Competitiveness at a Crossroads

Jan   Rivkin; Michael E. Porter; Rosabeth M. Kanter

Report | 2013

Competitiveness at a Crossroads: Finding of Harvard Business School's 2012 Survey on U.S. Competitiveness

by Jan Rivkin, Michael E. Porter and Rosabeth M. Kanter

Abstract

Harvard Business School gleaned responses from nearly 7,000 alumni and more than 1,000 members of the general public. The survey not only provides an updated view of the U.S. business environment, but also illuminates specific actions that business leaders and policymakers can take to improve U.S. competitiveness. For example, across the political spectrum, business leaders and the general public strongly called on the President and Congress to put the federal budget on a sustainable path, reform the corporate tax code, improve America's infrastructure, address distortions of the international trading system and craft a responsible framework for developing new energy sources. The competitiveness of the United States is at a crossroads. Can America muster the will to restore its competitiveness?

Keywords: PK - 12 education; U.S. competitiveness; education; Competition; Education; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

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Citation:

Rivkin, Jan, Michael E. Porter, and Rosabeth M. Kanter. "Competitiveness at a Crossroads: Finding of Harvard Business School's 2012 Survey on U.S. Competitiveness." Report, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, February 2013.

From 2008-2010 Anand Piramal ran a series of pilots for his digital healthcare startup, Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS) to “democratize healthcare” in rural areas of India. PeS ran into difficulties so Anand Piramal had to decide whether to continue the organization and if so how. In 2010, an unexpected opportunity emerged that could have significant implications for PeS’s organizational structure and future prospects. Anand Piramal now faced several options for PeS. He needed to weigh the pros and cons of each option to make the best decision to fulfill his vision of providing quality healthcare services to “bottom-of-the-pyramid” populations. This case exemplifies the strategic decisions an entrepreneur must make to ensure that a social impact venture can be sustainable and scalable.

In 2010, Anand Piramal acquired the Health Management Research Institute (HMRI), a healthcare venture, and merged it with his original digital healthcare startup Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS), so that PeS became Piramal Swasthya. After acquiring HMRI, Piramal Swasthya scaled across 20 Indian states and became India’s largest private primary healthcare initiative by implementing public-private partnerships with state governments. In 2012, Anand Piramal stepped down as CEO of Piramal Swasthya, leading to organizational change and a healthcare strategy focused on improving maternal health amongst India’s most vulnerable populations. This case shows how an organization can achieve innovation at scale through cross-sector collaboration.

As the diffusion of value-based health care efforts accelerates globally, the need for interoperable information technology systems that support value-based care is essential. Such systems are needed to facilitate dramatic improvements in patient outcomes and efficiency and, importantly, to end an era in which health IT has entrenched the status quo, perpetuated silos, and blocked reimbursement reform. A value-enabling IT platform must organize data around conditions and must enable integrated practice units to integrate care both within and across health systems. In addition, the electronic health record should be the sole source of costing information so that accurate costs for every encounter can be tracked, aggregated, shared, and used for improvement. This is the next generation of health care IT.

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Competitiveness at a Crossroads: Finding of Harvard Business School's 2012 Survey on U.S. Competitiveness

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