Technological and structural changes pose an existential threat to healthcare incumbents but also a potentially rich opportunity for those who pivot fast enough to take advantage of them. In other industries that have undergone disruptive change, the incumbents have often decided -- very belatedly -- to partner with the insurgents rather than dismissing them, according to Adrian Slywotzky, a "partner emeritus" with the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman and author of books including The Profit Zone and Demand. "Almost without exception, that collaboration starts 10 years too late," he said in a keynote presentation at the MediFuture conference last week in Tampa, Fla. The healthcare industry "has not had a history of innovation because it didn't need to," he added. "That will change in the next two to three years.
