M&A work is not just about technology

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Between the organizations I’ve served as CIO and the health systems I’m advising these days through StarBridge Advisors, I’ve seen plenty of M&A activity over the years. Mergers and affiliation agreements People putting the pieces together conceptcome in all sizes.

For a CIO there are the typical areas to look at for system consolidation and integration. But it’s not just about technology. You have to consider the people who are impacted.

I recently wrote an article for the CIO Techie Magazine Healthcare Technology Special Edition 2019 called “M&A activity continues – for IT leaders it’s not just about technology”. I advised on how best to retain talent while still ensuring the strategic goals of the organization and the drivers for the M&A activity are met. My advice:

  • Get to know your new partners and colleagues early
  • Remember that culture is key
  • Partner with HR early on
  • Communicate early and often
  • Think win-win not win-lose
  • Be kind and generous

Check out the full article here.

Related Posts:

Merger mania – is it good for the patient?

Culture matters in mergers

Corporate functions, local service

Confidence matters as much as competence

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How real is “the confidence gap”? How do you address it in your own work? This was one of the topical questions I posed on a recent TweetChat that I hosted for Jenn Dennard and #HealthITChicks.Brave woman posing as super hero

What would you tell your 20-year-old self? That was one of the questions posed a few days later to me and my co-panelists at the 3rd annual Women in Business Conference – Lead. Represent. Mentor. – sponsored by the Women in Business Club at Hult International Business School. Our panel was “Leading Change in Technology”.

One of the panelists, Nancy Li, is a young woman with a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. She is the Manager of Edge Computing Commercialization at Verizon. In response to that question, she quickly answered, “Be fearless”. After everything I learned about Nancy’s career and experiences, I wasn’t at all surprised at her answer. The other panelist, Florence Lu, is a Senior Solution Architect and four-time IBM Master Inventor working at IBM Research and has filed more than 180 patent applications. She commented on the importance of developing public speaking skills if you want to be a leader, pointing out that you must be able to present your ideas to others. Clearly, she has been an idea generator and innovator her entire career.

I’ve spoken and written a lot on issues that women face at work in the past few years and willingly shared my own experiences as a professional woman and leader in IT for over three decades. I was truly impressed with Nancy and Florence’s accomplishments as technology professionals and their eagerness to share their own stories and advice. And their confidence!

I highly recommend reading the article, “The Confidence Gap” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman published in The Atlantic, May 2014. They did extensive research on the differences between how girls and boys / women and men approach situations. The bottom line is that confidence matters as much as competence and confidence must lead to action. A few excerpts from the article: Continue reading →

Marketing – looking for the secret sauce

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When you launch a new company, you wear many hats. When we launched StarBridge Advisors in 2016, I agreed to be responsible for marketing, social media and the website among other things. Why me? I canstockphoto17892303 (1) marketingwas the most social media savvy of the three principals. But “savvy” is a relative term.

I have learned much these past few years and have much more to learn. Fortunately, there is no lack of resources for learning in this continually evolving space. Our website, blog, social media presence on LinkedIn and Twitter, and collateral continue to evolve as we learn what works and what doesn’t.

I listen to Whitney Cole’s Mission Marketing podcast for interviews with marketing experts. I read articles on how best to leverage social media. I tap into the experience of marketing experts I know. And I get ideas from what I see other firms doing.

This week I had the opportunity to attend a portion of the 6th annual HITMC (Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference). I was asked to be on a panel sharing the customer perspective – drawing on many years as a CIO and buyer of products and services. Of course, being on the other side now selling and marketing our health IT advisory services, I was also excited to learn from others.

From the customer perspective my advice was build relationships with prospective clients, provide content that they are interested in, avoid gimmicks, and avoid being the pushy salesperson no one likes. Know your target market and your prospective clients – think “precision marketing”.

After a day immersed in marketing topics with the healthcare IT marketing community, here are a few of my takeaways: Continue reading →

It’s IT’s fault

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I was surprised to hear this from a front-line airline worker when I checked in at the gate. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised after all my years in IT. As I deplaned on the first leg of my flight, I realized canstockphoto7753679 (1) blameI didn’t have a mobile boarding pass for the second leg. I usually print my boarding passes – just seems easier to keep track of and quickly access than trying to find the specific email on my iPhone with the boarding pass link. But I had checked in for the flight from my hotel room late the previous night so opted for a mobile boarding pass.

