ANNUAL REPORT 2012
DAKO CASE
ONTO A BETTER PATH BY CHRISTIAN REICH AND JAKOB WEDEL
T
his is the story of Dako, the leading cancer diagnostics company, and how a dedicated management team with strong commitment and clear direction could make a world of difference in just one year. The scene is the 2013 USCAP show in Baltimore, the main annual pathology event in the world’s largest market, and Dako is the talk of the town. Dako has just success-
Everyone NEEDED to be part of the solution if Dako was to get on a better PATH
110 DAKO’S PRODUCTS ARE SOLD IN MORE THAN 110 COUNTRIES
fully launched its new instrument, the Dako Omnis™ and once again set the standard for all others to follow. But that’s not all, something is different about Dako. From being a bit old-fashioned and falling behind, suddenly Dako is positive, vibrant, focused and confident, and everyone has noticed. What happened? Tackle and Solve
To understand this transformation, we need to go back to late 2011 when Dako’s CEO Lars Holmkvist convinced his management team that a major commercial transformation was needed.
Dako had lost its global leadership position. Competition had for years aggressively pushed innovations in the cancer diagnostics market and had eaten away Dako’s market share in most established markets, and gotten a head start in the fast-growing emerging markets. Lars Holmkvist and his management team initiated a large-scale X-ray of their current commercial performance, and the conclusions were unmistakably clear • Dako had lost its leadership position both in numbers and reputation • The commercial organisation was in disarray – it had lost touch with customer needs and also appeared disconnected from the rest of Dako Something had to be done. Under the heading RESTORE , an ambitious commercial transformation was initiated. The aim was fivefold 1. Rethink how the commercial organisation must operate 2. Enable field force success to focus on the most attractive opportunities 3. Improve core commercial disciplines and capabilities 4. Ensure a successful launch of the Dako Omnis™ 5. Align all of Dako behind the new growth agenda A RESTORE programme office was established and a head of commercial excellence appointed. For the next year, RESTORE became the epicentre of commercial drive and the programme office the physical representation of the change. All efforts were highly visible, and all the programme office walls were decorated with plans, deliverables, ideas, inspirational quotes and pictures from workshops and events.
QUARTZ+CO
Dako provides antibodies, reagents and instruments enabling physicians to choose the right form of cancer treatment, the first time
12.9 IN 2012, DAKO WAS SOLD TO THE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY FIRM AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR DKK 12.9 BILLION
RESTORE became the project for all of the organisation, and not just
something that was conjured up by management. All were engaged, all were informed, and the results were evident. Over the next twelve months, Dako developed and implemented the following • • • • • •
A new go-to-market model for the field force A new company-wide value proposition A revitalised Global Marketing and Customer Management organisation A new commercial planning process A world-class launch of the Dako OmnisTM A RESTORED confidence
Engage and Mobilise
The first major milestone in the commercial transformation took place in mid-April 2012. Dako gathered its top-100 leaders at a global Leadership Forum dedicated to RESTORE . Under the headline A Better PathTM, the Dako corporate management team showed its unified commitment to implementing the necessary changes across the commercial organisation and realigning all sales affiliates around a new common selling model and a new company-wide value proposition. Their commitment stretched across all functions. Commercial performance was not the Sales division’s challenge alone; it was everyone’s issue, and everyone needed to be part of the solution if Dako was to get on a better path. A Better PathTM even became a physical memory for all participants through a tailored board game allowing everyone to help find solutions to the everyday challenges of the field force. All learnt that their contribution made a real difference to the customer, no matter if they worked in R&D, Finance or any other department. The Leadership Forum also introduced all of Dako to Operation Tailwind, a travelling team in RESTORE . With the support of Operation Tailwind, the sales organisations in some of the largest markets had each gone through a 4-9-week exercise of 1. 2. 3. 4.
Creating full market transparency Establishing a tactical segmentation model Realigning territories and teams around market opportunities Implementing the new selling model
Finally, the Leadership Forum was the kickoff for the new marketing organisation which was closely tied to the needs of the field force; to bring the best of Dako to every customer COMPANY FACTS situation. Dako was founded in 1966 by the medical doctor Niels Harboe.
During the followDako’s objective is to fight cancer by providing ing months, Dako high-quality antibodies, instruments and software continued down its enabling physicians to choose the right kind new path. Operation of treatment for the patient. Tailwind was rolled out, the new marketing organisation was beginning to take shape, and in the middle of the transformation something big happened. Dako was sold. EQT had been searching for the perfect owner for Dako and with the commercial transformation progressing, the timing was right. On May 17, EQT proudly announced that Dako was sold to the global technology company Agilent Technologies at 22 x EBITDA – or DKK 12.9 billion. With the sale to Agilent, Dako became part of DGG (the Diagnostics and Genomics Group). Along with the new ownership, Dako received significant investments, global reach and access to an abundance of new exciting genomic technologies that can be applied in cancer diagnostics.
The path ahead The future indeed looks bright. Dako is now an Agilent Technologies company, the Dako OmnisTM is launched, the pipeline is filled with promising technologies and commercial momentum has been regained. This inspires the kind of confidence that was so evident for everyone at the USCAP conference.