Subjects - Business

During my regular morning read of the daily news last week I ran across the story about Microsoft’s recent stunt announcing the release of their new

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

Vista operating system. They used colorfully dressed acrobats to scale the walls of a seven story building in downtown NY and hang the Microsoft Vist

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

logo on the side of the building. From the pictures, I got the surreal impression that I was watching the Blue Man Group meets Richard Branson on it

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

way to the Cirque de Soleil - a fitting stunt for a marketing savvy juggernaut.

But, as the maturing Microsoft reacts to a marketplace that is beco

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ing more web focused with customers that increasingly expect products to integrate and operate with little hassle, one has to wonder. Can Microsoft t

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

rn the surreal into reality and make the shift?

Historically, Microsoft has tightly bundled its functionality, provided little customer service and

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

released software with more than a few bugs. On the face of those facts it is easy to predict that Microsoft doesn’t possess the DNA to survive in th

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

new web based environment where functionality is unbundled in the form of widgets or gadgets, and customers have the power to easily uninstall if it

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

is not working as expected. Keep in mind that Microsoft’s software has proven to be so buggy that it has spawned a cottage industry managing its patc

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

es and security flaws. Norton, McAfee and others make a hefty sum shoring up Microsoft’s security breaches.

Of course, Windows is not the sole culpr

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

t when it comes to security breaches. The computer is much more than the operating system, and Microsoft is not the only software inside the box. Whe

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

n you connect that with the fact that Windows was released in 1987, 4 years before the internet was publicly available and we are still using the cor

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

of that system today, it’s nothing short of astounding.

Even more astounding though is the sixth sense that Microsoft had that the general public w

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

uld willingly pay for something less than “perfection” when it came to their software. This approach to product development demonstrates an understan

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ing that “perfection” is a judgment call made only by the customer, and that very rarely is there a price premium for “perfection".

In fact, all for

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

profit businesses strive to find that point where their product or service is just “good enough” - to sell in the market place, to fight off the comp

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

etition or both. No business enterprise wants to give away too much. That's why we so often see different classes of the same product (ipod nano, ipo

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

Shuffle, etc.) with added features and a corresponding tiered pricing structure.

As Microsoft rolls out what will likely be its last version of Win

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ows as we know it, the lesson that it teaches us is that being "good enough" can really be "enough". If a company identifies what “good enough” is fr

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

m its clients point of view and delivers a solution that meets their expectations, then the company is on its way to becoming good enough to be great

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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How are you checking the results of changes you have made? Why did you get the success you achieved? Do you know? Why did you not get the results you wished for? Do you know? Do you have the measures and measurement systems in place to help give you the answers?

A lot of attention is paid to skills for job candidates including how to act, dress, the right questions to ask – and not to ask. Less attention is given to the right kinds of questions for hiring managers to ask. While it is usually clear what the hiring manager SHOULD NOT AND CAN NOT ask, little notice is given to the right key questions. One of the most important things any executive or manager can do is to hire the best people. As resume is only part of the story. Asking and getting responses to tough and probing questions is essential to eliminating the wrong candidates and identifying the right ones.

Most customer interaction studies have a couple of core issues that we'd like to measure. Among the top are: satisfaction, importance, and loyalty.

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