2015
2015 Global Clinical and Research Flow Cytometry Company of the Year Award
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2 “We Accelerate Growth”
Contents
Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3
Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3
Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact ........................................ 3
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 6
Significance of Company of the Year ............................................................................. 7
Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................... 8
Best Practice Award Analysis for BD .............................................................................. 8
Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................... 8
Visionary Innovation & Performance ....................................................................... 9
Customer Impact ................................................................................................. 9
Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 10
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 11
Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 11
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 12
About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 13
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 3 “We Accelerate Growth”
Background and Company Performance
Industry Challenges
Flow cytometry is an essential analytical tool for many applications such as cell analysis,
gene and protein expression profiles, and stem cell research. However, Frost & Sullivan
notes that its use in life sciences and medicine had been limited for years due to the cost
and complexity of instruments. In recent years, manufacturers have developed integrated
(instrument, software, and reagents) compact bench-top instruments at a much affordable
price. Increasing advances in lasers and optics have resulted in the decreasing size and
price of flow cytometers. Some of the newer equipment require smaller sample volumes,
generate less waste, are easier to set up, and have much less operating costs than most
conventional flow cytometers. The development of cost-effective instruments that can
provide timely access to experimental data have prompted end users to purchase their
own instruments - instead of using core facilities.
Manufacturers report to Frost & Sullivan how they have been challenged to develop
automated, integrated, easy-to-use, and affordable instruments, which can support end
users in life sciences research, pharmaceutical, and diagnostics sectors. Another challenge
involves the flexibility and user-friendliness of data management and analysis packages.
Requirements of acquisition and analysis of data are increasing with the increase in new
applications. Manufacturers find it quite challenging to develop software which includes all
analysis functions in a single program and make online and offline analysis consistent and
easy. In addition, regulated life sciences laboratories prefer to have data management and
analysis software in compliance with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations
for data submission. End users demand instruments that have an optional 21 CFR Part 11
compliance to meet their experimental needs. As such, manufacturers in the market are
faced with challenges to develop integrated instruments, which are easy to operate,
automated, cost effective, and also meet the needs of diverse research and clinical
applications.
Another challenge that is impacting the market is the establishment of core labs as result
of the consolidation of customer base which is restricting market expansion. Core facilities
are likely to impact the market growth in the US, Europe, and other key economies.
However, as individual purchases of more affordable innovative systems increase, the
impact of this challenge may reduce in the forthcoming years. For the research
laboratories, funding is always a challenge, and shrinking budgets slow down the flow
cytometry markets in academic research. As a result, Frost & Sullivan agrees that
companies will need to rigorously plan their strategies ahead of time to tackle these
issues.
The pharmaceutical industry has displayed a significant demand to strengthen the product
lines for use in high-throughput drug discovery processes. Patent expirations of
blockbuster drugs has stimulated pharmaceutical companies to invest and adopt drug
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 4 “We Accelerate Growth”
discovery research technologies - such as flow cytometry - to expedite the process of drug
development. Technological advancement leading to the development of more compact,
robust, and affordable instruments, as well as the increased diversity in life sciences
applications, are the main promoters of the healthy market growth.
Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact
Addressing Unmet Needs
BD Life Sciences – Biosciences, a segment of BD, has established a large and diverse
customer base by virtue of being the first entrant in the flow cytometry segment, with a
broad product portfolio that meets diverse needs of all end users. BD offers robust
products which incorporate innovative hardware, software, multiple reagents (including a
broad portfolio of bright fluorescent dyes), an automated set up, and stringent quality
control. In addition to being first to market, BD has established clear credibility for its
products among end users.
The clinical flow cytometry segment is dominated by BD, and the company governs more
than 50.0 percent of the clinical flow cytometry segment globally (per Frost & Sullivan
independent analysis). The company currently sells 4 IVD or CE-IVD flow cytometry
instrument platforms, consisting of the BD FACSCalibur™, BD FACSCanto™, BD
FACSCount™, and BD FACSPresto™ cell analyzers. BD also provides the most number of
clinical flow cytometers in the market today. Although Frost & Sullivan admits that there
are several other emerging entrants that are developing competitive platforms for clinical
applications, BD will still have an edge over the other new and niche market entrants, due
to the lack of FDA and regulatory clearance for these other products.
BD has the highest brand recognition within the flow cytometry segment in both
developed and developing nations. Its success in global markets can be attributed towards
its consistent track record of reliability and supply chain excellence for timely delivery of
reagent and supplies. In order to tackle the pressure from funding and lack of budgets,
the company also provides various financing programs to make instruments affordable to
a larger customer base.