The connection was going to be tight anyways. And then my first flight was 35 minutes late departing and I was sitting towards the back of the plane. I was connecting at O’Hare so I hustled from the H gates to the L gates fast as I could. When I got to the gate and said I didn’t have a boarding pass, the airline employee said, “it’s our IT department”. He told me how IT has some explanation about how the mobile boarding passes aren’t intended for connecting flights for security reasons. But I don’t recall any message during the online check-in saying I had to get my second boarding pass at the airport. Then he said it’s because they inherited the IT department from the other airline they had merged with.

As a healthcare customer, I’ve often heard registration clerks and other front-line workers blame “the system” for being slow or not working the way they’d expect it to. Another “it’s IT’s fault” explanation. But given I usually received my care at the provider organization where I was the CIO, what I heard was it’s my team’s fault.

After doing an IT review at a client where we talked with probably 60 leaders and staff, I saw how the “it’s IT’s fault” takes on many flavors. A sobering reminder of just how hard IT’s job really is, yet how much IT needs to listen to their customers and partner with them. Continue reading →

What’s YOUR personal brand?

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We all have a professional network, big or small. It may be people we know well and have worked with at some point. Or people we’ve met briefly at a conference and agreed to keep in touch. Or people who canstockphoto18694235 (1) personal brandhave reached out to us to connect on social media channels after seeing our profiles.

While you may not think you have a “personal brand”, you do have a professional reputation.  The idea of having a personal brand may have invoked thoughts of vanity in the past. But not in this technology enabled social media world we live in.

So, what is your personal brand? Are you consciously creating it? How do people see you publicly online and in person? What are you known for? These are all questions you should be able to answer.

One of the first ways I thought about it was when I re-initiated my Twitter account several years ago and had to write my profile. At the time, my account was private. A colleague who was advising me on social media told me that was my first mistake. Twitter is meant to be public – I shouldn’t have to approve who can follow me. More importantly, he said my profile should capture in just a few phrases who I am and what’s important to me.

I recently saw a blog post by Janet Mesh from one of our partner firms, Healthcare IT Leaders, titled “How To Boost Your Career With An Online, Personal Brand”. I was reading along thinking, yup, yup I do all that. Then I was pleasantly surprised and grateful to see that I was used as an example. Thanks Janet and Healthcare IT Leaders!  And thanks to all those who gave me encouragement and advice to get started in a focused way building my social media presence several years back. Continue reading →

9 articles on women and work worth your time

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In the past month, I’ve seen more articles on women in leadership, women on boards, and gender equity than I have seen in a long time. It’s probably reasonable to assume the increased focus has to do with it canstockphoto44053815 (1) time for changebeing Women’s History Month. As I said in my post on International Women’s Day, let’s not just focus on these issues for one day or one month but all year long.

Here’s a sampling to check out if you are committed to ensuring women have a seat at every table:

A seat at the head of the table by Emily Bazelon in The New York Times Magazine. It’s an insightful interview with two experts on leadership – Katherine W. Phillips, a professor of organizational management at Columbia University, and Shelley Correll, a sociologist at Stanford.

Wanted: 3,732 Women to Govern Corporate America by Jeff Green, Hannah Recht and Mathieu Benhamou in Bloomberg Businessweek. That headline should get the attention of any woman interested in serving on boards.

Women in venture: The case for increasing representation in digital health investing by Laura Lovett in MobiHealthNews

From the practical experience of women leaders comes insight, advice and inspiration for others:

A rising tide lifts all gender-balanced boats bound for HIT board rooms by Jenn Dennard at HealthITChicks

Achieving a better gender balance across all levels of an organisation by Wendy Clark in HealthITNews

Four McKinsey leaders share their advice for early-career women – McKinsey Blog from McKinsey & Company. I particularly liked these spot-on words of advice: Continue reading →

Negotiation is an everyday skill

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When we think of needing good negotiation skills, we often think in terms of salary and promotions. For sales people and buyers, it’s negotiating terms and price. But if you really think about it, you are probably canstockphoto16049179 (1) negotiatenegotiating with someone about something every day.

Let’s look at some different situations.

Negotiating as an employee – This is certainly not an everyday event. You may be negotiating salary as part of a new job offer or a promotion with your current boss. Keep in mind that you can negotiate more than just the salary and any potential bonus. Most companies have a standard set of non-negotiable benefits that the HR representative explains. But there are other components you can negotiate before accepting an offer. One example may be a remote work option or relocation benefits. Consider the “value” of other benefits beyond the base salary as you negotiate. The key to success is to do your research on what might be possible, be ready with your ask, and be clear on what you’re willing to compromise on.

