In 2009, Humana’s executive team hired me to come talk with them about how health insurance companies can connect with their members in a meaningful way. I met Grant Harrison, Humana’s Chief Innovation Officer, at this event and we immediately hit it off.
Grant is a legend of consumer loyalty. You know those key fobs we all used to scan at the supermarket? As a young marketing whipper snapper, Grant invented that concept and built it out as Tesco’s Clubcard (the UK’s version of Walmart) increasing Tesco’s margins by £150M in the first year. Prior to this invention, retailers were never able to connect you to your purchases. We now all know what that unlocks. And someone had to do it for the first time. Genius. He went on to co-found Virgin Healthmiles (which became Virgin Pulse). Humana then asked him to create a loyalty scheme for Humana members. As someone passionate about inspiring health, he facilitated a relationship between Trek Bicycles and Humana to build BCycle, a bike share program powering transportation in 34 cities in America.
Grant, being the restless and rowdy guy he is, left Humana and we formed The Future Well.
The Future Well ideated and designed what was at one time one of the most popular iPad apps for physicians, Omnio. We created the strategy for turning a large decommissioned hospital campus built in Knotting Hill, London, in the 1880s into a sustainable physical community that improved the health of the surrounding neighborhood. We built an online nursing community for Sanofi to surface shared nursing knowledge and the vital role nurses play in medical care. And we helped build Planned Parenthood's strategy to answer online sexual health questions from their patients nationwide, engaging millions of Planned Parenthood users in America.
