The Passion of the JourneyStarting a new business and a new field

John AbeleMEDEDGE SUMMIT

York RegionJune 20, 2013

The bigger the house,the longer it takes to answer the door.

“I cut this out and hung it over my desk in 1972”

I always valued talking directly to the docs. AHA, 1974

Dr. Andres Gruntzig, holding our steerable catheter, AHA, 1976

BSC partners, Pete Nicholas, John Abele, 1979

BSC think tank, “Greek Diner” , Watertown, Mass.

History of BSC from the 70’s to 2001

Pioneering book on the power of culture on business success, 1982

One of the best selling business book in history…also on culture.

“In Search of Excellence”, 19828 Principles,

• A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'. Facilitate quick decision making & problem solving tends to avoid bureaucratic control

• Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.

• Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.

• Productivity through people- treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.

• Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.

• Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.

• Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.

• Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralized values.

Still relevant in 2013

November, 1995

One of the most successful new business magazines, by the former editors of the Harvard Business Review. They broke the rules.

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Pete and John were charter investors and thanked in the masthead for many years.

What are the differences between big and small companies?

BigPro Con

____________________________

• Money• People• Experience• Connections• Diverse resources• Market power• Can go to scale

• Bureaucratic• Slow• Political• Risk averse• Cost inefficient

development• Requires detailed plans

and budget• Don’t know what they

know• Unfriendly to inventors

SmallPro Con

____________________________• Fast• Resourceful• Risk taking• Apolitical• Works around the clock• Can change quickly• Always optimistic

• Undercapitalized• Never enough people• Never enough tools• No reputation• Lack of depth• Lack connections• Don’t know that they

don’t know• Always optimistic

How do you balance the difference?

Leverage Assets

• Intellectual

• Geographical

• Technological

• Information

• Financial

• Marketing

• Strategic

Internally, externally, within, between

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace

Too Much Innovation?

Cleveland Clinic

Mayo Clinic

Health Systems

University of Pennsylvania

Cities Everywhere

Small can be BIG

And BIG can be Small

Technology enhances Convergence

• Terabyte/exobyte memories...SmartPhone sensors/virtual doctors.

• Personal medical search engines know who you are, where you are, what’s wrong.

• Data gets bigger, more accessible faster.

• Wikis, blogs, collaboration software enhance collective intelligence.

• Decision making software/computers… “Watson will see you now”.

• Integrated imaging/diagnosis/therapy

CONVERGENCEin many areas

• Disciplines: Cardiology, EP, Neuroscience, Radiology, Surgery, GI, Urology

• Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Nanotechnology

• Business: Pharma, Biotech, Devices

• Diagnostics and therapeutics

• Fusion imaging

• Technology: IT with everything, bioinformatics, nanotechnology

The Arab Spring comes to Health Care Democratization of Knowledge

Democratization of Power

Bottoms Up Health Reform: Some Examples

More TransparencyMore Transparency

More Participation by Patients

More choice

Crowdsourcing as a powerful business tool

Network science, the ultimate disrupter

Design Thinking

Systems Thinking

Integrated Thinking

Eco Thinking

Big Picture Thinking

www.kingbridgecentre.comMy conference center in King City, Ontario. New experiments in collaboration

The Kingbridge Mission

The Design of Meetings

Organizations are most productive when there is great communication. Great communication can occur when people are stimulated, provoked and challenged in an atmosphere of trust, respect and accountability.

iPod versus iTunes

We need more systems solutions so we can use our wonderful technology

Big or Small, Innovation Starts with

Leadership

Leadership starts with values.

Leaders invest in what they believe.

-It’s not a job. It’s a religion.

Pseudo leaders focus on image, not substance.

Leaders have unshakable integrity.

• They care about what’s right• They aren’t afraid to speak out.

Pseudo leaders want results at any cost.

Leaders want to create something of value.

Pseudo leaderswant to be rich.

Leaders don’t follow a formula.• They do zero based thinking every day• They question assumptions• They question authority• They question themselves (true confidence)• They provoke, challenge, test, play

Pseudo leaders do what they thinkwill please the boss.

Leaders are proactive.

Pseudo leaders react.

Leaders are self-critical.

• They want the best solution• They are open to the best

advice.

Pseudo leaders “don’t make mistakes.”

• They kill the messenger• Criticism is unpatriotic

Be willing to test yourself

How Do We Rate?

• Trust

• Communication

• Coordination

• Collaboration

• Sense of urgency

• Transparency

• Freedom from fear of failure

• Willingness to kill projects

• Organization-wide optimization

People have been trying to collaborate since the beginning of people

The Babel Collaboration Center. Didn’t work too well.

When I asked the editors whether I could collaborate with the other authors, I was told “we don’t do things that way”.

Building an organization is a continuous process. Evolve or die.

“No one owns the industry.

It belongs only to the best - to thosewho keep it growing, producing, alive.

We’re in it today, but tomorrow itbelongs to whoever does it better.”

Unknown

Invention is everywhere. This open source one could be the foundation of many devices and applications.