I am repurposing Bertrand Russell (In Praise of Idleness, and as I have done previously In Praise of Poetry…and James Bond, In Praise of Poetry…and International Poetry Forum) to highlight two startups financed by W Health Fund II.
You know that I also love reusing Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Playful, The Importance of Being Skeptical and others), especially with Voltaire:
Life is much too precious to be lived solemnly.
Inventing something new is exhilarating. Getting thousands of people to adopt it brings an entirely different level of exhilaration. The second challenge is often the harder one.
The Importance of Being Kid-Friendly
Check out Hoola Health as it scales in Bengaluru. (Not related to one in Hawaii!). Thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by Founder and CEO Deeksha Senguttuvan about how they are positioning and scaling (and why they rebranded).
I am very happy to be supporting innovations in health care delivery in India through this fund. I plan to also use Hoola Health as a running example in my MBA Service Operations class this fall to illustrate various topics such as Location, Layout, Look & Feel, and so on as part of Servicescape model.
Many successful startups eventually discover that innovation alone is not enough. Eventually the questions stop being technological and become operational. How do you maintain quality and margins while growing tenfold – or even a hundred-fold?
Scaling is an operations problem masquerading as an entrepreneurship problem.
I should know! SmartOps Enterprise Inventory Optimization (EIO) software was the algorithmic and technological innovation. The channel partnership with SAP provided the scaling in the sales process. (SmartOps Corporation: Forging Smart Alliances? is the Darden Case that is redistributed by Harvard.)
To be clear, there were two different processes in play in scaling SmartOps:
- How a Fortune 500/Global 2000 company incorporates SmartOps in their planning process alongside ERP and APS systems (that can be from SAP but may not be).
- How SAP and SmartOps approach customers and prospects to make new sales that are win-win for both SmartOps and SAP (whether they have some SAP already or not).
Scaling is itself a process—and sometimes more than one.
I have written about these in Planned Spontaneity for Better Product Availability (2013), invited by EIC Alexandre Dolgui, and Management Mathematics: The Audacity of BOPE, invited by EIC Aris Syntetos.
The Importance of Being Adherent
I am also very impressed with the data provided by Everbright Health, supporting delivery for Mental Health services – TMS and Spravato – here in the US (but managed from India) not just in how they are adding customers and patients, with good (and increasing) margins, but in the remarkable outcomes achieved by the patients (based on PHQ-9 score). One important reason for these outcomes is adherence (it is a 30-session treatment course over months) made possible due to EH folks being on top of follow-ups.
Depression treatment only works if patients stay with the therapy. Adherence is not merely a clinical issue; it is an operational one. Follow-up systems, reminders, scheduling, and patient engagement become part of the treatment itself.
I plan to use them in my Healthcare segment of Service Operations class to not only highlight the importance of operations in achieving health outcomes but also to discuss Business Model Innovation in the context of the US Healthcare Ecosystem Map (HEM).
The Importance of Being Rapid
Scaling Innovation is not a challenge confined to healthcare. In the area of manufacturing and supply chains, I would be remiss if I did not mention ProtoLabs (recall my site visit from My Quantum of Savor) as an example that is successfully scaling innovation – and also thanks to CEO Suresh Krishna for agreeing to be a Guest Speaker in my MBA Operations Management Core this fall.
Whether it is healthcare or supply chain, the challenge is surprisingly similar: transforming an excellent prototype into a reliable process that thousands—or even millions—can experience and benefit from.
Extending Benjamin Franklin – recall Implementing Innovations in US Transplantation System (2024), invited by EIC Srinivas Talluri:
Wisdom is knowing what to do. Virtue is actually doing it. At scale.
P.S. I have addressed the issue of scaling innovation previously in Great Exaggerations in the context of AI in Healthcare. In a future post, I plan to discuss film production v film distribution, along similar lines, in the context of documentary and indie films.
