Harvard Business Review - 2006.05.pdf

FROM THE EDITORThe Health of Business andthe Business of HealthS OF THIS WRITING,there havemost recently those presented bybeen 169 laboratory-confirmedglobal infectious disease.Her book onhuman cases of H5N1 influenza-risk and biotechnology will be pub-avian flu-and 91 of those people havelished later this year.died.It is impossible to know whetherHealth and the health care indus-this particular strain offlu will mutatetries are clearly topics of acute imporin such a way as to be easily transmis-tance for executives in every industrysible between people and whetherand every land.The H5N1 threat re-the virus will remain as lethal as itveals how vulnerable the world,andcurrently is.But if those things hap-in particular emerging economies,pen and a pandemic ensues,then,inare to any health care crisis.Gargan-the best of circumstances,the Worldtuan health care costs endanger the vi-Health Organization says,it wouldability of some large American corpo-kill 2 million to 7.4 million people.In a worst-case scenario,rations and are undermining Western Europes socialmore than 1oo million would die,several times that numbercontract.The global pharmaceutical industry-bigwould become seriously ill,and several times that numberpharma-is consolidating,as research costs expand andwould have their lives disrupted by the illnesses of families,new drug pipelines constrict.Its no wonder weve beenneighbors,and colleaques.Demand would soar for govern-publishing extensively in the area.Two years ago,thesement and civil help,including sanitation,police,publicpages featured Michael E.Porter and Elizabeth Olmstedhealth,customs,and military services,while the supplyTeisbergs Redefining Competition in Health Care(Junewould be curtailed by illness among government workers.2004).They have developed that article with much new re-Economies worldwide would suffer from the catastrophessearch into an important book with the same title,just pub-visited upon shops,transportation services,factories,andlished by our colleagues at Harvard Business School Press.virtually every other business.No one yet knows if H5NTSteven Spears brilliant Fixing Health Care from the In-will be the instrument of that horror.Two things are certain,side,Today(HBR September 2005)was runner-up for thishowever:No responsible business leader should be caughtyears McKinsey Award,given annually to the best article inunaware or unprepared if it is,and if its not,some otherHBR.(Pankaj Ghemawats December article,Regionalpathogen will be-some kind of pandemic will visit hu-Strategies for Global Leadership,was the winner.)mankind someday.This month we publish another major article,by HBSIt is in the service of preparedness that we have devotedprofessor Regina Herzlinger.(Her seminal July 2002 HBR ar-all of Forethought this month to the topic of avian flu.Toticle,Lets Put Consumers in Charge of Health Care,helpedplan it,we imagined a CEO asking his or her team a seriesto begin the movement forconsumer-drivenhealth care.)of questions:What do we need to know about this?WhatHer new article explores a conundrum:Why is it that innoshould we do-and not do?Are our current crisis manage-vation-in technology,in service delivery,and in businessment plans adequate?Can we take preventive measures?models-is so difficult to do and at the same time so obvi-How do we know which risks are particularly acute for ourously needed?Years of research in the health care industrycompany?How can we keep on top of the situation?In thehave enabled Herzlinger to uncover the half-dozen forces thatsection,you will find a framework to help you answer ourline up to block or encourage innovation.These forces act onimagined CEOs questions:a preparedness checklist;toolsevery industry-but in health care they are particularly strong.to analyze your organizations vulnerabilities;and,equallyHerzlinger also shows what participants in the industry-important,guidance from Nitin Nohria and Warren Bennisincluding its customers-can do to break the barriers to in-about organizational and leadership issues that have notnovation and put the industry back on the road to health.been discussed elsewhere.Senior editor Gardiner Morseput the section together in collaboration with DeniseCaruso.Denise,a former technology columnist for the NewYork Times,founded the nonprofit Hybrid Vigor Institute in2oo0 to help solve complex social and scientific problems,Thomas A.Stewart4HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW