Orion Medical: Structuring, Funding, and Commercializing Cross-Business Digital Innovation

In early 2025, Thomas Greer, director of Digital Platforms at Orion Medical (a disguised name), was trying to decide how Orion could best use two new digital platforms that supported virtual surgical planning and robotic-assisted procedures. The platforms could significantly enhance all four of Orion's anatomical specialties, but each specialty was carried out by a separate autonomous business unit. The firm had to decide how to structure platform ownership, fund development, and commercialize these products amid intensifying competition.

Greer devised three strategic options with differing implications for governance, funding, commercialization, and service accountability. The central dilemma is that, although all four BUs benefit from the platforms, within Orion's structure, they are not naturally incentivized to own and invest in them, which will lead to suboptimal results for all. The case challenges students to design a scalable, politically feasible, innovative cross-BU platform stewardship model.