VALUABLE ASSETS
In the medical sales industry, most of the competitive advantage comes from the doctor preference. Because of the high cost and amount of time that it takes to learn how to use a different company’s medical equipment, most doctors use one company’s products for life. Stryker has always recognized the existence of brand loyalty and has made it a top priority to develop excellent relationships with its customers. Hospitals that use Stryker’s equipment are more likely to continue to buy from Stryker because of their diverse product offerings. The key factors that differentiate Stryker from its competitors are innovation, reliability, service and reputation. As of December 31, 2010, Stryker owned approximately 1,125 United
If hospitals are not able to reach a certain level of patient satisfaction, they will have a reduction in their Medicare reimbursement. A patient’s bed is very important to the comfort of the patient. Stryker is currently the leader in patient handling equipment. Stryker has hospital beds, hospital furniture, support surfaces, and stretchers that use BACK SMART technology. This would be a direct hit on Stryker’s competitors in the patient handling equipment segment such as Hill-Rom. Also if more patients that have knee problems start to enter the health care system, Stryker’s knee replacement business could begin to grow significantly, since knee surgery is a more elective procedure. Stryker’s business segments are Orthopaedic Implants, Medical Surgical Equipment, Reconstructive, and Neurotechnology and Spine. Stryker has been able to acquire many of the companies in these segments through takeovers. One example is MAKO Surgical Corp., which develops robotic technology used in knee and hip replacement surgeries. In 2012 there were rumors that Stryker was developing its own robotic technology. Recently Stryker acquired MAKO Surgical Corp., for $1.65billion dollars. Stryker realized that MAKO had been in the market a lot longer and they could not compete with some of the features and cost.
Stryker has been able to use it extendable core to try and gain market