Negotiating as a buyer – This is not an everyday event either. You may be negotiating with a vendor for a product or service. Or you may be buying a new house or car. There may be some situations where there is no room for negotiation but it’s more likely that you be able to. Again, it’s not just the core price but other terms as well. The key to success will sound familiar – do your research, be ready with the ask, and be willing to compromise.

Negotiating as a team member – This could involve a new assignment you have been asked to take on or a due date you have been asked to meet. Neither are set in stone. Continue reading →

Spring can’t come soon enough

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As my daughter says, “You didn’t really think that through, did you?” She wasn’t referring to getting a new puppy which we’d talked about for months. She was referring to getting a “winter puppy” in the North.IMG_0295 (002) puppy

We trained new puppies in the summers of 2006 (Pepe) and 2008 (Coco). We had to let go of Pepe in 2017 due to a tumor on her liver; since then, we focused all our love on Coco. Then, we decided Coco needed an “intern”. Coco would have a friend that she could help train. What a concept!

We got our new puppy, Rosie, in late January. She was about 10 weeks old then.  We bought her a little dog sweater and puffy dog coat. We got her a collar and a leash. We hadn’t really thought that through.

Because, when we picked her up, the breeder said she was like an infant. She couldn’t go outside until probably end of March or she might catch a cold or pneumonia. Plus, she needed her three puppy shots – second was due mid-February and the last one mid-March – before she could be outside around where other dogs have been. Coco is up to date on shots, so they can share space in the backyard. That is, after the snow and cold is gone.

I haven’t even gotten to the two dogs getting to know each other part yet.

We set up Rosie in the shower stall of our guest bathroom. We made a little bed for her, put her food and water dishes nearby and put down papers for her to do her business on at the other end of the shower stall. We leaned a baby gate across the entrance to the shower. We let her out and played with her on the bathroom floor several times a day. We brought her down to the living room at night to sit on our laps while we watched TV. Mostly this worked and she was content. Continue reading →

International Women’s Day all year long

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#Balanceforbetter – what a great hashtag! That’s the theme for International Women’s Day 2019. While it’s celebrated on March 8 each year, the global campaign continues all year long as it should.canstockphoto48269311 (1) IWD

I remember celebrating International Women’s Day back in the 70’s during the height of the women’s movement. With the increased focus on gender equity it has become much more mainstream.

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. According to the website, International Women’s Day (IWD) has occurred for over a century, with the first​ ​IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Prior to this the​ Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom’s Suffragists and Suffragettes, and further groups campaigned for women’s equality.

And March is Women’s History Month. According to the Women’s History Month website this month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed a bill authorizing and requesting the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed a bill which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.”

I’ve been seeing a lot of women’s events and webinars promoted on social media channels. Webinars and live webcasts I’ve registered for this week include:

  • The State of Women at Work
  • Women in Technology Role Models: A Global Perspective
  • Tech She Can: Together we can change the ratio

It took me a minute to realize that live webcasts at 5 AM weren’t a mistake. With international events online, that’s the middle of the day somewhere in the world. The good news is that they are all available on-demand afterwards at BrightTALK. Continue reading →

Outsourcing in health IT – is it time to reconsider?

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We probably all know at least one negative story on IT outsourcing in healthcare from years past. But the outsourcing pendulum is swinging back. As core IT services become more of a commodity and CIOs need canstockphoto20590634 outsourcingto focus on strategic initiatives, selective outsourcing is worth consideration.

The recent announcement that Trinity Health is outsourcing application management and rebadging approximately 450 staff is getting attention from other provider organizations. There are other examples – many in infrastructure.

More and more I hear from CIOs who are considering selective outsourcing for various reasons – reduce costs, modernize the infrastructure, provide scalability and flexibility as health systems grow, deal with recruiting and retention challenges, or focus on strategic initiatives instead of commodity services. Many CIOs are finding themselves part of overall cost reduction efforts at their health systems. While some CIOs start from a defensive posture and say they can’t possibly reduce costs any further, one of the most progressive IT leaders I know said she is looking at it as an opportunity to transform IT.

I was part of an organization wide cost reduction initiative when I served at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Michigan Medicine and University Hospitals. As the CIO, I was asked to identify opportunities to reduce costs while other departments’ opportunities needed additional IT help to achieve their reductions. But saying no to cost reduction is usually not an option. CIOs must partner with their peers and engage their staff to identify opportunities. Continue reading →