By Shane Reeves, PharmD, Chief Executive Officer
Here’s a little quiz. What do these 12 companies have in common?
The answer may surprise you.
Here’s the answer: They were all dominant players in their industry, yet they all, to one degree or another, failed.
How could that have happened? After all, they were all leaders in their fields. They knew their respective industries inside and out. They had intelligent employees and experienced board members who helped steer the course.
So, why did they fail? Most died slowly over many years by refusing to make the necessary changes to adapt to the marketplace and what their customers wanted.
Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Darwin wasn’t referring to companies and organizations, but he could have been.
Several years ago, I read a book by Jim Collins called “How the Mighty Fall (and Why Some Companies Never Give In.” In the book, Collins said something that has stuck with me all these years. “Growing larger as a company presents unique challenges, but many successful businesses manage to get better, not just bigger, by implementing strategies to maintain agility, foster innovation, and strengthen their foundations.” Here are twelve of Collins’ strategies that we strive to execute on every day.
Maintain disciplined creativity: Avoid straying from the core principles and practices that led to initial success. At TwelveStone Health Partners, we remain true to our purpose and values: Honoring God, caring for patients, developing talent, and generating profitability.
Pursue sustainable growth: Be cautious of overreaching or growing too fast without maintaining excellence. We do so by staying in front of everchanging market trends and using data-driven decision-making, which allows us to determine growth strategies based on metrics and not emotions. As a result, our business model allows us to outpace our competition.
Fill key positions with the right people: Ensure the organization can sustain its growth with qualified personnel. Our hiring criteria are stringent, from employees to our strategic partners, including payers, physician groups, hospital systems, and vendors. Once a person is hired, we help them grow, develop their talent, and strengthen their leadership qualities.
Practice vigorous, fact-based dialogue: Maintain open and honest communication within leadership teams. Healthy dialogue is vital to organizational health and sustainability—and organizational health is our greatest competitive advantage!
Accept responsibility: Avoid blaming external factors for setbacks. It’s easy to point fingers or say, ‘That’s not my problem.’ By optimizing communication within our organization, from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side, we keep the lines of communication open.
Address problems directly: Don’t rely on cosmetic changes or reorganizations that don’t tackle fundamental issues. We constantly seek new ways to scale our organization for growth by creating new systems, developing and refining standard operating procedures, and incorporating automation; we avoid problems before they begin.
Avoid seeking quick fixes: Resist the temptation to grasp for dramatic solutions or “silver bullets” when facing decline. Every innovation we’ve seen at TwelveStone has been meticulously thought out. From incorporating AI to The Gate and building patient and provider portals, we continuously improve, eliminating the need for last-ditch efforts.
Return to core disciplines: When in trouble, focus on returning to the fundamentals that brought initial success. Our focus is always on the patient. Their experiences set the benchmark for measuring how well we perform.
Be rigorous about what not to do: Carefully consider which actions to avoid, especially in times of crisis. Of course, we work to determine the best course of action, but equally important, we consider what actions might hinder us.
Stay vigilant: Continuously monitor for signs of decline and address them early. Balance sheets don’t lie. They help us maintain financial discipline and correct course when needed.
Focus on priorities: Concentrate on a few key objectives rather than pursuing too many goals simultaneously. This bears repeating. At TwelveStone Health Partners, we remain true to our purpose and values by caring for patients, developing talent, generating profitability, and, above all, honoring God in all we do.
By focusing on these strategies, TwelveStone Health Partners will grow bigger while getting better, improve our operational efficiency, increase employee satisfaction, build customer loyalty, and sustain success over the long term.
