The sponsors for the 2003 Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Innovation in Business Conference support the idea of innovation. Here’s how they innovate.
Barnes Wendling CPAs Inc.
Barnes Wendling has taken a proactive approach to helping its clients build and maintain their net worth. The CPA firm has met the challenges presented by the economy, and has helped its clients prevail.
Barnes Wendling Pacific Rim LOC facilitates production in China, providing clients with equal product at a significantly lower cost. Through its banking relationships, Barnes Wendling Corporate Finance Group, amongst other things, assists with debt restructuring that may not otherwise be available to a client.
And Barnes Wendling Valuation Services provides support for businesses, owners and families with valuations that meet specific needs.
Hughie’s Audio-Visual
Since 1953, Hughie’s Audio Visual & Computer (HAVS) has been considered the one and only source of quality and professional audio-visual equipment in the Northeast Ohio marketplace.
From its conception, the company has always placed the client’s happiness and success as its primary goals. Through the years, this has been achieved by upgrading and purchasing technologically advanced equipment, including flat screen monitors and plasma screens, and staying one step ahead of the competition.
This proactive stance, combined with a team approach toward projects and productions, makes HAVS a true innovator in its field.
InfoCision Management Corp.
Recently named the world’s eighth largest outbound teleservice company, InfoCision Management Corp. provides the highest possible return on investment for every client.
It does so by investing significant resources to implement the latest call center technology. InfoCision’s customized technology approach allows it to build proprietary CRM solutions to meet each client’s individual requirements. It also offers the industry’s most advanced fully automated inbound and outbound call-blending system, which means the company’s call centers operate at maximum productivity.
This year, InfoCision’s regulatory compliance and information technology teams were proactive in creating technology solutions to ensure compliance with new federal regulations
LaSalle Bank
By staffing the company with “will do” individuals empowered with authority and responsibility, LaSalle Bank has created an environment driven by entrepreneurship that generates the bank’s unique marketing efforts.
Free thought and exercise of individual strengths are encouraged, allowing employees to use innovative thought in creative problem-solving. Senior vice president Roy Hasbrook says these solutions are then turned into state-of-the-art products that benefit the bank’s clients.
Pfizer
Pfizer can put a price on innovation — about $5 billion. That’s how much the pharmaceutical company spends every year on the research and development of new medicines.
And once a new medicine is marketed, the clock starts ticking on its patent. When the patent runs out, generic pharmaceutical companies can simply copy a Pfizer drug and sell it for a lower price. But because Pfizer is in the business of health care, a new product’s time to market can’t be rushed in any way.
That’s why only about one in 5,000 new pharmaceutical products a year actually makes it through the design and testing phases and then finally to market.
