Do We Know What We Want?

In the November 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review, there is an article called Mapping Your Competitive Position by Richard A. D’Aveni.  From a general business perspective, it’s a good article which presents an interesting case about how you could have predicted that Apple would have dropped the price on the iPhone.  (Hint: Look at their behavior around the iPod and where the competition was and was predicted to go with the Razr.)

It made me wonder what the competitive map for healthcare would look like.  What are the market groupings for pharmacies, providers, PBMs, MCOs?  What is the price line and what would people pay for or not pay for?

“Most customers are unable to identify the features that determine the prices they are willing to pay for products or services, according to a 2004 survey by Strativity, a global research and consulting firm.  Worse, 50% of salespeople don’t know what attributes justify the prices of the products and services they sell.”

The article points out that most people involved in the process don’t know or fully understand the value proposition.  So…if we are going to try and redesign and improve healthcare, how can we do that?  Do consumers understand what matters?  Do the politicians?  Will we citizens understand who to vote for?