Implementation of Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan ongoing research monitors the way that BD leads the flow cytometry
segment through its organic growth strategy. The company’s growth is primarily driven by
its extensive research and development capabilities, strong pipeline, ability to leverage
new applications, and an established large customer base.
BD became interested in flow cytometry as early as 1970 and developed the first
fluorescence activated cell sorter. The technology brought about a revolution; ever since
then, the BD FACS cell analysis platforms became standard equipment in every research
laboratory.
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 5 “We Accelerate Growth”
One additional factor that provides a competitive edge and distinguishes BD is its offering
of high-quality customer technical support and maintenance services. BD have established
themselves in providing excellent technical support for instruments. Furthermore,
marketing strategy plays a key role in increasing the installed base. BD has an extensive
sales force and infrastructure required for aggressive marketing, such as personal
demonstrations of instruments in laboratories and trade shows, and constant updates
about new products and technologies to end users through newsletters, magazines,
scientific journals, webcasts, seminars, and technical magazines. Quality customer service
and technical support, breadth and depth of product portfolio, established credibility of
technology, and simple-to-use data analysis packages are some of the factors responsible
for the establishment of the brand for BD in the flow cytometry segment.
Customer Service Experience
The technical expertise from BD is committed to its customers’ success. Their support
systems offered by field service engineers help customers achieve optimal instrument
performance. Their customer service is well renowned for product installation, future
upgrades, and application support. Flow cytometry training courses are held at BD training
centers worldwide. These courses combine theory and practice so the user can take full
advantage of the capabilities of the system. Both instrument and application support is
rendered through field visits or telephone with flow cytometry specialists. To maximize the
uptime of the instruments, BD is also equipped with remote troubleshooting technology.
Given their locations across the globe, a technical service engineer can be dispatched to
the location for onsite service and maintenance. The site has the flexibility to choose from
different maintenance agreements for long term support. BD’s service contracts have
different options such as unlimited phone support, onsite service repairs, guaranteed
response time, preventative maintenance, and software revision updates. BD also offers
specialized services - including Installation Qualification and Operational Qualification
(IQ/OQ) - to help customers document their instrument performance.
Blue Ocean Strategy
The development of flow cytometers are cost intensive and require extensive research
expertise in fields of fluidics, optics, and electronics. The competitive factors for flow
cytometers for clinical use revolve around price, performance (accuracy and productivity),
ease of use, and quality control offered by the software.
Frost & Sullivan appreciates the fact that BD has had tremendous success with bringing new
innovative systems to the market in the past 10 years. To combat laboratory consolidation
and establishment of core facilities, BD offers affordable, easy to use, compact, flexible
bench top systems with multiple lasers capable of multi-parameter analysis, as well as a
combination of high speed sorting with analysis and capacity to perform both multiplexed
bead and cellular assays. To tackle the shrink in the end user base, BD became the first
entrant to tap into the market for clinical applications of flow cytometry. This opened up
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 6 “We Accelerate Growth”
new sites for installation. The company also focuses extensively on offering customized
technical support and services, thereby maintaining additional revenue flow through service
and maintenance contracts. Diversification of its product portfolio is another strategy that
BD has championed; for example, BD offers products with different configuration which
covers various applications within research and clinical use. The top-of-the line machine BD
LSR Fortessa is one example. This instrument by BD can detect up to 18 colors. The
company was the first to market this multicolor, bench-top, high-throughput flow cytometer
that is capable of both analyzing and sorting.
BD has been the leading provider of innovative technology and has established itself as
the true gold standard in automated sorting and dual laser systems. In addition, BD
provides a range of reagents (including a broad portfolio of bright fluorescent dyes) and
robust software packages for the systems.
Conclusion
Frost & Sullivan firmly believes that BD has an excellent strategy to combat the
competitive factors pertaining to the flow cytometry market such as price, performance,
throughput, data acquisition and analysis, marketing and distribution infrastructure, and
time to market. BD offers easy to install and flexible systems for end users in which they
can add on applications based on their needs. The company has also offered stringent
quality control and standardization in their data analysis packages. Using such advanced
features has helped BD to maintain its competitive advantage. BD has gained the first
mover advantage by marketing innovative, affordable and compact flow cytometry
systems for research and clinical use; this has given the company a strong opportunity to
capture the market share in a massive way, leading to impressive financial performance in
2013 and 2014.
Due to its strong overall performance and competitive strategy, Frost & Sullivan is proud
to present BD with the 2015 Global Company of the Year Award.
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 7 “We Accelerate Growth”
Significance of Company of the Year
To receive the Frost & Sullivan Global Company of the Year Award requires a company to
demonstrate excellence in growth, innovation, and leadership. This kind of excellence
typically translates into superior performance in three key areas: demand generation,
brand development, and competitive positioning. These areas serve as the foundation of a
company’s future success and prepare it to deliver on the two criteria that define the
Company of the Year Award (Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact).
