Becker's Hospital Review 5th Annual Meeting May 16, 2014

1. Strategic Healthcare Communications
Communicating the Deal: Ten Rules
for Successful Healthcare M&A
Becker’s Hospital Review 5th Annual Meeting
May 16, 2014

2. Jarrard Inc.
• National strategic healthcare
communications firm
• Communication efforts for $20
billion in announced transactions
since 2011
• “Healthcare Mergers, Acquisitions
and Partnerships: An Insider’s
Guide to Communications”
• @jarrardinc

3. M&A in Health Systems Today
87%
Percentage of hospitals planning to pursue alignment with another
hospital or health system
-Dixon Hughes Goodman

4. M&A in Healthcare Systems Today:
High Creativity
• Partnerships
– Acquisitions, alliances, collaborations
• Ownership structures
• Shared resources

5. Health System Partnerships
- New
- Unknown territory
- Outcome is unclear
-Emotional
- Big

6. Best Communications Approach?
- It’s not a marketing campaign
-It’s not a rounding campaign
-It’s not a media campaign
- It’s not a direct mail campaign
- It’s not an ad campaign
- It’s not…

7. Best Communications Approch?
A political campaign

8. It’s a Political Campaign
• An emotional, milestone event
• Touches every constituent
• Their support can give a deal momentum, their opposition
can kill it
• You have:
– Support to win
– Opposition to anticipate
– A clear election day
• Change management on steroids

9. You Have a Campaign to Run

10. Why Deals Fall Apart
Source:
Don Seymour
&Associates

11. 10 Rules of Successful M&A

12. Rule #1: Build a Campaign Team
• Perspectives that matter:
– Finance
– Clinical
– Operational
– Political
– Community
– Regulators
– Competitors
• The Goal: OneTeam. One Strategy

13. Rule #2: Be Transparent
• Commit to transparency – internally and publicly
• Right information at
the right time
• The Risk of Secrecy
– “We’re working on that”
is a perfectly fine answer

14. Rule #2: Be Transparent
• Question of Risk Management
• The benefits of transparency:
– Set the stage
– Establish trust
– Engage
– Quiet competitors
– Stay in control

15. Rule #3: Think Like the Opposition
• Sources of opposition
– Internal
– External
• Strike the right balance:
– When do you just listen?
– When do you engage?
• Develop a plan for each potential opposition
source

16. Rule #4: Be Flexible
Listen!
• Build aTeam: Have a living focus and
action groups of staff and close
physicians
– Equip them to speak and listen in
ways you can’t
• Monitor social media
• Have coffee. Lots of it.

17. Rule #5: Don’t Dance to Someone Else’s Music
• Challenges and criticisms should not
dictate what you say, and how and when
you say it
• Be proactive, not reactive
• Keep everyday campaigns going
• Communicate, communicate…communica
te

18. Rule #6: Own the Message
• Partnerships are complex; messages can’t be
• Translate tactical benefits into a vision
• Emotion is critical
• Never, ever, ever forget the patient
• Joint with the buyer/seller sends a signal

19. Rule #6: Own the Message
Threat
- Context
- Status quo must change
- Current situation or
anticipatory action
- Must be credible
- Can be done for a year
- Lays the ground work
- A story of future success
- Big-picture & close-up
- Operational, aspirationa
l and community-based
- Vision is separate for the
specific transaction
- What changes; what
stays
- Provides clarity
- Answers what
employees care about
most
Vision Solution

20. Rule #7: The Messenger is a Message
• Your message is more than your words
• Most powerful communications are
non-verbal
• Trust is most critical characteristic of
your messenger
• How a person delivers a message can
change the message
• It takes a coordinated, trained team

21. Rule #7: The Messenger is a Message
• Candidates
– CEO – main media
spokesperson, messenger to staff
– CMO – messenger to docs, clinical
voice to community
– Board chair – messenger to community
leaders
– Another trusted individual with
community stature

22. Rule #8: Get the Talk Right Inside, then Out
• Talk internally first and often
• What physicians and nurses say matters
– Inside to colleagues
– Outside to patients
– Turn them into advocates

23. Rule #9: Overcommunicate
• Balancing act: Informative vs. Distracting
• You are competing for attention
• “Me first” communications. People want:
– Assurance of safety for their family and
colleagues
– Conversation
– Details, which matter next

24. Rule #10: It’s Not Over When It’s Over
• Exchange of keys is the beginning
– Communications to speed operations
and logistics, but also affects cultural
transformation and community
expectations
• Set the tone for the future….together

25. Rule #10: It’s Not Over When It’s Over
• Have a DayTwo Plan
– Internal focus is culture shaping
• Set the tone
• Engage new employees
• Start well before the deal is done if
possible
– External focus
• To patients
• To community leaders and media
• Move quickly to plant your new flag

26. The Political Approach
Everything is Politics
--Thomas Mann

27. Strategic Healthcare Communications
Communicating the Deal: Ten Rules
for Successful Healthcare M&A
Becker’s Hospital Review 5th Annual Meeting
May 16, 2014