Can it be true? Healthcare providers navigating towards Blue Oceans

Can it be true? Healthcare providers navigating towards Blue Oceans

“By thinking across conventional boundaries of competition, you can see how to make convention-altering strategic moves that reconstruct established market boundaries and create blue oceans.” (Blue Ocean Strategy, p 79)

The US healthcare industry has long been a victim of its gargantuan size and thus, slow to react to market changes and increasingly unable to properly accommodate individual client needs. As a recent Business 2.0 article describes: “The health-care system is a $2 trillion dinosaur of the way-old economy.”

However, numerous seas of opportunity abound for healthcare industry innovators, in particular those focusing on such things as gene screening, retail therapy and second opinions for medical bills. These businesses are understanding that rearranging the traditional factors of competition can equal healthy profits and customer satisfaction:

Free to buy health care like anything else, tech-savvy consumers are looking at the next generation of medical services, everything from online genetic testing to Wal-Mart medical clinics. But as always, the real opportunity lies with services not yet invented. How about a Priceline for nonemergency surgery? Or an online reservation system for doctors' appointments, à la Open Table?

By offering patients more control and flexibility over the type and range of services provided, and eliminating unwanted extras to reduce overall cost, these healthcare providers are plotting a course full-speed ahead towards Blue Oceans. Do you know of a healthcare business that is rearranging the traditional factors of competition? We invite you to share your story with us.