Perspectives

• Diamond’s Third Annual Digital IQ Study   (PDF 176 KB )
  Author(s): Chris Curran and John Sviokla
  Date Published: 6/26/2010 12:00:00 AM
  Every business needs an informed, capable, and decisive technology executive to help the company unlock the productive and innovative power of these new choices, while simultaneously running the information factory efficiently. However, Diamond’s third annual Digital IQ survey uncovered some disturbing news that indicates the role of the CIO is weakening.

• Mind the Gap!   (PDF 88 KB )
  Author(s): Ben Downe and Mark Purowitz
  Date Published: 4/21/2010 12:00:00 AM
  Splitting an IT organisation during a demerger is a major operation yet it cannot obstruct the day-to-day running of the business. Effective execution of an IT separation can drive significant value through enhanced pricing of the sale, lowering separation costs, and reducing business disruption. This paper outlines what makes a successful separation and explains how senior executives can ensure a successful outcome.

• Can Behavioral Economics Alter the Healthcare Cost Curve?   (PDF 836 KB )
  Author(s): Bret Schroeder, John Sviokla, and Tom Weakland
  Date Published: 3/22/2010 12:00:00 AM
  The healthcare industry appears on the brink of a major breakthrough in altering the cost curve and improving the quality of care and medical outcomes. We think there is a tremendous opportunity for healthcare providers, insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and employers were to utilize the science of behavioral economics to experience significantly better outcomes while reducing costs—and to help citizens improve their quality of life.

• New Opportunities to Cut Costs and Create Value in Healthcare Payments   (PDF 170 KB )
  Author(s): Sri Velamoor and Tom Weakland
  Date Published: 3/9/2010 12:00:00 AM
  Strategists in the healthcare payments industry may be overlooking more than $20 billion in cost reduction opportunities, according to a recent Diamond analysis of the healthcare payments lifecycle. In this paper, we identify cost reduction opportunities across the healthcare payments activity lifecycle and propose four possible paths that payers, providers, and other payments industry players should consider.

• ‘Me-Too’ Growth Risks Diamond’s Business Design 2010 Study   (PDF 148 KB )
  Author(s): Paul Blase, Stacy Sachen, and John Sviokla
  Date Published: 2/15/2010 12:00:00 AM
  Diamond’s Business Design 2010 research surveyed 173 senior executives in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries about their strategic plans and their attitudes about the strengths and weaknesses of their companies’ business design. Fifty-seven percent of the companies surveyed plan to pursue a market penetration strategy that risks driving price competition and threatening profitability.

• Leverage ‘More with Less’ in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Sales & Marketing   (PDF 86 KB )
  Author(s): Richard Finley and Amaresh Tripathy
  Date Published: 8/17/2009 12:00:00 AM
  Relying simply on past prescription behavior is no longer sufficient in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Rather, gaining a clear view of their customers’ customers through demographic, psychographic, and health-related behavioral data will help companies build effective prescriber-specific models that provide insight into the revenue potential of each prescriber’s office.

• Ten Tactics for Improving Operating Margins in Tough Times   (PDF 326 KB )
  Author(s): Paul Blase, Anand Rao, and Jamie Yoder
  Date Published: 7/24/2009 12:00:00 AM
  Our analysis shows there are ways to cut costs without squeezing margins, and ways of improving long-term competitiveness even in the most challenging environment. Innovative applications of principles from the fields of behavioral economics, cognitive science, and analytics, and the ability to take an integrated view of the challenge, can separate the winners from the losers.

• Find the Hidden Costs of Your Expense Cuts   (PDF 274 KB )
  Author(s): Paul Blase and Anand Rao
  Date Published: 4/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
  Simply budgeting expense reductions without setting up an organizational structure and a clear roadmap to improve performance can have unintended consequences. Our research shows that over 70% of executive teams in recent years haven’t effectively managed operating leverage to improve margins.
  
  Paul Blase, Managing Partner, Business Design & Performance Improvement, on cost-cutting

• Staying ‘Green’ While the Global Economy Sees Red   (PDF 560 KB )
  Author(s): Darin Yug and Richard Findlay
  Date Published: 4/20/2009 12:00:00 AM
  The recession has many companies questioning how they can justify pursuing green projects, but we believe a green agenda is now critical to long-term cost reduction and recovery portfolios. Companies that align their green goals with business objectives and make targeted investments in green initiatives can lower their overall expenses, keep structures flexible, and edge out competitors during and after the recession.

• Trusted Transparency in Healthcare Informatics   (PDF 379 KB )
  Author(s): Richard Findlay, Anwer Khan, Tom Weakland, and Weijia Yao
  Date Published: 7/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
  The healthcare providers, patients, employers, and other decision-makers who rely on healthcare information face an overwhelming jigsaw puzzle of clinical data and processes. Greater access to information is generally a good thing, but too much information in the realm of healthcare can actually increase costs, create confusion, and lead to bad decisions.

