Print this issue

Contents

• Cover Page
• Voluntary participation rates—are they too low?
  by Bonnie Brazzell
• Does too much choice kill an enrollment?
  by Gil Lowerre
• Voluntary dental products
• Leverage and finesse
• Distribution strategies of worksite companies
• Dynamic analysis vs. irrational behavior
• Information partners
• Innovation in consumer-driven health plans
• Group vs. individual —
  is there a need for distinctions
• Distribution strategy —
  is yours ready for primetime?

Past Issues

• 2007
• 2006

Spring 2006 / No. 67

Leverage and finesse

Developing a voluntary strategy cannot take place in a vacuum. An understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses is not a formality, but an absolute requirement to successful strategy development.

When you look at companies that have developed winning voluntary strategies, you realize that they didn’t come up with that one great idea that no one else was using. They probably did not reinvent the wheel, become leading edge, develop a new type of product, or discover an untapped distribution channel. As a matter of fact, they probably aren’t doing much that’s unusual at all. But it’s a safe bet they are doing three things that create success.

1. They are leveraging their strengths. They know what they are good at, what unusual resources they have, and what assets are available. And they build strategies that take advantage of those characteristics.
2. They finesse their weaknesses. They know what they are not good at and what their liabilities are. And they build strategies to finesse those characteristics.
3. And then they execute well.

So understanding strengths and weaknesses and assets and liabilities is not simply good form, it is the only essential ingredient in building a winning strategy.

For help with your strategy, call us at (860) 676-9633 or email us at info@eastbridge.com.