In my previous piece, I explored the inspiration of our conference theme, “New models for the new era,” and its relevance to the healthcare landscape. Beyond our role in servicing this sector, it’s essential to recognise HBI’s multifaceted identity as a media enterprise. Today, I’m excited to delve into our trajectory and positioning within the industry. Brace yourself for an announcement: we’re embarking on a journey beyond the confines of our traditional healthcare services focus. Keep reading to uncover the details.

In the “digital era” all media businesses have experienced challenges and opportunities. HBI is no exception. Running an events business during pandemic restrictions is certainly one challenge which springs to mind! And I can’t mention this without taking the opportunity to thank all our valued customers and partners whose goodwill and custom enabled us to negotiate a successful passage through those times. 

Readers will likely know that HBI was recently acquired by French company Europevents SAS. Europevents SAS is also the owner of IPEM, the premier relationship broker for global private equity. Working with new owners in our own “new era” has given the management team a fantastic opportunity to review our own business model and core purpose – or raison d’etre as they might put it.

To date, the underlying logic of our business has been to deliver value to the market with a dual approach – a membership offering that provides immediate, day-to-day, and year round value to our members, and our continuing events programme that provides industry-leading expert insights along with unique networking and peer engagement opportunities

Membership revenues are profitable and predictable based on a subscription model. While revenues from events activities are potentially more profitable, they carry a risk profile that can be volatile, as seen during the pandemic. From a business perspective, the resilience and synergies from our dual approach have strengthened HBI, and we believe this brings greater value to our community of users.

This is a proven model employed by many of the best B2B media businesses in a digital media era which has moved seemingly permanently away from the advertising funded models of old. Our evaluation is that the underlying model of the business is sound.  

Evaluating our core purpose with Antoine Colson, IPEM’s CEO, has proven even more interesting for us. Up until now, we have sought to deliver value to the market by focusing on the ‘for-profit health and care services sectors in Europe and beyond’, what I often refer to as our business paradigm.

Our purpose has been to help those leaders who are running and investing in health and care services businesses to expand their networks and to develop winning investment and business strategies that deliver both profitability and the best patient outcomes. This has been a fine paradigm that has served the business, its customers and, we trust, the wider market very well. 

However, like everything in life, there is room for improvement and a need for change.

We have been covering a multitude of sub-sectors whilst leaving others uncovered. For example, up to now we’ve chosen not to cover Aesthetics despite the relevance of this market to our customers and its relationship with other sectors that we do cover, such as Dentistry, Ophthalmology and Primary Care. 

The time has come for a new paradigm.

Now, HBI will track investment activity across healthcare with a primary focus on private markets in Europe, and also across the Middle East, South Africa, India, and Australia. 

Our mission is to support healthcare executives, investors and advisors to make the right connections and to take better informed strategic and investment decisions. We will do this by providing exclusive networking opportunities and actionable business insights at our events and through online news, data, and analysis.

We will continue to cover M&A activity, new government legislation, ESG, the emergence of new business models, and internationalisation in terms of their impact on private investment, profitability, and patient outcomes. We will report on areas such as property investment and digital technology in greater depth, and venture into new areas such as Aesthetics, Wellness, Retail Pharmacies, and Veterinary Services, among others.

You can already see tangible evidence of our new paradigm as seen online in this year’s inaugural Property Investment Report, in the establishment of Executive Meeting Suites for conducting high level meetings efficiently at HBI 2024, and in the conference program where sessions such as Veterinary Services and Nuclear Medicine appear for the first time. 

In remodelling our business for a new era, all our plans reflect our determination to support our customers to thrive.

If you have any thoughts or comments about HBI’s new direction I’d be delighted to hear from you. You can reach me by email at thomas@healthcarebusinessinternational.com or drop me a message on the conference app to arrange a meeting at HBI 2024 the leading international healthcare CEO and investor deal-making conference.We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Thomas McMullen or call 0207 183 3779.