innovation case study

Ten Types of Innovation: 30 new case studies for 2019

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of the Ten Types of Innovation, a framework developed by Doblin (now a part of Deloitte).

I previously listed it as the #2 innovation framework you should be using.

And with good reason. I have used it frequently with clients to get them to think beyond innovating their product , which becomes harder, more expensive and less differentiating over time.

However, what I have found in recent workshops is that since it was originally published in 2013, some of the case studies and examples in the book already come across as out of date. That’s how rapidly the world is changing.

So here, I present three new more recent case studies for each of the Ten Types of Innovation, along with an outline on what each of them represents. Try and see which of these examples you would also suggest touch on more than one of the Ten Types, and let me know in the comments below:

1) Profit Model: How you make money

Innovative profit models find a fresh way to convert a firm’s offerings and other sources of value into cash. Great ones reflect a deep understanding of what customers and users actually cherish and where new revenue or pricing opportunities might lie.

Innovative profit models often challenge an industry’s tired old assumptions about what to offer, what to charge, or how to collect revenues. This is a big part of their power: in most industries, the dominant profit model often goes unquestioned for decades.

Recent examples:

• Fortnite – Pay to customise: This Free-to-Play video game by Epic Game Studios is currently one of the most popular and profitable games in the world. Unlike other “freemium” games which incentivise people to spend money to speed up progression, Fortnite is completely free to progress and people only need pay if they want to unlock cosmetic items which don’t affect gameplay but act to personalise their characters.
• Deloitte – Value sharing: Professional Services firm Deloitte is the world’s largest Management Consulting firm and still growing. They noticed a desire from their clients for assurance that the advice they were being given and transformation projects which Deloitte was running would actually succeed. As a result, Deloitte has begun trialling projects where instead of their fee being based just on Time and Materials, they will also share in value delivery, where additional bonus payments are only activated if previously-agreed performance metrics are successfully met.
• Supreme – Limiting supply: While most companies want to get their products in to the hands of as many people as possible, Supreme has built a cult following through deliberately forcing scarcity of its products. The streetwear clothing retailer announces limited items which will only be available from a specific day when they “drop”, and once they are sold out, that’s it, unless you want to pay huge markups for a second-hand item on eBay. Their red box logo is now so collectible and desirable that the company is able to sell almost anything by putting the logo on it for a limited time only. Case in point: you can find official Supreme Bricks (yes, like the ones used to build houses) which are still selling on eBay for $500.

Supreme’s limited quantity releases often lead to people queuing overnight

2) Network: How you connect with others to create value

In today’s hyper-connected world, no company can or should do everything alone. Network innovations provide a way for firms to take advantage of other companies’ processes, technologies, offerings, channels, and brands—pretty much any and every component of a business.

These innovations mean a firm can capitalize on its own strengths while harnessing the capabilities and assets of others. Network innovations also help executives to share risk in developing new offers and ventures. These collaborations can be brief or enduring, and they can be formed between close allies or even staunch competitors.

Recent Examples:

• Ford & Volkswagen – Developing Self-driving cars: As two of the world’s largest car-makers, Ford and Volkswagen are competitors on the road. However, in 2019 they announced a partnership to work together to develop technology for self-driving cars and electric vehicles which would be used in both company’s fleets of the future. While Ford brings more advanced automated driving technology, Volkswagen was leading in electric vehicles. Through the combined venture called ARGO, both firms can spread their R&D spending across more cars, while both developing competing products.
• Microsoft – launching on competitors platforms: Since new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has taken over, he has changed the innovation ethos of the company. Whereas previously Microsoft was a product-first company who tried to eliminate competing products and customers should stay within the company’s ecosystem, Nadella has shifted the mindset to a service company where their products should be accessible to customers should be able to access the products in whichever way they prefer. As a result, products such as Office 365 are now available in any web browser, as well as on the mobile marketplaces of Google’s Android and Apple’s IOS, previously seen as competitors.
• Huawei – Leveraging celebrity endorsement: Until recently, “high-quality smartphone” made people think of companies like Apple (USA), Samsung and LG (South Korea). Brands from China were often seen as competing on price but suffering from lower build quality and a lack of innovation. So in order to raise their profile in Western markets, Huawei has invested heavily in celebrities to endorse their flagship phones, such as Scarlett Johanssen, Lionel Messi, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot. This initial investment raised brand name recognition, to the stage where it is now focusing marketing more towards features and functionality.

Huawei has paid Lionel Messi millions to endorse their brand

3) Structure: How you organize and align your talent and assets

Structure innovations are focused on organizing company assets—hard, human, or intangible—in unique ways that create value. They can include everything from superior talent management systems to ingenious configurations of heavy capital equipment.

An enterprise’s fixed costs and corporate functions can also be improved through Structure innovations, including departments such as Human Resources, R&D, and IT. Ideally, such innovations also help attract talent to the organization by creating supremely productive working environments or fostering a level of performance that competitors can’t match.

• Perpetual Guardian – Four-day working week: This small financial advisory firm in New Zealand trialed moving to a four-day working week, giving their staff an additional free day each week as long as they got their outputs done. As a result, they found people adjusted their working rhythm to achieve the same outcomes in 20% less time , while also resulting in more satisfied employees.
• Netflix – Unlimited Vacations: In order to drive their breakneck growth, Netflix reviewed their formal HR policies to see what processes were getting in the way of people doing their best work. They discovered that most bureaucratic processes which slowed down high performing individuals were in place to only handle situations where a low-performance individual would do something wrong. As a result, they scrapped most formal HR policies to free people to work in their own ways to benefit the company, summarised in their “Freedom and Responsibility” culture document, including allowing staff to take as many vacation days as they felt they needed to produce their best work.
• WeWork – Leveraging other companies’ hard assets: WeWork’s business model revolves around providing affordable office rentals for entrepreneurs and companies, fitting a lot of tenants into the same space by offering co-working areas. In order to rapidly deploy new working spaces and attract customers, WeWork started using a system called rental arbitrage, where they would rent commercial space, create a ready-to-use coworking setup, and then rent this space to customers. By not having to spend CAPEX on purchasing the buildings themselves, they were able to rapidly expand with lower overhead.

Netflix allows staff to take unlimited vacation days

4) Process: How you use signature or superior methods to do your work

Process innovations involve the activities and operations that produce an enterprise’s primary offerings. Innovating here requires a dramatic change from “business as usual” that enables the company to use unique capabilities, function efficiently, adapt quickly, and build market–leading margins.

Process innovations often form the core competency of an enterprise, and may include patented or proprietary approaches that yield advantage for years or even decades. Ideally, they are the “special sauce” you use that competitors simply can’t replicate.

• Tesla – Vertically integrated supply chain: Tesla’s electric cars require huge packs of EV batteries, made of thousands of lithium-ion cells. Until recently, the lack of demand for electric vehicles meant that companies had not invested in battery technology development, resulting in prices remaining high and making the cost of cars prohibitively more expensive than their gasoline counterparts. Tesla invested in a massive gigafactory to produce the newest battery packs themselves, and the economies of scale, as well as not paying markups to manufacturers, are estimated to save them 30% of the cost of the batteries.
• Amazon Web Services – opening internal technology to third parties: When Amazon Web Services initially launched in 2006 , it effectively launched the cloud computing market, allowing external companies to not just host webpages but run code and calculations at a fraction of the cost of building their own server network. Since then, Amazon has continued to develop new technology it would use for its own services, such as artificial intelligence, image recognition, machine learning, and natural-language processing, and later make this technology available to their customers.
• AliExpress – Making everyone a Shop Owner: AliExpress is one of the world’s largest eCommerce sites, and serves as a commercial storefront for thousands of Chinese companies, allowing you to purchase everything to phone cases to forklifts. However, AliExpress also allows the platform to handle purchases as listed on external storefronts using a system called drop-shipping, where anyone can set up their own store, sell someone else’s products (but to customers it looks like they are coming from the seller) and then have those manufacturers send the product directly to the customer.

Tesla’s Gigafactory is the world’s largest building

5) Product Performance: How you develop distinguishing features and functionality

Product Performance innovations address the value, features, and quality of a company’s offering. This type of innovation involves both entirely new products as well as updates and line extensions that add substantial value. Too often, people mistake Product Performance for the sum of innovation. It’s certainly important, but it’s always worth remembering that it is only one of the Ten Types of Innovation, and it’s often the easiest for competitors to copy.

Think about any product or feature war you’ve witnessed—whether torque and toughness in trucks, toothbrushes that are easier to hold and use, even with baby strollers. Too quickly, it all devolves into an expensive mad dash to parity. Product Performance innovations that deliver long-term competitive advantage are the exception rather than the rule.

• Gorilla Glass – Changing chemistry to improve smartphone durability: Gorilla Glass by Corning was listed as one of the original Ten Types by becoming scratch resistant. I have included it again for how it has changed the properties of its glass based on customer feedback each year. In 2016, version 5 of the glass was designed to resist shattering when dropped from 5+ feet, dubbed “selfie height” drops. However, after discussing what properties their customers wanted, by 2018 version 6 was no longer trying to resist shattering when dropped from a height once, instead the chemistry and manufacturing process had been changed to make it resistant to cracking after 15 drops from a lower height (1 meter, or a “fumble drop from your pocket”). I love this example of innovation as the product performance doesn’t just try to become “ better ” by resisting one drop from a higher height than last year, instead figuring out what really matters to customers and delivering that.
• Raspberry Pi – full PC for $35: The original Rasperbby Pi was developed by a UK charity to make a simple yet expandable computer which was affordable enough for everyone. Their credit-card sized PC may look bare-bones (it comes without a case and is effectively an exposed circuit board), yet it contains everything which someone needs to run a Linux operating system, learn to program and even connect it with external sensors and peripherals to make all manner of machines. The latest version 4 is now powerful enough to serve as a dedicated PC, all for a price so low you can give it to a child to tinker with without fear of it being broken.
• Lush Cosmetics – Removing what people don’t want anymore: As people become more aware of their impact on the environment, customers are demanding that customers do more to reduce the amount of plastic packaging their products use which could end up in landfill or the ocean. Lush Cosmetics was an early pioneer in bringing packaging-free cosmetics to scale, offering some of their packaging-free products like shampoo bars and soaps in dedicated packaging-free stores .

Giving children a cheap PC like the Raspberry Pi to learn and experiment on

6) Product System: How you create complementary products and services

Product System innovations are rooted in how individual products and services connect or bundle together to create a robust and scalable system. This is fostered through interoperability, modularity, integration, and other ways of creating valuable connections between otherwise distinct and disparate offerings. Product System innovations help you build ecosystems that captivate and delight customers and defend against competitors.

• Ryobi – One battery to rule them all: While handheld tools have had rechargeable batteries for decades now, Ryobi’s innovation was designing the modular One+ battery which could be used with over 80 different tools. Not only was this convenient for customers who needed fewer batteries overall for multiple uses, it also encouraged someone to buy into the Ryobi tool ecosystem once they had previously purchased one tool and battery set.
• Zapier – making APIs easy: Many web-based applications nowadays have an Application Programming Interface (API) which allows them to share data with other services. However, this often requires complex coding from the developers, and repeated effort to integrate with multiple different APIs. Zapier acts as a middleman for data, providing ready-made actions and API integrations between popular web services, allowing customers to automate certain activities every time a specific event happens.
• Airbnb – Expanding into experiences: Airbnb built their business on allowing everyday people to sell accommodation in their homes to strangers. Now the company has begun offering complementary services to people visiting new places through Experiences . These experiences are also sold by local guides, and allow guests to try things they would otherwise not have known about in addition to staying somewhere new.

Ryobi One+ battery powers multiple different tools

7) Service: How you support and amplify the value of your offerings

Service innovations ensure and enhance the utility, performance, and apparent value of an offering. They make a product easier to try, use, and enjoy; they reveal features and functionality customers might otherwise overlook, and they fix problems and smooth rough patches in the customer journey. Done well, they elevate even bland and average products into compelling experiences that customers come back for again and again.

