Strategic Options: It's Not ACO or Nothing

2. Niche Clinical Service Provider

• Narrowly defined array of clinical services (generally a single service line or a subset thereof)
• Thorough knowledge of "target" customers (e.g., market size, usage patterns, value sought from provider, decision criteria used in selecting provider)
• Structured and systematic approach to developing and managing patient referral networks on regional, national, and international levels
• Thorough understanding of competitors (e.g., performance, approach to positioning, strategies used, and vulnerabilities) applied in setting a distinctive approach to differentiation
• Brand identity based on clinical expertise (skills and outcomes) and ongoing innovation
•  Proactive in establishing and managing new strategic relationships, enabling the provider to enhance its clinical capabilities, enter/serve new markets (regionally, nationally, and internationally), gain expertise, and "franchise" its brand identity
•  Ability to recruit and retain a clinical team renowned nationally and/or internationally
• Standardized, efficient operations (from patient's first point of contact through completion of relationship) enabling high patient throughput

3. Research/Innovation Institute

• Focused on bench and translational research
• Thorough knowledge of the value sought by "target" customers specific to the services and products being developed
•  Ability to anticipate where multiple trends (e.g., technology, industry, political, social, economic) intersect and are interdependent and use that information to identify new services and products
•  "Open innovation network" – critical mass of highly talented, entrepreneurial individuals working in proximity (real or virtual) with effective knowledge transfer and clear incentives
• Strong relationships with a diverse array of public and private funding sources
•  Legal skills to take new services/products through regulatory approval and retain intellectual property rights
•  Ability to achieve implementable services and products more quickly and at a lower cost than competitors
•  Maintain organization features attractive to physicians, scientists, and others
•  Minimized bureaucracy and ownership related to the commercialization of the products and services developed