The Innovators Prescription for IT
February 16, 2009
Over the weekend I finished reading The Innovators Prescription written by Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School, along with Jason Hwang M.D. and the late Jerome Grossman M.D. Christensen intoduced the concept of disruptive innovation back in 1997 in The Innovators Dilemma.
As I read this book, which is about applying the principles of disruptive innovation to health care, it struck me that the IT industry is dealing with many of the same types of issues.
Here is a succinct summary of disruptive innovation and the book: Disruption is about the need to transform expensive, complicated products and services into ones that are higher in quality, lower in cost, and more conveniently accessible to larger numbers of people. And disruptive technologies and business models have been the mechanisms that brought affordability, consistent quality, and convenient accessibility to most facets of our society and to most industries (including technology).
Every disruption is comprised of three components: a technology that transforms the fundamental technical problem in an industry from a complicated one into a simple one; a business model that can take that simplified solution to the market at low cost; and a supporting cast of suppliers and distributors whose business models are consistent with one another, which is called a value network.
So the premise of the book is that disruption is the best way to make health care more affordable and accessible to everyone. The authors urge America’s political leaders to foster disruption as the vehicle to solve our health care problems and to avoid further government control (Amen!). And the central discussion is about disrupting the business models that currently drive the health care industry and that are the source of its inefficiencies and high costs.
If you are at all concerned about the state of the health care system in the US, and are feareful of what might happen as the politicians in Washington DC begin to address this problem later this year, read this book and pass it along to everyone you know. It is that important.
Due to the growing length of this post, I will get to the to the connection to the IT industry in my next post.
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