What can we learn from CivicaRX?

Back in early 2016, Dan Liljenquist was kind enough to invite me to lunch for a discussion around an "idea he had". He started walking me through what eventually became Civica Rx As I listened to him describe this, it hit me that CivicaRX could be one of the greatest business model innovation efforts in Healthcare. This announcement, https://shorturl.at/2cA7C reinforces the power of creating a new business model. Remember, generic drugs are just that; generic. The product cannot be innovated around, which is why it makes CivicaRX so powerful. The business model design changed so much about a "generic" offering.

Over the years, I had learned so much about business models and value propositions over the years from Alexander Osterwalder that I couldnt "unsee" what Dan was sharing. Dan could have said we are going to renegotiate with the generic drug manufacturers, try to find substitute drugs, buy in different quantities, etc. There are so many traditional things he could have done. Those are all good; those are incremental improvements and we need those over and over again due to their compounding effect.

However, we need a new lens to think through; a business model lens. Dan, Carter Dredge and many colleagues rebuilt the business model of generic drugs. Take a look at these three slides and it will show the difference in the models. The first slide I gathered from Dan. It does a good job of showing the fundamental flaw in the generic drug environment. The last two slides are Cory Smith William Prows and my high level interpretation of the difference between the traditional model and CivicaRX.

The intention of these high level slides are to show the power of having a tool, language, and approach to business modeling! When teams visually map out their current business model, it allows them to start seeing potential ways to renovate the model. When teams do business model portfolio management, it allows them to see which ones to create or eliminate.

With that being said, a key issue at hand for organizations is they don't yet have a scalable and standard system that focuses on their business model portfolio and then a documented business model innovation system that guides teams in how to renovate, create, or eliminate models within that portfolio. In my opinion, powerful transformation comes by creating a system of business model innovation. One key example and focus area to spark a dialog, from my experience, needs to be the business model of kidney health. If we look at the business models around organs, we will often see opportunities because we are using a new dimension to understand. A business model is a longitudinal unit of competition vs an episodic encounter.

Business Model innovation drives transformation and delivers more value to consumers, customers, and companies. If you organization is working to transform, reach out.