Healthcare Matters

Good, professional sales people have an expression. It goes like this: “The sale begins once I get the purchase order.” What’s being said here is how difficult it is to get from a handshake to a contract and then, to actual delivery. The sales executive is not only referring to the potential hurdles inside the customer’s organization, but to the known difficulties that he/she will encounter inside his/her own organization. The sales person and his customer contact both know how painful the process can be and often apologize to each other up front.

All of this stuff still happens despite talk of “partnership,” “alignment,” “win-win,” etc. In fact, it’s still considered a good practice to have “uninvolved” contracting officers (people without direct skin in the game –i.e. professional negotiators) jump in and take over for those whose “emotional attachment” may interfere with a good outcome. Can it get any worse?

Vested Outsourcing isn’t just a philosophy –it’s a practice. A best practice that requires the kind of rigorous honesty that alcoholics refer to on the road to sobriety. In other words, it aint easy.

Yesterday, in Part I of this series, we talked about the need for transparency –”skinny dipping” real transparency. Today, it’s about authenticity.

• Let’s Get Real-Authenticity: Authenticity is more than a buzzword. It means that both partners’ employees are devoted to honoring commitments. In most cases, everyone from the bottom up does what is needed to perform at all times. This means everyone will tell the truth. Companies simply will not achieve extraordinary financial benefits from partnering if one or both companies fail to perform as promised and if their employees tell each other white lies because that is what the other party wants to hear. It all boils down to trust. Do you trust your partner? Many executives trust certain individuals at their partner’s company but not others. Mistrust leads to justification, blame, telling white lies and ultimately, communication and performance breakdowns. This behavior creates enormous mistrust that hurts profitability at both companies. So what works? It all starts from the top, with senior level leadership from each company. As leaders model authentic behavior, they need to insist that their middle managers adopt the same stance.

I do agree that it needs to start at the top, but my experience tells me that most deals get cut in the trenches. If they don’t, then getting those responsible for actual implementation work on the same page can’t be an executive afterthought. That’s a huge mistake. I know, I’ve made it.

Our “Getting to We” series will continue tomorrow. Stay tuned.

—Tom Finn