Start at the Top!
Savings Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – August 27, 2008
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategist
Greetings!
Start at the Top!
On August 28th we will be sharing our ideas on “Offsetting Price Increases in Tough Times” at our monthly webinar. This webinar is designed to be a primer to get you into high gear to counterbalance your rising product cost by employing other saving strategies. However, it won’t be the answer to ALL of your change initiatives because all sustainable change needs to start at the top of your healthcare organization.
Whether you’re using lean, Six Sigma or value analysis to initiate change at your hospital, system or IDN, starting at the top is critical. By this I mean, if you don’t have your C-suite’s uncompromising and unqualified support for what you are trying to accomplish, you will quickly hit a brick wall that you won’t be able to jump over, craw under or circumnavigate.
The easiest way to do so is to establish an executive council to lead your lean, Six Sigma or value analysis initiative with a C-suite member chairing this committee. It would be this council’s charge to guide, monitor, direct and arbitrate disputes on you way to your ultimate success.
If you are unable to gain a commitment for such a council from your C-suite you are then, I’m sorry to say, left to your own devices to keep your initiative afloat in stormy waters. But don’t let this discourage you since “things change and people change” thereby giving you another opportunity to start at the top when the climate is just right for change.
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,
Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
800-220-4274
P.S. Did you know that the “Easiest (and fastest) way to save money” is with our Value Analysis Leader Resource Web? That’s right, literally hundreds of million-dollar savings ideas, plus scores of educational materials right at your finger tips — when you need them most.
P.P.S. Don’t forget to check out my new blog article “ How to Create Wining Value Teams”. This blog is all about incentivizing to save, which is one of the key ingredients in creating winning value team(s).
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New Supply Best Practices Webinar Announced!
Influence Your C-Suite for Positive Results!
Webinar Objectives:
What is Your C-Suite Thinking?
What Are They Really Thinking?
Solution: More and Better TLC
TEACH to Gain Respect
LEAD in the Right Direction
COACH to Gain Commitment
July 17, 2008 – 1:00pm EST.
Webinar Leader – Robert T. Yokl, President/Chief Value Strategist Strategic Value Analysis in Healthcare
Remember…The Webinar May Be FREE But The Information is Priceless
Grow, Lead and Succeed with One Big Idea!
By Robert T. Yokl
I had the pleasure last week of being a presenter at the Hospital Purchasing Service of Michigan’s semi-annual supply chain seminar. While there I talked about some new big ideas on how to grow, lead and succeed in supply chain management which was warmly received.
One of the big ideas that I presented to this group of MMs was that material managers must provide their management with a monthly report outlining their accomplishments (savings, operational improvements, market analysis, challenges and opportunities) for the month, quarter and year-to-date. I told the attendees that this monthly report is absolutely necessary because recent studies have shown that their bosses haven’t a clue of what they do, or, how their supply chain efforts has consistently contributed to their hospitals’ bottom line.
I see this communication strategy as being especially relevant today when I heard from these MMs that some of them can’t get their bosses attention for even 5 minutes a week. In fact, some of the attendees told me that they rarely, if ever, have regularly scheduled meetings with their bosses to discuss their challenges. Is this anyway to run a supply chain department? I don’t think so…
One prescription to solving this universal supply chain challenge is to start to communicate with your bosses through the vehicle of a monthly report. You would do this by beginning dialog with them about what you do, how you positively effect their P & Ls and that you do have information that would make their decisions easier. This would radically change the perception of your bosses that MMs are just buyers — not strategic thinkers.
Your Partner In Innovative Savings,
Bob Yokl
P.S. If you would like more powerful savings and quality ideas like this one I would recommend that you sign-up for our “no cost” weekly Savings Beyond Price™ e-Newsletter at www.Strategicva.com. You will also get a copy of my e-book “Your Target Blueprint for Supply Chain Management Success”, as a bonus.
