LUST in hospitals

My colleagues* David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius tell a story in their excellent book 3D Negotiation: Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals.The EPA had promulgated new standards for gasoline underground storage tanks, requiring an owner of any such tank to repair or replace it if any leaks were detected (making it a LUST: a leaking underground storage tank.) A start-up company had developed a new detection system that was a hundred times more sensitive than anything on the market, and faster, and substantially cheaper than the competition. Lax and Sebenius relate what happened:"When the new [EPA] standards were implemented, [the company] was sure it had a winner: not only faster, cheaper, and better, but now mandated. Its sales engineers began negotiating with potential buyers--and were astonished to receive a grand total of one order in the marketplace. One after another, potential customers walked away from the table."Why? Well, the technology did not solve a problem that the consumers cared about. Indeed, it had only the potential to create a problem: If a gas station owner now was able to detect even tiny leaks in his tank, he would have to incur thousands of dollars in costs to dig up and replace or repair the tank. The authors present this as a classic case of failing to understand the interests of the other party in a negotiation.I'm struck by how often I see this in the health care arena. There are a huge number of start-ups in this field, al...
Source: Running a hospital - Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs