Correspondence: Rossen Kazakov, Association of Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers 3 Traiko Stanoev Street 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. Tel: +359 2 9700319; Fax: +359 2 9712086; e-mail: rkazakov@abphm.bg; Web: www.abphm.bg

¹has been Executive Director of the Association of Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ABPhM) since 2004 and is responsible for the operational and strategic development of the association, and the management of its relationship with health institutions and organisations in Bulgaria and the EU. He was involved in the first and second phase processes of pharmaceutical legislation harmonisation in respect to Bulgaria's accession to the EU now in effect from 1st January, 2007. He holds an MSc in Economics and MA in English and is chief editor of 'Pharmaceutical Bulletin', the official ABPhM quarterly magazine for health economics, pharmaceutical policy and legislative issues.

Received 13 February 2007; Revised 13 February 2007.

Abstract

The question as how to achieve competitive advantage through a genuine and innovative set of strategic principles and tools is ever present in the business repertoire of all industries. Yet few manage to reorder their way of doing things to achieve the perfect correlation between business goals and external customers' expectations. With modern economics rejecting the existence of a perfect equilibrium between supply and demand, the job of the business strategy planner is harder than never before. The key to successful strategy creation, as this paper shows, lies in an understanding of three strategic perspectives:

1. The purchaser of health care services — patient and government — as investor in health as an asset.
2. Of customer perceived value as a distortion of the product 'eidos', due to market imperfections and asymmetries of information.
3. Of the effective management of the dynamics between suppliers' and customers' interests.