Applications of Management Principles in Healthcare

With the advent of mega-hospitals and the growth of corporate hospital chains, the requirement for MBAs to oversee management in the healthcare industry has surged. Doctors and nurses are generally not trained to address management issues in a hospital. Therefore, managing the processes in a healthcare organization is absolutely vital. To discuss the importance of management principles in healthcare and how we as MBAs can contribute to this sector, on 22^nd March 2012, MBA Invitation Lecture Series invited Mr. Manick Rajendran, CEO Lifeline Hospitals. He is also a consultant for the US Government Healthcare initiatives under ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvesting Act).He is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and has worked as a Vice-President for Deutsche Bank.

Mr. Rajendran initiated the talk with a question: What is important for the healthcare industry? After gathering various responses from the audience he emphasized on three points: manpower management, strategic leadership and emulating best practices. Talking about what the healthcare sector offers to MBA students, he again identified three key points:

·         It gives a sense of job satisfaction as we can contribute to the society

·         It is one sector which is least affected by economic recession

·         India is a huge market offering  a lot of potential in this sector

After giving us a basic overview of the healthcare sector, Mr. Rajendran took the conversation towards describing how they implemented management principles in Lifeline Hospitals. He acquainted us with the concept of Hoshin Kanri which is a strategic management methodology based on total quality management. The concept, popularized in Japan, aims to make an organization the best in the field. Mr. Rajendran explained how they implemented the concept of Hoshin Kanri by focusing on zero defects.

Talking about manpower management, he gave the reference of Steven Covey’s Seven Habits and how it helped him to get the best out of people. He also talked about change management and the various aspects involved with its execution. According to Mr. Rajendran, one should never ask anyone to change; instead, a sound manager should bring about that change by engaging people in interesting activities. He cited various anecdotes and examples of how he was able to execute the aforementioned theory.

Mr. Rajendran talked about the significance of experiential learning and how he has implemented it in Lifeline Hospitals. He also gave a demonstration of experiential learning through a game of Chinese whispers by choosing 15 volunteers from the audience. It was carried out to show the effect of gossip and why it should be avoided in organizations.

Mr. Manick Rajendran followed a really interactive approach for the lecture: kept everyone involved and interested. If I can put it in three words, I would say the lecture was relevant, valuable and spellbinding.

Compiled By:
Aditya Ghai
MILS | Batch of 2013

Photo Courtesy:
Mauryanath Das
DoMS Interface | Batch of 2013