Join me for my guest lecture on “Innovation Management – Metrics and Success Factors” as part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track in the MBA International Business Management and Leadership curriculum at the Hochschule Kempten, University of Applied Sciences, in Germany on June 01, 2019.
Join me for my upcoming guest lecture on “Innovation Management – Metrics and Success Factors”as part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track in the MBA International Business Management and Leadership curriculum at the Hochschule Kempten, University of Applied Sciences, in Germany on July 26, 2020.
In this track, we also discuss the teaching case study ‘Boehringer Ingelheim: Leading Innovation’ (available at Harvard Business Review) featuring Stephan Klaschka’s corporate career as an innovator and intrapreneur at Boehringer Ingelheim.
This case study was written by the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, Canada, and is used for education by universities and colleges across Europe, America, and Asia.
Join me for my guest lecture on “Innovation Management – Metrics and Success Factors” as part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track in the MBA International Business Management and Leadership curriculum at the Hochschule Kempten, University of Applied Sciences, in Germany on June 01, 2019.
Join me for my upcoming guest lecture on “Innovation Management – Metrics and Success Factors”as part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track in the MBA International Business Management and Leadership curriculum at the Hochschule Kempten, University of Applied Sciences, in Germany on June 01, 2019.
In this track, we also discuss the teaching case study ‘Boehringer Ingelheim: Leading Innovation’ (available at Harvard Business Review) featuring Stephan Klaschka’s corporate career as an innovator and intrapreneur at Boehringer Ingelheim.
This case study was written by the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, Canada, and is used for education by universities and colleges across Europe, America, and Asia.
Join my session on “Building a Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem in a Global Corporation” in the Innovation Culture & Ecosystems track on March 21.
What my session is about?
Large pharmaceutical (and other) organizations struggle with the tectonic shifts and fundamental changes across the landscapes worldwide. The traditional mindset and business models are failing. A rejuvenating and holistic transformation effort is needed to get nimble again and adapt to the new reality.
How do you change a stagnant innovation culture and create a sustainable ecosystem within a global organization that stands the challenges of real life?
As an example, this case study discusses the comprehensive yet practical approach that mobilized hidden talent and resources transforming Boehringer Ingelheim, a Global FORTUNE 500 pharmaceutical company, from within on a global scale. It generated exponential returns and fundamentally changed the culture of the organization from leadership training and managerial decision-making down to bringing grass-root ideas to a break-through and new career paths for employees.
What is the Problem?
The issue is universal and not limited to a pharmaceutical or healthcare company: There is no lack of great ideas aiming beyond incremental improvement at the grassroots of large organizations. There is also no lack of funds or support for break-through ideas on the top of the hierarchy; in fact, leadership is constantly seeking for good ideas. However, there are many obstacles bringing them together.
One problem is how to connect the people with great, disruptive ideas with the ones that have the authority and resources to making them happen in the organization?
A second problem is how to find and vet the ideas that have a game-changing potential and develop them with limited risk?
The third problem is that even with executive support it can be hard to implement a new idea against the resistance of the organization, which rejects them as disrupting the equilibrium of the status quo.
The proposed session illustrates and discusses the real-life experiences of building and operating a holistic and sustainable framework that successfully addressed the issue, overcame resistance on many levels, and yielded an exponential return-of-investment. It resulted in a visible and measurable way changed innovation mindset and changed behaviors throughout the organization to bring disruptive ideas and projects to life.
Where do I find more Information on the Topic?
Visit my blog OrgChanger.com to read more about intrapreneuring with case studies and real-life success stories!
Expert advice on open innovation from executives with experience at Bayer, Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim published in the December/January 2017 issue of the Healthcare Sales & Marketing Magazine (HS&M) e-magazine:
With improved technology, especially, Artificial Intelligence, what physicians will be needed in the future?
