eClinicalWorks, MCPHS must lead through choppy seas
Leaders of any stripe can navigate through times of steady growth, but managing a crisis from the top separates the great leaders. In the early days of the Great Recession, businesses switched to crisis mode: some did not survive, most made it through, while others leveraged strengths to drive significant growth.
This summer, two of our Central Massachusetts' largest, most stable and growing enterprises have been tested. How they come out on the other side will tell us much about their leadership, and the organization's ability to navigate choppy seas.
Westborough's eClinicalWorks has been humming along for 18 years as a great entrepreneurial success story. Five founding partners took an electronic medical records firm from a small startup to 4,500 employees and $440 million in revenues by 2016. However, in May, the company settled a whistleblower lawsuit alleging false claims about the software's capabilities for a stunning $155 million. CEO Girish Navani said, “Today's settlement recognizes that we have addressed the issues raised, and have taken significant measures to promote compliance and transparency. We are pleased to put this matter behind us and concentrate all of our efforts on our customers and continued innovations to enhance patient care delivery.”
If the settlement were for $1.5 million, or even $15 million, perhaps setting it aside would be possible. But $155 million? A penalty that massive is not so easily dismissed from the minds of employees, customers or the marketplace.
In Downtown Worcester, the city's renaissance is in no small part due to the investment of the area's fastest growing college, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences (MCPHS). The Boston-based school has expanded its Worcester footprint dramatically over the last decade in new and renovated buildings and student housing, bringing life and vitality to the city's core. But just last month the Boston Globe reported MCPHS's Boston campus had been placed on academic probation by its accrediting council for overcrowded buildings and not enough staff. While the school's Worcester and Manchester, N.H. campuses were not impacted, it sends a cautionary note about the school's rapid expansion, and management has to be asking itself if it was paying sufficient attention to conditions at its headquarters.
In both cases, the public relations side of the house wants to artfully put the fire out and move on, while leadership should know confidence of customers and employees has been shaken, and an honest appraisal of what went wrong is needed. While the two situations are quite different, they have similarities. How did senior management miss the problem? When they found out about it, what was their reaction? Were they accountable for the mistake? What has changed in the organization giving employees and customers/students confidence the issues have been thoroughly addressed?
When the bad news hits, there needs to be a thoughtful public reaction. But the real test of leadership is in the following weeks and months. What are they doing to set a new tone, be accountable to employees and customers, communicate openly on an ongoing basis about changes and progress towards their goals? Both organizations are huge drivers in Central Massachusetts' economy. Here's hoping they will continue that path.
WBJ Web Partners
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