Brainlab, Stefan Vilsmeier

BrainLAB was born when Stefan Vilsmeier, once a German schoolboy living in Munich, realized there had to be a better way to integrate the visualization and mapping capabilities of software and the actual physical act of surgery. Stefan Vilsmeier, reaching the University of Vienna, was not satisfied with the programs for neurosurgery procedures then in use and began work on what was to be the first mouse-controlled and menu-driven software for surgical planning and navigation. BrainLAB solutions to the outdated technique of 2-D visualization produced by CT and MRI equipment, is to allow The image-guided systems (IGS) expansion from a single system to operating suites to digitally integrated hospitals covering all subspecialties from neurosurgery, orthopedics, and spine & trauma. BrainLAB would become the innovator in image-guided surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery. The IGS provided highly accurate real-time information used for navigation during surgical procedures. This utility is meant to serve as a computer terminal for physicians to more effectively access and interpret diagnostic scans and other digital medical information for better informed decisions. BrainLAB’s initial goals were to cure cancer with this software, develop, manufacturer, and markets software-driven medical technology that enables procedures that are more precise, less invasive, and therefore less expensive than traditional treatments. In my critical analysis of the case I will implement the market and industry attractiveness of BrainLAB’s IGS systems and answer these key questions through the body of my critical analysis, such as: Should BrainLAB and Medtronic combine business so that it would benefit from BranLAB’s number one position in Europe/Asia and Medtronic’s number one position in the U.S.? How might the two competing product lines be managed? Whether or not to sell BrainLAB to Medtronic, due to a proposed patent infringement from Medtronic? Through my analysis, I am hopeful that I will answer these questions.

Firstly, we must ask ourselves is there market attractiveness for BrainLAB? Well what is a market? A market consists of a group of current or potential, customers having the willingness and the ability to buy products, goods, or services to satisfy a particular class of wants or needs. Thus, markets consist of buyers, consisting of people or organization and their needs, not the product itself. One such market we will be discussing is there a demand from a surgeon for any applications of this provided sort that is needed for a provider of software for minimally invasive therapies as well as for cancer treatment? New surgical technology that offers the promise of improved patient care is attractive. Intrigued, and with an intuitive certainty, surgeons are well known for their early adoptions of new treatment technologies, because of their high complexity of any given treating conditions. But, is that enough to convince other surgeons, because it’s not about the revolutionary product, it’s about serving customers and their needs. It’s about providing differentiated benefits that are so compelling that the customers abandon their allegiance to former providers and give business to you. Not just any customers, target customers. Furthermore, I will delve more deeply in the market attractiveness through the macro-level and micro-level.

Following this further on the macro-level of the market, the market size and the number of customers in the market for such a product were the 20,000 neurosurgeons at over 3,000 neurosurgery centers worldwide. The aggregate money spent by these customers on the BrainLAB’s products were approaching 15 million euros is its year due to the end in September 1998, with the net income after taxes in the neighborhood of 200,000 euros. But, these numbers comes from the Europe and Asia markets, since BrainLAB was the market leader in that region. Though Stefan Vilsmeier dream prize was to penetrate the North America market, at the moment Surgical Navigation Technologies, Inc. (SNT) and parent company Medtronic, an IGS pioneer was the clear market leader in United States. In addition, the market growth rate in early 1998 for BrainLAB’s IGS was winning IGS coverts worldwide, but sales in the United States remained reserved and constant. In contrast, the Europe and Asia markets showed that BrainLAB’s number of units of the software-driven medical technology bought for the year ending September 1998 had a gross profit of 10,763 million euros. It is apparent that there is a future of IGS in the Eastern Hemisphere. BrainLAB’s software and its related hardware developments offered something that no other company could offer. Though there were no apparent trends that favor the opportunity, the two large U.S. Corporation, Varian Medical Systems and Radionics set the radiosurgery market trend and BrainLAB’s showing at the exhibition at the 1992 Congress of Neurological Surgeons was the gateway to capitalize on that ever growing trend and gave BrainLAB its first exposure.

Additionally, on the micro-level of the market, I ask myself three key questions. Is there a target market segment where we might enter the market in which we offer the surgeons clear and compelling benefits at a price they are willing to pay for? As for the price the customers are willing to pay, it is less expensive than the traditional treatments and the benefits of a wireless, infrared signal would result in a more accurate positioning, smoother planning of the surgical procedure, and better tracking during the surgical procedure. Are these benefits, in the surgeons’ minds, different from and superior in some way to what’s currently offered by other solutions? BrainLAB’s IGS is the first of its kind. It’s better because it eliminated the wires that were attached to the IGS system that permitted only a relatively narrow range of motion, thereby making it difficult for the surgeon to perform his or her duty. Is it likely BrainLAB’s entry to the radiosurgery market will provide entry to other segments they may wish to target in the future? The field of medicine today is constantly on the move, with new treatments, research, technologies and challenges appearing every day. With this reason, knowing why the surgeons would benefit and BrainLAB’s entry to the radiosurgery market will provide entry to other segments might create one or more options for growth into other market segments, because without differentiated benefits, most customers won’t buy and without a pathway to growth, most investors won’t invest.

In the same way, we must ask ourselves is there an industry attractiveness for BrainLAB? Well what is an industry? An industry