- 25 Apr 2023
- Cold Call Podcast
Using Design Thinking to Invent a Low-Cost Prosthesis for Land Mine Victims
Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is an Indian nonprofit famous for creating low-cost prosthetics, like the Jaipur Foot and the Stanford-Jaipur Knee. Known for its patient-centric culture and its focus on innovation, BMVSS has assisted more than one million people, including many land mine survivors. How can founder D.R. Mehta devise a strategy that will ensure the financial sustainability of BMVSS while sustaining its human impact well into the future? Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar discusses the importance of design thinking in ensuring a culture of innovation in his case, “BMVSS: Changing Lives, One Jaipur Limb at a Time.”
- 05 Dec 2022
- What Do You Think?
How Would Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Fare in Today’s World?
Some consider Jack Welch the best CEO of the 20th century, but two recent books examine his effectiveness as a leader. James Heskett ponders his early interactions with Welch and his complex legacy. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Sep 2021
- Research & Ideas
The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes: Visionary, Criminal, or Both?
Eugene Soltes explains why the fraud case against the Theranos cofounder isn't as simple as it seems, and why a conviction probably wouldn't deter unethical behavior from others. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Mar 2020
- Research & Ideas
Product Disasters Can Be Fertile Ground for Innovation
Rather than chilling innovation, product accidents may provide companies an unexpected opportunity to develop new technologies desired by consumers, according to Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Feb 2020
- Sharpening Your Skills
How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care
Why do Harvard Business School scholars spend so much time and money analyzing health care delivery? Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Sep 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Female Inventors and Inventions
Does the gender of inventors make a difference for who benefits from their inventions? Analysis of all U.S. biomedical patents issued between 1976 and 2010 shows that research teams with women were more likely to produce patents addressing women’s health conditions, especially when female researchers led the teams. This link suggests that the dearth of women inventors might also result in fewer female-focused inventions.
- 28 Aug 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Who Drives Digital Innovation? Evidence from the US Medical Device Industry
Major industries are undergoing a digital transformation, in which key aspects of new product development are migrating to a software-driven context. In the medical device industry, experience matters, as does the geographic clustering of new product development, which gives advantages to both new entrants and incumbent firms.
- 02 Jul 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Risk-Mitigating Technologies: The Case of Radiation Diagnostic Devices
Changes in risk perception, driven by extensive media coverage of accidents, for example, can be an important driver of innovation and shape the direction of technological progress. Large firms may play an important role in the development and commercialization of risk-mitigating technologies, with important implications for the dynamics of competitive advantage and market structure.
- 18 Apr 2019
- Research & Ideas
Open Innovation Contestants Build AI-Based Cancer Tool
Radiation oncologists are few in number, especially if you are nowhere near a cancer facility. Could artificial intelligence be used to deliver an oncologist's skills for radiation therapy? Karim R. Lakhani discusses a unique open innovation experiment. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Apr 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Can Biometric Tracking Improve Healthcare Provision and Data Quality? Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control in India
This paper shows the benefits of biometric technology for strengthening service delivery and improving reliability of government data. The technology improved productivity of health workers operating tuberculosis treatment centers and decreased misreporting.
- 27 Feb 2019
- Research & Ideas
The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall
Product failures create managerial challenges for companies but market opportunities for competitors, says Ariel Dora Stern. The stakes have only grown higher. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Pioneer (Dis-)advantages in Markets for Technology
When and how to enter a new market is central to firms’ innovation strategies, including in the medical device industry. The authors show how to evaluate early-mover advantage vs. disadvantage when the primary option to monetize an innovation lies in selling it in an intermediate “market for technology” rather than in a final product market.
- 01 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Negative Shocks and Innovation: Evidence from Medical Device Recalls
This study examines Food and Drug Administration data on all medical device approvals and recalls over the years 2003-2015, finding that firms slow down their own innovation processes in response to recalls, while their direct competitors accelerate innovative activities. Recalls may thus pose a greater strategic disadvantage than previously understood.
- 09 Jul 2018
- Research & Ideas
Overcoming the Challenges of Selling Brand New Technology (Hey, Need a 3-D Printer?)
Selling technology that is new to the market involves tricky tradeoffs around prospect targeting, channels, and tactics. Frank Cespedes makes the point with 3-D printers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Apr 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Digital Innovation with High Costs of Entry: Evidence from Software-Driven Medical Devices
Although technology shifts often allow new entrants to edge into a market, established firms seem to be maintaining leadership in the medical devices industry, where software integration is increasingly important.
- 28 Nov 2016
- Research & Ideas
Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation
Many policymakers believe liability laws need reforming so that medical device makers are free to innovate without threat of costly lawsuits. But new research by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso suggests innovation is not thwarted—just rechanneled. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Nov 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Public R&D Investments and Private-sector Patenting: Evidence from NIH Funding Rules
By tracing the often-circuitous path from National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to patented innovations, this research examines the effects of public science on private sector innovation in the life sciences.
- 17 Dec 2007
- Research & Ideas
The Rise of Medical Tourism
Medical tourism—traveling far and wide for health care that is often better and certainly cheaper than at home—appeals to patients with complaints ranging from heart ailments to knee pain. Why is India leading in the globalization of medical services? Q&A with Harvard Business School's Tarun Khanna. Key concepts include: Medical tourism is a new term but not a new idea. Patients have long traveled in search of better care. Today, constraints and long waiting lists at home, as well as the ease of global travel, make medical tourism more appealing. Superior medical schools, a low cost of living, family preferences, and the barriers to foreign accreditation mean that Indian doctors may prefer to work in India rather than elsewhere. The medical services industry is evolving quickly. Khanna expects to see dynamics in China similar to those in India and in other parts of Southeast Asia. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
How Martine Rothblatt Started a Company to Save Her Daughter
When serial entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt (founder of Sirius XM) received her seven-year-old daughter’s diagnosis of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), she created United Therapeutics and developed a drug to save her life. When her daughter later needed a lung transplant, Rothblatt decided to take what she saw as the logical next step: manufacturing organs for transplantation. Rothblatt’s entrepreneurial career exemplifies a larger debate around the role of the firm in creating solutions for society’s problems. If companies are uniquely good at innovating, what voice should society have in governing the new technologies that firms create? Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar debates these questions in the case “Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams.” As part of a new first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School, this case examines the central question: what is the social purpose of the firm?