Today’s lecture is about the power of digital platform models. My students seem to have clearly understand the concepts discussed based on the questions and follow-up questions during and after the class. I am expecting my students to clearly articulate the takeaways based on the posted slides and class discussions.
Steve Myers visited my class today. He is the CTO of the world largest platform in health care. United Healthcare is a Fortune 17 company and tracks more lives than any single platform on the planet. He was a real hit and my students were very energized. He could not finish his lecture as so many questions were asked during his talk. Several of them followed him into my conference room where they carried on the dialogue with him until 6pm.
I am so happy to back from Russia and get back together with my students. I look forward to their thoughts on today’s topic.
Lecture is posted
It was great to hear from a C-level executive during today’s class. He provided a lot of insights into the healthcare field and its challenges. I was unfamiliar with the ideas of telemedicine and healthcare in general before today. Mr. Myers really highlighted the potential benefits of such technology and its impact on the way people receive medical treatment. His presentation made me rethink the way that I, like many others, interact with my doctors and healthcare providers. Healthcare costs are so high in this day and age that any technology used to cut down consumer costs would be extremely impactful.
I thought it was inspiring to hear from the CTO of such a large corporation as well. Mr. Myers really opened my eyes to what technology can bring to the field of healthcare. I had never really thought about the implications of what advances in technology could mean for fields such as healthcare, and hearing about how much something like this could cut down costs makes me wonder why it has taken to long for it to start to gain traction. Healthcare costs are astronomical and something such as the healthcare platform that Mr. Myers works on has the potential to reduce the costs by a huge factor while improving the overall efficiency of the system. My group is considering a similar idea of creating a standard platform for Wipro’s Internet of Things business. Taking these thoughts and how they can be generalized brings up some interesting ideas for what Wipro can do with their platform.
I enjoyed learning about the platform model during our class discussion yesterday. My biggest takeaway was the point about “expanding the pie.” In our example, 30% of the pie’s value was captured by the owner/creator, while 70% was given away to others to create an ecosystem. This reminded me of a previous class session where we discussed how open innovation promoted efficiency and sustainability – a small piece of a large pie is definitely worth more than an entire small pie! Steve Myers mentioned how digital platforms were making it much more feasible to innovate in large organizations; I think there’s an opportunity to bring this idea to our team’s discussion around Coca-Cola.
My biggest takeaway was our discussion about “expanding the pie” as well. By giving away 70% of the pie’s value (like you said), the owner/creator is creating an ecosystem. Although the creator is “sacrificing” his/her potential value, he is also decreasing risk but increasing value for all who hold a part of the pie. I think this stresses again the significance and importance of having partners. For GE’s challenge specifically, building greater partnerships with other companies or organizations will be essential to create a sustainable and cost-effective ecosystem for tele health in rural India. When I spoke with CTO Steve Myers after class, he suggested this as well. By sharing the value of tele health with others who are trying to achieve the same goal, we can increase the value of health care to consumers while bringing our own costs and risks down. It’s a win-win(-win) situation for all.
This was my key takeaway from Mr Myers’ talk too. We are considering similar things for WiPro’s business model where we create a industrial standard system and protocol of Internet of Things that others can adopt and use as well in order to increase the usage and demand for the IoT systems. The talk definitely help me be more confident about our approach, and gave me a lot of interesting ideas that I believe we can use in our challenges. It was really great hearing from someone with so much industrial experience and knowledge as My Myers, who really set the bar on how innovative and creative our thinking should be. In addition to his talk on the bigger pie, I also learnt a lot from his interesting thoughts on telehealth’s future.
I enjoyed the presentation by Steve Myers and how he advocated for the significance of digital platforms. Considering how technologically advanced society is present-day I agree that a business cannot succeed without using a digital platform.
As convincing as Myers was, I am still skeptical of Telemedicine devices and services because of how limited it is in terms of diagnosing patients. Without doctors being able to see the symptoms or issues in person, the types of illnesses that can be diagnosed will be limited to the easily identifiable illnesses that we usually diagnose with WebMD anyways.
That being said, I agree with Myers that we can’t focus on limitations because at the speed that technology is progressing whatever we believe is impossible now will most likely become possible in the next few years.
Cassie,
The defining “success” factor of a business is the way in which a business adapts to their current business landscape. Today, digital platforms are everywhere and used by everyone — every single day! You can have a small business that is successful in the short run but long term if they do not have a digital platform to engage their customers; the business will eventually shut down. The product to market cycle is shorter than before because consumer preferences change everyday as a result of the access to knowledge at our fingertips.