Join the Executive Round Table event on Nov. 22, 2016 featuring “The innovation and technology convergence in Life Science and Healthcare industry”
This joint event of Life Science Quest and SAPA-CT in the Life Science & Healthcare series is to be held 22 November 2016 6:00 PM at Mount Saint Mary College(330 Powell Avenue, Newburgh, NY. Aquinas Hall room 163).
Technological advances like Star Trek’s “Tricorder” affect healthcare faster and deeper than we seem to be aware of. It poses the legitimate (and serious) question whether we will need physicians anymore in the future!
This post is inspired by recent events, when I was approached to moderate a controversial discussion with an expert panel at an international health innovation event in Europe. The topic featured: “Disruptive Innovation in Medicine: Will physicians soon be obsolete?”
Science Fiction – for real?
50 years ago the original TV series “Star Trek” introduced a most fascinating and visionary healthcare device, the ‘Tricorder.’ Remember how Doctor McCoy (and his successors in more recent Start Trek versions) perform comprehensive medical examinations by simply moving the device over the patient’s body to diagnose their condition?
This technology is now becoming reality, user test are scheduled to start in September 2016. – The question is, how will it influence the medical profession? Will we need physicians in the future and if so, will their work be different for what they do today?
Stuck in today’s medical factory model
Let’s take a quick step back to look at why the Tricorder changes the paradigm of the past centuries as well as our current healthcare system, where the physician plays a key role to diagnose and treat our illnesses.
The internet led to a decline of our reliance on the medical experts around us (at least for the bulk of non-emergency care). Patients and caregivers discovered the abundance of online content to gain broader and deeper insights into health topics, to find up-to-date research information or to explore new treatment options. Global online communities of patients and caregivers form around numerous illnesses to share and exchange information and individual experiences across disciplines and borders.
Nowadays patients often enter a doctor’s office armed with research results and specific therapy options as well as a keen awareness of their own economic power pushing the physician towards delivering on the patient’s specific requests. From a patient’s perspective, in many cases, the physician degraded from a consulting health professional to a dispenser for prescriptions.
The physician on the other hand is limited by what diagnosis and treatment options the payers allow, i.e. are willing to pay for, and remains trapped spending much time to navigate a bureaucracy established by the various insurers and payers. Not being able to focus on practicing medicine but distracted by administration is frustrating also for physicians, who have stepped up to improve the patients’ health to the best of their abilities.
Frustration with today’s health factory model (image: whatsnext.nuance.com)
It does not surprise that a typical medical practice -from a patient’s perspective- looks like a factory: the patients get lined-up while the doctor hops from one to another in an efficient flow spending minimum time on each individual.
Overall, we already know our healthcare system being not overly efficient and way too expensive. From a patient’s perspective, it’s focus feels far off their individual health and care.
Beyond the limits of human capability
Even the best trained physician remains a human being with biases and limitation just as everyone else. We can also not realistically expect a physician to keep up with the 5,000 latest research articles on heart disease alone, to digest and interpret them as well as translating them swiftly into their medical practice.
At the same time, computers with artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning algorithms are already becoming capable of providing better and more treatment options with fewer errors with quick access to the internet’s vast sources of medical data and the most recent healthcare information for all kinds of user groups.
The picture is not much different for the “self-informed patient.” It is in the nature of the (online) beast that some information sources are more credible than others, which induces significant risk for layman consumers of this information. Incomplete, cherry-picked and at times questionable, outright wrong or inapplicable medical information in untrained hands can do more ill than good for the patient.
It’s a race that humans cannot win anymore, neither patients nor doctors.
The next step: Fiction becoming reality
The Tricorder can be seen as a way as the next evolution of automation – scary as it might sound initially, freeing up the physician and medical staff for other tasks may not be a bad thing.
It is a big step towards ‘automating healthcare’ by building an affordable and mobile diagnostic device that can reliably detect the presence or absence of an array of common illnesses better than an individual physician. This is what the ongoing Qualcomm ‘Tricorder’ X-Prize challenge is about.
