One of the axioms by which successful sales organizations determine a decision maker among their potential clientele is to ask whether that person is the MAN. Not a politically incorrect measure of managerial position, the term MAN indicates that the individual has the Money, the Authority to spend it and the Need to do so. The diagnostics industry, prior to the spate of mergers and acquisitions of the recent decade, was made up of companies generally dedicated to the supply of products focused primarily on a particular analytical discipline, be it clinical chemistry, haematology, microbiology or histopathology. These serviced an expanding market-place where the sales teams would visit the MAN in the laboratory handling the particular discipline. Here, morale was high – the laboratory order book could be invoked, with authority to purchase, to meet the needs of professionals running a demand-led service.

During the following years, mergers and acquisitions led to a number of companies offering products across all disciplines, and, meanwhile, many laboratories reduced or removed the boundaries between disciplines. Throughout the world, the diagnostics industry continues to utilize the larger part of its sales and marketing resource in supporting and visiting the laboratory professional, and many companies have failed to recognize that decision making has moved away from the professionals working there. The money available has been reduced, and it is managed by others.