Course Overview

The U.S. healthcare sector accounts for nearly one-fifth of the economy, encompassing a diverse set of industries and involving organizations and regulators with a variety of objectives. This course will introduce participants to the key strategic problems facing healthcare businesses, and will illustrate how strategic principles can be applied in healthcare settings to identify sources of competitive advantage (and all too often, disadvantage).

Our emphasis will be on payers and providers, but we will also devote 20-25% of our case discussions to prescription drugs. Throughout, we will also discuss the role of U.S. regulations and policies on organizational strategies and market outcomes.

Topics (examples) include: industry analysis (Oscar Health Insurance); sustaining profits over time (pharmaceutical company practices); product differentiation and entry decisions (Amgen); mergers (Boston-area hospital system consolidation); population health (Massachusetts General Hospital and Oak Street Health); vertical integration (Kaiser and Cigna). In prior years, we have welcomed protagonists from government as well as the private sector.

Copyright © 2022 President & Fellows of Harvard College. All Rights Reserved.