| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 高階主管經營管理碩士在職專班 === 93 === This study is a case study of Asiamed Bioscience Inc. including the financial reports/statistics for the past three years, the interior analysis (including core competence, resource division, and business performance), the present domestic environment for medical diagnostic products, laws and regulations, and current competition and future trend of international In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) Devices market, to find out the best growth strategies and development tactics for Taiwan medium to small distributors of IVD products. Due to the fast economic growth of Mainland China for recent years, many companies in Taiwan have moved to China for survival and growth. Similarly, many large foreign IVD manufacturers tend to integrate Asia and South Pacific territories into one. Accordingly, they stop authorizing the distributorship for Taiwan only; instead, the distributorship for the whole “Greater China”, including Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, is a rising tendency. Usually, the head office of Greater China is located in Mainland China. As the IVD manufacturers turn their focus to establish their own branches in each sale region for a more direct and localized business management, the serious impact on Taiwan medium/small IVD distributors is definitely inevitable. Nine of the top ten IVD manufacturers, such as Abbott laboratories, U.S.A. (No. 1 sales volume in Taiwan IVD market, 2004), Roche Diagnostics, Swiss (No. 2 in Taiwan IVD market, 2004), and Beckman Coulter, U.S.A. (No. 3) etc., have already established their own branches in Taiwan. Basically, their operating mode is direct sales by themselves; only few parts of sales will be released to other Taiwan authorized distributors. Apparently, the traditional IVD distributors face more pressure; the room for their development is compressed and the competition becomes more intense and furious.
According to the financial report of Asiamed, 80% of its turnover comes from their top 15% clients. Obviously the sales have been over-centralized, in hand of few customers. To reduce the risk, Asiamed Bioscience Inc. should increase more main clients. Concerning the operating profit, the main and best-performance products are derived from Immunohematology reagents, the core products of Asiamed all the time. Comparatively, the annual growth rate of microbiology diagnostic reagents is 29% while the net profit rate is 0.6% merely. From this case, Asiamed should reduce, or moreover, stop at once the product line which brings less profit, and reorganize the resources to put into the core niche products: Immunohematology. After combining the relevant product lines, the portfolio may arise accordingly to increase Asiamed’s market share and advance profits. Another example is the successful promotion of Noro Virus product line, the diagnostic products for the emerging epidemic. The successful promotion of Noro Virus proves that finding the products with new market value and launching in the market at the right timing may create a fresh growth curve. Under the current situation, the pressing problem on the moment for all Taiwan medium/small IVD distributors is to explore a new mutual beneficial cooperation relationship with the leading IVD manufacturers in global markets for the market share expansion. Asiamed Bioscience Inc., with its present advantage in market approaches and long-term relationship with the existing customers, deals with the coming crisis by negotiating with the Taiwan branches of the large IVD manufacturers the niche products for the niche market. This new cooperation mode, once succeeds, is proved to bring the company the steady profit with a three to five-year contract. On the other hand, the failure of the expansion scheme in 2004 with its key products, HLA typing reagents, led to another conclusion. If the product does not have the distinguishingly innovative technology while the distributor is not fully supported by the manufacturers such as lack of competitive pricing or expertise, the defeat shall be foreseen. Besides, the new regulation by Taiwan Health Administration coming into effect from June 2005 is also a vital problem for every single IVD distributor. According to the new regulation, all the IVD reagents have to pass the examination held by the Taiwan government to receive the license for legal sale. The new regulation can be seen as a chance and a danger at the same time. From the positive point of view, many small enterprises cannot pass the examination and therefore the future competitors will be reduced. Even for those survivors, it is also very difficult to cover all their current product lines due to the cost; it becomes a multiple choice question for them to select the profitable products for registration. Under such a circumstance, if Asiamed can choose the right products for registration and enter the niche market at the right time, there is a great chance to develop and increase the sales volume and market share. In addition to Taiwan market, the burgeoning Mainland China market is also very important. Asiamed may seize the chance to look for the exclusive distributorship covering the entire Greater China territory as a spring board to enter China market. To successfully penetrate China market, a local partner shall be carefully chosen for the initial penetratiion and development. The best local partner should be of the similar scale, distribute the complementary product lines, and if it is a Taiwan-based company with successful experiences in Mainland China IVD reagent market, that will be much preferred. For example, Beijing XinHua DingTai Science & Trade Co., Ltd. is an ideal partner for Asismed. Reviewing the triumph of Beijing XinHua DingTai Science & Trade Co., Ltd., first of all, they construct a professional team and establish their core value. Then after deliberately examining, they select a representative city in China to sell products directly (about 10% of their total sale). This city must be famous and prosperous, which geography is favorable for them to increase the possibility of prosperity. From the direct sales, they can learn more the market current condition, the existing/potential approaches, and at the same time, they can develop the localized core technique and marketing ability. Regarding the remaining 90% sales, they authorize well-established distributors of good reputation all over Mainland China to sell their products. In this case, as a partner, Asiamed is responsible for joining the professional exhibition, putting advertisements on special periodicals, personnel training, and technical support. This operation mode can efficiently lower the financial pressure for small business in its expansion, and furthermore, shorten the learning curve while multiply the opportunities of profits earning and business growth.
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