The challenge

Our client was a €2.2 billion global fibre-based materials company facing declining market share in its core surgical gowns and drapes market. The erosion was structural rather than cyclical - driven by shifts in surgical practice, competitive dynamics, and changing clinical priorities around infection prevention that its existing product portfolio and go-to-market approach were not positioned to address.

The company had identified a potential growth segment characterised by particular types of surgical procedures - but lacked the market intelligence, clinical insight, and strategic framework to know whether the opportunity was real, how large it was, and what it would take to capture it. They needed a rigorous, fast, and commercially grounded answer.

What we did

In under two months, Umio completed a detailed global strategic assessment of the target segment and developed a full growth strategy and execution plan.

The work moved across two parallel tracks. On the demand side, we conducted in-depth interviews with leading surgeons to understand current practice, emerging trends, and the specific clinical contexts in which gowns and drapes played a decisive role in surgical risk management. This clinical perspective was the part of the market that standard materials industry analysis consistently missed - what surgeons actually needed from these products in the specific conditions of use, and where current products were falling short.

Alongside the clinical work, we built a detailed global picture of procedure-specific volumes, growth forecasts, infection rates, use contexts, and technology developments - mapped against a full assessment of competitive strategies, product portfolios, geographical penetration rates, and the key innovation drivers shaping the market, including total cost of use and the growing tension between single-use and reusable product strategies.

The two tracks were then brought together to identify clear opportunities for improvements in product performance - targeted at the specific surgical contexts and risk profiles where unmet need was greatest and where our client's technological and production capabilities could realistically compete.

From those opportunities we developed a value proposition and growth strategy tailored to the client's capabilities, and guided them in specifying the detailed actions required to execute it - spanning market development, technology investment, production capability, and sales strategy.

What we found

The most significant finding was not about the target segment itself but about how the market had been framed. The standard industry view of the surgical gowns and drapes market was defined by product category, procedure volume, and price dynamics. That framing made the market look relatively undifferentiated and the competitive dynamics relatively predictable.

The clinical perspective revealed something different. The contexts in which gowns and drapes actually determined surgical risk - the specific combinations of procedure type, surgical environment, infection profile, and clinical team practice - were far more varied and far more consequential than the standard market analysis suggested. Different surgical contexts placed radically different demands on protective materials, and the surgeons best positioned to drive adoption of premium products were making those decisions on the basis of clinical evidence and practical experience that the standard sales and marketing approach was not reaching.

That insight - that the growth opportunity was in the clinical specificity of the context rather than in the volume of the segment - was the foundation of the value proposition that followed.

The outcome

Within two months our client had a clear and commercially justified strategy for shifting resources and developing the market, technological, production, and sales capabilities needed to address the new growth segment. The value proposition was grounded in clinical evidence, the market opportunity was quantified, and the execution plan was specific enough to act on immediately.

The speed of delivery was as important as the quality of the output. Strategic uncertainty about a growth direction is itself a cost - it delays investment decisions, dilutes management focus, and allows competitors to move first. A rigorous answer in eight weeks is worth considerably more than a comprehensive answer in eight months.