Recently in Risk and Leadership Category

When I first read the October 15 New York Times article "Suit Accuses S.E.C. of Failing to Detect Madoff Scheme" I noticed a welling up of "justice deserved" sentiment coupled with admiration for the victims who had found a novel way to circumvent apparent obstacles to suing regulators for compensation as they attempted to recover losses that may, in part, have been enabled by regulatory incompetence. And then came the pause and unease. Diana Henruiqes' discussion of the SEC's immunity - and its potential limitations as claimed by the plaintiffs - made me think of the protection afforded hospital QI and peer review processes. And its potential vulnerability under similar circumstances.

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...

The July-August issue of Harvard Business Review is far from light holiday reading. Through a wide range of lenses, it aims squarely at business strategy and leadership challenges to be faced in the post-2009 recession world. Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis by Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues at Cambridge Leadership Associates, reflecting the volume as a whole, is all about national and global post recession trends in the broader business environment that will shape industries over the next several years. As physician and health care leaders we owe it to ourselves, our patients, and our organizations to examine how these will impact us...

The source for When Leaders "Waffle," Confidence Plummets is a little off the beaten path for this space, but Dr. Joseph Simone, one of my fellow Health Care Leadership Blog core contributors identified it and it's a great pick. Joe didn't have time to write - but had an itch about this piece and sent it along to me. So without having discussed it with him, I will take a stab at scratching for him...

If You Think Worst Is Over, Take Benjamin Graham's Advice, the offering in Jason Zweig's Intelligent Investor column in The Wall Street Journal print edition of May 23, provides some thoughtful guidelines to managing an investment portfolio in uncertain times. Interestingly, and perhaps inadvertently, the same guidelines hold for managing a leadership portfolio in all times. And truthfully, what times aren't uncertain? In today's economic upheaval we are simply more aware of the same uncertainty that exists in "good times." So read this with an expansive mind, with an eye to leading health care organizations today....and tomorrow...

As soon as I saw the title of the May 25 Business Week's cover story (How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs) I knew I'd found my mark for today's post. I didn't even realize at the time that this was an excerpt from Jim Collins' (Good to Great and Built to Last) new book that turns his prior work literally upside down. As the title implies, it's the quick guide to how high performing companies lose their edge and end up in the toilet. And while it's about companies, it's also implicitly also about leaders. Perhaps even more about the leaders than the companies. And while it's not about health care, it's all about health care. Having worked for at least one of those "great to ashes" leaders myself, I can vouch for the soundness of the analysis and its relevance to health care leaders. Read the excerpt and when it is published, read the book...

We've all had a roller coaster ride through financial uncertainty as a result of the recent housing and market collapses. As a result we are much more attuned to thinking about risk - at least to financial risk. But as health care leaders, we face risk that is not on its face financial on a daily basis. In their May 12 article, What's Your Company's Risk Culture? posted on BusinessWeek.com, John Michael Farrell and Angela Hoon - both at KPMG's Enterprise Risk Management Services - explore corporate risk culture in a way that is relevant for health care leaders and their organizations as well. It's worth reading and considering in the context of your own leadership experience...

Retaining patients, physicians, vendors, and partners is a the best and cheapest way to build a medical practice, hospital market, or health related service customer base. Bedrock principle, right? Not so fast say Timothy Keiningham (global chief strategy officer at Ipsos Loyalty) and Lerzan Aksoy (professor of marketing at Fordham University) in the Harvard Business Online Conversation Starters column - When Customer Loyalty Is a Bad Thing - which appeared on May 7, 2009. This short piece examines some aspects of customer loyalty that can suboptimize or sink business to customer or business to business enterprises. It struck me that some of these red flags could be useful to health care leaders as well...

It's one thing to have sharp vision about where you want to go. It's another thing to maintain visual acuity when conducting oversight over where others want you to go. How Group Decisions End Up Wrong-Footed, Jason Zweig's column in the Wall Street Journal of April 25 examines the myopia exhibited by some corporate fiduciaries during the financial crisis as they considered the selection and recommendations of "expert advisors." Health care leadership teams, often using clinical and technical experts, determine strategic organizational direction. Financial advisors, architects, strategic consultants, and executive recruiters among others can contribute substantially to this process. But the checks and balances between leadership teams and their advisors must remain intact. We can learn something from Zweig's insights into what went wrong for these teams in the recent economic turmoil...

Splitting hairs? Not really. Read Hanging Tough in the April 20 print issue of The New Yorker (while not really business press it is the press commenting on business). This piece by James Surowiecki examines the nuances of leadership decision making in both risky and uncertain times. While covering some of the same territory as R&D Spending Holds Steady in Slump, April 6 Wall Street Journal - and the subject of this blog's April 8 commentary Health Care Leaders Should Preserve R&D Spending in Down Times - Surowiecki focuses squarely on characterizing the strategic investment dilemma currently faced by senior health care leaders...