What the final design will look like, we will see. Here is a glimpse by two of the seven finalist teams.
It awards $10,000,000 for a mobile device that cover vital signs, consumer experience, and diagnostics across a set of 12 distinct diseases as well as their absence. In fact, the winning device needs to cover indications from a variety of medical fields (see below table, source: X-Prize) with its results beating ten board-certified physicians.
Tricorder X-Prize requirements
The winner(s) are to be announced in just a few months out. To my surprise, this groundbreaking innovation challenge goes widely unnoticed – at least in Europe, from my recent observation.
A new side of healthcare
The Tricorder will only be the first version of a new class of healthcare technology. The first Tricorders may become available at the entrance to hospitals, medical practices, workplaces or in public health kiosks already in place at Walgreen, CVS and there alike over the coming years. They may pop up everywhere you hang out and have a few minutes to spare. Perhaps, you will have to undergo a quick screen of your health status to ensure the absence of contagious diseases before entering areas with many or vulnerable people such as nurseries, retirement homes or entertainment events.
Imagine how fast the second and third version will aim high with added features, miniaturization, better portability, user convenience, lowering cost, and so on. Order your own Tricorder via Amazon or pick it up at BestBuy or the Apple store. Some of its functionality may become available part of your next ever-smarter smartphone, smartwatch or other wearable device.
As a bottom-line, you will no longer need to see your doctor for a diagnosis. You may even collect relevant vital signs or perform a laboratory test on your own device anytime and anywhere.
Medical doctors – a dying profession?
With technology delivering affordable quality results, the key question remains: what happens to the physicians and their staff if key responsibilities such as a reliable diagnosis and selecting the most promising treatment may no longer be in their job description?
It seems obvious that most of what doctors and their administrative helpers do today may not be needed in the future. We already see trends emerging that drive radiologists, for example, out of their diagnostics business:
Cancer Research UK crowd-sourced identifying cancer by asking citizens to participate and commissioning a Genes in Space game for mobile devices designed to actually map patterns that help scientists spot DNA faults.
In recent competitions artificial intelligence (AI) systems get “strikingly close” to humans in detecting breast cancer, for example.
Where did the medical doctors go?
Technology will take over triage, diagnosis and decision-making regarding treatment options. Much of the administrative staff becomes obsolete. Fewer doctors will be needed. Their focus shifts to delivering the much-needed empathetic human care – and this may not be a bad thing, since this critical field of care seemed to have lost its place in the medical practices today.
It will open a new competition with nurses who already occupy much of this care space today and at a more affordable cost. Where exactly the line will be drawn time will tell.
My question to you
– How do you envision the future of medical professionals to change?
Please share your thoughts!
On April 20-21, 2016, Singularity University, the most innovative and forward-looking institution, has chosen to host their SingularityU Germany Summit in Berlin—one of the most vibrant cities in the world. SingularityU Germany Summit is a local Chapter and community organization of Singularity University. It is one of the largest two-day events in Europe aimed at bringing awareness about exponential technologies and their impact on business and policy to thought leaders and executives from breakthrough companies.
What can you expect at SingularityU Germany Summit?
Leading experts from the global high-tech community will present the latest trends and cutting-edge developments in Mobility, Organization, Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Computing, Robotics, 3D Printing, Machine Learning and Design Thinking. Together we strive to inspire and empower European leaders and influencers in using exponential technologies to solve today’s most pressing issues. SingularityU Germany Summit is an ideal platform to network for both alumni as well as first time attendees, leaders, government representatives, entrepreneurs, investors, NGOs.
500 attendees ranging from CEOs to young innovators from across the globe are expected to attend the event. Together we will explore issues such as: How can technological evolution be transformed into a sustainable and value-based growth for any industry? What ethical standards and responsibilities do global leaders have to account for?
Contact me for a 50%-off discount code for the 1-day Wednesday program (Oct. 21) at the upcoming Intrapreneurship Conference in New York City, Oct. 21-23, 2015!
