August 2009 Archives

For the first time in a while I spent fully half the weekend NOT working at anything but my embarrassing golf game and some online sleuthing into what I am convinced is a foolish "can't lose" medical device investment that a friend is trying to get me to participate in (before the greedy people grab the opportunity). So when I finally picked up Friday's (August 14) Wall Street Journal print edition on Saturday night and was immediately drawn to the front page feature: Flying Low Is Flying High As Demand for Crop-Dusters Soars, I wasn't sure what instinct was drawing me to relate it to the experience of health care leaders. Well the 24 online comments as of this writing, all by and about the "ag pilots" celebrated in this article, revealed no health care gadflies leaping to make the connection. So here goes...

Nobody likes bad reviews. Especially health care delivery or service organizations. Because bad press means customers (patients, referring physicians, etc.) will think we are unsafe or unfriendly. And it will surely lead to lawsuits, regulatory intervention, loss of competitive positioning, etc. Especially if it's online. Well maybe there's another side to this story - at least if you believe the lessons of The Upside Of Bad Online Customer Reviews which appeared on Forbes.com August 4, 2009. This short piece by Mirela Iverac, a frequent Forbes contributor, is a provocative read for those health care leaders who might be willing to consider the other side of conventional wisdom on this point...

In a July 27 feature, Business Week, published a profile of Honda's new CEO, Takanobu Ito. The spin in Honda's New CEO Is Also Chief Innovator by Reena Jana and Ian Rowley is an examination of the value and wisdom of appointing an "in the trenches" engineer (Ito is also Honda's Director of Research and Development) to the chief executive post, thereby combining the company's leadership accountability for innovation and business success. It struck me that health care organizations face similar questions when considering whether or not to place clinicians in top executive management positions. So read the article and think about the issues it raises...