Innovation in China – similarities to health care – Schumpeter: Bamboo innovation | The Economist

Schumpeter: Bamboo innovation | The Economist – This is an article about innovation in China. Even though working in health care and living in China are not exactly the same, there are some important similarities that are worth looking at, in my opinion, and this is not meant as a pejorative, it is based on the fact that China is a very large centrally coordinated organization, with much success in its model.

First similarity, there is more than one way to innovate besides developing a new product. Innovation in process efficiency is one example. Also, innovation is possible and can thrive in a large ecosystem, in fact I would say innovation is more possible in a large organization than a small one (see this blog post for more on that).

Some of the potential pitfalls are the same, too – a focus on “independent innovation” (which I interpret as “not invented here”) can be a big difficulty. Take a look see what you think.

Ted Eytan, MD