• Healthcare Reform & Election 2008   (PDF 966 KB )
  Author(s): Andrew Rocklin, Tom Weakland, and Srinivas Velamoor
  Date Published: 4/11/2008 12:00:00 AM
  The burning issue of rising healthcare costs is critical to all candidates, so we can expect to see change in healthcare policy under any new administration.

• Retirement Study 2008   (PDF 545 KB )
  Author(s): Paul Blase, Anand S. Rao
  Date Published: 2/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
  Diamond finds new opportunities for financial services, insurance and healthcare firms in serving the health/wealth needs of retiring Baby Boomers

• Seismic Shifts in the Health/Wealth Landscape   (PDF 1.0 MB )
  Author(s): Andrew Rocklin, and Srinivas Velamoor
  Date Published: 6/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
  An upheaval in the financial services and healthcare industries is creating $40 billion in new opportunities. Read Diamond’s Updated Health Savings Account (HSA) Estimates.

• Rapid Market Segmentation: Collaborate and Conquer   (PDF 1.0 MB )
  Author(s): Bill Abbott, Amit Das, Alex Mannella and Amaresh Tripathy
  Date Published: 4/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
  One-off segmentation efforts can actually get marketing off track in the search for new customers. There is a better way: quickly create a segmentation platform that delivers results of value to the entire team. Includes Diamond's rapid five-step approach to customer segmentation and case examples.

• Structural Innovation for the 21st Century   (PDF 1.9 MB )
  Author(s): Stacy Sachen
  Date Published: 11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
  Many companies aspire to be the leading Product or Operational Innovator in their industry. But if the goal is sustainable differentiated growth and margins, they should instead strive to be Structural Innovators.

• Competitive Implications of Consumer-Directed Health Care   (PDF 375 KB )
  Author(s): Diamond, Goldman Sachs
  Date Published: 9/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
  Our symposium confirmed that consumerism is a real trend and is gathering momentum. Already, we see early signals of the disruption that will be created throughout the financial, health care provider, technology, and payer sectors—not to mention the impact it will have on how consumers buy, finance, and consume health care.

• Winners and Losers at Healthcare’s Next Frontier   (PDF 788 KB )
  Author(s): Matthew Percy, Andrew Rocklin, and Dr. John Sviokla
  Date Published: 2/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
  The State of the Union address has significant implications for businesses interested in capitalizing on healthcare related opportunities like HSAs, and for existing businesses in healthcare today. Read Diamond’s Updated Health Savings Account (HSA) Estimates.

• Centering on the Consumer: The Health Insurer’s Key to Unlocking the Healthcare Cost Crisis   (PDF 423 KB )
  Author(s): Vaughn Kauffman, Lloyd Smith
  Date Published: 1/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
  Diamond's Vaughn Kauffman and Lloyd Smith discuss how health insurers can become important information service providers for the healthcare industry. In this role, they can reduce their own costs, increase customer retention, and create potential new revenue streams. Read Diamond’s Updated Health Savings Account (HSA) Estimates.

• Seizing the HSA Opportunity: Developing a Winning Strategy to Grow Profits and Market Share in a Time of Transition   (PDF 599 KB )
  Author(s): Jeff Nuckols, and Amy Dawson
  Date Published: 8/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
  Diamond's Aamer Baig on the potential $1.9 billion windfall financial institutions can take part in with a smart approach to Health Savings Accounts. Read Diamond’s Updated Health Savings Account (HSA) Estimates.

• 2005 Global IT Outsourcing Study   (PDF 631 KB )
  Author(s): Tom Weakland, Brian Tumpowsky
  Date Published: 4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
  While IT outsourcing is now an established management practice the landscape continues to change in surprising ways. Diamond’s 2005 Global IT Outsourcing Study reveals that buyers in growing numbers are: dissatisfied with offshore service providers, prematurely terminating contracts and struggling to harvest the full value of their outsourcing relationships.

• 2004 Global IT Outsourcing Study   (PDF 467 KB )
  Author(s): Tom Weakland, Brian Tumpowsky
  Date Published: 4/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
  This research is intended to help organizations understand how the IT outsourcing landscape is changing, learn from past experiences both good and bad, and to gain new insights into the prerequisites for successful outsourcing initiatives.

• Global IT Outsourcing Study   (PDF 325 KB )
  Author(s): Tom Weakland, Brian Tumpowsky
  Date Published: 11/1/2002 12:00:00 AM
  What's really going on in executive suites where outsourcing decisions are being made? Who's at the table? What are their expectations? And what have they learned from their outsourcing experience? To answer those questions, Diamond went to the front lines for answers. We surveyed senior executives with first-hand experience in making outsourcing decisions. We also went to the service providers, large global outsourcers and specialist firms alike, to hear their side of the story.