Driving Profitable Innovation
Innovation in today’s world is not only a strength of a strategy but a necessity. Healthcare organizations need to enhance care, reduce costs, and address the diverse needs of their patients. In the context of innovation, diversity is one of the key drivers in this game. There is a need to enhance diversity in healthcare innovation groups not only in terms of demographics but also in terms of experiences, attitudes, and skills that have transcended a moral imperative. It is a compelling business case to drive profitable innovation.
In short, diversity enhances the ideation process. Multi-cultural teams include members with diverse backgrounds and experiences, which provide a different perspective and life experience in solving problems. In healthcare, where the needs of patients are complicated and multi-faceted, such depth of knowledge can clarify what is missing and generate disruptive ideas. Diversity deficient teams can miss out on important populations of patients or overlook the minor obstacles to adoption, eventually restricting the extent of their innovation.
Each team is likely to be more creative and flexible. Organizational psychology research has shown that teams made up of individuals from different backgrounds are more effective at tasks that need creativity and problem-solving skills than teams made up of individuals from similar backgrounds. When team members exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and use their different experiences, they are likely to come up with better and more creative solutions. In the healthcare technology sector, for example, combining the knowledge of doctors, patients, data analysts, and designers can help to create products that are not only technically correct but also user-friendly and marketable.
Additionally, different teams are more innovative and versatile. Organizational psychology studies continuously reveal that heterogeneous groups perform better than homogeneous groups on tasks that involve a creative and critical process. The process of sharing assumptions, defying groupthink, and integrating unique views among team members usually provides more solid and creative solutions. In healthcare technology, as an example, by integrating the expertise of clinicians, patients, data scientists and design thinkers it may result in products that are not only technical but also very user-centric and market-ready.
Market relevance is another aspect that is strong in the business case of diversity in healthcare innovation. Healthcare solutions that meet the needs of many different patients are more likely to succeed. For example, a team made up only of developers might build a nice-looking health app, but they could miss issues like language, culture, or accessibility that affect how people use it. A diverse team, on the other hand, understands these needs firsthand and can create features that appeal to more people, even in different countries. This helps the product reach more users and earn more revenue.
Besides improving the quality of design, the variety in leadership and decision-making processes helps to increase strategic alignment. Diversity at the executive level of healthcare organizations equips these organizations to predict changes in the demographics of patients, changes in regulatory environments, and changes in global health patterns. Such organizations are more responsive to emerging needs, which allows them to spend resources rationally and react more quickly to changes in the competitive environment. Financially, this agility can be translated into a lower risk and higher long-term value creation.
In addition to inner processes, diversity also enhances outer relationships. Innovation in healthcare is rarely a solo effort – partnership with academic institutions, technology providers, payers and patient advocacy organizations are usually central to the development of new solutions. Diverse organizations are generally viewed as more accommodating and flexible partners, and they can more easily find strategic alliances that will fuel funding, generate additional distribution channels and commercialization. This is also becoming more noticed by investors; there is mounting evidence that diversified leadership structures within companies are more likely to provide them with superior financial performance, which in turn makes them more appealing to capital markets.
Finally, the promotion of diversity is what society wants and what will ensure corporate social responsibility. Patients, employees, and investors would like to see the healthcare organization they support reflecting the communities they serve. Companies that do not promote diversity are likely to get a reputation blow, lose the trust of patients, and struggle to get the best employees. Companies that promote diversity build their brand, make their workplace welcoming, and retain their employees, which helps increase their productivity and innovation.
