Case Study 2 (Can Gerry Robinson Fix the NHS )

1. Famous management-expert Sir Gerry Robinson was set a challenge. To reduce waiting lists at an NHS in Yorkshire within six months and with no additional funds at his disposal. The Hospital is a successful one. It has achieved three star status  but the modern, competitive NHS is a marketplace where patients can choose which hospital they attend. Brian James, Chief Executive of the hospital admitted: “If 5% of our patients choose to have operations elsewhere, we could be in trouble. It is a question of survival”. Gerry Robinson says that any business, no matter how large, can be made to work well. And even that he didn’t know anything  about the medical profession but good management is good management – whether you’re running a small shop or a large hospital. So for sure we could learn many  useful things about effective strategic leadership from him. For example in order to help the company which is in a bad situation  first thing you should do is to find out what is the real problem by asking lot of questions, soliciting ideas, views, information from others and encouraging participation (bridging style). Then you should state expectations, evaluate or using incentives and pressures (assertive style ) . The most memorable examples of effective strategic leaderships are patient focused (Karen),looking for solutions not excuses, ‘’can do’’ attitude approach, assertiveness in meetings, keep asking ,assertiveness, and the most effective is conclusion :You know what you want, go and get it! The examples of ineffective Strategic Leadership are: lack of communication between staff (Karen and CEO, and between consultant and management), Chief Executive’s lack of confidence , too much bureaucracy, theater manager –not sense of control,  structure-chain of command is not good, financial resources...

2.The most important thing I learned  from the case study  I could put just in one sentence: You know what you want, go and get it!!! Maybe it is just one sentence but it is actually a very effective conclusion of everything we said in the class.

3.We can compare this case study with Carrefour in terms that in both cases the organisations we were talking about are in a very bad situations. Their CEOs didn’t do very good job, in Carrefour case study the problem of CEO was that he had some wrong movements for the company, he had bad strategy , in  NHS case study the problem of CEO is that he has lack of confidence, he knows what the problems are but he did nothing about it, he just postponed it.

4.With the group this week everything went well. As time passes we know each other better and it is easier and more interesting to work in a group.