Executive Vice President's Message
Assessing the Clinical Environment – Inside-out or Outside-in?

At CLSI we are constantly trying to identify the need for best-practice standards and guidelines to address the next “big thing.” Typically this process involves an energized volunteer who champions a project proposal he/she feels has merit to the clinical community at large and will improve a particular area of laboratory testing. The Chairholders Council debates the potential value of the project for members, now and in the future, and approves or denies the proposal.  I call this the inside-out approach. We develop new standards based on our “inside” volunteers’ perspective of what products will appeal to the outside world.

Recently, we have begun a systematic process to identify what our defined marketplace wants most and to propose these preferences as projects to the Chairholders Council.  This is obviously the “outside-in” approach.  It will take time before we can evaluate the effectiveness of this product development strategy – commonly known as market research in business circles. It is a complex process typically involving focus groups, surveys, and other tools to qualify and then quantify the best ideas.  As a scientifically rooted organization, we believe that important decisions should be based on as much valid data as possible.  While market research will be an important tool in our future, I have no doubt we will continue to rely heavily on input from our volunteers to generate ideas for development of new products. In short, melding both the inside-out and outside-in perspectives will likely achieve the best outcomes. 

CLSI is in the enviable position of having more potentially good ideas for projects than we can readily handle.  Stay tuned as we generate and evaluate the most valued of these opportunities to serve you, our customers and suppliers with the next generation of CLSI products.

Glen [ return to top ]