• Kroger – Smartphone grocery scanning: US retail giant Kroger has been trialing a new smartphone app which allows shoppers to scan items as they shop, and then skip checking out altogether. Using the Scan, Bag, Go app, a customer will scan each item as they pick them up and place them into whatever bag they want, and once they are done, they can simply pay using the app and leave. This prevents shoppers having to wait in checkout lines and gives them an overview of their running total as they go, and also allows the supermarket to entice shoppers by sending coupons and offers directly to them.
• PurpleBricks – bringing real estate online: Estate Agents have a poor reputation for treating both sellers and buyers, especially for the amount they charge relative to the service they provide. PurpleBricks was one of the first online-only estate agents , where they could charge a significantly lower fee if the seller chose to complete some of the service processes themselves, such as showing the home to potential buyers. The firm can provide additional services for additional charges.
• Meituan Dianping – providing one app for all the services you want: As Fast Company’s 2019 Most Innovative company , Meituan Dianping provides a platform for Chinese consumers to purchase a variety of services. Known as a transactional super-app, you can use the app to book and pay for food delivery, travel, movie tickets and more from over 5 million Chinese small and large merchants.

Scan your own groceries with the Scan-Bag-Go app

8) Channel: How you deliver your offerings to customers and users

Channel innovations encompass all the ways that you connect your company’s offerings with your customers and users. While e-commerce has emerged as a dominant force in recent years, traditional channels such as physical stores are still important — particularly when it comes to creating immersive experiences.

Skilled innovators in this type often find multiple but complementary ways to bring their products and services to customers. Their goal is to ensure that users can buy what they want, when and how they want it, with minimal friction and cost and maximum delight.

• Dollar Shave Club – Direct to your door: Razor Blades have always been high-margin products, and Gillette was one of the original innovators by giving away the razor handle to make money on the subsequent razor blade sales. Dollar Shave Club has taken a different approach, by reducing the cost of each set of blades, but having people join a subscription service where blades are delivered to them automatically. While the margin on each set of blades is lower than retail, the subscription model has provided steady, predictable revenue for the company, to the extend that subscription boxes can now be found for almost any consumable product.
• Zipline – Blood Delivery for remote areas: In hospital settings, getting fresh blood can a matter of life and death. Unfortunately, many Sub-Sharan African countries don’t have road infrastructure suitable for quickly delivering blood between hospitals or storage locations. This is why Zipline has developed a simple, reliable drone network where hospitals in Rwanda and Ghana can order fresh blood from a central processing area and receive it within an average of 15 minutes, rather than the hours or days it would take using conventional transportation.
• 3D Printers – produce whatever you need at home: Instead of a single company, the industry of 3D printers is slowly beginning to change the way in which consumers get simple tools and parts. By downloading schematics from the internet (or designing their own), people owning a 3D printer now no longer to go to a retail location or order the parts they need. In commercial settings, this is also speeding up how quickly companies are able to prototype new ideas and designs, waiting hours rather than days or weeks.

zipline blood drone innovation

9) Brand: How you represent your offerings and business

Brand innovations help to ensure that customers and users recognize, remember, and prefer your offerings to those of competitors or substitutes. Great ones distill a “promise” that attracts buyers and conveys a distinct identity.

They are typically the result of carefully crafted strategies that are implemented across many touchpoints between your company and your customers, including communications, advertising, service interactions, channel environments, and employee and business partner conduct. Brand innovations can transform commodities into prized products, and confer meaning, intent, and value to your offerings and your enterprise.

• Gillette / Nike – being willing to lose customers who don’t align with purpose: I have combined both Gillette and Nike into this example of brand innovation since they have both recently aligned their brands to a purpose (social and political), which has been positively welcomed by some people but has resulted in hatred from other groups. Nike began by making former NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face and voice of one of their advertising campaigns. Kaepernick rose in prominence when he refused to stand during the national anthem before his games, his way of protesting the police brutality and inequality towards his African American community. This led to some people claiming he was disrespecting the American Flag, and therefore what the flag stands for. When his advert launched, a vocal minority took to social media to upload videos of themselves saying that Nike no longer aligned with their values, and they burned their shoes, vowing to never buy Nike again. Similarily, Gillette came out with a commercial urging all men to be “The best a man can be”, by pushing aside previously ‘masculine’ traits like bullying, chauvinism or fighting, and showing children how a modern man should behave. As soon as the ad was released online, many media outlets praised its message, but it brought the wrath of angry men who claimed that the razor manufacturer shouldn’t tell them what to think or how to behave, how they would never buy the products again, and how the world was becoming too politically correct, with women and minorities getting preferential treatment over white men. The advert quickly became one of the most disliked videos on Youtube, and even my commentary about the innovative message (seen in the video below) had the comments section covered by hate-filled messages. What both Nike and Gillette realised was that if they wanted to align with positive, progressive messages and values (which align with their target demographic of the future), then they would risk upsetting and alienating the proportion of their current customer base who didn’t share those views. In both cases, these were decisions that would have been signed off by all levels in the company, through marketing, sales, legal and the board, and the brands will be stronger in the future because of it.
• Burberry – modernising a classic brand: Burberry had built its luxury fashion reputation by aligning itself with the British Aristocracy, and its famous chequer patterned fabric was iconic. However, when trying to modernise and make the brand “sexy” in the early 2000s, a misstep happened when the luxury house began to license the chequered fabric, resulting in it becoming a status symbol and desired motif for a different social group: the British “Chavs” (rough, lower class and sometimes aggressive). This poisoned the once iconic brand in the eyes of their intended luxury clientele. In order to survive, the company and brand embraced innovation , by becoming one of the first fashion houses to redesign their website to be mobile-optimised, aligning their store layout to mirror the website, highlighting young British talent and livestreaming content and fashion shows. Most importantly, they moved away from the iconic chequer pattern in their fashion designs, where it is now limited to less than 10% of products.

10) Customer Engagement: How you foster compelling interactions

Customer Engagement innovations are all about understanding the deep-seated aspirations of customers and users, and using those insights to develop meaningful connections between them and your company.

Great Customer Engagement innovations provide broad avenues for exploration and help people find ways to make parts of their lives more memorable, fulfilling, delightful — even magical.

• REI – closing their stores on the busiest shopping day: Outdoor equipment retailer REI had begun closing its doors on Black Friday , traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. They claim they are doing this to Eddie their customers to actually get outdoors and use their equipment, rather than queuing for discounted material goods.
• Peloton – bringing the gym into the home: Many people benefit from going to joint gym classes because the sense of a group working toward is goals together with a coach is more powerful than trying to exercise by yourself. Peloton makes exercise equipment with built-in screens, powered by a subscription to live and on-demand classes. It’s like being part of a workout group with the benefits of being at home.
• NBA – bringing the fans into the action: The NBA had invested heavily in innovation to make their sport more immersive. From live analytics and player statistics, new ways to watch like VR video, and official video game players for each team, they are finding new ways to bring basketball to the next generation, while making it even more exciting for existing fans.

Peloton brings exercise classes into the home

There we go, a new set of 30 examples of the Ten Types of Innovation.

If you found some of these examples interesting, please share the article.

Can you think of any more good examples? Let me know in the comments below.

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great examples! I now feel inspired to innovate in my entrepreneurial project. Thank you ?

Greetings from Mexico

Excellent work!

They’s very interesting. Do you have the solutions of some of recent examples?

My university has taken pretty much everything from here, poorly rephrased a few things and have delivered it to us, the student, as an entire weeks worth of content. Maybe i should be paying my fees here…

Bachelor of business student Australia

Very interesting. Which course was it being used for?

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8 Examples of Innovative Digital Transformation Case Studies (2024)

• Published: January 19, 2022
• Updated: August 21, 2024

With the rapid pace of technological advancement, every organization needs to undergo digital transformation and, most likely, transform multiple times to stay relevant and competitive. 

However, before you can reap the benefits of new technology, you must first get your customers and employees to adapt to this change successfully—and here lies a significant digital transformation challenge.

Organizations thriving in this digital-first era have developed digital innovation strategies prioritizing the change management mindset. This paradigm shift implies that organizations should continuously explore improving business processes .

8 Best Examples of Digital Transformation Case Studies in 2024

• Amazon Business
• Under Armour
• Internet Brands®
• Michelin Solutions

8 Examples of Inspiring Digital Transformation Case Studies

While digital transformation presents unique opportunities for organizations to innovate and grow, it also presents significant digital transformation challenges . Also, digital maturity and levels of digital transformation by sector vary widely.

If you have the budget, you can consider hiring a digital transformation consulting company to help you plan your digitization. However, the best way to develop an effective digital transformation strategy is to learn by example. 

Here are the 8 inspiring digital transformation case studies to consider when undertaking transformation projects in 2024:

1. Amazon extended the B2C model to embrace B2B transactions with a vision to improve the customer experience.

Overview of the digital transformation initiative

Amazon Business is an example of how a consumer giant transitions to the B2B space to keep up with the digital customer expectations. It provides a marketplace for businesses to purchase from Amazon and third parties. Individuals can also make purchases on behalf of their organizations and integrate order approval workflows and reporting.

The approach

• Amazon created a holistic marketplace for B2B vendors by offering over 250 million products ranging from cleaning supplies to industrial equipment. 
• It introduced free two-day shipping on orders worth $49 or more and exclusive price discounts. It further offered purchase system integration, tax-exemption on purchases from select qualified customers, shared payment methods, order approval workflows, and enhanced order reporting.
• Amazon allowed manufacturers to connect with buyers & answer questions about products in a live expert program.
• Amazon could tap the B2B wholesale market valued between $7.2 and $8.2 trillion in the U.S. alone.
• It began earning revenue by charging sales commissions ranging from 6-15% from third-party sellers, depending on the product category and the order size.
• It could offer more personalized products for an improved customer experience. 

2. Netflix transformed the entertainment industry by offering on-demand subscription-based video services to its customers.

Like the video rental company Blockbuster, Netflix also had a pay-per-rental model, which included DVD sales and rent-by-mail services. However, Netflix anticipated a change in customer demand with rising digitalization and provided online entertainment, thereby wiping out Blockbuster – and the movie rental industry – entirely. 

• In 2007, Netflix launched a video-on-demand streaming service to supplement their DVD rental service without any additional cost to their subscriber base.
• It implemented a simple and scalable business model and infused 10% of its budget in R&D consistently.
• The company has an unparalleled recommendation engine to provide a personalized and relevant customer experience. 
• Netflix is the most popular digital video content provider, leading other streaming giants such as Amazon, Hulu, and Youtube with over 85% market share.
• Netflix added a record 36 million subscribers directly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

3. Tesla uses connected car technology and over-the-air software updates to enhance customer experience, enable cost savings, and reduce carbon emissions.

No digital transformation discussion is complete without acknowledging the unconventional ideas implemented by Elon Musk. Tesla was a huge manifestation of digital transformation as the core motive was to prove that electric cars are better than their gasoline counterparts both in looks and performance. 

Over the years, Tesla has innovated continuously to improve its product, make itself more economical, and reduce its carbon footprint. 

• Tesla is the only auto manufacturer globally, providing automatic over-the-air firmware updates that allow its cars to remotely improve their safety, performance, and infotainment capabilities. For example, the OTA update could fix Tesla’soverheating issues due to power fluctuation. 
• Tesla launched an autopilot feature to control the speed and position of the car when on highways to avoid potential accidents. However, the user still has to hold the wheel; the vehicle controls everything else. This connected car technology has created an intelligent data platform and smart autonomous driving experience.
• Tesla further ventured into a data-driven future, and it uses analytics to obtain actionable insights from demand trends and common complaints. A noteworthy fact is that the company has been collecting driving data from all of its first and second-generation vehicles. So far, Tesla has collected driving data on 8 billion miles while Google’s autonomous car project, Waymo , has accumulated data on 10 million miles.
• Tesla’s over-the-air updates reduce carbon emissions by saving users’ dealer visits. Additionally, these updates save consumers time and money.
• Tesla delivered a record 936,172 vehicles in 2021, an 87 % increase over the 499,550 vehicle deliveries made in 2020.

4. Glassdoor revolutionized the recruitment industry by allowing employees to make informed decisions.

Glassdoor is responsible for increasing transparency in the workplace and helping people find the right job by allowing them to see millions of peer-to-peer reviews on employers, including overall company culture, their CEOs, benefits, salaries, and more. 

