Resnick Unplugged

AVOID PITFALLS: MAKE IT HAPPEN

A few months ago I wrote about ‘Healthcare Strategis Interruptus’ – decision paralysis affecting many healthcare leaders given the unsettled climate swirling around Washington DC. It focuses on the need to step back and take a 3-pronged approach to moving forward: 1. Gut Check on where you stand today (what’s working & what’s not); 2. Future Think scenario planning around fundamental business objectives; and, 3. Action Planning to prioritize and select specific opportunities to rally around and pursue.

So, what’s next? Make it happen!

Implementing a plan, even in the best of times (no less during a period of disruption and transformation) is often the most difficult stage of the strategic planning. New initiatives such as product introduction, service enhancements, market entry (or withdrawal), or M&A activity are complex undertakings. Whether you're an established player or startup, avoiding problems that get in the way of implementation can go a long way toward guaranteeing success. Typical implementation pitfalls include:

• Key influencers behind the strategic decision don’t play an active role in execution
• Competing activities and/or crises distract attention from implementation team goals
• Unanticipated or unplanned internal obstacles: time allocation, training, IT support
• Uncontrollable factors in the external environment have an adverse impact
• Insufficient leadership and direction before or during implementation

Building and sustaining a competitive advantage in markets characterized by industry consolidation, regulatory unknowns and changing business practices is senior management's biggest challenge. It takes a combination of disciplined strategic decision-making and purpose-driven implementation. Consider these 4-keys to successful strategy implementation:

1. Clear communication from top management of new strategic directions…to all employees. Why? Research shows that even in high-performing companies with “clearly articulated public strategies,” only 29% of their employees can correctly identify their company’s strategy. [HBR] Success, from your brand promise to product design and pricing to customer experience, starts with your people.

2. Start with a well-researched, well-formulated Great implementation of a poorly conceived strategy doesn't get you anywhere. Effective strategic plans are founded in analytics and driven by objective decision making. They go deep into the organization's "reason for being".

3. Provide sufficient resources: money, time, technical expertise and people. At the end of the day this means prioritization. Fund it, clear the runway, and match skill sets to make sure resources are available and devoted at levels that do everything possible to assure success.

4. Develop an implementation plan that identifies specifics: who does what, when, where and how. Formal, detailed processes driven by project calendars, checkpoints, and individual accountabilities, are critical. “Companies fail or fall short of their potential not because of bad strategies, but because of a failure to implement good ones.” [The Economist]

Strategic initiatives are core to why your business exists, and investing in implementation has big payoff. Early identification of potential implementation pitfalls likely to affect your organization will avoid costly, time-consuming problems down the road. And, following basic execution success factors can help your enterprise make it happen!

 

4 Pillars of Healthcare Market Positioning

The political gamesmanship around healthcare being played out in Washington combined with product and service commoditization and ‘sea of sameness’ advertising means your brand position is more important than ever. Understanding and continually elevating your company’s market position leads to better performance and establishment of stronger relationships with customers, employees and other key stakeholders.

To effectively evaluate market position, you must have a strong sense of your organization’s brand identity, deep knowledge of your target audience, and an ability to measure levels of engagement. In an environment where consumer trust is at an all-time low, successful healthcare organizations must work hard to establish themselves as reliable resources for information and services within their industry segment albeit payer, provider or services vendor. Establishing confidence and articulating value starts with your brand’s market positioning.

Think about these four pillars of market positioning in terms of how your healthcare enterprise can enhance performance and advance its success:

PILLAR ONE: Know your brand. Whether you’re a national healthcare mega-brand or local healthtech disruptor, your brand is your company. Having a clear method for conveying your brand promise is at the core of market positioning. You must define…and represent the essence of the value that your brand is delivering to your audience. Keep regular tabs on this message, it’s value differentiator as well as its look and feel. Target markets often shift due to political, economic or social change.

EVALUATION TIP: Perform a brand audit to confirm that your positioning and messaging is consistently reaching and resonating with your intended audience. This can be achieved by conducting internal and external surveys (including social listening) to measure brand perception and relevance. Confirm that your brand promise is it as meaningful today as it was in the healthcare sector two years ago.

PILLAR TWO: Articulate your story. Continually refine how you are expressing your value proposition or broadcasting a narrative to your target audience. It’s essential to have a fine-tuned, unified story that everyone in your organization knows how to tell. Consistency in storytelling, from C-Suite to every employee, goes a long way toward building healthcare confidence.

EVALUATION TIP: Evaluate content and channels being used to tell your story by reviewing brand-centric imagery, online/offline content, public relations communications and paid advertising. Measure the effectiveness and consistency of these messages against one another to ensure you are telling the same story on every channel…and, using the ‘right’ channels.

PILLAR THREE: Use data to improve personalization. Today, how well you know your target healthcare consumers dictates success or failure. And, how well you personalize communications and services to meet their needs is absolutely critical. This means knowing where your audience goes for their information and for their healthcare, what they value, what motivates them to act and who they will compare you to.

EVALUATION TIP: Use audience-sourced data to create and test personalized communications and services that speak to your audience’s healthcare needs and desires. Measuring feedback will help you identify your most valuable and most vulnerable stakeholders. Use these insights to build strategies for both acquiring and retaining brand supporters, and turn brand detractors into brand loyalists.

PILLAR FOUR: Solidify the customer experience. Marketplace retailization puts extra pressure on healthcare companies to craft an experience that is organized around the customer. The result needs to deliver brand touchpoints to your audience that increase engagement and build confidence. When customer relationships meet these expectations, brands secure allegiance and enhance LifeTime Value.

EVALUATION TIP: Breakdown cross-functional silos. Put the customer at the center of everything your company’s products and services. Create a customer journey “map” that outlines the complete lifecycle of stakeholder experiences. Determine whether you are communicating and delivering value that will attract and retain customers.

As you think about these four pillars, be sure to put aside legacy assumptions and long-time institutional biases. Challenge “this is the way we’ve always done it” thinking.  Use this as a time to surface new ideas, disrupt with innovation, and take a long-view for your organization. As an industry, if we ask healthcare consumers to take more personal responsibility for financial and clinical decisions, they need trusted brands to help them making informed, value-driven personal choices.