Aged Care Insite Issue 106 | Apr-May 2018 | Page 18

industry & policy Be market ready or be left behind Adapting to the needs and demands of an ageing Australia and a changing sector. By Nicola Reynolds F rom banking to private health, tertiary education, utilities, telecommunications and superannuation, over the last few decades Australia has seen the deregulation of whole sectors. Through these major changes, we have seen consolidation and a state of flux as sector participants struggle to make sense of new market challenges. One of the last sectors to be deregulated, the aged care sector is beginning to shift its focus from business to government (B2G) and business to business (B2B), to business to consumer (B2C). LESSONS LEARNED Much can be learned from the mistakes and successes of organisations that survived sector deregulation before us. Those that have stood the test of time have recognised the need to rethink their approach and make whole of business changes. They have undertaken market modelling, rather than setting unrealistic targets. They have understood the need for progressive business planning and to be agile in order to better respond 16 agedcareinsite.com.au to emerging market opportunities, rather than ‘set and forget’. They have moved from a focus on operations at the centre, to the customer and prospective customer at the centre. They have become commercially savvy without losing their values. They have brought in new capabilities such as market insights, digital, person-centred service design, sales and more, to better understand their market and strengthen their offering. THE NEW AGED CARE PARADIGM Now, it is our turn. Until now, every aspect of the aged care provider business such as structure, funding, IT and resourcing has been focused on serving the government and the industry. Our questions have been: How do we secure funding from government? How do we secure referrals from health professionals? How do we ensure we’re well positioned with peak and industry bodies? As with our predecessors, only those businesses who transition their whole of business functions to put the customer and market at the heart of what they do will survive in the new environment, and ultimately be best placed to grow. To do this in a saturated market with extensive choice for consumers, we need to understand the new paradigm. Previously, the target market was a small but engaged stakeholder pool of around 10,000 participants in government, professional/ allied health and peak/industry bodies with funding flowing from these stakeholders to providers. There was a minimal spend on marketing to customers as they were not the target audience. The main marketing tactics were advocacy, stakeholder engagement, PR, industry events and B2B activity.