Strategy & Execution Challenges for CEOs
NCP Management’s latest venture was the recent acquisition of the Houston Heights Hospital. It was a large financial, physical, and mental undertaking. We went into it with a vision and a goal. We set 90 to 120 days to get this new hospital open and operational. Now we’re reflecting on the last 4 months of our road to opening. We’re taking a deeper look into what worked and what needed improvement. We can now learn from our mistakes to better streamline our future ventures. And most importantly we’re enjoying the success without losing focus of our ultimate goal.
Challenges
Ask any CEO what the biggest challenge of starting a new venture is and your answer will likely be related to, coming up with a sound strategy & it’s execution. After all the strategy and execution will eventually be the measure of their success.
One of our biggest challenges has been starting such a large project during a global pandemic. Many, including ourselves, were greatly impacted by the supply shortages. Everything from equipment to building materials to medicals supply’s; the odds weren’t always in our favor. We faced many challenges finding reputable suppliers and suffered through labor shortages in the height of our renovations.
Know your Goals
Short term goals:
It is important that we always keep our short-term goals and long-term goals in focus simultaneously. Our short-term goals were little milestones along the way, such as finding a supplier or contractor, getting permits and licenses, renovation details, optimize work planning to yield maximum productivity, and making sure we were compliant with the Texas Health and Human Services Architectural requirements. Meeting short term timelines is the key – this will determine the success of your project.
Long Term Goals:
Our long-term goals were and are, making sure our operational logistics are streamlined, continuous business development, hiring the right staff, and building a good clinical and administrative team, high level of delivery of services, maintaining compliance and regulations, and truly becoming an attractive community-based hospital.
It can be exciting to imagine the future of the company, and part of that is important, but focusing on the current tasks at hand and the short-term goals is what’s going to drive you towards success and toward your long term goals. The lack of operational experience, ignoring day to day operations or losing sight of the tasks at hand, is when a domino effect of crisis begins. It is common practice that the Board will expect the CEOs to be forward looking and discuss the future of the company, and similarly for the CEOs it is also more exciting to talk about the future and how he/she thinks of transforming the company and so on, remember their underlying expectation is that you have the ‘present’ under control. The CEO must keep focus and with proper strategy and execution you too can rise to the top.
Be Flexible
Execution requires pragmatism! It has to be a practical strategy to start with, being unrealistic is detrimental. With that said it’s imperative to be flexible in your decision making and your concept. Even though you might have a worthy plan, things change, and things will happen out of your control. Not that you need to change your goals, but you must be willing to change course if need be. Being adaptable in your plans will only make your strategies stronger. Think through the processes all the way before initiating them, CEOs need to be in control of today and should have a very good idea of what’s coming next and/or what can come next.
Build a strong team
Execution can be hard if your goals start out unrealistic. Set expectations that are practical. Bringing on a strong team with individual strengths will help you greatly and disperse the workload. Focus on your staff’s strengths – while starting up, positivity, motivation and buy-in are extremely important. There should be no space for negativity. Execution requires a team effort to brainstorm and be prepared for “worst case scenarios”. It’s just as important to have an experienced CEO on board with deep operational understanding as well as a strong leader. It is your (CEO) responsibility to build the team!
Conclusion
Remember, be flexible, don’t lose sight of your goal but keep your immediate tasks in the forefront. If all of these things fall into place, you’re on your way to success. NCP Healthcare Management is proud to have another successful acquisition and venture under our belts. We only hope we can help you tackle your next project. We’ll help you change strategy & execution challenges for CEOs to strategy & execution successes for CEOs.
contact us for your next venture