I also am skeptical of Telehealth and maintaining the quality of care. I asked Steve Myers how doctors feel about losing the one on one interaction with patients. He said that doctors spend about 10 to 30 minutes with a patient that could have been diagnosed online. They could be spending more time online establishing an on going relationship with their patients instead of seeing them a few times a year. The one on one interactions can then be for the patients that do need one on one care. It is a doctor cultural shift that I believe will occur because there is a shortage of doctors. Telehealth is a way to sustain our supply of doctors.
Tuesday’s lecture on platform business model was inspiring since it is the main focus of my group (J&J)’s project. The “70%/30% pie” is definitely the key takeaway. Looking back, when my group was brainstorming ideas for our platform business model, we thought more about how to build a platform and capture the value. I think after the lecture, we will definitely think more on how we can make the platform model sustainable and expansionary so that we can expand the pie and create more values for more people, companies and society in general.
I also enjoyed Mr. Myer’s presentation on Telemedicine and healthcare as it’s closely related to our project. I think the telemedicine technology is pretty advanced now, however, what we are missing is a platform model that could make telemedicine accessible to people and at the same time ensure the privacy, safety, and immediacy of the communication. This is also going to be one of our goals for our project.
Steve Myers is such an inspiration and changed my life. I took copious notes during our 4 hour interaction both in class and after class. I was scared that water would spill on my notebook before I had a chance to type up his enlightening thoughts on the digital platform landscape. I was feeling so juiced with ideas coming away from our discussion. One comment that resonates with me is that anyone with a smart device can start a million dollar business on their phone with $40. Another striking comment was that he mentioned it takes $4 to do a transaction at the bank, 32 cents on a computer, and 4 cents on your phone. This makes the digital platforms on your phones so much more valuable in terms of cutting costs. Telehealth will ideally cut costs on the unnecessary and avoidable doctors visits. There are only so many physicians and we need to use them wisely.
I got several takeaways from this class. First of all,the introduction helped me to understand the current situation in the markets, it was really clarifying. The importance of having a platform model and not being stuck in the old way of doing business like Kodak.
The Guest Speaker was inspiring .I admire that he is not satisfied with managing a company but also he wants to change the world and to help people. I liked when he said that we are almost certainly right when we say `Everything is possible ´.He also mentioned the need of the convergence of disciplines and keep creating things. Moreover, all the information that he gave us about the telehealth industry was very useful for our project.
My biggest takeaway from class yesterday is that technology can change the world, by disrupting the conventional systems of the world. It can improve time efficiency, convenience, accuracy, and reduces cost. Telemedicine is a technological breakthrough that will benefit doctors, patients, and hospitals alike. With solid digital platforms, everyone should be able to embrace innovation and value creation can be captured. Just as Professor Darwin mentioned in class, certain parties may only benefit a portion of the pie; but if the pie exponentially grows, a growing ecosystem and network emerge and this will benefit everybody.
As everyone else has mentioned, I also admire Steve Myer’s ambition and motivation to change the world. His contribution to the technological progress in the healthcare sector inspires me to also seek for a passion that can help make the world a better ecosystem.
I also had the same takeaways as you from yesterday’s lecture. It was eye opening to learn about Telemedicine and the ways in which everyone can benefit from this new way of distributing and managing health services. However throughout the lecture, what resonated with me was the impacts of technology and how it makes Telemedicine possible.
Steve Meyers was a great speaker and really emphasized the importance of adapting to the changing technology. Overall, the lecture taught me a lot about technology and platforms that will disrupt more conventional practices and transform the future of health.
When it comes to sustainable and scalable business, digital platforms are the future. However, for digital platforms to be successful, they must be developed with the intention to share its capabilities. The concept of 30/70 in which the platform developer keeps 30% while giving away the 70% left is a revolutionary yet incredibly simple concept: take a piece of the pie, share the rest and let the rest multiple its share into more pies for you – brilliant. After listening to this impressive concepts, the inspirational speech by Steve Myers on Telemedicine complemented the digital platform concept. Furthermore, for my group, UnitedHealth, the presence of Steve was more significant since he’s our sponsor in the project and we even got to meet with him after class to discuss in length about the project, innovation in general and even some of our personal views of the business world. I can say with confidence that all my group is very grateful to have such an approachable, humble and funny guy as Steve.
