Leading Change
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – February 4, 2009
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategist
Leading Change
Every crisis has seeds of opportunities for those who are prepared, persistent, persuasive and fearless! If ever there was a time when supply chain professionals need to LEAD CHANGE at their healthcare organizations…it’s now!
With few exceptions hospitals, systems and IDNs are bleeding red ink or at best are having one of the worst financial years in decades because of reduced census, growing receivables, shrinking investment income and higher capital cost. I liken this to a tsunami!
To lighten the load on your healthcare organization’s finances, supply chain professionals need to LEAD CHANGE in their healthcare organizations by:
1. Developing a new vision and strategy for change
The old vision and strategy of just saving on the price isn’t going to work in this new healthcare economy since prices are going up – not down. Your new vision and strategy should be focused on your utilization or in-use cost where on average 26% can be saved almost overnight. That’s were your new and better savings reside!
2. Communicating your change vision to all levels of management
Making change happen is a team effort, not an individual endeavor. Therefore, you must get your senior management and department heads and managers to buy into your vision.
This can best be accomplished with white papers, presentations, and newsletters circulated throughout your organization that would get everyone talking, working and supporting your vision. Yes, this does take some time and effort, but this is what leadership is all about. Talking and walking the walk!
3. Creating high-performance value analysis teams
To implement your new vision and strategy you will need to create high-performance value analysis teams, and not accept your current so-so value analysis team’s performance. I haven’t seen a value analysis team(s) that can’t raise their performance by as much as 10-fold if they are reorganize, reinvent and reinvigorate to save money in new ways.
4. Generating sustainable, measurable and new utilization savings
As I have already mentioned, price savings alone won’t lead your healthcare organization out of this crisis. Only by attacking your utilization misalignments will you make a BIG dent in your supply expense budget. And these sustainable, measureable and new savings will go right to your bottom line where your healthcare organization needs the impact most.
I have just outlined an action plan for you to LEAD CHANGE in your healthcare organization in these uncertain times. This will position you to be a hero instead of a victim in the tsunami that hit us in October 2008.
As I see it, supply chain professionals have an extraordinary opportunity to LEAD CHANGE in their healthcare organization because there are still millions of dollars of untapped savings beyond price to be liberated in your supply chain that you never thought was possible.
Now go and LEAD CHANGE before it’s too late to do so!
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,
Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
1-800-220-4274
P.S. If you would like more information on how to reorganize, reinvent and reinvigorate your value analysis teams to be better than good you might want to download my White Paper” Strategic Value Analysis®: Savings Beyond Price™” that will give you an insiders’ view on how to do it.
