Commentary by Rod King

Searching for Industries With the Greatest Pain ... The Story Continues

Joey was like many inventors. He had come up with a great technology that involves a visual process for better organizing massive amounts of information. He was now finding cool ways to apply the technology.

"Search is cool," Joey thought. "And, in time, I could make a lot of bucks like Google and Yahoo." But boy was he wrong! His long search for a robust and profitable business model was making him realize that "Cool Technology does not mean Cool Money." Building a profitable business model is turning out to be a lot more difficult than he had thought. He found out that Google took about two years to develop its innovative business model and search/advertising platform. Also, there is hardly any book on how to build and innovate on business models. Joey was surprised: an important subject like business model innovation but virtually no book on the topic.

I met Joey at a networking event jointly organized by the local business incubator and chamber of commerce. Joey was chatty and eager to tell his story. He explained that he was looking for someone to help him develop a profitable business model for his new technology. Joey seemed to have decided that he was going to develop a visual search engine and compete with market leaders such as Google and Yahoo. All that he needed was to justify his decision using an explicit business model. However, I advised Joey to take another look at the national landscape of industries and try to determine which industry or domain was in most pain, desperately needed his technology, and could provide the highest Return On Investment (ROI).

The following week, I got a call from Joey. He said that he had prepared a ‘Blue Ocean Map' for a set of industries. The Blue Ocean Map contains a plot of Revenue Potential vs. Pain of Customer.

According to Joey's Blue Ocean Map, the healthcare industry currently has the highest customer pain as well as highest revenue potential. He noted that he had used his own experience and research to rate the various industries. Do you agree with Joey's assessment of the state of the featured industries? Why (not)? From a customer perspective, what are useful and harmful effects as well as technical and physical contradictions of the healthcare industry?

Also, Joey now plans to develop a business model for a visual information organizer that will be used in the healthcare industry. Is that a good direction for Joey? Why (not)?

I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Best,

Rod.

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