A Future-Oriented Range of Services
VvAA: Dutch Association of Health Care Professionals
- From strategic vision to pilot
- The VvAA’s new positioning translated into management terms
- First steps towards platformization
- More added value for doctors and paramedics
The VvAA is an association of doctors and paramedics and calls itself the “voice and support network” for its 124,000 members. The association promotes the interests of its members and offers them expert advice and services, notably specialized insurance policies. Having devoted significant resources to this for a few years, the organization was ready to look forward. So, the VvAA developed a new strategic vision, but execution proved harder than expected.
“Turner gave us a whole new perspective on our services. That’s highly valuable.”
- Freek Roelofs, board member, VvAA
Back to Basics
Board member Freek Roelofs brought in Turner to help VvAA hone its new strategy and take its first steps executing it. We started by organizing a “challenge session” with the management team. VvAA’s strategic vision is a return to the basics the association was built on — supporting and advocating for its members. This required defining in what concrete ways the VvAA offers its members the most added value. Together, we arrived at a new insight: the collective’s greatest value is as a platform. Its strength lies in matching its members with specialized services, not in offering its own product range.
Platformization
Next, we got together with the relevant organizational units and applied this insight to every facet of the association. We defined how to describe the VvAA’s positioning as a platform. We discussed how to create the network effects a platform needs in order to thrive and what service concepts the platform should offer. We tackled the division of roles between service suppliers, the VvAA and its members. In practical terms, this meant we hammered out who a member signs a contract with: the VvAA, or the service provider. We also dealt with questions involving the data and IT services needed to run the platform: how to connect service providers to the platform and what data are required for a match. Of course, we also dealt with the question of how to manage this kind of platform-based organization. What KPIs, tasks and responsibilities are involved? All these aspects were carefully considered and then turned into a series of concrete pilot projects.
Pilot Projects
A number of the strategic changes have been implemented. Activities that no longer fit in the association’s future platform-based organization have been discontinued. A new digital platform is being developed, starting with a new mobile app that enables members to link up with one another. These are great steps on the way to a new future for the VvAA.
