Category Archives: blog

Image chosen for the vibrancy and life that still exists despite the dying colours of autumn

Déjà vu, persistent headwinds & a new future: State of the UK’s private health sector


Déjà vu, the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before, is what I felt attending a recent Private Acute Healthcare conference.  I published a blog in 2015 (“The State of Independents”), observing where the private healthcare sector found itself then. If I lifted the introductory paragraphs of that blog and stuck them in […]

Thinking Differently: about people, about what they really want, and about growth


The case for thinking differently   [This blog was also published by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network] Private healthcare finds itself at a crunch point. Low (or no) growth across local and international markets, spiralling costs, falling medical insurance subscriptions and “intelligent consumerism” continue to challenge the sector. The basis for competition is also changing with the rise of […]

Music & Strategy


Saffron Steer is sponsoring an exciting music project. We are supporting a rising new singer-songwriter HANNAH who has been described as having a ‘fresh, new, British sound’. We instinctively responded to her appeal for crowd-funding since we love the music she makes and music is a vital part of life at Saffron Steer. HANNAH said: […]

INSIDE TRACK 2018: Private Healthcare Conference


I’ve been back on the conference scene and was honoured to have been invited back by the organisers (LaingBuisson) to chair one of the sessions at this year’s Private Healthcare Summit. Here’s the inside track on what the private sector is (and isn’t) talking about. The theme of the conference was “Putting the customer first: […]

Sight without vision


I was doing one of my regular scans through LinkedIn sometime last month and came across this challenge from Dr Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD (Director at The Medical Futurist Institute), who wrote: “Tell me what healthcare will look like in 2050 and I send a free copy of the brand-new edition of The Guide to […]

On the conference scene (post 5 of 5)


This is the final post in a series of 5. For those just joining this series, the previous 4 posts shared the headlines from each of the conferences listed below, which I recently attended. You can read the headlines from these events by following the links to the respective posts. 1.    “Acting on Future Health” – […]

On the conference scene (post 4 of 5)


This is post 4 in a series of 5. For those just joining this series, I am sharing some headlines from 4 healthcare conferences I recently attended, hosted by prominent organisations. These recap posts will hopefully act as a quick update on what’s being discussed across wider healthcare circles and might reinforce or augment your […]

On the conference scene (post 3 of 5)


This is post 3 in a series of 5. For those just joining this series, I am sharing some headlines from 4 healthcare conferences I recently attended, hosted by prominent organisations. This post is on the headlines of the 8th National Symposium: How patient outcome and experience data are transforming global healthcare hosted by iWantGreatCare […]

On the conference scene (2 of 5)


This is post 2 in a series of 5. For those just joining this series, I am sharing some headlines from 4 healthcare conferences I recently attended, hosted by prominent organisations. This post is on the headlines of the “2nd Question of Quality” seminar hosted by HCA Healthcare UK. The other events that are covered […]

On the conference scene (1 of 5)


Having attended 4 healthcare conferences over the past months I wanted to share some of the main content and thinking from these events. These recap posts will hopefully act as a quick update on what’s being discussed across wider healthcare circles and might reinforce or augment some of your thinking and work too! Each event […]

Self-pay: thinking it through


According to LaingBuisson self-pay spending grew by 9% in 2015 to reach £0.9m. Medical publishers, Intuition Communication, went a bit further in predicting that this growth could be between 10-15% by 2018, based on their Private Healthcare UK Self-Pay Market Study (2015) which surveyed over 70 leaders in the sector. So, the numbers stack up […]

C2B: A New Conversation


Healthcare Breakfast Recap_SaffronSteerWOLO_Jan242017 We recently ran a roundtable discussion over breakfast, in partnership with Wolff Olins (London) which had a working title of ‘How do we make people’s needs and preferences an outcome rather than a value statement‘. Our session was based on evidence that there is very little unity in the healthcare system, no one is […]

‘Strategic Marketing’: are you getting the real deal?


So, strategic marketing huh? Sure you’ve all heard about it but, as I have discovered, not many CEO’s know when they are getting the real deal. Many have attempted to clarify what these two words really mean, but it still seems to confound a lot of executives I meet (particularly in healthcare circles). Heidi Taylor, […]

The A+E Crisis: Fresh perspectives


Earlier this year our Healthcare Professional Interest Network (PIN) at Imperial College Business School hosted an event titled “The A+E Crisis: Failure of Leadership, Media Molehill or symptom of creaking NHS”. Quite topical you might say, given that the A+E crisis is constantly in the news. We were privileged to have secured high caliber faculty […]

Greater Expectations


[I was invited to write this post as a guest blog for Pete Crutchley at Medical Healthcare Management. It was published on his blog in November 2015] Healthcare is changing. But not many of us appreciate how significantly it is changing. A substantial shift is taking place driven by increased consumerism in many sectors and […]

2016: A year of ‘unusual’ strategy


As is typical this time of year, blog posts are stuffed full of predictions for the coming year. I don’t believe we can predict anything so this is not another one of those prediction posts but rather a wish I have for 2016. My aspiration is that healthcare organisations spend more of their time properly […]

Not about being the boss (for me)


I was inspired to write this post by my friend Heidi Taylor’s recent blog post titled ‘You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be the boss’, which I now see joins an increasing list of posts using the hashtag #BeTheBoss and which encourages others, like me, to share their stories. Turns out I did […]

Answers, not care


A consistent component of the conversations I have recently had with a range of healthcare providers has been a need to start thinking about their verbal identities. Some of them are beginning to appreciate that a new narrative can be a significant differentiator in making partners, customers and patients choose and trust their organisations, and […]

The State of Independents: Private healthcare needs purpose


I recently attended a very well organised Private Healthcare Summit held at the King’s Fund in London. The summit made it absolutely clear that independent healthcare in the UK is in a bit of a state with little or no growth, spiraling costs, slow innovation, the Competition and Markets Authority remedies to contend with, a […]

Strategy Tools…You’re Fired!


If strategy tools and frameworks were applying for the job of directing us towards meaningful, sustainable organisational strategies, would we give them the job? I don’t think so, and here’s why:   There is not much compelling evidence that directly correlates their use with organisational success Strategy tools are too often used as a tick-box […]

Branding needs a re-brand


What do you think of when you hear the word “branding”? Honestly? I’m guessing that as you contemplate an answer, the logo’s, colours and images of brands that you love and feel passionate about will most likely flash through your mind; perhaps Apple, Virgin Atlantic, Pret, Twitter, your favourite coffee shop, sports club, city or […]

How do you do, Strategy?


It is World Strategy Week from November 3 – 7, 2014 (check out @WorldStratWeek on Twitter). I didn’t even know that this virtual, global initiative existed until the other day. Anyway, learning about this did spur me on to this blog piece. No doubt there will be masses of information shared in the coming week […]