• Glassdoor gathers and analyzes employee reviews on employers to provide accurate job recommendations to candidates and vice-versa. It also allows recruitment agencies and organizations to download valuable data points for in-depth analysis & reporting. 
• It further introduced enhanced profiles as a paid program, allowing companies to customize their content on the Glassdoor profiles, including job listings, “Why is it the Best Place to Work” tabs, social media properties, and more. This gives companies a new, innovative way to attract and recruit top talent.
• Glassdoor created the largest pool of interview questions, salary insights, CEO ratings, and organizational culture via a peer-to-peer network, making it one of the most trustworthy, extensive jobs search and recruiting platforms – and one of the most well-recognized review sites
• Glassdoor leverages its collected data for labor market research in the US. Its portfolio of Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 84.2%, while the “Best Places to Work” portfolio outperformed the overall market by 115.6%.

5. Under Armour diversified from an athletic apparel company to a new data-driven digital business stream to transform the fitness industry.

Under Armour introduced the concept of “Connected Fitness” by providing a platform to track, analyze and share personal health data directly to its customers’ phones.

• Under Armour acquired several technology-based fitness organizations such as MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and European fitness app Endomondo for a combined $715 million to obtain the required technology and an extensive customer database to get its fitness app up and running. The application provides a stream of information to Under Armour, identifying fitness and health trends. For example, Under Armour (Baltimore) immediately recognized a walking trend that started in Australia, allowing them to deploy localized marketing and distribution efforts way before their competitors knew about it.
• Under Armour merged its physical and digital offerings to provide an immersive customer experience via products such as Armourbox. The company urged its customers to go online and share their training schedule, favorite shoe style, and fitness goals. It used advanced analytics to send customers new shoes or apparel on a subscription basis, offering customers a more significant value over their lifetime.
• It additionally moved to an agile development model and data center footprint with the ERP SAP HANA . 
• Under Armour additionally leveraged Dell EMC’s Data Protection and Dell Technologies to help fuel digital innovation and find peak value from its data.
• Under Armour created a digital brand with a strong consumer focus, agility, and change culture. 
• With the Connected Fitness app, it provided a customer experience tailored to each consumer.

6. Internet Brands® subsidiary Baystone Media leverages Whatfix DAP to drive product adoption of its healthcare businesses.

Baystone Media provides end-to-end marketing solutions for healthcare companies by providing a low-cost, high-value subscription offering of Internet Brands® to promote their practices digitally. Baystone Media empowers its customers by offering a codeless creation of personalized websites. However, as its userbase is less tech-savvy, customers were unable to make the most of their solution. 

The idea was to implement a solution for Baystone Media & its sister companies to enable its clients to navigate its platforms easily. In addition to PDFs and specific training videos, the search was on for a real-time interactive walkthrough solution, culminating with Whatfix .

Baystone media saw a 10% decrease in inbound calls and a 4.17% decrease in support tickets, giving them the runway to spend more time enhancing its service for the clients.

7. Sophos implemented Salesforce to streamline its business and manage customer relations more effectively.

Sophos went live with Salesforce to accelerate its sales process , enhance sales productivity , and increase the number of accounts won. However, the complex interface and regular updates of Salesforce resulted in a decreased ROI. 

• Sophos implemented Whatfix to provide interactive, on-demand training that helped users learn in the flow of work. The 24*7 availability of on-demand self-support, contextual guidance, and smart tips allowed Sophos to manage its new CRM implementation effectively. 
• It unified internal communications using Whatfix content. First, they created walkthroughs for the basic functionality of Salesforce such as lead management, opportunities, etc. Next, they moved to slightly more complex features that their users were uncomfortable with and created guided walkthroughs and smart pop-ups. Sophos also used Whatfix to align the sales and product management teams by embedding videos and other media to unify product communication instead of relying on various communication tools.
• Sophos experienced a reduction in sales operations support tickets globally by 15% (~12,000 tickets). It saved 1070 man-hours and achieved an ROI of 342%. 

8. Michelin Solutions uses IoT & AI to provide customers with a more holistic mobility experience.

The digital strategy of Michelin Solutions has essentially centered around three priorities:

• Creating a personalized relationship with customers and end-users
• Developing new business models
• Improving their existing business processes 
• AI is extensively used in R&D, enabling the digital supply chain driven through digital manufacturing and predictive maintenance. For example, connected bracelets assist machine operators with the manufacturing process. 
• It deployed sophisticated robots to take over the clerical tasks and leveraged advanced analytics to become a data-driven organization. 
• Offerings such as Effifuel & Effitires resulted in significant cost savings and improved overall vehicle efficiency. 
• Michelin Solutions carefully enforced cultural change and launched small pilots before the change implementation . 

• Effifuel led to extra savings for organizations and doubled per-vehicle profits.
• A reduction in fuel consumption by 2.5 L per 100km was observed which translates into annual savings of €3,200 for long-haul transport (at least 2.1% reduction in the total cost of ownership & 8 tonnes in CO2 emissions).
• Michelin Solutions shifted its business model from selling tires to a service guaranteeing performance, helping it achieve higher customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and raised EBITDA margins.

Each industry & organization faces unique challenges while driving digital transformation initiatives. Each organization must find a personalized solution and the right digital transformation model when implementing new technology. Their challenges can prepare you better for the potential roadblocks, but the specific solutions will need to be personalized according to your business requirements.

Open communication with your customers and employees will help you spot potential issues early on, and you can use case studies like these as a starting point.

If you would like to learn how you can achieve these results by using a digital adoption platform , then schedule a conversation with our experts today.

Request a demo to see how Whatfix empowers organizations to improve end-user adoption and provide on-demand customer support

More From Forbes

Innovation case studies: how companies use technology to solidify a competitive advantage.

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In today’s world, every successful company is a tech company.

It’s become impossible to separate business strategy from technological innovation, so everyone from retailers to health care professionals are investing heavily in tech solutions to help them market, improve offerings and drive business. We’re also living and working in the age of industry overhaul, where tech companies like Yelp, Netflix and Lyft have essentially obliterated longstanding giants like Zagat , Blockbuster  and traditional taxis. The underlying message is clear: Adapt to the digitalization of the workplace or become obsolete.

For many executives, this push to embrace innovation is perplexing due to the constant deluge of exciting new technologies. The U.S. economy grew 2.3% last year , but technology is expensive, and examples abound of companies that went bankrupt because they invested in the wrong technology  --  or the right one but too soon.

Fortunately, early-adoption case studies offer opportunities to gauge the effectiveness of new technologies. The following tech trends are revolutionary, rapidly maturing and have been successfully applied broadly across industries. From these examples, we can all learn how to leverage emerging technology to better serve our employees and customers.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence triggers a substantial amount of both excitement and fear as well as lots of media coverage. It's not a new concept -- the term was originally coined in 1956  --  but developers finally have the processing power and data necessary to train programs to solve organizational problems and optimize efficiencies. In a recent Gartner study , every company surveyed relayed their intention to incorporate AI-driven solutions, with 41% already in the pilot or adoption phase. Machine learning has become increasingly embedded in many new technologies and solutions, delivering in-depth insight into business metrics and improving data-based decision-making.

Consider supply chain management. While even highly seasoned professionals are prone to under- or overstocking, machine-learning forecasting engines apply algorithms and hierarchies to predict future need with exceptional accuracy. Food giant Nestlé uses supply chain forecasting to improve forecasting accuracy on a global level, with more than 447 factories operating in 194 countries. This strategy improved Nestlé’s sales precision by 9%  in Brazil alone.

Meanwhile, Salesforce debuted a CRM solution that uses machine learning to build comprehensive data-based customer profiles, identify crucial touch points and uncover additional sales opportunities. Lowe’s in-store “ LoweBot ” applies sophisticated voice recognition, autonomous movement and machine learning to assist customers, process inventory and search for product or price discrepancies. And SPS Companies, Inc ., a manufacturing and wholesale distributor, has improved talent metrics and completely redefined its employee experience by implementing an AI-based HCM solution that can identify employee pain points in real time. (Full disclosure: SPS Companies, Inc. and First Horizon National Corporation are Ultimate Software customers.)

Careful data analysis is crucial for organizations to truly understand performance. This insight is increasingly valuable when coupled with analytical benchmarking, which allows organizations to compare themselves with their peers and competitors in terms of web traffic, customer churn rate or employee engagement. This industry-specific information helps identify gaps in an organization’s performance and can be leveraged to achieve a competitive advantage.

Additionally, AI is bridging the gap between operational and predictive reporting. Predictive analytics can foresee everything from employee retention to long-term weather patterns, and machine learning continuously and automatically improves predictions with experience.

Boston Medical Center applies predictive analytics to determine staff and room allocation during peak times, optimizing scheduling while improving efficiency and wait times. Netflix applies its own advanced algorithms to predict not only whether certain content will be well-received but also pinpoint exactly which users are likely to enjoy it. And the streaming giant, which has almost single-handedly disrupted the long-standing (and frequently lamented) cable industry, says an astonishing  80% of its viewed content results from their predictive recommended algorithms.

Natural Language Processing

We’re communicating with the digital world in unprecedented ways. AI-based conversational tools have certainly advanced, but when technology relies on artificial language like Java or C++, it’s automatically limited to literal translation. Human language is complex and brimming with subtleties, so there’s ample opportunity for misunderstanding.

In contrast, natural language processing (NLP) solutions learn to speak organically through practice, just like people do. These tools can even discern a wide range of emotions and recognize the differences among anger, frustration and fear.

NLP has limitless potential in the workplace. First Horizon National Corporation , a leading financial services company, uses an NLP-powered solution to deploy open-ended employee surveys, uncovering not only what their employees are saying but how they actually feel . Empowered by these unbiased insights, managers have taken immediate action to enhance the employee experience and improve business performance.

Deloitte recently partnered with Kira Systems to develop NLP models capable of rapidly digesting complex documents and extracting important information for further analysis. This type of solution is likely to have incredible implications for law, finance and other contract-heavy industries.

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is also gaining steam, where companies use NLP to track all internal communications, including email, HCM data and collaboration platforms like Slack to identify top performers, locate bottlenecks and even detect fraud. General Motors and Cigna Heath Insurance   are experimenting with ONA in their organizations.

Blockchain is another exciting technology that’s been around for years but is just beginning to garner mainstream attention. While most people associate it with cryptocurrency, blockchain represents a decentralized, encrypted secure system of record, with applications in government, HR and countless other industries.

Shipping companies like Maersk are already experimenting with blockchain to track cargo and discourage tampering, while farmers (and even mega-chains like Walmart) are using the technology to follow and ensure the quality of livestock transactions. Even diamond-makers are following suit.  Everledger has significantly eliminated counterfeiting by registering its diamonds in a blockchain.

What’s Next?

These technologies have incredible implications, and we’re just beginning to see their capabilities. More importantly, we’re just beginning to imagine real-world applications for their use. I challenge leaders everywhere to consider the potential of these burgeoning technologies and the positive impact they could have on their organizations and the future of work.

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This listing contains abstracts and ordering information for case studies written and published by faculty at Stanford GSB.

Publicly available cases in this collection are distributed by Harvard Business Publishing and The Case Centre .

Stanford case studies with diverse protagonists, along with case studies that build “equity fluency” by focusing on DEI-related issues and opportunities are listed in the Case Compendium developed by the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership at the Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Humanity in the Age of AI

Sông cái distillery: producing gin and navigating regulatory uncertainty in vietnam.

Vietnamese American Daniel Nguyen founded Sông Cái Distillery in Vietnam in 2019 as a way to give back to his ancestral homeland. By producing the country’s first home-grown gin using botanicals from local farmers, Nguyen hoped to add value to their goods…

Noodle Analytics in 2024: Exploring the Frontiers of AI

In January 2024, Stephen Pratt, co-founder and long-time CEO of Noodle Analytics (Noodle.ai), reflects on the company’s significant milestones as he prepares to transition to a strategic advisory role. Founded in 2016, Noodle.ai embarked on a journey to…

Long Term Hold

2024 search fund study, launching virta health, goodrx: a prescription for drug savings.

GoodRx, which launched in 2011, had created a popular online platform that helped millions of patients across America afford their medications. The U.S. pharmaceuticals market was estimated at $527 billion in 2022. But consumers and health care…

Financial Metrics at DelishGo

DelishGo, a Los Angeles-based unicorn founded in 2019, has experienced rapid growth and expansion, raising $150 million in a 2023 funding round, resulting in a $1 billion post-money valuation. The company operates a multi-sided online marketplace for…

Uber in 2024: From Industry Disruption to Creating Value For All Stakeholders

Dara Khosrowshahi became the CEO of Uber in August 2017, following internal turbulence and serious headwinds related to the company’s governance and reputation. Five short years later, Uber was clearly back on course, building on the success of its…

Intersections in Paradise: Economics and Sustainability in Palau, 2024

Ceo crisis in napa: laila tarraf, udemy: the founding story, adobe in 2023: transforming marketing through digital experience.

