SAB NewsTwo SAB members attend annual LPA meeting in Scottsdale, AZ in early NovemberPosted 12/14/2006 The Laboratory Products Association (LPA) is a part of the SAMA Group of Associations founded in 1918. Its member companies are suppliers of lab products and services such as glass and plasticware, chemicals, equipment and supplies used in scientific research and applied science and life science worldwide. The 2006 LPA Annual Meeting was held November 5-7, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona USA. Entitled "Customer Centricity", the conference brought lab product suppliers together with their customers, life scientists. The Science Advisory Board had the opportunity to select two members to attend as part of a three-member panel during the conference. Dr. Beverly Barton of the New Jersey Medical School, USA and Dr. Richard Wintle of The Centre for Applied Genomics, Toronto, Canada were the two members selected to attend and participate. The third member of the panel was Mr. Steve Mack, Director of Procurement of the University of Arizona. Drs. Barton and Wintle have each provided a personal summary of their experiences at the conference. We thank them for their willing participation. Continue reading below for their insightful conference reviews. Summary of Dr. Barton The Laboratory Products Association (LPA) annual meeting was held this year November 5 – 7 at the Fairmont Princess Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. A more beautiful set of accommodations, and matching weather, would be hard to find. I was invited to attend and give a presentation. The LPA is, as the name implies, an organization comprised of executives and managers from companies that distribute or manufacture, you guessed it, laboratory supplies. The LPA is also, if I’m not mistaken, an underwriter for the SAB. This year’s meeting focused on customer centricity, which means making business revolve around the customer. Sunday was a reception and buffet dinner, with great opportunities for networking. It was also a great opportunity to try a Sonora Sunset, a cocktail consisting of aged tequila (Jose Cuervo silver), Triple Sec, pineapple and blood orange juices with a touch of grenadine. It’s a specialty of the bar at the Fairmont Princess, and worth its price. Monday kicked off with a lavish buffet breakfast. There was barely enough time to walk down the buffet table, choose what to eat and drink, and actually eat it, before the morning session commenced. The first speaker was B. Joseph Pine, II, or as he wanted to be called, Joe. He’s a co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses design new ways to improve their marketing strategies. At first I thought this was going to be incredibly boring. Nothing could be further from the truth. Joe is an outstanding speaker who designed beautiful graphics to emphasize his points. He defined customer centricity and demonstrated how companies achieve it through innovations. I found myself taking notes, and I learned things about familiar companies I never knew. The most fascinating aspect was learning how offering customers personalized service saves companies money. A 2 hour seminar never went by so fast.  We had lunch on a patio next to the Willow Stream, which isn’t a body of water, but rather a sybaritic spa run by the Fairmont. Surrounded by cacti and oleanders in bloom under a cerulean sky, it was hard to believe it’s November (and hard not to jump into one of the several huge swimming pools). The afternoon’s speaker was Ranjay Gulati, the Michael L. Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Strategy and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Ranjay told us about implementing market focus. Now you’d think that at a meeting such as the LPA this seminar would be more like carrying coals to Newcastle (redundant, in other words). But the LPA folks are aware of the shifting economic situations among their customers, and so are trying to shift their marketing focus to those with the money to spend. End users of lab products often are graduate students or research associates, but these people aren’t the ones with the actual purchasing power. Frankly, I thought that this was a bit obvious, but maybe the LPA folks needed to hear about different companies’ targeting strategies in order to improve their own. We had a bit of a break before dinner, so I took the opportunity to visit the Willow Stream Spa. Absolutely fabulous is my verdict, albeit the prices are not for the faint of heart. Following my relaxation time in the spa was a poolside reception and buffet dinner. Maybe I should have hit the fitness center instead of the spa, looking back at dinner. The next morning was a panel of speakers followed by a discussion sessions. The three speakers were yours truly, Steven Mack, C.P.M, and fellow SAB member Richard Wintle. I’m an assistant professor in the Division of Urology/ Department of Surgery at New Jersey Medical School (part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ) in Newark, NJ, where I do prostate cancer research primarily and collaborate on other projects. I spoke about the types of techniques we use, the kinds of products, how we chose them, and why. Factors that influenced our decisions, such as how much waste is generated by a product, were included, since we have to pay for waste disposal. I mentioned several products that I find outstanding and why, and ended with describing a few ways manufacturers can make our work easier or what types of products for which I foresee needs. Steve Mack is the Director of Procurement for the University of Arizona in Tucson. His presentation described the U. of AZ in some detail, as well its administrative organization, its overall budget, where its purchasing department is headed in the future, and how the U. of AZ would like to set up strategic alliances with vendors. The last panel speaker, Richard Wintle, is the Interim Director and Scientific and Operations Consultant for the Centre for Applied Genomics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Richard