Tuesday’s lecture on platform business model was really inspiring since it’s the focus of my group (J&J)’s project. The “70%/30% pie” was definitely the key takeaway. Looking back, when my group was brainstorming our platform business model, we thought more about how to build a platform and capture the value. However, after the lecture, I think we need to think more on how to make our platform model more sustainable and expansionary so that it creates more value for people, companies, and society in general.
I also really enjoyed Mr. Myers’ presentation on Telemedicine and healthcare since it’s very related to our project. I think the current technology of telemedicine is pretty advanced, however, what we are missing is the platform business model that can make telemedicine accessible to people while ensure the privacy, safety and immediacy of communication. And this will be one of our goals for the project.
(My previous comment somehow didn’t show up. So i’m posting it again)
Yesterday’s speaker broadened my understanding of technology’s future. I never thought of doctors, an occupation normally based on human interaction, being transformed through a digital platform. With technology, a ton of benefits e.g. reducing costs, decreasing wait times, etc. can really take effect. What I did find a bit worrisome was that although disruption has its benefits, it does pose some disadvantages. As a result of technology many jobs will become obsolete. However, I do think that, with the way society is evolving, this is a great business move. The overall effects of technological integration relate to the single idea: what is most beneficial in the long run?
I completely agree with Logan. Going into the lecture, I had several doubts of how technology could be seamlessly integrated within the medical field. It was interesting to hear Steve’s own suggestions and examples on how the “risk” could easily be mitigated.
As with Logan, I also have my own doubts on whether the doctor-patient interaction can fully be “digitalized.” Even if it is just 5 minutes, that time serves as a much-needed interaction to build credibility.
A final thought that came to mind during Steve’s presentation was a possible creation of a “digital medicine package” which came with the equipment needed to digitally communicate and interact with your doctor, in which he could take your vitals automatically (technology for it exists), and the entire system would be integrated much better.
All of your comments are thought provoking. After yesterdays lecture I found myself circling back to thinking about healthcare and globalization. How do we integrate global health? It seems we have different regulations and approaches depending on the regulations and availability in our concentrated area. For example say I am here in America and getting health advice from someone in India. In India there are different procedures and medications available. Is the solution to start a global healthcare school, where general procedures and remedies are taught? Or do we teach a variety of procedures and remedies – do we pair of country teachings? For example do we pair America with China so that there is care available 24 hours. And each physician is trained with protocol for both countries? It is a new frontier and a complicated one due to regulations and resources.
The second thought is when is technology a hindrance? We are all thinking about a technology driven society and how we can be a part of it. I think that there are many opportunities that are being missed because we are all so technology driven. Where are we missing the mark with technology? Where do we need to concentrate more effort in physical products? I think the ultimate solution is a hybrid of real life interactive solutions and technology.
All of your comments are thought provoking. After yesterdays lecture I found myself circling back to thinking about healthcare and globalization. How do we integrate global health? It seems we have different regulations and approaches depending on the regulations and availability in our concentrated area. For example say I am here in America and getting health advice from someone in India. In India there are different procedures and medications available. Is the solution to start a global healthcare school, where general procedures and remedies are taught? Or do we teach a variety of procedures and remedies – do we pair of country teachings? For example do we pair America with China so that there is care available 24 hours. And each physician is trained with protocol for both countries? It is a new frontier and a complicated one due to regulations and resources.
The second thought is when is technology a hindrance? We are all thinking about a technology driven society and how we can be a part of it. I think that there are many opportunities that are being missed because we are all so technology driven. Where are we missing the mark with technology? Where do we need to concentrate more effort in physical products? I think the ultimate solution is a hybrid of real life interactive solutions and technology.
Many thanks for Steve Myers for his talk about Telemedicine and its current/future impact. I don’t have large familiarity in healthcare technology, so learning about the field’s current potential was eye-opening to me. I do agree with many of my peers above that Telemedicine, while beneficial, does have many concerns (i.e. diagnosis issues). More concerning to me are the barriers Telemedicine needs to overcome, especially with regulatory restrictions. Our nation’s bureacratic system of approving technologies is much too slow to support open innovation, which favors agile development environments. Without changing the system that will support Telemedicine (and other technologies)’s implementation, it could be years before approvals are delivered, when it is too late and obsolete.
Yesterday’s class was very inspiring, as always. The topic of Digital Platforms was especially relevant to my family’s own personal business. We have a small business travel agency that has been around for 10 years now that my parents established. With the emerging ecommerce and online self-ticketing industry that has erupted due to companies like Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, and Hotwire, our business has been marginalized to people who specifically crave customer service and corporations that don’t have time to handle their employees’ travel. Therefore, the one quote from today specifically stuck out in my mind—“Digital Platforms allow you to be anything and anyone you want to be.” I started brainstorming the possibilities that would present themselves if we were able to create an online platform for our small business. I know my parents have been trying to do that for a long time, but this class really inspired me to encourage them and help them out even more!