Adobe, founded in 1982, set out to develop software that would enable high-fidelity digital printing and publishing. A decade later, Adobe PDF quickly became the industry standard for preserving and sharing digital document formatting, fonts, images, and…

GoodLeap, spearheaded by Hayes Barnard, emerges as a pioneering financing platform offering comprehensive solutions for sustainable living, including solar loans, home purchasing, refinancing, and improvement loans. Barnard, with a robust background at…

Seconds to Save Lives with Viz.ai

Ajaib: building a high-growth southeast asian fintech venture, eyes on the prize: eyewa’s mena journey, hijra: building an islamic challenger bank.

Dima Djani founded Hijra in late 2018 to provide digitally-enabled financial services to businesses and consumers who followed Islamic finance principles. Islamic finance prohibited the use of usury (interest), mandated that all transactions been linked…

Polpharma Group: Transformation Through Innovation

When Markus Sieger was appointed CEO of Polpharma Group in 2016, he found himself at the helm of a company that would be deemed successful by virtually any metric. Polpharma Group included Poland’s leading pharmaceutical company and leading drug…

Stanford Health Care

• Dean Jonathan Levin

This Managing Growing Enterprises (MGE) case presents a multifaceted examination of leadership challenges in the academic sector, encompassing issues of faculty negotiation, student-faculty relations, crisis management, and institutional response to…

ClearMetal, a supply chain software-as-a-service startup, exemplifies the challenges of innovating in the global container shipping industry. Under CEO Adam Compain, the company developed a solution to reduce the costly repositioning of empty shipping…

Board Dynamics at Defy, Inc.: When is the Right Time to Raise the Next Round?

Defy, Inc. developed individual safety software solutions for highly automated aircraft operation through its FlySafe modular platform. Defy’s cofounders saw great potential in flying drones to solve the last-mile problem in deliveries. In addition to…

Founders Fund: Every Moment Happens Once

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Open Innovation

Solve your organization’s problems by looking outside your organization.

In Open Innovation, you will learn strategies for finding the best ideas, solutions, and people necessary to solve your organization’s most difficult problems.

What You'll Learn

What do you do when your organization can’t solve a problem on its own? Are you paying for effort instead of solutions? Is your organization stuck?

Strategic problem solving is a key element in innovation and vital to an organization’s success and growth. Open innovation is a strategy for innovation management that suggests the best ideas and people necessary to solve your organization’s difficult problems may come from outside your company entirely. Through open innovation, organizations can connect with talented people and breakthrough ideas from across the globe. Whether you’re developing a new product, responding to the changing workforce, or simply looking for new ideas, you can use open innovation to find answers and solutions in areas you didn’t expect.  

Open innovation strategy is already all around you. The top companies around the world have figured out the key to innovation in business by using idea crowdsourcing and the wisdom of the crowd to help them create products and services that we use on a daily basis—from smartphone apps to Wikipedia. 

This is an innovation management course that presents a foundational understanding of open innovation, helping you not only solve some of your most difficult problems, but also gain access to a pool of talent that goes far beyond your organization's walls. By examining the different types of open innovation—contests, idea crowdsourcing for business, collaborative communities, and online labor markets—you’ll begin to develop a plan to adopt and implement an open innovation strategy in your organization. 

Through videos, real-world case studies, and peer interaction, you’ll build innovation skills, explore when and why to implement new solutions, how to operationalize and protect proprietary ideas, and, most importantly, how to identify the problems you’re trying to solve and address them with open innovation. 

Your next big idea might come from where you least expect it. Don’t think behind closed doors. Let open innovation in.

The course is part of the Harvard on Digital Learning Path and will be delivered via  HBS Online’s course platform . Learners will be immersed in real-world examples from experts at industry-leading organizations. By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Articulate the concept of open innovation and how it works
• Identify the types of problems that can be solved with open innovation and how to decouple problems from solutions
• Recognize ​the challenges and ethical considerations of open innovation, such as intellectual property rights
• Match your business problem to the right open innovation strategy, including: contests, idea crowdsourcing, collaborative communities, or online labor market
• Implement an open innovation strategy in your organization, including how to identify and access outside resources, helping you stay ahead of the competition

Your Instructor

Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology management, innovation, digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). He has taught extensively in Harvard Business School’s MBA, executive, doctoral and online programs. He has co-developed new courses on Digital Innovation & Transformation, Digital Strategy and Innovation, and Laboratory to Market. Karim is also the founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard , as well as the principal investigator of the NASA Tournament Laboratory.

Real World Case Studies

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

Jin Paik is the Senior Director, Lab Operations at the Digital, Data, & Design (D^3) Institute at Harvard. Hear from this expert researcher how open innovation can illuminate novel solutions for your organization. 

Luis Villa is the Co-Founder and General Counsel of Tidelift, a startup that aims to make open source better for everyone by supporting developers. He will share how open innovation can attract talented employees to your organization.

Lynn E. Buquo

Lynn Buquo is the Former Senior Advisor at the NASA Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. She will share how NASA is adopting open innovation into their organization.

Available Discounts and Benefits for Groups and Individuals

Experience Harvard Online by utilizing our wide variety of discount programs for individuals and groups. 

Past participant discounts.

Learners who have enrolled in at least one qualifying Harvard Online program hosted on the HBS Online platform are eligible to receive a 30% discount on this course, regardless of completion or certificate status in the first purchased program. Past Participant Discounts are automatically applied to the Program Fee upon time of payment.  Learn more here .

Learners who have earned a verified certificate for a HarvardX course hosted on the  edX platform  are eligible to receive a 30% discount on this course using a discount code. Discounts are not available after you've submitted payment, so if you think you are eligible for a discount on a registration, please check your email for a code or contact us .

Nonprofit, Government, Military, and Education Discounts

For this course we offer a 30% discount for learners who work in the nonprofit, government, military, or education fields. 

Eligibility is determined by a prospective learner’s email address, ending in .org, .gov, .mil, or .edu. Interested learners can apply below for the discount and, if eligible, will receive a promo code to enter when completing payment information to enroll in a Harvard Online program. Click here to apply for these discounts.

Gather your team to experience Open Innovation and other Harvard Online courses to enjoy the benefits of learning together: 

• Single invoicing for groups of 10 or more
• Tiered discounts and pricing available with up to 50% off
• Growth reports on your team's progress
• Flexible course and partnership plans 

Learn more and enroll your team ! 

Who Will Benefit

Research and Development Teams

Access resources and learn how to find new ideas for products and solutions

Entrepreneurs

Discover how to leverage the crowd and find the next breakthrough idea systematically

Innovative Leaders

Grow your business by knowing when and how to integrate open innovation into your organization

Learner Testimonials

" This course was worth my time and I thoroughly enjoyed communicating and learning with innovative thinkers from around the world. This was a great experience, and I am grateful my administration invested in me in this way to continue learning and growing so I could better do my job and help more humans. "

Dr. Lindsey Keith-Vincent Associate Dean for  Research, Outreach, and Innovation in the College of Education Director of the Science and Technology Education Center (SciTEC) Louisiana Tech University

"Since I have already studied Open Innovation for my PhD, I am impressed by all the new knowledge and insights that I have gained. I like the different perspectives and the great case studies, which have been very supportive in many ways."

Prof. Dr. Rafaela Kunz Professor of International Management, Technology and Innovation Hochschule Fresenius

"This course provides enough details, tips, and real-world examples to utilize open innovation as a strategy within any organization. It helped explain the different tools, platforms, tactics, and flexibilities to use depending on the business outcomes required. This course saves a lot of time in understanding all the nuances of open innovation rather than learning it on the job. I should have taken this course earlier!"

Ed Wong Director of Possibilities HeroX

"I work in marketing, and am always looking for new ideas to develop and implement constant innovation. The content, cases, and examples helped me understand how this topic is applies in real life, and definitely added lots of value to my professional interest. I am likely to leverage this knowledge in my career."

Thelma Trinidad Marketing Consultant Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Learning Requirements: There are no required prerequisites to enroll in this course. To earn a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Online, participants must thoughtfully complete modules 1-6 by stated deadlines.

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• Study the NASA case on fostering a culture of open innovation.
• Identify the benefits of open innovation and how it can be applied.
• Evaluate and compare open innovation strategy to traditional problem solving methods.
• Study the HYVE case to understand problem formulation and iterative design.
• Understand why problem formulation is critical to a problem holder’s ability to find the best solution.
• Identify barriers associated with problem formulation, and learn how to overcome those barriers.
• Study the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute case to learn about their contests for medical imaging AI.
• Understand how and why contests work and the benefits and challenges presented by open innovation contests.
• Develop a plan for an open innovation contest for your organization.
• Study the Tidelift case's examples of innovation and open source software for all. 
• Explore the potential benefits of collaborating with or creating a community.
• Identify the management challenges of working with communities and how to address them.
• Study the Freelancer case to learn about unlocking the potential of online labor markets.
• Examine the supply and the demand sides of online labor markets.
• Identify and overcome barriers to adopting labor markets in your organization.
• Revisit the NASA case to understand how they scaled open innovation
• Understand how to overcome barriers to adoption and scaling.
• Prepare a plan to pilot and scale an open innovation solution for your organization.

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Clothing returned by Defence Force ended up beings in landfills.

In 3 months, Ventia collaborated with Veolia to convert the uniforms in the landfills into biofuel.

Following the success, this innovative idea has been rolled out across all National Clothing Stores across Australia. 

At Ventia, we aim to minimise our environmental impact and we're always trying to find new and innovative ways to create a healthier planet.  

Ventia has collaborated with Veolia to deliver an innovative solution for textile destruction using a recycling system that converts textiles to biofuel. The system was first trialed at six Ventia managed Clothing Store sites - CICKS Darwin, Townsville, Enoggera, RAAF Base Edinburgh, HMAS Cerberus and Bandiana and has now been rolled out nationally.  

Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are required to return combat clothing for disposal to prevent access by unauthorised personnel. Historically a National Clothing Store employee would cut items into strips with scissors by hand. This manual process was both time-consuming and posed a safety risk, particularly when hand-cutting combat boots. The strips were then used as rags or taken to local animal shelters but unfortunately often ended up in landfill. 

The solution

Ventia collaborated with Veolia to find a solution that would divert the uniforms from landfill, ensure certainty of destruction and support Ventia's and ADF's sustainability targets. 

In the trial Veolia provided secure 600 litre and 240 litre tamper proof disposal bins at each clothing store. Once full, the Veolia sub-contracted Shred-X collected the bins and the uniforms were machine shredded, incinerated, and converted to biofuel. The biofuel is sent to a facility that uses it for electricity. 

Across the three-month trial, nearly 7 tonnes (6,894 kg) of combat uniform were diverted from landfill and converted to approximately 700 litres of biofuel. That is the equivalent of the fuel required for approx. 10 car trips from Albury to Canberra.  

Phillip McIntosh, Ventia's Efficiency and Improvement Program Manager says: "The environmental and sustainability benefits of this initiative support Defence's environmental and sustainability targets by diverting a significant volume of waste from landfill." 

The recycling solution has streamlined processes and reduced time in manual handling allowing our Clothing Stores to focus on customer service.

Application across Australia 

The system has now been rolled out across all National Clothing Stores nationally. It has also been applied in other areas of our Defence business such as linen disposal in our Housekeeping Services for our Defence Based Services contract. 

When Hayley French, Ventia's National Service Delivery Manager for Domestic Services heard of the plans to upgrade beds on Defence sites, she looked into applying the system used at our National Clothing Stores. She applied for an 'Innovation to Defence' to have the new process formally approved and now all linen and long-term lost property items can be disposed of through the same system. RAAF Woomera has been the first base to utilise this disposal method, discarding a years' worth of redundant linen.

There is a big focus on sustainability for Ventia and Defence. It's a small contribution but will make a huge difference long-term.

April Taylor, Ventia's Domestic Services Coordinator at the RAAF base in Woomera said: "The whole process turned out to be very quick and simple, and it was a pleasure to work with all partners involved."

