Five traits make high performers different

by Robert T. Yokl

We all toss around the word "analytics" (or the science of data analysis), which sounds very impressive, but what does it really mean to you and your hospital, system or IDN? And what makes high performers different, more engaged and masters in this discipline?

For one thing, high performers in supply chain management are five times more likely than their peers to view analytics as a core supply chain function, not just as something we do upon request.

These same supply chain organizations employ their analytics to gain a much more sophisticated understanding of how their products, services and technologies are used after they are bought. They not only look backward, but forward to predict what is likely to happen, and adjust their supply spend accordingly. This leads these healthcare organizations to breakthrough double-digit savings as well as command and control their total supply spend.

Make it count

Jeane Harris, Thomas Davenport and Robert Morrison of Accenture tell us that there are five traits that make analytic high performers different from their peers. They:

1. Generate good, clean and actionable data. While others are trying to get their data in order, high performers focus on having their data in pristine condition at all times. We see this in our value analysis analytics practice. The clients who have the most success in identifying savings opportunities utilizing value analysis analytics take great care and discipline in keeping their data in order.

2. Think in terms of the entire enterprise. If you are only performing your value analysis analytics on your medical/surgical supplies, then you are missing 50 percent or more of the achievable savings available to your healthcare organization. Just the other day we uncovered for a client $65,329 in savings in their hand sanitizers category that wouldn’t have been discovered if we had limited the scope of our value analysis analytics work to a few categories of purchase.

3. Promote analytical leadership in their ranks. Top to bottom support of your analytical work is necessary to obtain the time, money and resources necessary to become a high achiever. This leadership always begins and ends with a strong analytical leader who sets the pace, promotes the standards and lays out the goals and objectives for his or her department.

4. Understand what their targets should be. Where to get started? Price analytics is only one area of concentration for these top-tier supply chain organizations. They also give equal attention to their demand, utilization and operational analytics so they touch all of their bases. If you are only analyzing your prices, then your analytical work is only half done!

5. Focus on hiring the best and the brightest. High performers also hire the best and the brightest, but then they make sure that they are happy in their jobs. Furthermore, they have them work closely with their customers so that they can bring integrity, credibility and synergy to their workplace.