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Aug. 2003

Take an Entrepreneur to Lunch Today

But being "biggie sized" doesn’t mean you can’t learn from these small fries.

Hats Off

Consider the sole entrepreneur. Who better to know how a business runs inside and out? Look at all the hats he or she wears:

• They conceive a product or service. (Research and development)

• They test it with potential customers. (Market research)

• They develop plans to raise awareness and educate the public about the product or service. (Marketing, Advertising, PR.)

• Once awareness is raised, they have to get someone to take the leap and purchase the product or service. (Sales)

• They deliver the product or service. (Logistics, packaging, customer service.)

• They gauge satisfaction. (More research)

• They develop pricing plans and billing and collection systems. (Accounts Receivable)

In short, they see and know their entire operation and how one piece affects all others. We should be so lucky as to be able to see that deep into our organizations. And even if we could, would we be able to make sense of what we see?

A New Set of Eyes

Entrepreneurs see the world in different ways than those working for others. And different perspectives are needed to help foster innovation. All around a given community there are hundreds of success stories of mom and pop operations that have stood the test and have grown successful enterprises in all types of product and service areas. And it does not have to be a healthcare enterprise. Better maybe that it is not. Seek out and engage these entrepreneurs for new ideas.

The point is to learn from those that have an entirely different take on how business operates. Things to consider:

• Ask successful entrepreneurs to address your staff, your executive team, and your board. Entrepreneurs are agile, adapt to changing market conditions quickly and learn how to prosper in all types of situations. There are lessons to be learned there.

• Consider appointing these types of people to the board.

• Include them as part of your own personal advisory team.

• Bring them in when you have a challenging situation to see how they would address it.

• Particularly look for people who are not in healthcare but have a track record of success. It is infinitely more interesting to see how someone with little domain knowledge of your area but with the “street smarts” would address a situation.

Get Your Dose of the Entrepreneurial Spirit

In 1971, only 16 four-year colleges and graduate programs offered courses in entrepreneurship. Today, some 400 universities offer entrepreneurial programs and majors, and that doesn't even include community colleges. Take a course and see how what you learn can be brought back to your own job and applied.

Like the entrepreneur, get to know your organization inside out, top to bottom. You can’t truly market a service until you know every aspect of it from how it was conceived to the staff that delivers it to the billing and collections that are associated with it.

Recruit Entrepreneurs

Those in the know are learning about and from entrepreneurs even before they finish school. Consider three seniors at Duke University who in 1999, thirsty for entrepreneurial knowledge, came up with the concept for a business called StartEmUp. The Durham, N. C.-based company now offers other enterprising students opportunities to gain insight from successful entrepreneurs through programs, networking, mentoring and other education.

Who knows, these students may be the same ones conceiving niche ambulatory services that compete directly with your hospital one day. That is unless you recognize the value of entrepreneurial thinking and recruit them to come work for you first.

Healthcare – Embrace It or ….

Increased competition from physician entrepreneurs building their own surgery centers has threatened hospitals’ most profitable lines. In a survey conducted by the American College of Healthcare Executives, 72 percent of CEOs stated that competition with physician-owned equipment/facilities was among their top concerns. In other words, competition from physician entrepreneurs was near the top of their list.

Obviously, physicians are seeking the rewards of an entrepreneurial environment externally because their current environment does not foster it. And, investment bankers are actively seeking strong physician leaders with credibility on the clinical and business sides of healthcare. Hospital executives must recognize that future growth will occur outside of hospitals and quickly figure out how to create a partnership environment with physician entrepreneurs.

Consider some foreign examples

Earlier this year, Alberta's largest health region, the Calgary Health Region, revealed long-term plans to join forces with entrepreneurs in the private sector in all aspects of healthcare, including building and running a proposed hospital. In national advertisements, the Calgary Health Region cast a wide net for businesses to invest in the privatization of the city's health-care system.

The British National Health Service (NHS) visited the U.S. earlier this year to learn firsthand from healthcare entrepreneurs about building additional diagnosis and treatment centers (DTCs) to increase capacity and reducing waiting time for patients. But beyond that, these centers represent a fundamental sea change in the NHS's approach to healthcare. The NHS is starting to recognize consumerism and patient choice even in a nationally run healthcare model. So the NHS has been traveling the world to learn best practices and opened bidding for these centers to private sector entrepreneurs.

Playing off the government’s stated need to identify, foster and empower public sector entrepreneurs, the Centre for the Development of Nursing Policy and Practice at the School of Healthcare Studies at the University of Leeds in the U.K. offers a program designed specifically for internal entrepreneurs within healthcare charged with improving the quality of services and implementing the NHS plan. They invite internal change agents responsible for the development of clinical practice and those in new or expanding roles to the program. The program covers areas such as:

• Explaining and using key entrepreneurial skill sets

• Translating vision, passion and innovative ideas into viable products and services

• Increasing self-confidence and ability to articulate the value of new innovations to internal and external stakeholders

• Testing ideas in a safe and supportive learning environment

• Broadening their networks

Back in the states, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina was formed with 26 members in 1982 to provide capital formation, education, training and mentoring, networking, information resources, and advocacy and public policy services to entrepreneurs. It now consists of more than 4,000 members, 18 percent of which are in the biotech and healthcare industry.

Remember that many of the world's greatest companies were founded and turned into Fortune 500 firms by their original creators - 3M, American Express, Boeing, Citicorp, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Marriott International, Merck, Motorola, Nordstrom, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Wal-Mart, and Disney are all cases where it was the original entrepreneurs who built them into great companies.

So take an entrepreneur to lunch or even dinner and spring for dessert while you’re at it.

Anthony Cirillo, CHE, ABC is president of Fast Forward Strategic Planning and Marketing Consulting, LLC in Huntersville, NC. He is a board member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives and an Accredited Business Communicator of the International Association of Business Communicators. You may reach Anthony at Anthony@4wardfast.com

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