Disruptive Surgery
A disruptive strategy is one where you take your current offering - or a new one, for that matter - and make it cheaper, with fewer features than the marketplace currently thinks it needs. Do it right, and your revenues and profits increase immensely.
Now, I'm lucky in that I've never had a hernia, but I assure you that if I ever do, I'll have it treated by Shouldice Hospital outside Toronto. Why? Well, Shoulice doesn't have specialists in the normal sense. They're not trained in all the different specialities far beyond their normal GP-type training. My prediction is that ultimately, Shouldice will be so sure of what they do, that nurses will be doing hernia repairs. Why am I so sure?
Shouldice only does one thing - repair hernias. The normal failure rate on a hernia operation is ten to fifteen percent (Gawande, 38). Shouldice's is less than one percent. Since everyone just does hernia repairs at Shouldice, they have seen it all, to the tune of six to eight hundred repairs per surgeon each year (Gawande, 38). They've done repairs so often that when something goes wrong, they've seen the same problem recently and can react from rote. They know the exact thing to do, every time. If the surgeon in the room hasn't seen something before, one of the attendants has. They know what to do. There are no work arounds. They've decided, in advance, what to do in every situation they are ever going to see. This is a very good thing if you have a hernia.
Now, let's talk business. An operation at Shouldice isn't twice a much as at other places, as you'd expect. It's half price. And they get you in and out of the hospital fast. Their operating theaters are made specially for hernia repairs. Yes, the team is specially trained, but it is mainly on the job training. GPs are doing the surgery in most cases.
It's cheaper, faster and has fewer features. It's disruptive.
Reference
Gawande, Atul. Complications. A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science. Picador. 2002.