I wonder how many hospitals and health systems would compare themselves today to what IBM had become in the late 1980s. Judging by what I know of human nature and self-awareness, probably not many. And that could be a big problem as the healthcare industry, facing healthcare reform and a perfect storm of other disruptors, finds itself at a similar turning point to what IBM faced in the past.
Ironically, though, those healthcare organizations that can say, “We are the IBM of the healthcare industry,” may be the last ones standing. That’s because they will be the ones who took action to change and told a compelling story of how they changed to their most important stakeholders, including payors, employers and patients.
Lindsey Dunn, editor-in-chief of Becker’s Hospital Review, recently interviewed authors Rita E. Numerof, PhD, and Michael N. Abrams, MA, about their new book, “Healthcare at a Turning Point: A Roadmap for Change.” (Full disclosure: I’ve not read the book.)
In drawing similarities between the technology industry dominated by IBM in the late 1980s and health care today, Numerof and Abrams identify several disruptive forces in healthcare, including nimble competitors, technology, enterprising retailers and – biggest of all – public finance and payors.
IBM, according to Numerof and Abrams, “was a bloated organization of more than 400,000 employees characterized by redundant processes and functions. Despite extraordinary technological accomplishments, its markets were being eroded by lower cost, more nimble players. Between 1991 and 1993, the company posted net losses of nearly $16 billion, including the largest single-year corporate loss in U.S. history. Hundreds of thousands of employees lost their jobs, including CEO John Akers.”
Healthcare leaders, sound familiar?
In response to these threats, IBM hired an outsider, Lou Gerstner, Jr., to run the company. Gerstner brought a fresh, customer-oriented perspective and bias to action that had been missing in the old IBM. He sharpened the strategic focus of the business, selling off business lines of marginal profitability or relevance, cut the workforce nearly in half and rebuilt product development around the company’s core strengths of product and service integration.
This kind of change was a tall order for IBM two decades ago and it’s an equally tall order for healthcare organizations now but one that is necessary for them to survive this monumental turning point in history.
Among the many responsibilities of those leading a healthcare organization in this era, Numerof and Abrams believe, is “to build and improve on the organization’s economic and clinical value story for its key service lines, and to develop new clinical and administrative protocols that it can brand as its own, that deliver better outcomes at lower cost.”
Indeed, there’s heavy lifting to be done inside healthcare organizations as administrators reconfigure and develop new processes that deliver value to their stakeholders in a highly competitive, dynamic market. Equally challenging is the task of communicating and differentiating the good work they have done in this brave new world.
Unfortunately, as healthcare delivery and market economics are quickly changing, healthcare brand marketing remains predictable, outdated and nondistinctive. It is lost in a blizzard of competing noise that is frequently driven by concepts of healthcare brand marketing developed decades ago. The approach is too often hollow and does nothing to answer the call for differentiation made by Numerof and Abrams. 
That’s because what’s missing in current healthcare marketing is the understanding that healthcare was never something that could be sold like consumer goods. In today’s difficult healthcare environment, only those institutions that can share a more purposeful story will successfully communicate their value.
A healthcare organization’s story, which is broader and deeper than its “brand,” provides a more robust, authentic and useful framework to engage patients and other stakeholders. The institution’s story enables its leaders to showcase the true value of what they do in ways that do not have to be shoehorned into oversimplified brand “hooks,” tag lines or other premises.
Unlike billboards and newspaper ads touting an institution as the region’s greatest heart care or orthopedics team, or the most advanced women’s health center, or the speediest emergency room, the authentic story builds reputation and distinction on more tangible promises and broader dimensions of value.
At WordWrite, we are driven by the fundamental belief that Story, with a capital S, trumps brand. Your organization’s story – why your organization exists, why someone would want to work for you, partner with you, buy your products or services or invest in you – should be front and center when marketing, communicating and differentiating.
So when I read the last paragraph of Dunn’s interview with Numerof and Abrams, I had to give an “amen.” According to Numerof, “Healthcare providers must become more efficient, more transparent and more consumer-centered. They must also demonstrate the economic and clinical value of what they offer compared to alternatives and answer the question: Why should anyone come to their institution?”
I could not make a better case for Story myself. (But I have tried. Check out our ideas about why the traditional healthcare brand is tired and dying, and let me know what you think.)
_____
Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications.