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Where It Pays To Get Choosy: A Case Study In Stock Selection

• The healthcare sector offers a compelling mix of defensive characteristics and growth potential driven by innovation.
• The big picture around healthcare makes it an appealing sector for long-term investors. It tends to do relatively well no matter the economic backdrop, given that healthcare needs do not change with GDP.
• When drug patents expire and cheaper generics come to market, drug maker revenues inevitably decline.

Klaus Vedfelt

By Ibrahim Kanan & Tony DeSpirito

The healthcare sector offers a compelling mix of defensive characteristics and growth potential driven by innovation. It also features ample dispersion that presents stock pickers with an opportunity to parse potential leaders and laggards in pursuit of above-market return.

As active equity investors , we’re not content to accept what the market has to offer. Our mission is to assess companies on their underlying fundamentals to target those stocks that, we believe, have the potential to outperform the broad market over a three- to five-year time horizon.

This mission takes on greater significance in what we see as a new era of more normalized interest rates and volatility 0 an environment in which a rising tide no longer lifts all boats and stock selection becomes more important to portfolio outcomes.

While attractive opportunities are on offer across all sectors and industries, our daily work as stock pickers has revealed that the opportunity for selectivity is more prominent in some areas of the market - a function of greater dispersion and industry-level nuance that can be concealed at the broad index level. Case in point: The tech sector led the market in the first half of this year, but the lion’s share of that return came from semiconductors - the not-so-secret sauce to enabling AI.

More surprising may be the importance of selection in the healthcare sector. As shown in the chart below, healthcare ranks among the top three sectors for return differentiation across individual stocks. This suggests greater opportunity to apply fundamental research to parse potential winners and losers in pursuit of index-beating returns.

Healthy stock-picking opportunities Average return dispersion across selected sectors, 2003-2023

Source: BlackRock Fundamental Equities, with data from Refinitiv, Dec. 31, 2003-Dec. 31, 2023. Chart shows the average dispersion of annual return across the noted sectors in the Russell 1000 Index. Dispersion is defined as interdecile range, or the difference between the 10th (TOP) and 90th percentile of stock returns within each sector. “Remaining sectors” include energy, comms services, financials, materials, industrials, consumer staples, real estate and utilities.

We have felt this firsthand in our work analyzing stocks for inclusion in the BlackRock Equity Dividend Fund and BlackRock Large Cap Value ETF , where healthcare was the second-largest sector exposure and a top contributor to return despite relatively muted performance at the index level in 2023. (Healthcare returned 2% in 2023 versus an S&P 500 return of 26%.)

Parsing the opportunity in healthcare

The big picture around healthcare makes it an appealing sector for long-term investors. It tends to do relatively well no matter the economic backdrop, given that healthcare needs do not change with GDP. It benefits from the secular tailwind of aging populations, as age begets greater healthcare needs and associated increases in health-related spending. It’s also a diverse sector that is rife with innovation. And despite all of this, the healthcare sector has been trading at an attractive valuation that is below the broad market average.

Importantly, however, not all healthcare stocks offer the same appeal, and investing at the index level could expose portfolios to big risk. The reason: U.S. healthcare benchmarks include heavy weightings in mature pharmaceutical companies - and these face an onslaught of revenue-busting patent expirations that could weigh on their performance, as well as that of the healthcare indexes.

What’s ailing U.S. pharma

When drug patents expire and cheaper generics come to market, drug maker revenues inevitably decline. Our analysis shows several major U.S. pharma companies losing patent protection on up to 70% of their revenue by 2030.

These companies’ profits are also at risk of disproportionate decline, as it’s usually the oldest and highest-margin products that are losing patent protection. This is because drug makers tend to increase prices incrementally each year after a new product launch. Their manufacturing costs, however, remain stable - allowing gross margins to rise. Companies also spend less on marketing as a drug matures and gains popular recognition. By the time these drugs hit patent expiration and fall off a company’s line-up, they typically have grown to become the highest-margin products.

Another complicating factor: When a drug patent expires, the same sales force is selling one less product, rendering the business less productive. Companies must find something new to sell to justify the fixed cost of their sales force, or otherwise shrink their business. The options here are limited:

1) Spend more on research and development (R&D) of new products. The rub: Returns on R&D have been declining and the process requires substantial time.

2) Negotiate a deal to buy a (hopefully) blockbuster drug. The rub: Companies typically overpay on high expectations for an essentially unknown, never-marketed product.

At the same time, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) imposes further price pressure by giving Medicare the authority to negotiate prices on select drugs. That process is underway, with results (and potential price reductions) due in September.

Given all of the above, valuations of many U.S. pharma companies require close scrutiny. Pricing that underestimates the pending impact of the patent cliff can make some of these stocks “value traps” - sporting a low price-to-earnings multiple that is actually much higher when accounting for their patent expirations and the associated earnings impact.

A “remedy” in active selection

Active stock pickers can seek to avert much of the risk at the index level by avoiding those companies most exposed and directing their investments to more interesting pockets of healthcare. Among them:

European pharmaceutical companies. In general, these companies face a much less severe patent issue and have better drug pipelines, offering greater return potential and quality on a par with U.S. counterparts.

Makers of GLP-1 “diabesity” drugs. GLP-1s are a notable exception to our U.S. pharma aversion. We believe these promising new therapies for diabetes and weight loss have ample runway as they just begin their success journey.

Drug distributors. The patent cliff can be a boon for drug distributors in that they are able to distribute generic alternatives, which usually offer higher profit margins than branded products. Plus, volumes are higher as more generics become available once patent protection lapses.

The above case study is just one example of how active stock selection can help to achieve alpha, or above-market return, through a deep understanding of sector-level dynamics. We believe the ability to parse potential winners and losers based on underlying company fundamentals and observations of the industry environment should bring increasing value to portfolios, especially against a backdrop of heightened market dispersion.

© 2024 BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Investment in a specific sector can entail greater volatility given the narrower focus of the investment universe and concentration in sector-specific risks. Investments in health services industries may be affected by changes in regulations, advancing technological developments and product liability lawsuits.

This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of August 2024 and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this post are derived from proprietary and nonproprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by BlackRock, its officers, employees or agents. This post may contain “forward-looking” information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this post is at the sole discretion of the reader. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

BlackRock Large Cap Value ETF The Fund is actively managed and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. The Fund may have a higher portfolio turnover than funds that seek to replicate the performance of an index.

Convertible securities are subject to the market and issuer risks that apply to the underlying common stock.

International investing involves risks, including risks related to foreign currency, limited liquidity, less government regulation and the possibility of substantial volatility due to adverse political, economic or other developments. These risks often are heightened for investments in emerging/ developing markets or in concentrations of single countries.

Carefully consider the Funds' investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Funds' prospectuses or, if available, the summary prospectuses, which may be obtained by visiting the iShares Fund and BlackRock Fund prospectus pages. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Prepared by BlackRock Investments, LLC, member FINRA.

© 2024 BlackRock, Inc or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. BLACKROCK and iSHARES are trademarks of BlackRock, Inc., or its affiliates. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.

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In March 2020, Twiddy & Company, a family-owned vacation rental company known for hospitality rooted in personal interactions, needed to adjust to contactless, remote customer service. With the upcoming vacation season thrown into chaos, President Clark Twiddy had a responsibility to the company’s network of homeowners who rented their homes through the company, to guests who had booked vacations, and to employees who had been recruited by Twiddy’s reputation for treating staff well. Who, if anyone, could he afford to make whole and keep happy? Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher, author of the book The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It, discusses how Twiddy leaned into trust to weather the COVID-19 pandemic in her case, “Twiddy & Company: Trust in a Chaotic Environment.”

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Lessons for Retailers from the Rebirth of Indie Bookstores

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• 14 Aug 2019
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Are Paywalls Saving Newspapers?

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What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

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How Big Companies Can Outrun Disruption

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• 20 Dec 2018

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Executive Education in the Digital Vortex: The Disruption of the Supply Landscape

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Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

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• 25 Jul 2011

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HBS Cases: iPads, Kindles, and the Close of a Chapter in Book Publishing

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• 24 Apr 2009

Corporate Social Entrepreneurship

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Financing medtech innovation in Melbourne: a case study in economic and phenomenological sociology

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Developing community resilience in the face of COVID-19: case study from the Estrie region, Canada

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Martine Shareck, Marie Suzanne Badji, Karine Picard, Jean-François Allaire, Philippe Roy, Mélissa Généreux, Julie Lévesque, Émanuèle Lapierre-Fortin, Developing community resilience in the face of COVID-19: case study from the Estrie region, Canada, Health Promotion International , Volume 39, Issue 4, August 2024, daae094, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daae094

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The COVID-19 pandemic undeniably impacted population health and several aspects of community organization, including service delivery and social cohesion. Intersectoral collaboration and equity, two key dimensions of community resilience, proved central to an effective and equitable response to the pandemic. Yet the factors that enabled or constrained communities’ capacity to enact intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action in such times of urgency and uncertainty remain poorly understood. This descriptive qualitative study aimed to (1) describe the processes through which intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action were deployed during the first wave of COVID-19 and (2) identify factors enabling and constraining these processes. We conducted semi-directed interviews with 35 representatives of the governmental, institutional, and public and third sectors from four municipal regional counties of the Estrie region (Québec, Canada). We coded detailed interview notes following a codebook thematic analysis approach. We identified three processes through which intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action were deployed: (1) networking; (2) adaptation, creation and innovation; and (3) human-centred action. Examples of levers which supported the deployment of these processes included capitalizing on pre-existing networks, adapting practices and services, and investing in solidarity and mutual aid. The influencing factors we describe represent concrete targets for resilience-building action. Although focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, our findings are relevant to other types of health, social, environmental or economic crises, and may guide health promotion and community development practitioners towards more effective community resilience-building responses.

Community resilience and health promotion share key areas of action, such as intersectoral collaboration and equity.

Community resilience must be fostered for effective and equitable response to future crises and emergencies such as the climate crisis.

In our study, networking, adaptation, creation and innovation, and human-centred action were central to an intersectoral and equitable response to COVID-19 in the Estrie region.

These processes and associated influencing factors apply to other similar crises and emergencies, supporting a health and equity-promoting response.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus had major impacts on health and health inequity ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2023 ) as well as on economic vitality, public safety, employment, food security, access to resources and social cohesion at the community level ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020 ; Barlow et al ., 2021 ). In Québec, Canada, government-imposed confinement was part of such public health measures. Following the declaration of a state of emergency on 13 March 2020, all non-essential activities were temporarily halted, physical distancing and work-from-home measures were implemented, and indoor and outdoor gatherings were prohibited at several timepoints during the first and subsequent waves of COVID-19 ( Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec, 2022 ).

Combined to the increased power granted to the State and the rise of public health as a leader of the health crisis, these types of restrictions forced institutions and organizations to operate in a new and changing context of high uncertainty, with consequences for human relations, management and service provision ( Badji et al ., 2023 ; Cunningham et al ., 2023 ). For example, injunctions to limit physical and social contacts upset the usual communication and collaboration mechanisms between community development actors ( Badji et al ., 2023 ). They also led to a decline in trust in public health authorities and governments ( Schluter et al ., 2023 ). By reducing the potential for mobilizing community development and other actors around collective action, these upheavals tested communities’ capacity to exert resilience ( Badji et al ., 2023 ), i.e. the ability to adapt to an environment characterized by change, uncertainty and surprise, by mobilizing collective resources ( Magis, 2010 ). On a brighter side, they also spurred the development of new ways of thinking and doing collective action to address issues which emerged during, or were exacerbated by, COVID-19 ( Badji et al ., 2023 ).