In yesterday’s class, Steve Meyers made a compelling argument for Telemedicine as Healthcare’s next frontier. Thanks to Steve, I am convinced that Telemedicine and Telehealth have the potential to increase access to care, improve quality of care and decrease costs. I did bring this up in class but I think one of the key challenges in implementing Telemedicine is whether it will be be reimbursed by payors, including patients and insurance companies or whether it will be free. I think the best way to overcome this challenge is demonstrate value to payors. If you have a great example to follow, buy-in from from doctors, insurance and patients is easier and the telemedicine is more likely to be successful and demonstrate that needed value.
As for the Digital Platforms part of the lecture, here is a great article from the Andressen Horowitz blog on Why Amazon Has No Profits (And Why It Works):
http://a16z.com/2014/09/05/why-amazon-has-no-profits-and-why-it-works/
Yesterday’s class was so inspiring and motivating. Steve Myers gave the class an overview and an understanding of telemedicine and the success that is has brought to the Health industry. My group, Johnson & Johnson, is focused on customer engagement through technology and to be able to hear and see the success of telemedicine was inspiring. Not only because it is changing the way medicine is presented but also because it is changing the lives of those using it. I realized through his presentation that this business platform should not only be focused on sustainability but on how you are going to affect people and better their lives day to day.
Sorry about the late post. I was very fascinated by Mr. Meyer’s understanding on tele-medicine and how broad the scan can be. More importantly, I am very interested by how many new innovations on Business Models where we had never imagined. For example, Xiaomi, one of China’s biggest smartphone providers, are known for their “Xiaomi” model, where they sell digital devices for extremely low prices, and then sell software on their digital devices. The model has been so successful and they are right now the fourth fastest growing company in the world. And currently new startups are focused around creating “platforms” and large tech firms are also marketing for their open platforms. This has been so successful and I expect the business model to be growing.
I really enjoyed the lecture on Tuesday as it provided a very insightful understanding of the health care industry and how that related to Steve’s company. There were a lot of interesting insights that had to placed into consideration for a health care related company whether it be the people using it or how the government bureaucracy impacts the products.
I definitely enjoyed this kind of presentation as it was very different from the usual lecture. I am very excited for the other speakers that are lined up for the remainder of the class. I just hope the next time the class can get more QA time to ask whatever questions that we had regarding their companies and expertise.
The lecture about the characteristics and benefits of digital platforms was really interesting. When creating a digital platform for others to join you create a business network with others using your platform with the same goal. Eventhough the creator of the platform only charges a small portion of the total revenue, when the platform gets big enough this small portion will probably be more than if you had tried to run it all by yourself. Next up was Mr Myers who introduced us to the topic of tele-medicine. It was really inspiring to listen to since we all realized the benefits of this new thing when it comes to lowering healthcare costs dramatically. Also, this was very much related to what we are working on with Wipro’s IoT challenge since we are looking into the opportunities to create a standardized platform for IoT.
Haha that was obviously not the right way to attach a picture..
I really liked this class and the biggest takeaway for me was understanding a bit better the challenges that the American healthcare is facing which is huge. I was really inspired by Steve and I really like the fact that he works hard to have such an impact in such a complex industry.
Tuesday’s lecture was very insightful, especially Steve Myers presentation and where the world of telemedicine is moving towards. There where things I didn’t think was possible or even existed before Tuesday and it was a real eye opener of what we can expect in the future. I’m not completely convinced about all the changes and innovation Myers provided will benefit the patients, something’s can’t be replaced by technology.
Even though Wipro is in a different industry, the way Steve talked about how they used platforms to make healthcare more efficient and accessible, is something Wipro hopefully can provide by successfully creating a standardize platform for IoT.
I was very inspired by today’s lecture that incorporated our guest speaker Steve who talked about how technology can improve accessibility of healthcare. The whole lecture was about digital platforms and I believe platforms will play an instrumental role in changing the digital world and I think it already has. From the marketing point of view, digital platforms will bridge the gap that still exists between the customers and the businesses so that the businesses will be able to better customize their products to the cusomters’ specific needs and empower the customers. From the macro, micro economic perspective, the platform will allow a more efficient and effective way of allocating scarce resources. Thus, platforms will indeed change the world.