When one thinks of the dynamic biotech landscape, with many early-stage firms delving into therapies for diverse maladies, such as cancer or heart disease, to any of a number of rare diseases, the executive leadership image that arises is certainly quite different than one might imagine for a healthcare executive, such as a hospital administrator. While patient health might be an end goal for both, the milieu within which they operate is seemingly quite distinct. It is certainly not typical for individuals to transition between these two realms, and yet, there may be some key lessons from hospital administration that might be of value to the biotech executive.
- The first is to be inclusive. In hospital administration, one has interactions with a diverse set of employees that may have quite different educational levels and backgrounds, and it is important to be able to deal equally with all of them. Kitchen workers, maintenance workers and housekeepers all have important roles to play in positive patient outcomes, just as nurses, physical therapists and neurosurgeons do. A good hospital administrator has to understand the importance of each of these individuals, along with the value that they bring to the patient experience, and to be able to communicate with and manage employees from all the different units in the hospital to form a high-functioning institution which benefits the patients.
- The second is to maintain patient-centricity, one of the earliest concepts impressed upon me by a nun, Sister Edwin, when I was starting out at Christus Healthcare. Sister Edwin mentioned that at the end of every conversation we had, or decision we made, there is a patient in a hospital bed who is being affected. I have carried that philosophy with me, and I believe that it is an important principle for all biotech CEOs. Even though they may be more physically removed from patients, the idea that every decision you make will ultimately affect a patient still holds true. In hospital administration, you see patients all day long, so it can be difficult to forget. In hospital administration, I regularly had lunch in the Doctor’s dining room, and the more regular interactions that a hospital administrator has with practitioners on the front lines of healthcare help to reinvigorate that patient-centric focus.
- The third is to employ operational learning. Biotechnology firms are no strangers to using evidence, the biological data that drives their decision-making with regard to whether a compound may be efficacious for a particular indication. But, an evidence-based approach can be applied to operational efficiency as well, and with early-stage biotech startups in particular, this approach is not often applied. Studying and understanding the logistical aspects of the business can pay dividends in efficiency. Business efficiency techniques such as time and motion studies are employed in hospital process environments and may be suitable for biotech laboratories as well, in terms of improving work flow systems.
- The fourth is to build a culture of teamwork and camaraderie. Biotechs can be stressful and competitive. Nobody said discovery is easy, and there are often financial pressures in early-stage companies. Under such conditions, it is important to firmly establish a culture in which all team members consider themselves as part of an important mission. In running a hospital, the mission to help patients is more immediate, as the patients are always visible to the staff, and this helps to instill a shared purpose. In a biotech firm, it instead behooves the CEO to make sure that the mission and vision are clearly articulated to all team members. Any opportunity to interact with physicians and patients should be sought out as a touchstone for our purpose in clinical research.
- Lastly, it is important to be flexible. Flexibility is a defining feature of a hospital administrator, who needs to have broad working knowledge and hands-on experience in a number of key areas. From medicine, finance, logistics, or interpersonal communication, developing “fluidity” from each of those disciplines is helpful to make the whole operation work. This combination of skills and expertise means that a typical hospital administrator is qualified to run just about any business.
While it may appear that hospital administrators and biotech CEOs have quite dissimilar jobs, because they face different challenges on a daily basis, I hope that I have conveyed the value of some of the underlying principles that one can develop in the field of hospital administration, that may have some value in other healthcare fields and in other executive positions.
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