Community resilience has been conceptualized as encompassing several dimensions which, depending on the framework one draws upon, include adaptation capacity, community capital, collective action, collaboration, local leadership, development and engagement of community resources, strategic action and learning, and inclusion and equity ( Magis, 2010 ; McCrea et al ., 2014 ; O’Sullivan et al ., 2014 ; Cafer et al ., 2019 ). Each framework is distinct, putting more or less emphasis on key dimensions, but there are also overlaps ( McCrea et al ., 2014 ). Intersectoral collaboration and equity are two dimensions that are recurringly discussed in the community resilience literature. Intersectoral collaboration involves actors from different sectors (e.g. education, health, employment, housing, social services, municipal services) and different orders (public, private, third sector or civil society) pooling their resources to act collectively to address a complex situation of common interest that they cannot resolve alone ( Divay et al ., 2013 ). As per equity-focused action, in the COVID-19 context, we defined it as action targeting ‘vulnerable groups’, i.e. people or organizations who found themselves at higher risk of suffering from the crisis or its collateral effects (e.g. job losses, school closures, intimate partner violence) because of shared social characteristics (e.g. precarious employment situation, single-parent family, female gender) ( Frohlich and Potvin, 2008 ). Collective action rooted in intersectoral collaboration is thought to offer greater potential for promoting social and health equity than sectoral action ( Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec, 2021 ), since promoting equity requires action on the social determinants of health such as income, employment, housing, education and neighbourhood environments, which lie outside the direct realm of public health ( Raphael et al ., 2020 ; Amri et al ., 2022 ).

While intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action appear to be essential to identify and respond effectively to the needs of vulnerable groups in normal times, a question remains: in times of urgency and uncertainty as created by the COVID-19 pandemic, how can communities’ capacity to act intersectorally and in favour of equity be supported to promote their resilience? The present study aimed to (1) identify the processes by which intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action were deployed during the first wave of COVID-19 and (2) document the factors which facilitated or limited these processes. Understanding this is essential to strengthen communities’ capacity to become more resilient in the face of future similar emergencies ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2023 ; United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, n.d. ). Furthermore, a focus on equity fills a gap in community resilience research and practice given that despite vulnerable groups being more at risk of suffering from crises and emergencies, they have more difficulty recovering ( Norris et al ., 2008 ) and their voices have often been excluded from community resilience thinking ( Cafer et al ., 2019 ).

The current study was embedded within a larger participatory research project initiated by the Observatoire estrien du développement des communautés (OEDC), a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support Estrie communities in building capacity for collective action. Following concerns expressed by their members in April 2020 regarding how to respond to COVID-19 and its collateral impacts, OEDC set out to draft an intersectoral depiction of the local and regional response to COVID-19 in the Estrie region, and guide communities in developing or reinforcing their resilience. In the first phases of this larger project, intersectoral collaboration and equity stood out as being of particular interest to communities, but they struggled with implementing concrete actions. This observation spurred the present study.

Study design and case selection

This descriptive qualitative study was conducted in the Estrie region which covers an area of 12 483 km 2 in the south-eastern part of Québec, Canada, and has an estimated population of 507 208 inhabitants [ Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ), 2022 ]. It encompasses nine municipal regional counties (MRCs), eight of which took part in the larger project. Here, we selected four MRC territories based on three diversification criteria to allow for identifying similarities and differences: geography (rural vs urban context), population age distribution ( Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ), 2022 ; Statistics Canada, 2022 ), and previous experience with large-scale economic or social crises. We also took into consideration the quality and depth of interview material (e.g. some interviews were relatively succinct and superficial). Cases included vast, sparsely populated areas as well as the main urban centre, the city of Sherbrooke. Two cases had previously experienced crises and subsequently deployed collective initiatives to recover and rebuild physically, socially and economically ( Généreux et al ., 2020 ; OEDC, 2020 ). The Sherbrooke, des Sources, Granit and Haut-Saint-François MRCs were selected as cases and are described in Table 1 .

Main characteristics of the four selected cases

Data collection

We conducted semi-directed individual phone or video interviews in July and August 2020 with 8–10 individuals in each MRC. The study’s advisory board—composed of public health and social work researchers, the OEDC’s executive director, and representatives of the regional social and health services, provincial public health, and regional political sector—identified potential participants. These were representatives of the governmental, institutional or public and third sectors. They worked in the regional, municipal, health, education, economy, social and cultural fields, and had extensive knowledge of, and local involvement in, their MRC territory. Of the 35 participants we interviewed across the four selected MRCs, 8 were community development professionals, 15 were administrators or managers at the municipal level ( n  = 2), in economic development organizations ( n  = 2) and community organizations ( n  = 11), 5 were MRC and city directors, and 7 were elected officials. The interview guide covered the overall response to the first wave of COVID-19 (February 27–July 2020) in participants’ territory, key community resilience dimensions and main learnings. Lasting approximately 60 minutes, interviews were digitally recorded. The interviewer took detailed notes which were subsequently amended by two research assistants upon listening to the recordings. Participants provided informed consent prior to interviews. Ethical approval was obtained from the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS [2021-3839].

Data analysis

We performed a thematic codebook analysis of detailed interview notes as per Braun and Clarke ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ) with NVivo 12 software. The analysis consisted in five phases leading to a final report and manuscript: (1) familiarizing oneself with the data; (2) generating initial codes; (3) searching for themes; (4) reviewing themes; and (5) defining and naming themes. The codebook drew on the research objectives, interview guide and analytical grid used in the larger project which centred around community strengths and weaknesses, pre-existing social infrastructure and how it supported (or limited) intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action, and how communities identified vulnerable groups and their needs. The codebook structure allowed for including codes emerging inductively. Two research assistants independently coded interview notes. Codes were organized into categories to define key processes deployed for intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action, and to identify facilitators and barriers to process deployment.

Criteria for quality

As part of the larger project, we held participatory workshops with study participants and additional key actors from each MRC territory to validate preliminary results (Fall 2020), facilitated two webinars on intersectoral collaboration and equity (Spring 2021), and held a final participatory workshop to share findings from this comparative case study (Winter 2023). Between 30 and 50 people attended each of these activities. While not part of the data collection per se , this contributed to the quality of our study with regard worthiness of the topic, rich rigor and credibility ( Tracy, 2010 ). Rigor was further supported by having two research assistants code and analyse the data independently before regrouping and comparing, regularly discussing coding and themes with the principal investigator and consulting co-investigators on final results interpretation. Involvement of a wide range of participants also meant information sources could be triangulated.

We identified three processes which communities deployed to support intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action in the first wave of COVID-19 in Estrie: (1) networking; (2) adaptation, creation and innovation; and (3) human-centred action. As illustrated in Figure 1 , different levers were used to activate each process, and several influencing factors facilitated or limited this activation. From ‘process’ to ‘lever’ to ‘influencing factor’, we move from the general to the specific, with influencing factors representing concrete elements upon which communities could act to develop or strengthen their resilience.

Processes deployed, levers activated and influencing factors associated with intersectoral collaboration and actions in favour of equity.

Process 1: ‘networking’

The first process, ‘networking’, proved essential for supporting intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action. Networking was enacted through three levers: activating pre-existing networks, building new social ties and developing new intersectoral collaborations. Activating pre-existing networks refers to the ability of actors involved in the COVID-19 response to strengthen relationships, intensify activities between collaborators and change the collaboration culture when necessary, for example, by welcoming new members to a concertation. The creation of a sanitary station for homeless people in Sherbrooke is a good example of this lever:

We created a [sanitary] station in the courtyard of [the non-profit] Partage Saint-François with the Sherbrooke Concertation Table on Homelessness. Everyone did what was needed according to their mandates: finding and setting up tents, recruiting workers, planning schedules… working at all levels in complementarity. [P2 – Sherbrooke]

Building new social ties refers to the ability of local institutions and formal actors to establish relationships with citizens. Although this, at times, required them to change roles and act more informally in relation to citizens, it was essential for compensating for the erosion of social interactions between citizens due to strict public health restrictions. This lever is exemplified by Granit MRC firefighters and police officers’ mobilization to show support towards hospital staff and elderly people living in long-term care homes. Developing new intersectoral collaborations refers to the creation of social infrastructures or collective initiatives enabling actors from different sectors who were not accustomed to working together to voluntarily do so with the aim of achieving a common goal. One example is the creation of crisis units such as the Community Action and Support Committee ( Comité d’entraide communautaire ) in Sherbrooke. In this case, co-coordination by a tandem of institutional and community actors and clear definitions of each partner’s mandate and role enabled the crisis unit to operate smoothly.

Influencing factors

Several factors were deemed to influence networking, either positively or negatively. We found this process to be facilitated by a pre-established culture of collaboration and concertation characterized by mature social infrastructures, openness to intersectoral collaboration, and reliance on collaborative and participatory leadership. Regarding the first factor, in some territories, social infrastructures created during previous crises, such as in the Sources and Granit MRCs, facilitated the energization of teams already experienced in crisis management who were able to get to work quickly to support the community. For example, the permanent outreach teams ( équipes de proximité ) created in the wake of the fatal 2013 derailment of an oil-carrying train in Lac Mégantic town centre were central to the COVID-19 response in the Granit MRC. In 2013, these multidisciplinary teams composed of health professionals, social workers, outreach workers and community organizers were tasked to deliver psychosocial services directly to the population, on the ground rather than in formal clinics, and were driven by principles of empowerment, inter-organizational and intersectoral collaboration, and citizen involvement and inclusion ( Généreux et al ., 2020 ). Similarly, existing ties also facilitated collaboration in the Haut-Saint-François territory where ‘A special COVID committee was created at the MRC level, whose members were already partners, they were already working together’ [P8 – Haut-Saint-François]. It was pointed out, however, that networking in this territory was nevertheless complicated by certain organizations’ strong culture of working in sectoral silos.

Openness to intersectoral collaboration is a second factor that facilitated networking. As one des Sources participant put it: ‘Social development is no longer just the business of the CDC [Community development corporation]. The MRC has a role and responsibilities’ [P3 – des Sources]. This new and heightened awareness of the importance of intersectoral collaboration helped mobilize a range of actors, such as outreach workers, rural agents, elected officials and citizen leaders, to actively participate in the COVID-19 response. For example, the synergy between actors involved in the Haut-Saint-François crisis unit and those on Sherbrooke’s Community Action and Support Committee made it easier to identify, reach and meet the needs of vulnerable groups, as did the adoption of a bottom-up approach, anchored in the field, rather than a top-down hierarchical one. On the flip side, some actors may not have been entirely open to intersectoral collaboration due to COVID-19 repercussions on themselves and their teams, such as exhaustion, demotivation and feelings of powerlessness, which limited their working across sectors.

Lastly, reliance on collective, participatory leadership is a third factor that could facilitate or hinder networking. Defined as leadership that recognizes skill complementarity, respects different partners’ values and organizational cultures, and supports the participation of all, this type of leadership generally enables a concerted response to community needs without duplication ( World Health Organization, 2016 ). In this sense, the optimal sharing of responsibilities favoured the effective and coordinated contribution of actors with different fields of competence and expertise:

We all understood that it wasn’t every person for herself that would get us there, so we quickly got together virtually, to make our strategy together... we went around the table to get everyone’s opinion, be it community organizers, cultural actors, the school or municipality. [P8 – des Sources]

The collective leadership of three of the main players in the Québec community development ecosystem—the Health and Social Services Network, MRCs and Community Development Corporations—also enabled broad participation by various actors in crisis and monitoring units, despite the cumbersome nature of the process resulting from opposing modes of governance. While this was viewed positively in all territories, several participants nevertheless pointed out that at times, the Health and Social Services Network adopted more of a top-down leadership approach, delegating responsibilities without granting additional resources to take action, which compromised intersectoral actors’ mobilization. Furthermore, exclusion of certain key actors (e.g. minority linguistic groups) from consultations, local leaders’ lack of experience in crisis management and the late realization by some municipalities of their responsibility in helping manage the health crisis may also have hindered proper concerted and intersectoral response to the health crisis.

Process 2: ‘adaptation, creation and innovation’

The second process we identified and through which intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action were deployed was adaptation, creation and innovation. The three levers associated with this process related to adapting or innovating with regards practices, services and communications ( Figure 1 ). Adapting practices involves adjusting ways of working and redeploying resources according to the evolving pandemic context (e.g. moving from meeting face-to-face to relying on virtual or hybrid modes) and needs (e.g. adjusting action plans according to emerging issues). Adapting services refers to organizations aligning their activities and services with the evolving context, for example by revising their mission or mandate to allow them to address emerging issues, as evoked by this participant:

Our mandate was not to communicate with the population, but to foster networking between organizations. But along the way, we saw the need to adjust. We set up a Facebook page to get in touch with people quickly. The information came from organizations. We also created an email address to redirect people to resources. [P1 – Sherbrooke]

In a related vein, adapting communications refers to diversifying the means deployed to promote access to reliable information at the right time as well as strategies aimed at promoting social cohesion through the maintenance of social interactions.

