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.