As an intrapreneur you struggle with many visible and hidden innovation barriers in a large organization.
How do you get started to change the organization bottom up?
What does a sustainable innovation ecosystem look like and how can you set one up?
This workshop helps you to identify and overcome obstacles, to find allies and sponsors, and to measure and communicate success to upper management convincingly.
Learn from real-world case studies, practical hands-on experience and apply powerful tools!
Join me at the 5th Annual Pharma PPM Toolbox in Basel/Switzerland on March 5-6, 2015!
Presentation at 3pm on March 6, 2015
Come to discuss my talk about “Changing employee mindset to boost collaboration and engagement for extreme business results”
How to overcome innovation hurdles in large organizations
How to build an entrepreneurial culture within your company to respond to change quickly
Measuring success beyond money – behavior change for best practices and boosting ROI
Workshop at 3:30pm on March 6, 2015
And take my Intrapreneuring Workshop “Building an innovation framework to design, launch and execute business projects”
The workshop participants experience the role of an intrapreneur to bring a project to life using disruptive methods and collaboration.
Innovation Barriers and Assessment
Becoming an Intrapreneur
Resistance, Sponsor and Team
Prototyping, Pitching and Investor Insights
Implementation considerations
About the Conference
Pharma companies stand on a cross-road for a few years now. They can choose to stick to their old ways that will probably slowly kill their business or successfully adapt to the reality of continuously shrinking pipelines and growing obstacles.
The 5th Annual Pharma PPM Toolbox will provide you with fresh ideas and solutions from experts who work hard to keep up with uncompromising market demands.
Read this insightful “Taking the entrepreneurial approach” interview conducted by Eyeforpharma on the impact of hierarchy and how executive mindset inhibits adapting to the rapidly changing commercial landscape. It outlines how “intrapreneurs” and internal “angel investors” can get large, mature organizations moving again!
This third post illuminates a very successful implementation of venture capital approach in a large organization to work around “red tape” and get more risky projects funded.
However, it’s not over! Please check in occasionally for more innovation and intrapreneuring-related posts in the future!
CURE serves as the bioscience cluster of Connecticut, a diverse network of small and large life and healthcare sciences companies, ranging in scope from therapeutics, to healthcare technology, to medical devices. Universities, government agencies, scientists, educators, mentors, students, entrepreneurs, business experts, service providers and investors join in to begin nucleate the breadth of the network.
As participants in CURE, we educate, cultivate entrepreneurship, support the build of bioscience companies and collaborate to ensure a sustainable, high-value bioscience and healthcare community that improves our quality of life and keeps the Connecticut community strong.
When we talk about disruptive innovation, we can easily agree that going from the days of dim candle light and sooty oil lamps to electric light was one of these breakthrough innovations, right? Its icon, the lightbulb serves as our symbol for a great idea today.
When you ask around “who invented the lightbulb?” the answer “Thomas Edison” first comes to mind – and the answer is wrong! Truth is that we can give credit closer to 20(!) inventors of the lightbulb! – How so?
Thomas Edison patented the first practical and commercially viable incandescent lightbulb in 1878 and a revised design in 1879. In addition, he offered the first efficient electricity supply system for households and businesses, which laid the foundation and cleared the path for mass-producing light bulbs in 1880. His design was an evolution from previous, inferior designs and enabled by improved technology.
No worries, we would not stay sitting in the dark. It appears safe to say that even if Thomas Edison was never born, the practical incandescent lightbulb would have been developed around the same time – by someone else.
Looking back in history, Humphrey Davy invented electric light in 1802; more than 75 years before Edison. His “arc light” was unsuitable for mainstream application though it found specialty uses even today. Many more designs for incandescent light and lightbulbs were developed by several inventors, but neither were they practical nor suitable beyond demonstration stage. Prominently, Joseph W. Swan built a working prototype of a “light bulb” in 1850 – well before Edison.
