Towards a New Approach for Upgrading Europe's Competitiveness

Christian  Ketels; Michael E. Porter

Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2018

Towards a New Approach for Upgrading Europe's Competitiveness

by Christian Ketels and Michael E. Porter

Abstract

The traumatic experience of the European sovereign debt crisis, followed by the outcome of the British referendum on leaving the European Union, has sent shockwaves through Europe. For the first time since the signing of the Treaties of Rome six decades ago, the very notion of European integration as embodied in the institutions of the European Union was being questioned. A substantial improvement in economic conditions and the messy reality of the Brexit process in the UK have since then led to a significant recovery in sentiments about the EU’s future. A majority of citizens in all but three EU member countries view membership in the EU as beneficial. EU Commission President Juncker sees “the wind […] back in Europe's sails.”

Keywords: competitiveness; Economy; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Europe; European Union;

Language: English

Format: Print

29 pages

Read Now

Citation:

Ketels, Christian, and Michael E. Porter. "Towards a New Approach for Upgrading Europe's Competitiveness." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-033, September 2018.

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.

Since its establishment in 2005, Hamburg’s Martini Klinik had single mindedly focused on prostate cancer care with a commitment to measure long-term health outcomes for every patient. A wholly owned subsidiary of the University Hospital Hamburg, Martini Klinik was a “hospital in a hospital” in close proximity to other medical departments and services. By 2019, Martini Klinik had become the largest prostate cancer treatment program in the world with 8,000 outpatient cases and more than 2,500 surgical cases annually. Patients came from all over Germany and from around the world. A new and expanded facility was under construction to have the capacity to manage more patients with prostate cancer.

In this report, the authors synthesize their views on U.S. competitiveness and unveil the findings of the 2019 HBS surveys on U.S. competitiveness. Specifically, this report—built on the survey findings and eight years of prior research on the competitiveness of the United States—highlights a disturbing pattern: despite a decade of steady economic growth since the Great Recession, America has done remarkably little to address underlying structural weaknesses in the country’s economy and society. The nation has squandered the recovery.

Faculty & Research

Towards a New Approach for Upgrading Europe's Competitiveness

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author