VPL-Nav
supply chain consulting

How Supply Chain Executives Can Get a Seat at the Table When Leadership Wants to Bring in Outside Consultants

VPL’s Tim Chapman sits with The Journal of Healthcare Contracting’s John Pritchard to discuss leadership in the supply chain

It’s no secret lately that hospitals and health systems have been facing greater challenges as margins are being squeezed and total operating expenses are outpacing revenue growth. Due in part to increasing complexity and to non-labor costs rising at unprecedented rates, a number of C-Suite executives are looking outside the industry for assistance with supply chain consulting.

If you’re a VP of Supply Chain, that raises a number of questions… It’s imperative that you get a seat at the table, but how do you ensure that you’re invited? And when you do get invited, how do you work collaboratively with the consultants who have been brought in to help?

These are the questions VPL Board Member, Tim Chapman, answers in a podcast recently sponsored by VPL. Chapman, a 22-year veteran of the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, sat down with John Pritchard, publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, to share his thoughts on the situation from his insider perspective.

Chapman answers the big questions of why the C-Suite engages supply chain consulting in the first place, and offers expert advice as to how you can not only be a participant in the process, but an active part of the decision-making. Here are some key takeaways:

  • Thank your leadership for investing the capital and time and energy in your supply chain team.
  • Be mindful of helping to shape the objective of the efforts and the scope of the effort.
  • Make sure the effort will deliver on the cost objectives (It is a cost reduction exercise, after all).
  • Work to “muscle build” the capabilities of the health system’s supply chain overall – not just the department that calls itself supply chain, but the capability of the entire enterprise – really focusing on a comprehensive, all-in approach to non-labor cost management.
Listen to the podcast recording

You can listen to the entire interview by pressing play below or you can download the podcast file here.