We identified three factors which influenced the process of adaptation, creation and innovation: key actors’ agility, social cohesion, and diversification of communication channels and access to technology. First, key actors’ agility and flexibility in changing roles was found to facilitate adaptation, creation and innovation. One illustration of this lies in municipal authorities’ openness to step outside their usual sphere of influence and engage directly with higher levels of government. Adopting a positive and proactive attitude towards the pandemic reality also enabled them to demonstrate autonomy and leadership in crisis management. On the other hand, the centralization of powers within the State and public health authorities sometimes limited municipalities’ capacity for action, despite their openness to act. For example, while municipal bodies were responsible for overseeing the application of public health directives at the local level (e.g. enforcing the ban on indoor gatherings), uncertainties, controversies and conspiracy-thinking surrounding State-imposed health measures may have undermined public confidence in local institutions. This links back to the above discussion concerning the problematic discrepancy between the increased responsibility given by the State to municipal and other local actors on one hand, and the lack of resources and support provided to enact these responsibilities, on the other hand.

Key actors’ agility is further illustrated by the design and deployment of continuity plans structured according to the evolving reality and needs. While some private and third sector actors struggled with the new reality of high staff turnover, others were able to launch new services, products and programs to address emerging needs, making it possible to remedy certain blind spots and to ‘take care of everyone’. To do so, some were forced to step outside their usual field of intervention or redirect their attention to specific groups, as stated by this Sherbrooke participant from a third-sector organization:

It’s not part of our mission to help the most vulnerable people; we support social economy enterprises that can support vulnerable people directly. We’ve been more attentive to these businesses so that they stay in operation as much as possible. [P9 – Sherbrooke]

A second factor which facilitated adaptation, creation and innovation was social cohesion within communities, which is characterized by strong human ties and a benevolent approach between citizens and organizational actors ( Manca, 2014 ). In this sense, adaptation to the pandemic context proved easier in territories where social and economic disparities were narrower and where community members shared common values and a strong sense of belonging. Adaptation to constantly changing public health orders also appeared to be less complex in rural areas, particularly those where the social, community, economic and physical environment was more conducive to interaction. This was also true in micro-territories (where everyone knew everyone else) and in sparsely populated but well-serviced areas (where citizens were more reachable). For example, the small geographical size, low population and high sense of belonging in the MRC des Sources meant that the needs of vulnerable groups could be managed on an almost case-by-case basis.

A third and final factor influencing adaptation, creation and innovation was the diversification of communication channels and access to technology. Communication indeed proved particularly challenging in the context of reduced physical and social interactions and heightened misinformation during COVID-19. According to participants, actors quickly realized they had to ‘to leave no stone unturned’ [P7 – des Sources] and communicate with citizens through more diverse channels (including in person, print, radio, TV and social media), more often than usual, and more simply to increase reach and reduce misinformation. The centralization of information and requests in the form of a specialized help desk (Granit), telephone line (des Sources) or newsletter (Sherbrooke) also enabled actors involved in the COVID-19 response to maintain a high degree of consistency in communications despite how quickly new information emerged. In the Sources and Sherbrooke MRCs, the Community Development Corporations led these initiatives, which, in addition to informing citizens of available services in a timely fashion also freed community organizations from this task. Reliance on outreach workers with established and close ties with citizens also enabled reaching more vulnerable groups. Obstacles to effective communication nevertheless remained, including frequent changes in directives coming from public health authorities and delays in processing, translating and disseminating information. Increased reliance on digital technology for working, learning and communicating with family also constrained adaptation, creation and innovation. Interestingly, this constraint was equally felt in urban and rural territories, but for different reasons. In the case of Sherbrooke, a lack of modern equipment was most problematic, and eventually solved by distributing second-hand computers to community organization employees working from home, while in rural territories, access to a high-speed internet network was most problematic. Although the turn towards virtual communication was positively referred to as ‘the greatest adaptation’ [P1 – Granit], over time, difficulties nevertheless became apparent, such as sustaining participants’ attention, motivation and commitment in virtual meetings, highlighting the limits of this adaptation in the longer term: ‘People are no longer able to do visio , they need to see each other’ [P1 – Haut-Saint-François].

Process 3: ‘human-centred action’

Human-centred action is the third and final process through which intersectoral collaboration and equity were deployed in response to the first wave of COVID-19 in Estrie. These are defined as actions in which individuals, and particularly vulnerable groups and organizations, were the focal point. The three levers which supported this process are rapid response, solidarity and mutual aid, and support for individuals and organizations ( Figure 1 ). Rapid response refers to key actors having to make prompt efforts to identify and respond to the general population and vulnerable groups’ needs, within the limits of available resources. For example, in the MRC des Sources:

Some high school students didn’t have Internet access at home. The town sent a request to the MRC and within 2 weeks, the students received USB keys to connect to the Internet..... We did it because it’s a priority for our young people, to fight against dropping out of school. [P3 – des Sources]

Solidarity and mutual aid refer to mutual assistance based on the principles of reciprocity and/or free help to the community. Examples of such actions include benevolent measures towards vulnerable groups, such as sending virtual cards and flowers to the elderly, making friendly calls to isolated people, and distributing food to families, as well as community organizations helping each other out by pooling their resources. Finally, support for individuals includes measures taken to reduce the consequences of poor living conditions on the health of vulnerable individuals and families (e.g. help with food shopping for people without social support), while support for organizations was actualized in the form of support for the functioning, operating and liquidity of organizations facing difficulties, as illustrated by a partnership with the Quebec entrepreneurial Coaching Clinic to offer targeted coaching to adapt to COVID-19 a support measure mentioned by a Granit participant.

The following factors may have influenced the deployment of human-centred actions: resource mobilization, funding agencies’ flexibility, and physical and relational proximity. Most importantly, the mobilization and commitment of human, organizational, institutional, collective, financial, material and logistical resources in a spirit of mutual aid and solidarity facilitated this process. Resource mobilization was deemed easier in areas characterized by material or social fragility and by the presence of under-represented groups (e.g. linguistic, cultural and ethnic communities) as in Sherbrooke, potentially because there already were services dedicated to these more vulnerable groups. This was also deemed easier in small areas like the MRC des Sources and in areas with a self-reported ‘well-established reflex to help’ such as the MRC Haut-Saint-François. There, the spontaneous outpouring of individual support led the intersectoral group Haut-Saint-François fou de ses enfants to support the local food bank and volunteer centre in delivering food baskets and groceries. Despite widespread job and income losses linked to the pandemic, collective awareness of its impact on community organizations’ financial resources further encouraged donor generosity and resource mobilization in all territories: in des Sources and Granit MRCs, meals were delivered to seniors’ homes to ensure food security, while in Sherbrooke, restauranteurs donated their food stocks to community organizations.

Throughout the first wave of COVID-19, funding organizations also showed flexibility by maintaining subsidies to organizations despite the cancellation of planned events, while financial institutions introduced moratoria to facilitate loans and mortgage repayment which benefited individuals, organizations and businesses. This flexibility is both an example and enabler of human-centred action. However, participants from all territories mentioned that the federal government’s underfunding of community organizations hampered the deployment of human-centred actions through intersectoral collaboration since these organizations consequently faced important challenges, such as having to limit their activities or close temporarily due to resource shortages. Funding agencies’ flexibility and generosity was thus unequal, depending on the level of government represented. Finally, we found that physical and relational proximity contributed positively to human-centred action. Physical proximity between organizations which were ‘are all under the same roof, used to coordinating and seeing each other’ [P4 – des Sources] facilitated communication between intersectoral actors as well as the sharing of resources and deployment of concerted, rather than siloed, action. In a related vein, according to participants, relational proximity, which was fostered by a sense of belonging among urban citizens to neighbourhood tables and among rural citizens to local community groups, further made it easier to reach vulnerable groups and address their needs. This last influencing factor relates back to the processes of networking (e.g. through enabling activation of pre-existing networks) and to adaptation, creation and innovation (e.g. through facilitating communication).

In this paper, we set out to identify the processes by which two interrelated dimensions of community resilience—intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action—were deployed during the first wave of COVID-19 in Estrie, Québec, and to document factors facilitating or constraining these processes. We identified three processes: (1) networking; (2) adaptation, creation and innovation; and (3) human-centred action. For each process, we documented three levers that enabled their deployment, and three influencing factors. It has previously been suggested that intersectoral collaboration is essential to the design of a just and sustainable future ( Ndumbe-Eyoh et al ., 2021 ; Corbin, 2023 ), and it has been found to be central to an equitable response to COVID-19 ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020 ). Our results align with the 2023 Canadian Public Health Officer’s report with regard to the importance of social infrastructure, intersectoral collaboration and a focus on more vulnerable groups for effectively and collectively responding to crises and emergencies ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2023 ). They further contribute to a better understanding of what can facilitate or hinder community resilience, and point to recommendations as to how communities can better prepare for future crises, whether health, social, economic or environmental.

Regarding networking, our results align with existing conceptual frameworks ( Norris et al ., 2008 ; Magis, 2010 ; Berkes and Ross, 2013 ) and findings from previous empirical studies ( Nespeca et al ., 2020 ; Slingerland et al ., 2023 ). They highlight that ties established between intersectoral actors ahead of COVID-19, openness to intersectoral collaboration, and collective, participatory leadership all favoured an intersectoral and equity-focused response to COVID-19. They revealed that a well-established culture of collaboration and concertation characterized by mature social infrastructures can facilitate spontaneous collective action in a context of vulnerability, as reported by others ( Rippon et al ., 2020 ; Richard et al ., 2023 ; Slingerland et al ., 2023 ). For example, Richard et al . ( Richard et al ., 2023 ) found that networks pre-existing the pandemic were key to mobilizing actors involved in deploying government-led screening and contact tracing strategies in France. We further found that for actors otherwise accustomed to working in silos, an open-mind to intersectoral collaboration led to a growing awareness of its importance in responding to complex issues such as COVID-19. This suggests that intersectoral collaboration is possible in times of uncertainty, even in contexts where community development actors may be new to it.

Our findings regarding networking also stressed the need to ensure that observations from the field percolate up to higher levels of governance for meaningful and equity-focused action to be taken. In the context of a health crisis, this would mean creating networks that allow citizens, community organizations and institutions to work jointly, which can be facilitated by collaborative governance. In Estrie, this was embodied by the tripartite participatory leadership exercised by the Health and Social Services Network, MRCs and Community Development Corporations, which, although generally beneficial, nonetheless faced challenges related to power and resource imbalances. Similar challenges have been reported by Adger ( Adger, 2003 ) according to whom effective networking in support of vulnerable groups requires collaborators to be involved on equal footing, by Morgan et al . ( Morgan et al ., 2021 ), who highlight the challenges of translating local voices into institutional change, and by Richard et al . ( Richard et al ., 2023 ), who recognize the complexity of developing intersectoral partnerships due to misunderstandings between different professions. Despite challenges, leaning towards collective and participatory governance where community organizations are allowed a seat at the table is promising. As discussed by Morgan et al . ( Morgan et al ., 2021 ), as coordinating entities of many different sectors, community organizations are indeed well positioned to develop and strengthen the systems and processes that enable citizens and institutions to work well together.

With regard the second process we identified—adaptation, creation and innovation—we found it to be fostered by key actors’ agility, social cohesion, and diversification of communication channels and access to technology. The ability to adapt and evolve is in fact one of the key strengths of a resilient community [adaptation being a defining characteristic of the phenomenon ( Norris et al ., 2008 ; Magis, 2010 )] and others have found that it requires agility on the part of actors to change roles in times of crisis ( Nespeca et al ., 2020 ; Rippon et al ., 2020 ; Slingerland et al ., 2023 ). In our study as elsewhere ( Badji et al ., 2023 ; Slingerland et al ., 2023 ), ease of adaptation was tied to the process of networking wherein, for example, formal actors such as firefighters adopted more informal roles in support of local hospital staff and elderly groups. We also found this process to be easier in places where social cohesion and sense of belonging were stronger. This resonates with previous literature documenting how a sense of shared values, interdependency and community could greatly foster commitment to sustained collective efforts in the face of COVID-19 ( Wolf et al ., 2020 ) as well as chronic ‘ordinary’ stressors such as sustained high levels of unemployment and poverty ( Rochira et al ., 2023 ). Similar to Comes ( Comes, 2016 ), we also found that centralizing information and communicating effectively , more often than usual , and using different media was essential to reach a broad population and respond to challenges in the context of uncertainty and rapid change resulting from COVID-19. This aligns with the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec’s recommendations ( Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec, 2020 ) stating that disseminating information to promote community resilience requires mobilizing intersectoral partners and local opinion leaders and demonstrating empathy to build public trust. Our results also revealed the essential nature—but inequitable distribution—of high-speed Internet and digital literacy. As noted by Ndumbe-Eyoh et al . ( Ndumbe-Eyoh et al ., 2021 ), limited access to the Internet may prevent certain groups (e.g. those on low incomes or the elderly) from taking part in the virtual turn. While we found this to be a barrier to reaching specific groups and to service continuity in some territories, most were nevertheless able to overcome this challenge by tapping into collective generosity through donations of mobile internet USB keys to students and second-hand computers to those in need.

