Interview with Keith Liu, SVP of Products and Innovation, Klick Health
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Keith Liu, SVP of Products & Innovation, Klick Health
bh in Brief
Klick Health is one of the world’s largest independent health marketing and commercialization agencies. Klick is laser-focused on creating solutions that engage and educate healthcare providers about life-saving treatments and help inform and empower patients to manage their health and play a central role in their own care. Part of the Klick family of companies, the company was established in Toronto in 1997 and has teams in Atlanta, Connecticut, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Toronto. Klick has been recognized for having one of the top 10 intranets in the world and has been consistently named a Great Place to Work, Best Workplace for Women, Best Employer, Fastest Growing Technology Company, and Best Managed Company.
Follow on Twitter @KlickHealth.
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1. How has the role of technology changed?
Two decades ago when Klick Health began, most businesses deployed technologies as tools to help create and deliver their products or services. For example, companies used telephones to communicate with clients, computers to create assets, databases to generate target lists for mail campaigns. Today, technologies are no longer just tools; they are the core value proposition of many businesses. Whether it is providing software as a service, deploying algorithms to conduct transactions, using data science to drive mission critical strategy, or deploying social media as the primary channel for audience engagement, the application of technology has become “the” business.
In today’s financial services sector, we see algorithms conducting the day-to-day activities of trading equity, once done by humans. Now, those human experts focus instead on improving the accuracy and performance of the “algos.” Many financial service companies are evolving into “fin-tech” companies. Similarly, we are beginning to see artificial intelligence (AI) used to assist with medical diagnostics as machine learning techniques and large data sets increasingly identify certain diseases more reliably than any single human clinician could. Eventually, we will see patients using technology to help determine treatment options. We will also see healthcare professionals using AI to diagnose disease. What’s more, we will see payers relying on “algos” to determine appropriate coverage and reimbursement.
2. How can companies take full advantage?
Companies quick to incorporate the latest “magic bullet” technology often end up with a technical solution that is disconnected to meaningful business problems. Successful companies tend to be great at adopting the right technologies in an appropriate context and at the right time. These organizations incorporate new technology when they have evidence (e.g. through prototyping and pilot programs) that the impact on their business will be meaningful and measurable. They ask, “What can we do better?” Then they look to how new technologies might help solve their challenges. Great companies are further characterized by the inclusiveness of this question. The “we” not only refers to management or employees but also to clients, vendors, and industry partners. In such a culture, new technology is more likely to become a net contributor to solving business challenges rather than taking away from valuable time and focus.
3. What if companies fear technology?
Heavily regulated industries, such as financial services and life sciences, are geared toward risk mitigation because public economic and physical well-being depends on them. Unfortunately, companies in these fields can become so risk adverse that their default position on technology is to delay adoption for as long as possible. This inhibits efficiency and innovation. One approach, which has worked for us and other organizations, is to create a “laboratory” for technology and innovation within the company that allows for safe experimentation. However, the success of such a mission requires that fruitful experiments be integrated (or “commercialized”) within the organization in a timely manner. This allows promising innovations to migrate from the laboratory into the core business and transforms this kind of investment from being an academic or PR exercise into a core value driver for the company.
4. What are key technologies for the future?
Key technologies include the development and application of advanced digital models and simulations, machine-generated insights from unstructured data, pervasive computing (IoT), and natural language processing. These and many other new technologies will form the basis of how we understand each other, communicate with each other, and build value with each other, as both individuals and as companies.
5. As we celebrate Canada 150, what advice to you have for other companies?
Our advice is to be brave but not foolish when it comes to technology investment. Done correctly, adopting new technologies will keep your business competitive or provide a competitive advantage. If done wrong, you will likely waste time, money, and energy and in some cases, damage your business. However, if you don’t make any investment in technology, at some time in the future, your company will become the victim of innovation rather than its benefactor. bh
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