Entrepreneurial Competition
Edison had access to improved technology such as a better vacuum pump for his breakthrough design. This technology was not available to previous inventors. Edison also developed an efficient and economical way to distribute electricity when earlier designs drained batteries quickly. (A nice example, by the way, on how a product can go a long way when bundled with a complementing service.)
On the flip-side, Edison knew of his limitation too. He made carbonized Japanese bamboo glow as filament between two electrodes knowing that carbonized Tungsten was the superior material. However, the technology was not available at the time to produce a thin Tungsten thread. We had to wait for William D. Coolidge to produce the Tungsten filament for General Electric in 1910, which is still the preferred material to illuminate our modern incandescent lightbulbs today.
This situation is typical and comparable to many big ideas that entrepreneurs work on today. There is much competition among entrepreneurs, so every good idea usually has a handful of teams working on it independently and head-to-head at the same time. Thus, it is highly likely that, if not Edison, another inventor would have come up with the lightbulb design we are so familiar with today.
R&D as a Legacy
Perhaps, the even more impactful and lasting heritage of Thomas Edison are not his inventions, useful as they are. His products such as the lightbulb, phonograph, quadruplex telegraph, mimeograph, etc., have been replaced over time by more advanced technology.
Nonetheless, Edison has changed the way we discover concertedly today. Until his time, inventors matched the stereotypical image of a lonely genius experimenting and inventing in their lair burning the midnight oil over some ambitious idea. Edison established the first research and development (R&D) organization in his famous Menlo Park lab, where a large number of researchers worked together in an orchestrated way to find solutions to specific problems coordinated strategically and systematically concerted. Edison has industrialized research!
Until today every research-driven company or organization worldwide follows in Edison’s footsteps! What an impressive legacy!
Summary
Disruptive innovations tend to have their origin in incremental steps and competition among inventors. First working individually and now increasingly in teams or even distributed R&D organizations across country borders.
A key success factor here is building trust and incentives within the team in order for all individual contributors to share information and findings freely.
The broader, cross-functional approach to research helps to identify ideas and technologies from other disciplines that can serve as stepping stones. Edison used a better vacuum pump, which made his design possible. Later, the capability to manufacture a thin Tungsten wire allowed General Electric to take the lightbulb the next level.
As the saying goes, “innovation happens at the intersections of disciplines.” The development of the lightbulb serves as a nice example proving it to hold true once again. Thus, innovation benefits by drawing from advances in other disciplines.
So, is disruptive innovation a myth?
Back to our original question, the story of the lightbulb is a great example for a breakthrough innovation with vast ramifications that disrupted and shaped the we live and work around the globe.
It can, however, not be seen as just one big and isolated scientific step but rather a series of many little steps in combination insights from other disciplines including manufacturing, economics and marketing leading to broad adoption that changed the world.
Only when it all comes together you have a disruptive innovation like Edison’s famous design. And it was still not the end. The journey continued to evolve with a Tungsten wire and later fluorescence, halogen and LED lights.
In this light, every disruption seems as yet another incremental step, doesn’t it?
Why is this a billion dollar question? – The traditional business model of the pharmaceutical industry is broken. The focus shifts to incentivize patient-centric outcomes, prevention and behavior change in the global battle against a mounting wave of chronic diseases such as diabetes. In search for a new business “beyond the pill” the pharmaceutical industry joins other stakeholders in the healthcare system to align and pull in this same direction. First data-driven results are highly anticipated – well, here they are, so don’t miss this milestone event!
HxRefactored 2014 in NYC on May 13-14 at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge.
HxRefactored is a revolutionary design and technology conference that will gather over 500 designers, developers and leaders in health for two days of thought provoking talks, workshops and discussions on how to improve the quality of the health experience. The conference fuses the technical and creative elements of Health 2.0’s Health:Refactored and Mad*Pow’s Healthcare Experience Design Conference.
OrgChanger.com 