- There's a small circle of people who truly
- understand what it takes to lead a health
- system right now. The decisions are enormous,
- the variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
- of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
- That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
- And it's why the most effective c suite
- leaders are deliberate about where they go to
- pressure test their thinking.
- Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable brings
- together more than 1,500
- executive level attendees and nearly 400 speakers for
- four days built around growth, financial sustainability,
- workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
- have easy answers.
- Join us November second through the fifth in
- Chicago.
- For the agenda and event details,
- visit beckershospitalreview.com
- and click on the events tab in the
- upper right.
- This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
- Podcast.
- We're thrilled today to be joined by Naya
- Kehase.
- Naya is this brilliant industry leader who who
- built a consulting practice in the surgery center
- and payer contracting area,
- and then built that into a much bigger
- business.
- Highly successful.
- Now retired or semi retired,
- but, you know, we'll we'll we'll probably won't
- stay retired forever because she's got so much
- energy and is so smart.
- We're gonna talk today about leadership and business
- principles.
- Naya
- and for those in the health care sector,
- you might have seen her over the years.
- She was one of the leaders after sort
- of selling her business
- to ECG,
- and becoming a leader there, and had just
- a wonderful, wonderful career.
- Naya,
- first first of all, before we get started,
- take a second and introduce yourself, then I'll
- ask you about a couple of the leadership
- principles
- that have had the biggest impact on your
- career.
- Great. Thanks so much, Scott, and congratulations
- on your book. It was awesome.
- Anyway, as you said, I have been
- working in the ASC industry
- primarily as well, originally as an operator, but
- then as a as a consultant
- for over thirty five years.
- And I had
- really
- developed a niche business
- with a concentration and expertise in reimbursement in
- the economics of the business. And I think
- that's what I really became known for and
- what the firm really became known for, with
- our expertise in that space.
- And it was
- really a great ride,
- and I really enjoy it and still enjoy
- it. And I believe that it serves a
- tremendous purpose,
- and I'm looking forward to thinking about, you
- know, the future and what comes my way
- and new opportunities that might be down the
- road.
- And talk a little bit about you had
- this great career, built this great practice of
- lot of leadership, both a brilliant person and
- built a great team and great business. What
- are a couple leadership principles that you think
- about?
- There's three that really come to mind for
- me, Scott, and I mentioned a little bit.
- One, I really believe in niche businesses
- where you identify a need and have the
- expertise and and
- keep building on it
- and where your organization
- can demonstrate and create value,
- for customers and clients is really the recipe
- for success.
- It's really important that you stay focused on
- your core business
- and deliver quality and service,
- and constantly understand how the customer needs are
- changing.
- And then second, I would say
- invest and recognize in developing great team and
- creating a culture
- that embraces
- accountability,
- loyalty, and commitment from your team.
- I always said I I never
- know everything. Right? And surround yourself by others
- that know more than you do is I
- don't think you'll ever be an expert in
- everything.
- I think one of the greatest
- compliments or comments I received from a customer
- in the past in in the original firm,
- was when they told me we have a
- deep bench.
- And he spread that news to a lot
- of others. And it was so rewarding, and
- it instilled confidence and
- and drove business, and it was just awesome.
- And then I think with respect to when
- you're building great teams, it is so, so
- important to recognize your team and support them
- and to nurture the stars.
- I was a strong advocate and believed that
- the reason why my initial team stayed with
- me for many, many years, I had an
- extremely low low attrition rate,
- was showing appreciation,
- thanking people, and recognizing
- them for their leadership and contributions
- and making accommodations and and compensating the stars
- and the leaders so that they stay with
- you for the long run.
- It definitely costs far more, I think, to
- lose those stars and leaders than it costs
- to replace them. And I I was a
- firm, firm believer in that. I think that's
- what made,
- the firm really, really
- successful. And I think the third thing I
- would say
- is the concept of being a partner and
- not a vendor to your customers,
- sustaining those relationships and building those relationships
- where the customer really values your services and
- your team
- is incredibly
- critical to your long term success.
