Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy

Michael E. Porter; James E. Heppelmann

Article | Harvard Business Review

Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy

by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

Abstract

While the physical world is three-dimensional, most data is trapped on two-dimensional pages and screens. This gulf between the real and digital worlds prevents us from fully exploiting the volumes of information now available to us. Augmented reality (AR), a set of technologies that superimposes digital data and images on physical objects and environments, is closing this gap. By putting information directly into the context in which we’ll apply it, AR increases our ability to absorb and act on it. AR will become the new interface between humans and machines, say Michael E. Porter of Harvard and James E. Heppelmann, the CEO of the industrial software maker PTC. Many people are familiar with AR entertainment applications, such as Snapchat filters, but AR is being applied in far more consequential ways in business. Pioneering organizations are already implementing it in product development, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, service, and training—and are seeing major gains in quality and productivity. AR improves how users visualize information, receive and follow instructions, and interact with products. AccuVein, for instance, uses AR technology that converts the heat signature of a patient’s veins into an image superimposed on the skin, making them much easier to locate. Boeing uses AR to show trainees how to assemble an aircraft wing—and has cut the time it takes them to do that task by 35%. At GE, factory workers have achieved a similar gain in efficiency by using voice commands in AR experiences to perform complex wiring. AR will have a wide impact on how companies compete. This article walks readers through the questions firms need to ask when integrating it into their strategies and operations. The article also includes HBR’s first embedded AR experiences, which readers can launch by downloading a new HBR app on their mobile devices and then pointing them at targeted images in the magazine’s pages.

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Porter, Michael E., and James E. Heppelmann. "Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 6 (November–December 2017): 46–57.

Article | Health Affairs

Navy Medicine Introduces Value-Based Health Care

Alee Hernandez, Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski, C. Forrest Faison III and Michael E. Porter

In 2016 the newly appointed surgeon general of the Navy launched a value-based health care pilot project at Naval Hospital Jacksonville to explore whether multidisciplinary care teams (known as integrated practice units, or IPUs) and measurement of outcomes could improve the readiness of active duty personnel and lower the cost of delivering care to them, their dependents, and local retirees. This article describes the formation of the project’s leadership structure; the selection of four conditions to be treated (low back pain, osteoarthritis, diabetes, and high-risk pregnancy); the creation of the care team for each condition; outcomes and costs measured; and the near-term changes in outcomes during the twelve-month pilot period. Patient outcomes improved for three of the four conditions. We describe factors that contributed to the project’s success. After the pilot concluded, the Navy combined the back pain and osteoarthritis IPUs into a single musculoskeletal clinical unit and established a similar IPU at another naval hospital and its clinics. The diabetes IPU was continued, but the high-risk pregnancy IPU was not. We offer several observations on the elements that were key to the success of the project, explore challenges and opportunities, and suggest that the pilot described here could be taken to greater scale in the Military Health System and elsewhere.

Keywords: military health system; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Projects;

Citation:

Hernandez, Alee, Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski, C. Forrest Faison III, and Michael E. Porter. "Navy Medicine Introduces Value-Based Health Care." Health Affairs 38, no. 8 (August 2019): 1393–1400. View Details

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