Supernova Award Category
The Problem
Ten years ago, our company leaders saw that the health care industry was poised to change dramatically in the future. Today, healthcare is fraught with issues. For the consumer, the problems are pervasive:
- 71% of women (30-49) are dissatisfied with their primary care physician
- Out of pocket costs for those insured through an employer have doubled in the last 5 years
- Appointment wait times average 18.5 days, longer for family physicians
- 52% of collections are medically-related, which impacts 43M Americans
- 70% of Americans use at least one prescription drug, and by 2020, US spending on Rx will go from $374B to $590B
To solve these issues and achieve the cause of a person-focused, economically-sustainable healthcare system, we needed to focus not just externally on the industry, but to start transformation from within. In 2012, only 34% of employees believed that Cambia encouraged innovation. The change had to start with us.
The Solution
Our starting point was to inspire our employees to change. Innovation is a value at Cambia, so it is a pervasive attitude, not just an objective. Five years ago, I formed The Innovation Force to drive that transformation--a team that focused on engaging employees in innovation, accelerating business leaders from problem to solution, and creating new products and companies. To engage employees, we leveraged events, coaching, training and a crowdsourced innovation platform to democratize innovation.
The results
Five years after promoting innovation as a value at Cambia, nearly half of employees are engaged online in the innovation platform, and the majority of employees believe that Cambia encourages innovation. Over 1500 ideas have been shared by employees, resulting in 4 new companies and 10 provisional patents.
One of those companies, Healthsparq, is currently in market and accessible to over 100 million Americans.
Metrics
The Innovation Force measures impact through a few key measures. Today we can report:
- 2,212 Employees engaged in innovation over all time
- $171 Million Return on Value calculated
- 1,660 Ideas shared
- 84% of employees believe Cambia encourages innovation (up from 34% in 2012)
- 29% of employees currently engaged in innovation activities
The Technology
To crowdsource ideas, Cambia uses Spigit from Mindjet. We run a variety of challenges, both specific to departments, and companywide leading to “pitch days” where employees can present to senior leaders. Employees can submit their own ideas, or vote and comment on ideas from their colleagues.
Disruptive Factor
Our program is different because we are a values- and cause-driven organization. We believe innovation is the right and responsibility of each employee. Starting with the notion that people are more important than ideas allows us to focus on transformation over immediate return, and create solutions that are game-changing.
Shining Moment
In the past year, we've launched a new company, MedSavvy, out of our internal innovation and incubation program. The latest in our portfolio, MedSavvy gives consumers a new way to understand and choose prescription drugs with their doctor. This company started with a one-line idea on our innovation platform, and is now in market with users.