- And it's really interesting because you'll see sometimes
- customers transform for from vendor to partner.
- And when they're aligned with you and your
- organization
- and they feel comfortable,
- you know, reaching out to you and having,
- you know, conversations
- with you, you learn more about them. And
- that trusted
- goes a long, long way
- rather than being a vendor and being, you
- know, totally dispensable. And and I would see
- that a lot. I saw that a lot
- in my career, and it it was really,
- really critical. But it's really, really takes a
- lot of hard work,
- to establish those types of relationships, but they're
- well worth it for the long run.
- When you look at people that you've worked
- side by side with,
- what qualities do you value the most
- in in emerging leaders, in colleagues, in people
- that you work with?
- What are the qualities you think you value
- the very most in those people?
- How how do you look at that?
- The number one quality that I
- value the most was passion and motivation,
- because I firmly believe that you can provide
- education and tools, but passion comes from within
- and cannot be taught.
- I always would say, you know, for those
- who had fire in their belly, I will
- take that any day because I cannot teach
- that. That type of person is going to
- be very loyal and committed,
- but you also
- have to have alignment and
- see that they're willing to learn, contribute, and
- offer new ideas.
- I think that goes a long way.
- I also really value people who are willing
- to tell me when I can do something
- better.
- Sometimes you can't always see that for yourself
- and see what your own opportunity is to
- improve upon. So I I think those are
- some of the key
- things that are I really, really,
- valued when I was looking at, you know,
- hiring people and developing leaders.
- Talk about a time and and you've had
- this fascinating career. I've had a chance to
- have a front row seat and have loved
- it. Talk about a time where where
- you've had a setback
- or a difficult decision
- that ultimately was very important in in driving
- you forward and thinking differently or how you
- did things, and and what did you learn
- from that experiences?
- And, Scott, if I may, I'd love to
- talk just about two experiences because I think
- I think they're very different and and might
- add some value to the conversation.
- In the very early years of the company
- that I founded, there was a time that
- I was really, really reluctant to hire people,
- and I actually turned away a lot of
- customers and put them on hold because I
- didn't have enough people to service the demand.
- The company had no debt. It was self
- funded. I was obsessed with cash flow and
- making sure we had enough money to cover
- our expenses. So I was always thinking about
- whether or not we had enough fees to
- cover, you know, the salaries.
- And, unfortunately,
- from that, we left money on the table,
- and we lost some prospective clients that were
- not willing to to wait. And I think
- the biggest lesson that I learned from that
- was was that there was really a fine
- line for overstaffing and understaffing. I have certainly
- also experienced
- the pain of overstaffing,
- but that you had to really monitor it
- closely and be prepared to grow.
- And,
- I thought about the really early days where
- I did a lot of subcontracting,
- and I think subcontracting really helps bridge the
- gap and capture the opportunity. I wish I
- did more of it later and and really
- thought about that when I lost those customers.
- I should have added more subcontractors
- because customers will move on, and they won't
- wait forever. And it can, you know, amount
- to a significant amount of missed opportunity and
- revenue growth, you know, if you're not careful.
- So I think, you know, that's incredibly
- important.
- And if I may, second,
- example of an experience,
- I had a customer once that owed us
- a meaningful amount of money. They represented
- about 10% of the revenue at the time.
- This is many years ago. And a senior
- executive of that company was a long term
- colleague, so I was pretty committed
- to helping and staying with with the company
- and and probably should have been a little
- bit harsher about paying the bills for months.
- We kept servicing them, and they eventually went
- bankrupt,
- and we never recovered the money. And it
- caused delays in payments,
- you know, to,
- and impacted,
- even retirement funding. So I guess my lesson
- learned from that was that recognize when you
- have a bad company and draw the line
- and put limits in place.
