What I learned week 16

This week was our final class as well as our final presenter, Beth Schively, Marketing Director of Scapa Healthcare and a graduate of WNE. I’ve heard Beth speak before at a pharmaceutical business luncheon, so I had a little knowledge about what she did and who she worked for. Scapa is a global strategic outsource partner of turn-key, skin friendly adhesive solutions for the healthcare industry. Scapa Healthcare partners with market leaders to design, develop, manufacture and commercialize innovative medical device products. One of Scapa’s competitive advantages is that they will not compete with their partners. Scapa does not sell to the end consumer, they work directly business to business. Their biggest competitor 3M does compete with its partners because they’ll bring their competitors adhesives to market, as well as their own. Both products could be side by side on the shelf. Scapa sees this as a plus for them because their customers feel like they aren’t being cheated. Beth talked a lot about a new technology at Scapa— hydro gel bandages. New research shows that wounds actual heals better when they’re exposed to moisture for long periods of time. Most people think that you should let a wound breathe and let it scab over but this is not the case. The hydrogel technology is based on a range of super absorbent sheet hydrogels. These can be formulated with water content ranging between c. 20% and 70% w/w. Products based on this technology are widely used for their ability to manage pain in painful wounds. FW hydrogels also have characteristics which help support the body's natural defenses against wound infection. These include, Being an ionic sheet gel with a strong osmotic pull, FW Gels are particularly effective promoters of autolytic debridement. By encouraging the natural removal of wound slough and other devitalized tissue, the available food source for bacteria is limited. I personally have seen these hydrogel bandages in my local CVS. The hydrogels were infused with manuka honey, a rare honey that has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Beth said that they manufacturer those for CVS. One issue Beth talked about was that the most common issue her marketing department struggles with is that they receive consumer feedback very slow and sometimes not at all. I thought this was cool because I would’ve never thought that a popular CVS product like that would’ve been manufactured by a relatively small manufacturer located near me. Beth told us that not one day is the same as her job and she doesn’t have a schedule. This was reassuring this because I also enjoy marketing and if I were to go into marketing I can look forward to this. I could not stand a job that consists of the same thing every day. This is a big challenge because they’re not able to get immediate customer feedback about the products so that the can adjustments. By the time the hear about any issues at Scapa, it is typically too late, and product is already being pulled off the shelves. She used the example once that the plastic pull-off layer of one Scapa’s band-aids was giving customers problems. They couldn’t peel the layer off and got frustrated trying to do so. Scapa didn’t hear about this from the customer until it was too late and too many customers were frustrated. Eventually the company they partnered with told them about the feedback and they were able to make the changes. If they heard this feedback earlier they could’ve fixed the product a lot sooner. Beth had some of the same advice as some of the other speakers mentioning the importance of networking and its now what you know its who you know. She also told us to be sponges and learn as much about the company as possible.

I’m sad this semester is ending, but I feel like this class has prepared me tremendously for the future. I truly enjoyed listening to each speaker and taking their advice and knowledge into consideration. I also have a new network of contacts to reach out to if I have any questions or advice. I wish the best to me peers, and hope they find successful jobs in marketing, supply chain management, clinical trial management, regulatory affairs, underwriting and being CEO’s.