Becoming the Best by Harry M. Kraemer Jr

Author:Harry M. Kraemer, Jr. [Kraemer, Harry M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118999424
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2015-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Building Partnerships on Partnerships

Most organizations will have more than one strategic partnership. A manufacturer, for example, could have best partners across its supply chain, from sourcing to distribution. This adds complexity to the system, as partners must not only work with the organization but also with each other to achieve overarching goals such as enhanced quality, greater efficiency, and customer satisfaction. If independent entities only see their part of the project, it will be difficult to achieve seamless integration.

Consider the example of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, which is manufactured largely from outsourced components, while the aircraft company assumes the role of assembler. These sophisticated aircraft, which have taken years longer to build than originally proposed, are highly complex with demanding specifications that require unprecedented engineering. The rear body of the plane is composed of about 6,000 parts, many of which had to be created from scratch. According to MIT's Innovation@work blog, early on, many of those components failed to meet Boeing's requirements, increasing costs and creating delays. When the first Dreamliner arrived at the assembly plant, there were 30,000 pieces to work with—a huge difference from the 1,200 parts the original designs were based on. On top of that, thousands of parts were missing.4 These problems could possibly have been reduced with better communication among the partners.

Granted, most organizations are not faced with the complexity of building a large commercial aircraft from independently manufactured components. Nonetheless, the success of a partnership can be make or break for an organization as it tries to improve its operations, to recover from a weaker position or gain a competitive advantage. Often, such endeavors involve building partnerships on top of partnerships, layering one initiative over another.

In the case of NorthShore University HealthSystem, its EMR rollout with Epic Systems was layered on top of another best partnership with its physicians. Currently, NorthShore's faculty practice plan consists of more than 900 physicians who are employees, fully integrated within the system. In addition, NorthShore has relationships with more than 500 independent physicians and specialists who are not at the hospital on a daily basis, but who may see patients on site from time to time.

The physician best partnership is based on what Mark calls the “Mayo Clinic model,” as a nod to the organization that pioneered this strategy. The Mayo Clinic model, which NorthShore adopted in 1992, is a tightly integrated delivery system that combines the resources of the hospital with primary care and specialty physicians. Here, too, we find the intersection between best partner and best team. Where an affiliation exists with an independent physician practice, the dynamic is one of best partners who work together to achieve the common goal of excellence in health-care delivery. When those physician practices are acquired, the doctors become part of NorthShore's internal best team. NorthShore has acquired a significant number of physician groups—approximately 40 in the past four years. Most of these practices are relatively small, consisting of three to five physicians per group. For the physicians, being acquired by

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