Categories

Tag: Harvard Business School

Why Competition In the Politics Industry Is Failing America

Year after year, Congress fails to reach consensus on important issues, the electorate screams for change, and voters become more polarized along party lines and ideology. These struggles aren’t causes of America’s political malaise, says Michael E. Porter, co-chair of the U.S. Competitiveness Project at Harvard Business School; they’re symptoms of a much larger problem. U.S. “democracy” is a weak, uncompetitive industry controlled by a duopoly that pursues private interests at the expense of public good.

“To fix our political system, we must see politics as the major industry it has become, the major economic benefits it provides for its participants, and how today’s political competition is not serving the public interest,” as Porter explains in “Why Competition in the Politics Industry Is Failing America,” a just-released groundbreaking study co-authored with business leader and former CEO Katherine M. Gehl.

Experts in the benefits and drawbacks of competition in the private sector, Porter and Gehl describe the four fundamentals of a healthy political system:

  1. Practical and effective solutions to solve our nation’s important problems and expand opportunity
  2. Legislative action to advance those solutions
  3. A reasonably broad-based public consensus on policy
  4. Respect for the Constitution and the rights of all citizens

Measured by these success factors alone, America’s system has already failed. But Porter and Gehl are adamant in their belief that we can recover our former sense of bipartisanship and dynamism.

Read Porter’s and Gehl’s paper to learn more about their poignant perspective on our nation’s most urgent problems and how business, strategy and competition can help solve them.

Danny Stern is Managing Director of the Stern Strategy Group

THCB Calendar: 2013 Harvard Business School Healthcare Conference

The 10th Annual Healthcare Conference at Harvard Business School is to be held Saturday, February 2, 2013. This year’s topic is Consumer-Centric Innovation.

Top 5 Reasons to Attend:

  • Network with over 700 students and professionals from Boston and beyond focused on healthcare
  • Hear from our keynotes: David Kirchhoff, President and CEO, Weight Watchers International; Nancy-Ann DeParle, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Obama Administration; Kent Thiry, Chairman and CEO, DaVita Inc.; Tom Gentile, President and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems
  • Enjoy panel discussions across: pharma/ biotechnology, medical devices, diagnostics/ personalized medicine, healthcare financing, consumer health, payor/provider, IT, and emerging markets
  • Have a small group lunch with an industry leader of your choice
  • Attend our networking reception, with representatives from both established and emerging players

Please follow this link here to reserve your tickets. The current agenda and keynote speakers can be found at www.hbshealthcareconference.org

Harvard Business School Future of Healthcare Conference

Personalized medicine, iPads, insurance exchanges, non-profit/private partnerships…what will healthcare look like in 2020? The healthcare industry today is under enormous stress. Big Pharma is struggling to fill its pipeline, and the biotech industry has failed to deliver sustainable profits for its investors. Health plans operate under enormous uncertainty as reform hits one political roadblock after another. Hospitals struggle to find profitable business models, while patients struggle to find safe, affordable and high-quality care.

But the future of healthcare remains incredibly promising. Scientific discoveries and business model innovations are shaping the healthcare of tomorrow, today. But what will that future look like? On February 4th, over 600 industry leaders, professionals, and students will gather at Harvard Business School for its 9th Annual Healthcare Conference to answer that very question.  Karen Ignagni, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare”, will discuss the future of the health insurance industry.  Other keynote speakers include Bill Crounse, Senior Director, Worldwide Health for Microsoft and contributor to Microsoft Healthblog, and Larry Culp, CEO of Danaher, who will discuss broader trends in healthcare IT and innovation.

A variety of topics will be debated during panel sessions where moderators are encouraged to challenge panelists to envision the healthcare business models of tomorrow. In the Biotech & Pharma panel, for example, panelists will discuss the rise of tailored therapeutics―Dr. Stephen Spielberg, Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, will provide his perspective on the regulation of personalized treatments. The Payor & Provider Panel will explore the shift to an outcomes-based future―Regina Herzlinger, author of “Who Killed Health Care?” and often dubbed the “Godmother” of consumer-driven Healthcare movement, will share her viewpoint.

Continue reading…