Two business models we didn’t think would fly
A few years ago we scratched our heads and dismissed two very different business ideas as “no-goers” – teleradiology and formalising “Ladies from the East.” How wrong we were.
For many years teleradiology really didn’t look like a flyer. Public sector hospitals didn’t want to outsource image interpretation to the private sector. And (very well paid) European radiologists, scared that teleradiology would lead to images being outsourced to India, dug in their heels and got stupid laws passed to stop it.
And then there was the idea of building a care business by exporting Polish and Romanian women to look after elderly Germans and Brits. That would mean competing with over one million women who simply go direct to the family over the internet or go through tiny mom’n’pop agencies. No chance, we thought.
Yet now the Telemedicine Clinic (TMC) in Barcelona has grown sales to €25m, achieving annual growth of nearly 30% for the last four years straight. Meanwhile, Polish outfit Promedica has grown its sales to over €100m, achieving sales growth of 20% plus for the past five years. TMC has benefited from severe radiologist shortages, which have left Scandinavian and British hospitals desperate. Promedica provides a way of staying out of a nursing home.
Both companies have innovated. Promedica has built a sales franchise network across Germany and the UK and forty recruitment offices across Poland and Romania. It is McDonaldizing the sector. TMC has added offices in Australia and now the Carribbean to provide 24/7 cover for European hospitals. It has now launched telepathology services and plans to sell its IT know-how to public providers.
The lesson from all this? It pays to not be conservative in this most conservative of sectors. The CEOs of both companies are presenting at Healthcare Business International 2017 on April 4-5 in London.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Max Hotopf or call 0207 183 3779.
