September 28, 2021 – How do you drive innovation within a large organization like a national distributor? That’s an important question for Ray Bajaj, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Cardinal Health. Bajaj leads Cardinal Health’s Fuse, the innovation engine and product development center at Cardinal Health where software engineers, clinical experts, data scientists and leaders in human-centered design focus on helping customers improve health outcomes at lower costs.
Bajaj joined Cardinal Health in 2019, bringing with him deep experience in driving innovation and digital transformation within large companies. He spent more than two decades in the financial services industry building digital businesses, most recently as head of The Garage, an innovation hub for Capital One. He also served as chief technologist for Global Commercial and Investment Banking at Bank of America.
In an interview posted on Cardinal Health’s website, Bajaj said he and his team have been focused on driving a culture of innovation, experimentation and risk-taking throughout the enterprise. “No matter what the size, when an organization is innovation-ready, its people can convert insights to actions with speed and agility.”
To continually innovate, companies need to keep jumping from one S curve – where there is a slow start with early adopters then rapid growth, success and then, a plateau – to another S curve, Bajaj said. “Our innovation approach allows us to do just that. Our leadership team across Cardinal Health is eager to empower our employees to bring innovative ideas to the table. We created a stage-gate process for innovation, similar to what startups use, where there is a decision to move forward with an idea or move on to something else at various stages of development. This is supported by an internal venture fund that allows us to make quick decisions and allocate resources for growth ideas.”
Bajaj said they are gathering customer and market insights and have chosen specific areas to focus their new business-building initiatives. “Our innovation teams can execute better, faster and cheaper than ever before. We can take more shots at the goal – and more shots mean more successes, allowing us to unlock new healthcare delivery models.”
Finally, Bajaj said they are continually looking for potential strategic partnerships with other innovative companies that enable them to create and capture new value pools.