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NetDoktor A/S

Managing Director, Scandinavia
Director of Corporate Development
2000 - 2001
www.netdoktor.com

 

NetDoktor.com was the largest European health Internet portal with a presence in 9 countries. 

 

I first met the founders of NetDoktor in the autumn of 1999. At that time they had just received funding for NetDoktor from Apax Partners & Co and Apax had brought me to their attention as a potential member of the management team. 

 

At this point NetDoktor had only been present in Denmark. But it had been very successful in Denmark, and the founders had decided that they wanted to expand the concept to other countries. 

 


A view of a NetDoktor office

 

Although we did not reach an agreement at this first meeting, we kept in touch and during Christmas I went back to Denmark and worked with the founders as a consultant to help them define their strategy. During two days between Christmas and New Year we developed the framework for the Content-Community-Care strategy that NetDoktor followed since then.

 

The founders were enthusiastic about my contribution and quickly afterwards gave me an offer to join the company. In the meantime I had accepted an offer to become a VC myself with Apax Partners & Co, the Private Equity firm funding NetDoktor. But after discussing the issue with Apax it was agreed that I join NetDoktor as their Director of Corporate Development.

 

In this position, I was a member of the executive board of NetDoktor. I reported directly to the CEO and was responsible for NetDoktor’s international strategy, and for major initiatives that supported this strategy. This included M&A, major international deals, geographical expansion, and new distribution channels.

 

 

Promotion to Managing Director

 

In September 2000, I was appointed Managing Director of NetDoktor Denmark and Norway. On March 29, 2001, I was further promoted to Managing Director Scandinavia. 

 

Some of the major accomplishments that I achieved at NetDoktor were:

  • Turned around NetDoktor Scandinavia from a loss-making operation, to become the first operations in NetDoktor to break even,

  • Reorganized operations in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and took part in two major rounds of redundancies in 2000 and 2001,

  • Organized and carried out political lobbying and PR campaigns to offset the efforts of a new competitor (sundhed.dk) with more than 20 million euro in funding. The campaign was successful and led to: 

  • Secured deals for the first two e-Care projects for NetDoktor. The projects were crucial in NetDoktor's Content-Community-Care strategy, and were the first NetDoktor projects paid for by the public health sector.

Being a member of the executive management team in NetDoktor brought public exposure in many ways. In addition to representing NetDoktor at industry conferences and workshops, I also became a member of the Advisory Board for the INSEAD Health Management Program.

 

Exit on a sad note

Although Scandinavia ran smoothly and returned a profit, the rest of NetDoktor did not at the end of 2001. Germany and the UK ran consistent deficits, and as a result Netdoktor ran out of money.

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© Copyright 2003 by Morten Bro Nielsen. All rights reserved.