spoke in detail about the CAG: its organization, its mission, its vision, its funding mechanisms, the scope of its budget, its instrumentation, and its new initiatives. The CAG is one of the largest in North America and operates 7 days per week. Following Richard’s presentation was the panel discussion. It was really more like a question and answer session than a real discussion. The afternoon’s speaker and the last one was Ryan R. Beal, M.D., an associate principal in the Los Angeles office of McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm advising on issues of strategy, organization, technology, and operations. Ryan works in the health care division and advises McKinsey’s biopharma, life sciences, and medical devices clients. Since I had to catch my flight right after the panel discussion, I wasn’t able to stay for Dr. Beal’s seminar. I would have been interested to hear what advice he had for the LPA members. This was not like a scientific meeting, where people present their research and you hear about exciting new results or up-and-coming technologies contributing to breakthroughs. But the LPA people were interested in how I decide on product lines, how my university’s purchasing is structured, when do I purchase products based on price and when do I not, and so forth. I was also able to connect with a manager and help my husband out; he’s also faculty here and runs a microbiology lab course for the medical students. He’s had a problem with some reagents for two consecutive years now; the manager I met is in charge of that product line and never heard any of the complaints my husband wrote in about the product. I suspect he’ll have reagents that perform properly when the course is offered again next summer. LPA, I’ll be happy to be a return speaker at your annual meeting; you’re a great group of folks. Summary of Dr. Wintle Phoenix in November – hard to resist for someone who lives in Canada. The venue was gorgeous – the Fairmont Princess Scottsdale is a large hotel complex, featuring at least three pools, a health club, terraces and verandahs that double as restaurants and social venues, and fantastic landscaping featuring many species of cacti, succulents and flowers. Wild rabbits, quail and noisy black grackles over-run the entire grounds, and there is even a small enclosure with some native desert tortoises. The weather was absolutely perfect, 75 to 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) each day, with a light breeze blowing a few fluffy clouds across the brilliant blue sky.  There were no travel hitches and even airport security didn’t pose any hassles. I do have one word to the wise, however – Scottsdale is a fair distance from Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport, and the taxi ride was over $50. If I were attending a conference here again, I would seriously consider renting a car, given that the stay would only be for a few days. The meeting itself was a little different from the “standard” scientific conferences many SAB readers will be familiar with. The attendees at the LPA are, for the most part, highly placed sales and marketing executives in lab supplies production and/or distribution companies. There were more vice-presidents of sales, national sales managers and CEOs at this conference than the field sales representatives that we are used to meeting at scientific conferences. Having access to this many senior executives at once was enjoyable, and it was inspiring to hear some “war stories” from veterans who have built successful businesses from the ground up. There was a great deal of talk about the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher, and it was also clear that Fisher and VWR are regarded as the biggest players in the lab supplies space. Interestingly, neither of these companies had any great visibility, at least not that I noticed. This is also not a meeting that is specialized in one particular area, as many scientific conferences are (neuroscience, human genetics, immunology, cancer). Representatives of companies with a very diverse set of interests and products were all rubbing shoulders. Instrumentation, fine chemicals, consumables – almost anything that can be imagined in the general area of “lab supplies”. The Sunday night dinner and social event was a valuable object lesson in directing me not to be overly specialized in my own presentation. The attendees were uniformly very open and friendly. The overall impression was that this meeting is, first and foremost, a social event. A networking breakfast, events for delegates’ spouses, and a preliminary golf tournament share the spotlight with the sessions themselves. In general, the session that the SAB members presented at was well received, although it was the last session and the audience had shrunk to about sixty individuals. I think, however, that it was useful. Co-presenter Beverly Barton spoke in detail about issues she and her institution have surrounding vendors, supply chain, quality and purchasing. Her comments about free samples from vendors, and how they are usually of a size or quantity to hardly be useful, provoked some discussion. Steve Mack of the University of Arizona gave a high-level overview of procurement strategy at his institution, which was also enjoyable and resulted in the largest number of questions from the floor. I gave an overview of our multi-disciplinary genomics facility and highlighted a few key issues and points that we find important. My discussion of government and NGO co-funding and industry in-kind contributions may have left the audience a bit baffled, however. Nevertheless, overall the feedback was positive, and I had a couple of good post-session discussions (one over lunch at the airport on my way home). In general the conference was an excellent networking opportunity and should result in at least a few follow-up meetings at our facility in the new year. So thanks to both Bills (Strackbein, of the LPA, and Kelly, of the SAB/Bioinformatics LLC) for the invitation. |
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