The brain behind the logo
Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Ralf Uwe Peter, with full name Sir Prof. Dr. Dr. Ralf Uwe Peter KCR; if you are interested in where the additions come from and what they mean, please refer to my CV.
I am a doctor-entrepreneur. I see myself as a mentor who knows both worlds and who speaks the language of lawyers and business economists as well as that of doctors.
First and foremost, I am a trained physician, specialised in skin and venereal diseases. I have also acquired a few additional qualifications (allergology, phlebology, proctology, laboratory tests) and skills (laser therapy).
In 1997, a week prior to my 38th birthday, I was appointed Medical Director of the Departments of Dermatology at the University and the Bundeswehr Hospital in Ulm as Germany’s youngest medical professor at the time.
After the joint department fell apart in 2002 at the instigation of the university hospital, I had no desire to take over either of the two remaining departments permanently and decided to acquire a private surgical clinic.
So suddenly I was a doctor-entrepreneur and realised that there is a fundamental difference between “just” running a clinic and also owning it.
I had no idea about business administration (I didn’t even know what the German abbreviation for business assessment was), but fortunately learned quickly and ran the clinic not entirely unsuccessfully.
Ten years later, in 2012, I decided to sell the hospital to the Swedish Capio Group. Following the takeover, the “Blausteinklinik” as it was then called was the most successful single company of the pan-European Capio Group with a return on sales of 40%, and I now managed it as an employed medical and administrative director. Unfortunately, during 2018, Capio became subject to a hostile takeover by Ramsay, the world’s largest healthcare group. At that time, the hospital was no longer doing so well for various reasons and I did not want to be taken over by Ramsay. So, I offered Capio to buy back the hospital for 1 euro, taking over all the deficits.
This repurchase was notarised in December 2018 with effect from 1st January 2019. During 2019, I managed to generate a positive hospital result again and to expand it by two medical care centres (MVZs), so that in October 2020, I sold the entire group a second time to a Munich-based start-up company (AVI Medical).
Until August 2021, I was still working as the interim managing director of the Blausteinklinik in order to train my successor. Since September, I am now the brains behind the company SWK consulting.
SWK Consulting – What is behind it
First of all, SWK stands for the words strategy, wealth, knowledge.
These terms are directly related or interdependent:
Of course, it is possible to prosper without strategy and knowledge, but with these skills it is easier and more likely.
These are all aspects that need to be considered when buying or selling a practice. First of all, it does not matter whether it is a small individual practice with two to three employees or a clinic group with several hundred to a thousand employees, whether the volume of the transaction, the “ticket”, is € 10,000.00 or € 100,000,000.00. The fundamental questions must always be identified and resolved.
Then the general conditions have to be identified, analysed and interpreted. This applies both to one’s own situation and that of the respective negotiating partner.
Tactical options, the possibilities and potential consequences of action, are then developed from this.
This is followed by a decision to act; the whole operation gets started.
The results require constant review and, if necessary, readjustment, also in the course of the process.
This is nothing new, by the way. All armies in the world, including the Bundeswehr, act according to these principles, as do all large corporations, and this approach is standard in all management training, with minor modifications.
Nevertheless, these principles and the resulting consequences are surprisingly often forgotten, resulting in chaos and dissatisfaction on all sides.
We assist you and accompany you in defining the goals of your business project as well as in its implementation.
It is important to be prepared not only for your own emotions and to be able to deal with them, but also those of your negotiating partner. The supreme art of negotiation strategy is to provoke precisely the emotions in the negotiating partner that one needs for a successful conclusion of the negotiations, in terms of one’s own interests. It is not only about the buying or selling price, but about many, many other things. Such techniques can be learned, but you also have to have practised them and proven that you can successfully implement them.
Your prosperity is our aspiration: with our knowledge and our joint strategy, we accompany you on the path to your individual prosperity.
SWK consulting offers a unique team of consultants who not only claim to be able to live up to this high standard, but have already proven it.