- There's significant exposure when you have customers that
- represent meaningful dollars as they can put you
- at meaningful risk, and it can be difficult
- to recover from that.
- I remember I would scramble and just go
- out running looking for more business.
- So it's really important to diversify your customer
- base. I realized
- too when when, a vendor is not a
- good partner and recognize that you don't have
- a good customer, it's probably better to let
- them go than to retain them, because it
- could cause more harm than good.
- Thank you very, very much.
- And and and talk for a second, Naya,
- about when you look at
- today
- and you're giving advice to CEOs,
- to founders, senior executives,
- What to build their businesses?
- What ought to be their priorities? How should
- they think about it?
- Yeah. I mentioned a lot of this already,
- but I think that investing in your team
- and developing leaders and stars that are aligned
- with the company envision
- and drive growth. I think
- identifying
- people that have passion and fire in their
- belly and provide the education that they need
- to give them the autonomy to thrive, I
- think I think it's really important to compensate
- them appropriately so they are committed to stay
- with you.
- Retaining great people for the long term creates
- consistency, loyalty with customers, and significant long term
- value,
- which I really believe drives your success. You're
- not gonna do it on your own.
- I also really believe in recognizing and showing
- your appreciation to those leaders and star performers,
- and that aligns with their hard work and
- then striving,
- to be a partner and not a vendor
- with your with your customers. Capturing and retaining
- great
- customers requires constant attention and many hours of
- your time
- to developing relationships
- and also great teams because it's not just
- about you. The the
- the the great customer that's a partner
- wants the great team that's surrounded by them
- and and that they trust and that they
- have
- relationships with, whether it's a product or a
- service that
- drives demand and ultimately,
- you know, results in driving your financial performance,
- and it's a win win for everybody.
- Thank you. And and and take a second,
- Naya. When when when you look at sort
- of,
- when you are operating your best in business,
- when you are offering the top of your
- game, what are the things that you're doing
- right that you would encourage other CEOs to
- do right as well?
- I think the things that I was doing
- right was I was constantly
- networking
- and constantly
- looking at new opportunities while staying in our
- niche.
- You know, as you mentioned, you know, our
- expertise
- was strongly focused on the business side of
- ASCs, and we were very, very well known
- for our expertise in reimbursement and analyzing the
- surgery business.
- But reimbursement is constantly, constantly changing.
- And I I could never know, and I
- and I still sit, you know, in in
- involved with it now. I you can never
- know everything.
- And I think making sure that you have
- your
- finger on the pulse constantly and how things
- are moving me today, right, with AI and
- transparency data, I think about, you know, how
- that impacts,
- you know, all businesses, but even, you know,
- the business that I had. And and I
- think the reason why we were so successful
- is we were constantly
- a step ahead
- and constantly
- also being mindful of what our clients were
- facing. We had clients
- that were consolidating.
- We had clients that were independent. We had
- clients that were, you know, very large ASC
- companies in understanding the differences
- between them and what their needs were in
- servicing them,
- the service
- with results and being able to demonstrate results
- was definitely the key to success. And and
- really
- being transparent when you didn't think you know,
- I was in a space where, you know,
- I'm trying to help them financially. And if
- we're there were certain markets that were really,
- really challenging
- and being very forthright about,
- you know, things in the market and the
- environment that you could not control,
- and being really transparent,
- I think was really, really important,
- to our success.
- No. I absolutely love that. I had a
- chance to watch Naya throughout a a great
- deal of her business leadership career.
- Simply remarkable what you did in building AVEA
- Millennium,
- ultimately doing a transaction at some point to
- continue to lead at that next firm for
- a very long time.
- Naya Kiheis, what a pleasure to visit with
- you. One of the best in the business.
- We look forward to seeing you back in
- the arena in not too long, at least
- some arena.
- Nai Kehe is a great, great leader. Thank
- you so much for joining us today on
- the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
- Thank you, Scott. Great to be here.