Michael Ford on Building a Real Market Plan for Latin America

For MedTech leaders, Latin America can look tempting from far away and confusing up close. In his conversation with Julio Martinez-Clark, Michael Ford makes the case that growth in the region is possible, but only if companies replace broad regional assumptions with country-level planning. The full episode is worth hearing in context at this episode page.

At the time of the interview, Ford was President of GTCI Corp and worked as a Latin American market access consultant. He speaks from years of experience across the region, including roles with Baxter Healthcare and Thermo Fisher Scientific. What stands out in this episode is not a single tactic, but a way of thinking: treat market entry as an operating discipline, not a hopeful export exercise.

Latin America is a portfolio, not a single market

Ford’s first useful correction is strategic. Companies often talk about entering Latin America as if they were entering one market. He argues the opposite. “Latin America is like a mutual fund in a way.” One year, he says, Mexico may perform well; another year, Brazil or Colombia may be the better opportunity.

That matters because timing, regulation, reimbursement, and public funding move differently across countries. Ford describes Chile as relatively fast from a regulatory access standpoint, while Brazil can take much longer depending on product class. He also notes that some smaller countries may adopt technology later, in part because companies prioritize the larger markets first and in part because those countries watch what happens in bigger systems before moving.

His broader point is simple and still easy to miss: “You can't have a cookie cutter approach to all of them.” A plan that works in Mexico may fail in Brazil. A pricing model that survives in the Caribbean may not survive in Argentina. A company that treats the region as one block risks spending money in the wrong places, at the wrong time, with the wrong expectations.

Distributor selection is not a shortcut around strategy

A second lesson from the episode is that distributor choice is not a tactical afterthought. Ford separates proactive distributors from passive ones, and then from firms that collect brands without building demand. That distinction matters because many companies confuse representation with execution.

He is especially skeptical of purely opportunistic entry. Trade-show conversations and fast handshake deals may feel like momentum, but he argues that they rarely produce durable growth in markets where public procurement, hospital relationships, and local reimbursement rules shape adoption. As he puts it, “If you go just after the opportunistic business, you will never succeed.”

Ford’s alternative is more demanding. He wants manufacturers to understand the end customer first, then assess whether a distributor has financial strength, market knowledge, logistics capability, and a person dedicated to the product line. He also recommends speaking with customers directly, not relying only on what a distributor says about the market. That includes asking why certain hospitals or accounts are not buying. For an executive team, that is a practical test: if your partner cannot explain the lost accounts, you probably do not understand the market yet.

Hands-off management usually means weak market learning

Even after a company picks a distributor, Ford says the work is just beginning. “If you have a hands off approach, it rarely works.” That line captures one of the clearest operating ideas in the episode.

Ford is not arguing that manufacturers should micromanage every sale. He is arguing for a real partnership. In his description, the manufacturer and distributor should build the market access plan together, define objectives, map risks, and revisit performance regularly. He explicitly calls for business reviews every quarter.

Why so much involvement? Because the manufacturer needs direct visibility into the market. Ford says companies should meet end users, support training, provide documentation, and help generate demand. Otherwise, the local partner will naturally optimize for its own interests, not necessarily for the long-term growth of one product line.

This matters even more in public-sector-heavy markets. Ford notes that some tenders can take years from specification to award. If a company loses a major bid, it may be out of meaningful business for a long period. That means the real work happens well before the bid appears: account development, specification influence, clinical education, and positioning around quality and value.

Regulatory progress helps, but reimbursement still decides adoption

Ford’s comments on regulation are pragmatic. He sees the general trend as stricter requirements, more documentation, and more translation into Spanish. He also points out that countries with trade agreements and more transparent systems can move faster. In the episode, he describes Colombia as fairly straightforward if the documentation package is assembled correctly from the start, and he notes that Mexico can move quickly under the right conditions.

But his more important point is that approval is not the same as adoption. Hospitals and health systems still need a financial reason to use a new product. If a company claims clinical or technical differentiation, it cannot assume the market will pay for those extra features automatically. In Ford’s view, reimbursement has to reflect the value proposition, especially for specialty products.

That argument is easy to overlook in early expansion plans. Teams often focus on registration, importation, and distributor onboarding first. Ford’s warning is that these steps do not create demand by themselves. If reimbursement does not line up with the product’s positioning, the market will drag the company back toward commodity pricing.

Listen to the full conversation

This episode is useful because Ford keeps bringing strategy back to execution: choose countries deliberately, vet partners hard, stay close to customers, and build demand before you count revenue. You can listen to the full discussion on the episode page.

About Global Trial Accelerators™

Global Trial Accelerators™ is the podcast for MedTech, Biopharma and Radiopharma founders navigating first-in-human clinical trials. It is hosted by Jesús E. Moreno and produced by bioaccess®, a CRO purpose-built for first-in-human trials across the Americas.