In Part I of our series on strategic venture programs we explore some of the reasons behind health systems’ recent interest in venture activities, reasons to create a venture program, and considerations for choosing between internal and external fund management teams.

When working with organizations aiming to produce innovation, our team relentlessly advises our partners to “build as a last resort.” At face value, this advice may seem counterintuitive; however, we aren’t saying organizations shouldn’t build products to take to market. Rather, before setting out on the path to do so, they should think long and hard about how their internal solutions will compete in “the wild” with existing products.