Healthcare (B): Rehability, Innovation in a Highly Regulated Industry

Published 20 Dec 2013
Reference 6013
Topic Strategy
Industry Medical Devices
Region Europe
Length 9 page(s)
Summary

The case "Rehability (B)" illustrates how one firm created a blue ocean of new market space in the highly regulated and competitive German healthcare industry in the early 1990s. By asking a different set of strategic questions, Rehability, a German medical supplies company, shifted the focus of the industry and reconstructed market boundaries by looking across the chain of buyers, across the emotional-functional orientation of the industry, and across complementary product and service offerings. In so doing, Rehability was able to uncover and address a whole set of pain points of wheelchair users, create an unprecedented offering for them and at the same time set itself on a growth trajectory even while other medical supply stores and medical supply manufacturers struggled to survive against rapidly deteriorating industry conditions. This two-part case is accompanied by a two-part theory-based movie, which reviews the Healthcare industry conditions and the traditional approach of the medical supplies industry and demonstrates Rehability's strategic move to shift the orientation of the industry and create a blue ocean. Together the theory-based movie and the case are excellent for teaching both MBAs and executives how to reconstruct an industry through the six paths framework. Theory-based Movies and Lecture Slides can be obtained from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/rehability/

Teaching objectives

• To demonstrates how a company can reconstruct market boundaries and create a blue ocean in a highly regulated industry, where organizations often feel their opportunities for innovation are limited. • To illustrate several key frameworks and tools of blue ocean strategy such as the Six Paths Framework, the Buyer Experience Cycle/Buyer Utility Map, and the Four Actions Framework.

Keywords
  • Blue ocean strategy
  • Healthcare
  • Medical Supplies
  • Highly regulated industry
  • Germany, Wheelchairs
  • Innovation
  • Rehability
  • Wheelchairs
  • Michael Heil
  • Germany
  • Q21314
  • European Competitiveness Initiative
  • European Competitiveness
  • Europe