That Payphone Smell and the Evolution of Impactful Corporate Access

April 30, 2018

So they’ve been digging up the sidewalk across from Nephron Global HQ for the past week.  We’re a focused bunch, so it wasn’t anything some noise-cancelling headphones couldn’t…cancel.  However, one casualty of said digging was a bank of payphones which was unceremoniously uprooted.  What will replace it?  An art-forward bike rack?  Wi-Fi/charging station?  Web-enabled dog house?  The point here is the payphone’s time (and its odiferous enclosure) has come and gone.

Traditional brokered corporate access is being hauled away as well – good riddance, we say.  At Nephron, we seized on the opportunity to design a modern corporate access program from the ground up with the goal of impacting our clients’ understanding of the industries and companies in which they invest.  Conversely, we also see a great opportunity to connect our sophisticated client base with the industry’s top corporate managements and thinkers.

At Nephron, the team has been focused on a number distinct formats:

  • Leaders and Innovators – We’ve flexed the teams’ Rolodex to bring our industry’s legends as well as some of its biggest disruptors in for informal small group discussions.  We’ve already hosted Mario Molina, Dale Wolf, John Gorman, Nitin Sahney, Mark Parrish, and Jack Rowe.  Meetings with Ron Williams and Lee Perlman are coming up.  We even started the year with a private equity panel which has helped color our view of the acquisition landscape.
  • Symposia – Our first symposium April 12th was a Pharma Pricing and Benefit Management Symposium and got “notebook filling” reviews for sitting the whole drug supply chain down together to hash out some of today’s biggest issues.  Look for several others (spoiler alert: pencil in July 12th for Retail Health with details to come)
  • Field Trips – Timely, on-theme, and sized right.  We’d highlight February West Coast Disruptors Tour which which looked at changing models and strategies in managed care, facilities, as well as the drug supply chain
  • Traditional Corporate Access – OK, it wasn’t totally “hauled away” – the traditional investor meeting still has value.  BUT – this is where we see the importance of independence, free from the conflicts and diverging agendas of the bank model.  We’ve hosted management teams from UNH, CI, HUM, PINC and look forward to MCK, CNC, and WCG coming up.

We’re just getting going.  As you peruse the agendas for May’s four or five cookie-cutter conferences, we’d ask you to consider how long you want to hang out in that stinky phone booth?  info@nephronresearch.com for more info.