed to have a different approach than many other countries of the world. The country has seen a radical trend in economization as almost two-thirds of the country's hospitals were at risk of running in a steep deficit. Their revenue streams were shrinking, and they were showing signs of facing bankruptcy. Thus, in these strict conditions of the economy, it became increasingly important for the healthcare industry to emphasize the factors such as liquidity, overall profitability, and simultaneous security in any investment made.

The German market was important for Aesch, as the case mentions that the country has shown an almost $11.8 billion spending on medical devices, a staggering $145 per capita, and capturing a total of 6 percent share in the overall spending of the world, furthermore, it is also mentioned in the case study that the German market was estimated to include a total of 400,000 different products in a total of over 8,000 categories (Ewert, 2009).

While keeping these data in mind, it was also interesting to note the slowed rate of growth in the German market, which was because of the overall conditions there, present because of the nature of spending, which Anna not only wanted to change but revolutionize in the coming days. As mentioned in the study, the Government funding had remained flat, and the increasing competitive advantage there made a market to be capitalized upon by any healthcare company, given the fact their spending per capita was so high. As mentioned in the case study, since the buying was mostly done through the clinicians, there was little a company could do on a large scale, as the sales were mostly done by vendors, leaving very little room for there to be proper marketing campaigns, and Anna wanted to bring a substantial change, targeting the higher-ups of clients so that Aesch, can target and capture a larger market share than their competitors.  

2. Causes and Triggers of Change

The text above touches upon a few important aspects as to how Anna saw an imminent change which she deemed necessary to be brought into the healthcare market of Germany. The case study mentions the increasing market for healthcare-related products in Germany which Anna wanted to capitalize upon in her marketing strategy.

The number one cause of the change was that in the market it was mainly the clinicians which are responsible for the purchase of healthcare-related expenses for any facility in Germany. The marketing specialist saw an opportunity to expand on her ideas based on the reasons mentioned below.

The first reason was that Germany was a growing market for healthcare-related engineering products. Thus because of this reason, which is also mentioned in the case study text, the market will see to expect lower growth in the future, enforced by the fact that the government is focusing on limiting spending on these expenses, and the declining GDP of the country. The fundings of hospitals by the government had considerably declined in the years, and the reforms of 2004 had shown major effects, which as predicted in the text, would be similar to the effects the reforms of 2007 would have on the industry (Ewert, 2009).

Secondly, Anna realized that the increase in market share will not be achieved if the company did not deliver any further value-added services to their clients. The machinery and equipment these clients used had already been used for a while, thus in the coming years, it was a guarantee that the hospitals and other healthcare-related industries will not dedicate their spending on these products, which Aesch specialized in.

Due to these reasons, it is characterized that the company will experience slower growth in the coming years, and it was a problem that Anna saw needed amendment and rectification. These were the triggers for change, and an opportunity that needed to be capitalized upon by Aesch, if they were to hold out in front of their competitors, and still deliver to provide value-added services and products to remain atop and afloat over the rest of their competitors.