Publications
Publications
- February 1985 (Revised January 2024)
- HBS Case Collection
Health Stop (A): What Type of Innovation Is It? And Six Factors Alignment
By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Joyce Lallman, Nancy Kane, Jefferson C. Grahling and James Wallace
Abstract
How can we evaluate if innovative health care ventures can do good—benefit society—and do well—become financially viable? This question is the topic of the first module in the Innovating In Health Care course book.
This note and case series enables readers to conduct this kind of evaluation in the context of innovative organizations for Primary Care Physicians (PCPs). They ask the reader to evaluate which, if any, of the different innovations for organizing PCPs could have helped Health Stop avoid its subsequent failure (not revealed in the case). In addition to Health Stop’s retail medical center model, the note reviews innovations that differ in location; virtual or bricks and mortar; other retail-based; and differ by payer/patient focus. The pair emphasize that success or failure is shaped by correct identification of the type of organization—is it consumer-facing, technology-commercializing, or cost-controlling?—and the alignment of that type of organization with the Six Factors in the environment that critically affect it—Structure, Financing, Consumers, Public Policy, Accountability, and Technology.
Health Stop failed because it tried to become two different types of organizations—consumer-facing and cost-controlling—and thus had poor alignment with many of the Six Factors critical to its success. It is impossible to focus on more than one type. Some sort of partnership with the retail-based (e.g., CVS, Walgreens) or technology-based innovations (e.g., Aledade (see "Aledade." Harvard Business School Case 321-131), Agilon) could have helped to rescue it.
Health Stop failed because it tried to become two different types of organizations—consumer-facing and cost-controlling—and thus had poor alignment with many of the Six Factors critical to its success. It is impossible to focus on more than one type. Some sort of partnership with the retail-based (e.g., CVS, Walgreens) or technology-based innovations (e.g., Aledade (see "Aledade." Harvard Business School Case 321-131), Agilon) could have helped to rescue it.
Keywords
For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Strategy; Valuation; Health Industry; Retail Industry
Citation
Herzlinger, Regina E., Joyce Lallman, Nancy Kane, Jefferson C. Grahling, and James Wallace. "Health Stop (A): What Type of Innovation Is It? And Six Factors Alignment." Harvard Business School Case 185-084, February 1985. (Revised January 2024.)