Qualcomm Life, a fully owned subsidiary of Qualcomm that focuses on the wireless healthcare marketplace, is on track to create a well-tuned ecosystem to accelerate the adoption of wireless solutions. Wireless healthcare devices will identify problems in patients with chronic diseases earlier and move care to lower cost locations, thereby lowering the cost of care. About ecosystems Ecosystems – a concept appropriated from biology that’s now actively used in business strategy literature and the investment community – are loosely knit networks of organizations that serve to create whole solutions. The network operates through conscious and unconscious collaboration and competition involving the platform company and other organizations using it. Far more than a supply chain, ecosystems also include complementary product and service providers, distributors, government agencies and even customers. For example, Microsoft’s ecosystem includes multiple software and IT-service companies, educators and others that collectively…
5 open-market trends fueling business model innovation and disruption
Imagine being a 4h grade teacher with a class of 25 students with widely different levels of math aptitude and competency. How do you challenge the most adept students? How do you help the laggards without boring the stars to tears? The only practical option seems to be to teach to the middle. That it, unless you and your principal are lucky enough to have discovered Kahn Academy, which is in the process of disrupting the long-staid textbook publishers market and K-12 education. Kahn Academy is a stellar example of how any business today can thrive by capitalizing on open-market trends that are melting barriers to entry in most markets. Kahn Academy was started by a Salman Kahn, a hedge fund manager and brilliant communicator, an educator with a passion for teaching math and other lessons to kids. He developed effective on-line math…