unilab company case study

Innovation Beyond Technology: Unilab

• First Online: 31 May 2018

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• Jikyeong Kang 3 ,
• Maria Antonia OG Arroyo 3 ,
• John C Orlina 3 &
• Ariel T Lopez 3  

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Making a mark in the global business community is a daunting task for any organization, especially when multinational companies (MNCs) have the resources to set market standards and define trends in industry innovation. This leaves local players in expansion limbo; once they implement innovation initiatives to “catch up” with MNC leaders, the market would have been flooded by similar offerings, leading to small-scale competition among laggards, while market leaders have already identified and are pursuing new trends.

Companies of all sizes should have innovation in mind, but it should not be pursued for its own sake. All innovation initiatives should result in making the firm measurably more competitive. Novel strategies and business models that have little to do with high-technology equipment or systems the big players use can prove to be just as successful (and more cost effective) in terms of scaling and expanding one’s business.

How does a business grow through innovation when it operates in a sector that has high barriers to entry, particularly in an innovation ecosystem that favors importing mature “turn-key” solutions that have been proven to work in the developed world? The pharmaceutical sector is one such area, heavily controlled by a few multinational players who have the resources to take big bets on multiple R&D projects and constantly churn out new products.

The sector is affected by both local and global forces because stringent government regulations vary from country to country while global advances in biomedical technology by large players make costs prohibitive. This forces smaller, local companies to pursue incremental innovation.

To succeed in this globalized economy, pharmaceutical companies must take advantage of other avenues for development, looking for different means of tapping the various areas and relationships within their value chain. One such example is United Laboratories Inc., a Philippine pharmaceutical company that has managed to grow itself from a small, local pharmaceutical supplier into a regional giant in South East Asia, in an industry that the country is not known for.

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Ochave, Atty. Jose Maria. 20 Apr. 2017. Senior Vice President for Growth Leadership – Unit 2; Chairman of the Board – Pharex Pharmaceuticals.

Engwa, Manuel P. 21 Jun. 2017. Corporate Senior Vice President, Office of the Chairman of the Board, Unilab (Philippines ) Inc.

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Jikyeong Kang, Maria Antonia OG Arroyo, John C Orlina & Ariel T Lopez

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Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño

Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan

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About this chapter

Kang, J., Arroyo, M.A.O., Orlina, J.C., Lopez, A.T. (2018). Innovation Beyond Technology: Unilab. In: Iñiguez de Onzoño, S., Ichijo, K. (eds) Business Despite Borders. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76306-4_10

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Quest Diagnostics Inc.orporated and Unilab Corporation

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Case Summary

Quest Diagnostics settled FTC charges that its proposed acquisition of Unilab Corporation would substantially increase concentration in the clinical laboratory testing services market by agreeing to divest clinical laboratory testing assets in Northern California to Laboratory Corporation of America.

Case Timeline

File Decision and Order (Public Record Version) (45.45 KB)

PRESS RELEASE: Announced Action for April 8, 2003

Document Agreement Containing Consent Orders (13.59 KB)

Document Decision and Order [Public Record Version] (85.07 KB)

Document Order to Maintain Assets [Public Record Version] (71.4 KB)

Document Complaint (12.26 KB)

Document Analysis of Agreement Containing Consent Orders to Aid Public Comment (24.42 KB)

PRESS RELEASE: FTC to Require Divestiture as Condition of Clearing Quest Diagnostics, Inc.'s Acquisition of Unilab Corporation