The last process we documented, human-centred action, was found to be influenced by resource mobilization, funding agencies’ flexibility, and physical and relational proximity. We found mobilizing resources to be easier in communities that were already fragile and/or had a strong and established culture of mutual aid. This could be explained by such territories already having services dedicated to more vulnerable groups and being used to relying on their own local infrastructures and social networks to solve problems too often neglected by public health and emergency response systems. As pointed out by Rochira et al . ( Rochira et al ., 2023 ), communities’ potential to respond effectively to crises depends on their access to diverse resources, but also on their ability to make available resources (even when minimal) work together. Our results also suggest that collective action geared towards vulnerable groups was facilitated by the physical and relational proximity of intersectoral actors. Morgan et al . ( Morgan et al ., 2021 ) similarly reported that in Toronto, Canada, local community leaders who were close to their clientele played a key role in mitigating the psychosocial and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic by responding quickly to their fellow citizens’ needs in terms of food provision, information and mental health support. Regarding relational proximity, Ndumbe-Eyoh et al. ( Ndumbe-Eyoh et al. , 2021 ) suggest the community sector is well positioned to provide services and support in times of urgency, but that it should not be given full responsibility for filling the gaps in the public health and emergency management system ( Morgan et al ., 2021 ; Ndumbe-Eyoh et al ., 2021 ). This may be especially true when the community sector is not provided with all the resources to do so ( den Broeder et al ., 2022 ), as we found here. Efforts should therefore be expended to ensure equity in power, responsibilities and resources across intersectoral actors involved in emergency responses.

Strengths and limitations

Our study has several strengths, the main one being the participatory approach we adopted to respond to practical concerns expressed by community development actors. An interdisciplinary and intersectoral advisory committee composed of researchers and representatives from the non-profit sector, health and social services and regional governments also developed data collection procedures and tools, and provided insights throughout the study. We led workshops with key actors from each territory at several time points which allowed us to gain feedback on preliminary and final results. Our participatory research process was highly mobilizing itself and had the potential to support reflexivity, autonomy and learning among participating communities with regard their territory’s resilience ( Ross and Berkes, 2014 ), something which was also reported by participants. Although only four of the nine Estrie territories were represented in this paper, we can confidently state that the results reflect the diversity of realities lived in the region. Moreover, our territorial approach aligns with the United Nations Sendai Framework ( United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, n.d. ), the ‘One Community at a time’ approach to resilience ( Ma et al ., 2023 ), and the recent Canadian Chief Public Health Officer’s report on resilience to future crises ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2023 ), which all stress the importance of learning from local communities to then share lessons more widely to collectively seek to ‘build back better’, which is what we aimed for here.

Our study has limitations, one being that it focused on the first wave of COVID-19. While this testifies to our responsiveness, the pandemic eventually lasted several months, and the processes deployed to support community resilience may have evolved over time. Despite this, the lessons learned at the start of the crisis, which characterize communities’ response at the height of an emergency situation when there was a great deal of uncertainty, can guide resilience actors in better and more quickly responding to future crises. Still, it would have been interesting to explore how intersectoral collaboration and equity-focused action evolved over different waves of COVID-19 and to assess the extent to which the processes and levers documented here could be deployed on a perennial basis. Finally, although we discussed the three processes independently for ease of presentation, we should highlight that they were, to some extent, interconnected. For instance, it could be easier to be creative in deploying human-centred actions if strong networks are in place, and this should be kept in mind when interpreting our study results.

Intersectoral collaboration and equity are central to community resilience in general, and in hindsight, they also proved essential to an effective and equitable response to COVID-19. We identified three processes—networking; adaptation, creation and innovation; and human-centred action—which favoured the deployment of intersectoral actions in favour of equity and vulnerable groups during COVID-19 by Estrie communities. Although our study focused on a single region of Quebec during the first wave of the pandemic, it contributes to a better understanding of what may facilitate or hinder the development and strengthening of community resilience in times of crisis, in both urban and rural contexts. Since local communities are at the forefront of crises when they occur, they feel their effects immediately and directly and should therefore also be at the heart of response and recovery. In this vein, our findings suggest ways in which communities can improve or build upon assets and strengths developed during the pandemic to better prepare for future crises, be they health, social, economic or environmental.

We confirm that all listed authors made substantial contributions to the design, data collection and drafting of the manuscript according to the ICMJE guidelines. M.S., J.-F.A., P.R., M.G., J.L., E.L.-F. conceptualized the study; M.S., M.S.B. and K.P. performed the data analysis and synthesis; M.S. and M.S.B. wrote the first and subsequent drafts of the paper; all co-authors subsequently reviewed and edited the paper. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

We would like to acknowledge Jessica Veillet for her support in coordinating the original study.

This work was supported by a Partnership Engage grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) [grant number 1008-2020-1137] and funding from the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon (FLAC), Table des MRC de l’Estrie, Centraide Estrie and Institut Universitaire de Première Ligne en Santé et Services Sociaux du CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS. M.S. is supported by a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair on Urban Health Equity and Young People.

Ethical approval was obtained from the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS [2021-3839].

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Case Study: Diamond v. Chakraborty

“The Supreme Court ruled that a genetically engineered bacterium is patentable under U.S. law, as it is a product of human ingenuity. This landmark decision allowed for the patenting of living organisms, significantly impacting biotechnology innovation.”

Citation: 447 U.S. 303 (1980)

Date of Judgment: 16 th June, 1980

Court: Supreme Court of the United States

Bench: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (delivered the opinion of the Court), William J. Brennan Jr. (J), Potter Stewart (J), Byron White (J), Thurgood Marshall (J), Harry Blackmun (J), Lewis F. Powell Jr. (J), William Rehnquist (J), John Paul Stevens (J).

• Dr. Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, an Indian-American microbiologist working for General Electric, developed a genetically engineered bacterium of the Pseudomonas genus. This bacterium had the unique ability to break down multiple components of crude oil, making it potentially useful for cleaning up oil spills. Chakrabarty’s innovation was to transfer plasmids (small DNA molecules) from other bacteria into this Pseudomonas strain, thereby enabling it to degrade hydrocarbons more effectively than any naturally occurring bacterium.
• In 1972, Chakrabarty filed a patent application that covered three types of claims:
• Process claims for the method of producing the genetically engineered bacterium.
• Claims for the inoculum —a mixture of bacteria useful for degrading oil spills.
• Claims for the living, genetically engineered bacterium itself.
• The U.S. Patent Office examiner approved the first two types of claims but rejected the claim for the bacterium itself on the grounds that living organisms are not patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101 , which states that patents can be issued for “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.”
• Chakrabarty appealed the examiner’s decision to the Patent Office Board of Appeals, which upheld the examiner’s rejection of the claim for the bacterium. The Board argued that patents had historically not been granted for living organisms and that it was beyond the intent of Congress to include living organisms within the definition of “manufacture” or “composition of matter.”
• Chakrabarty then appealed to the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, which reversed the Board’s decision. The court found that the bacterium was a product of human ingenuity with unique characteristics that were not naturally occurring and thus fell within the scope of patentable subject matter under the statute. The court reasoned that the relevant factor was not the living nature of the organism but whether it was a product of human invention.
• Sidney A. Diamond, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The key question before the Court was whether a human-made microorganism, in this case, a genetically engineered bacterium, could be patented under the existing Patent Act, specifically 35 U.S.C. 101.

Decision of the Patent Office Board of Appeals

The Patent Office Board of Appeals upheld the initial decision of the U.S. Patent Office examiner and rejected Dr. Chakrabarty’s patent claim for the genetically engineered bacterium. The Board agreed with the examiner’s reasoning that living organisms were not patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C.101, interpreting the Patent Act as not extending to living things, even if they were genetically modified.

Decision of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals

The decision of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent was in favour of Dr. Chakrabarty. The court reversed the U.S. Patent Office’s rejection of Chakrabarty’s patent application, ruling that the genetically engineered bacterium was patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101.

The court determined that the bacterium, as a product of human ingenuity with characteristics not found in nature, qualified as a “manufacture” or “composition of matter” under the Patent Act. This decision was later appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s ruling.

Decision of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower court and ruled in favour of Dr. Chakrabarty. The Court held that a genetically engineered bacterium is patentable under 35 U.S.C. 101. The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, stated that the bacterium was a product of human ingenuity and was not naturally occurring, making it eligible for a patent.

The decision was a 5-4 ruling, affirming that living, human-made microorganisms can be considered patentable subject matter.

Key legal issues discussed

1. Can a living, human-made microorganism be considered patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101, which covers “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter”?

The Supreme Court held that a living, human-made microorganism is patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, reasoned that the language of the Patent Act is broad. According to part III, para 3 rd C.J Burger “The Committee Reports accompanying the 1952 Act inform us that Congress intended statutory subject matter to “include anything under the sun that is made by man.”   

The Court stated that the fact that microorganisms are alive does not preclude them from being patentable. The key factor was whether the organism was a product of human ingenuity and had distinctive characteristics that are not found in nature.

According to para 8 of judgment court held that “While laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable, respondent’s claim is not to a hitherto unknown natural phenomenon, but to a non-naturally occurring manufacture or composition of matter – a product of human ingenuity “having a distinctive name, character”.”

The Court rejected the argument that Congress intended to exclude living organisms from patentable subject matter, noting that the relevant statutory language does not limit patent eligibility based on whether an invention is alive or not.

2. Did Congress intend to exclude living organisms from the scope of the Patent Act? No

The Court determined that there was no evidence that Congress intended to exclude living organisms from patentability. Instead, Congress intended the patent laws to be broadly interpreted to encourage innovation.

According to para 12 of the judgment the court held that “In the petitioner’s view, the passage of these Acts evidences congressional understanding that the terms “manufacture” or “composition of matter” do not include living things; if they did, the petitioner argues, neither Act would have been necessary.”

Anish Sinha

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A New Approach to Strategic Innovation

• Haijian Si,
• Christoph Loch,
• Stelios Kavadias

Companies typically treat their innovation projects as a portfolio, aiming for a mix of projects that collectively meet their strategic objectives. The problem, say the authors, is that portfolio objectives have become standardized, and innovation projects are often only weakly related to a company’s distinctive strategy.

This article introduces a new tool to help leaders better align their innovation investments. The strategic innovation tool kit has two elements: a strategy summary framework and an innovation basket. Leaders start by clarifying a unit’s strategy and determining what needs to change to achieve it. The change needs are translated into innovation goals, and leaders create their “innovation basket” by plotting each project against those goals. They can then cut projects that aren’t aligned and create new ones that are. It’s an iterative and creative process: Projects are adjusted to fit the strategy but can also shape it.

Examples from the authors’ research demonstrate how the process of creating an innovation basket gives managers fresh insight into what their innovation activities are really doing for their strategy.

A tool for connecting your projects with your goals

Companies typically treat their innovation projects as a portfolio: a mix of projects that, collectively, aim to meet their various strategic objectives. Some projects, for instance, will improve business processes, others develop new products and services.

• HS Haijian Si is the former CEO of Chinese new energy companies Linuo Power Group Co., Huanyu Power, and Hanergy Thin Film Power and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School.
• CL Christoph Loch is a professor at and the former director (dean) of the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School.  He is also a visiting professor at PHBS Business School, Shenzhen, China
• Stelios Kavadias is the Margaret Thatcher Professor of Enterprise Studies in Innovation and Growth at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School and the director of its Entrepreneurship Centre.

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