If a strategy meets a goal: It's working. If a strategy meets a target: It's a success.
Michael PorterRead
Health care historically has been a very siloed field that's organized around medical specialties - urology, cardiac surgery, and so forth - and around the supply of these specialty services. The patient is the ping-pong ball that moves from service to service.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how healthcare has been fragmented, with patients moving between specialized services rather than receiving cohesive care.
Michael Porter critiques the traditional structure of healthcare, emphasizing its siloed nature where different specialties operate independently. Patients often find themselves bouncing from one service to another, resembling a ping-pong ball, which can lead to a disjointed experience in their care journey. This fragmentation can inhibit effective treatment and patient satisfaction, indicating a need for a more integrated approach to healthcare.
Themes
Health CareSiloedSpecialtiesPatient ExperienceIntegrated Care
In practice
Example use cases
During a health care conference, this quote can be used to discuss the need for reforms in patient management.
More from Michael Porter
All quotes →As a multisport athlete, I was always fascinated with competition and how to win. At HBS and later at the Harvard Department of Economics, I was drawn to the field of competition and strategy because it tackles perhaps the most basic question in both business management and industrial economics: What determines corporate performance?
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In a period of economic downturn, the overwhelming instinct is to pare back, cut costs, and lay off. If you do that, do so with your strategy in mind. The worst mistake is to cut across the board. Instead, reconnect and recommit to a clear strategy that will distinguish yourself from others.
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I think that, too many times, business has been seen as acting in its narrow self-interest rather than, essentially, contributing more broadly to society. I think a lot of that is unintentional; I don't think that many managers are deliberately trying to be unethical or are not trying to be sensitive to social needs.
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If your goal is anything but profitability - if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader - you'll hit problems.
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You can't have a healthy society unless you have healthy companies that are making a profit, that are employing people and that are growing.
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