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 8 “We Accelerate Growth”
Key Benchmarking Criteria
For the Global Company of the Year Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently
evaluated two key factors — Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact —
according to the criteria identified below.
Visionary Innovation & Performance
Criterion 1: Addressing Unmet Needs
Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios Through Mega Trends
Criterion 3: Implementation Best Practices
Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy
Criterion 5: Financial Performance
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Best Practice Award Analysis for BD
Decision Support Scorecard
To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance
categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool
allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to
the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that
basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;
ratings guidelines are illustrated below.
RATINGS GUIDELINES
The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Visionary Innovation & Performance and
Customer Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the
definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team
confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which
confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a
significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 9 “We Accelerate Growth”
The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the
interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players in
as Company 2 and Company 3.
DECISION SUPPORT SCORECARD FOR COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD
Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)
Company of the Year
Visionary
Innovation &
Performance
Customer
Impact Average Rating
BD 9 9 9.0
Competitor 2 8 7 7.5
Competitor 3 7 7 7.0
Visionary Innovation & Performance
Criterion 1: Addressing Unmet Needs
Requirement: Implementing a robust process to continuously unearth customers’ unmet
or under-served needs, and creating the products or solutions to address them effectively
Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios Through Mega Trends
Requirement: Incorporating long-range, macro-level scenarios into the innovation
strategy, thereby enabling ―first to market‖ growth opportunities solutions
Criterion 4: Implementation Best Practices
Requirement: Best-in-class strategy implementation characterized by processes, tools, or
activities that generate a consistent and repeatable level of success.
Criterion 3: Blue Ocean Strategy
Requirement: Strategic focus in creating a leadership position in a potentially
―uncontested‖ market space, manifested by stiff barriers to entry for competitors
Criterion 5: Financial Performance
Requirement: Strong overall business performance in terms of revenues, revenue growth,
operating margin and other key financial metrics
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar
offerings in the market
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that
addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 10 “We Accelerate Growth”
positive experience throughout the life of the product or service
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty
Decision Support Matrix
Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,
analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to
visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at
best-in-class levels.
DECISION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD
High
Low
Low High
Cu
sto
mer I
mp
act
Visionary Innovation & Performance
BD
Competitor 2
Competitor 3
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 11 “We Accelerate Growth”
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best
Practices Awards
Research Methodology
Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research
methodology represents the analytical
rigor of our research process. It offers a
360-degree-view of industry challenges,
trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of
Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.
Too often, companies make important
growth decisions based on a narrow
understanding of their environment,
leading to errors of both omission and
commission. Successful growth strategies
are founded on a thorough understanding
of market, technical, economic, financial,
customer, best practices, and demographic
analyses. The integration of these research
disciplines into the 360-degree research
methodology provides an evaluation
platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-
in-class levels.
360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN
THE CHAOS
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 12 “We Accelerate Growth”
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and assess
their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are
based on close adherence to this process.
STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT
1 Monitor, target, and screen
Identify Award recipient candidates from around the globe
Conduct in-depth industry research
Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies
Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria
2 Perform 360-degree research
Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline
Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners
Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria
Rank all candidates
Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another
3
Invite thought leadership in best practices
Perform in-depth examination of all candidates
Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all
candidates Identify any information gaps
Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates
4
Initiate research director review
Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles
Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives
on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles
Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper
5
Assemble panel of industry experts
Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders
Share findings Strengthen cases for
candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates
Refined list of prioritized Award candidates
6
Conduct global industry review
Build consensus on Award candidates’ eligibility
Hold global team meeting to review all candidates
Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all
eligible candidates
Final list of eligible Award candidates, representing success stories worldwide
7 Perform quality check
Develop official Award consideration materials
Perform final performance benchmarking activities
Write nominations Perform quality review
High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes
8
Reconnect with panel of industry experts
Finalize the selection of the best-practice Award recipient
Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner
Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria
9 Communicate recognition
Inform Award recipient of Award recognition
Present Award to the CEO Inspire the organization for
continued success Celebrate the recipient’s
performance
Announcement of Award and plan for how recipient can use the Award to enhance the brand
10 Take strategic action
Upon licensing, company may share Award news with stakeholders and customers
Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess Award’s role in future
strategic planning
Widespread awareness of recipient’s Award status among investors, media personnel, and employees
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 13 “We Accelerate Growth”
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth
and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's
Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined
research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation
of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in
partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment
community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit
http://www.frost.com.