Intro 0:13
Many aspire to reach the upper echelon of the healthcare industry, but few are able to successfully navigate the corporate ladder. As Asia becomes the world epicenter of the healthcare industry, C-Suite Partners sits down with international healthcare executives asking the tough questions and unpacking the personalities of the top industry leaders.
Welcome to the boardroom.
Michael Murray 0:35
Matt, thank you for joining C-Suite Partners in the boardroom.
Matt Hanrahan 0:39
You’re welcome.
Michael Murray 0:40
First question, which you got tell you about the next 10 years in Australian healthcare.
Matt Hanrahan 0:45
There’s lots of disruption, as we know, lots of challenges. But for me great opportunities and excitement. We need to be better at the heart what I call the horizontal it’s his care following the person Yes, rather than the person following the care. There’s challenges about doing that at the moment with different revenue models. But there’s also a great opportunity. And we’ve got to take risks, calculated risk, but we’ve got to take risks and do things differently.
Michael Murray 1:09
And what do you think about this cross-pollination of healthcare executives coming from outside of the industry, professional services, banking telecoms?
Matt Hanrahan 1:17
I think it’s a great idea. And I think it’s a great opportunity. Health is one of the biggest industries in Australia. Yeah, it’s a very small group. Yes. And everyone tends to know everyone or know someone who knows someone. Yeah. And I think being challenged by other industries and learning from other industries, is certainly something we need to do more of. And I’ve certainly worked with a lot of people who don’t have come from a clinical or health background and have been some of the best executives I’ve ever worked with no challenges the way we think, and particularly with the challenges that we spoke about earlier, where Health’s going, the disruption, if you just look in community care, and the NDIS is the whole focus of where now person-centred care and what we traditionally have done, is not cutting it, we need to change our models, and what we do both from a career perspective and a business perspective. And we need to call out what expertise and skills we need. And having come in a speech pathologist who’s been a health manager, yeah, may not know all those things, and all being an expert in marketing, in those sorts of things. Having said that, I’ve seen people go the other way from healthcare into other industries, okay. And being hugely successful as well, well, okay, healthy is a great incubator for good managers, and teachers, managers to be able to deal with multiple challenges at the same time, as I said before, it is challenging, working in health, but it’s very rewarding. And if you can do well, in managing health, there’s no reason why you can’t do well. And in my experience, you do really well in other industries.
Michael Murray 2:59
So what would you look at with characteristics for an executive working for you?
Matt Hanrahan 3:06
Honesty is a key one. And I know that’s easy to say, yeah, it’s hard to do, particularly if you’re new in a management role. And there’s a high expectation, and particularly when things are tough. And let’s be frank, often in health. Yeah, things are tough. And you have to make some tough decisions. But being honest, and particularly honest about what you know, and what you don’t know. And I think young managers need to learn that skill quickly of, I know this, and I’m good at this. But these are areas that are not so good at and I need to improve my skills, can you help me improve my skills in this area? in my career, I’ve jumped in the deep end quite a few times. Sometimes, naively, sometimes deliberately. Sometimes I’ll struggle and nearly drowned. Other times I’ve swam well. And I think being prepared to step into the deep end, and take some risks, calculated risks, but take some risks is important. And there is nothing wrong with being ambitious and being upfront that you are ambitious and there’s nothing wrong with saying I want to be the chief executive. And if that’s the case, great. Yeah. And there’s also nothing wrong with not wanting to be the chief executive, but being the best CFO or Director of Clinical governance that you want to be being ambitious is great. Don’t be scared of that and don’t hide it.
Michael Murray 4:31
Definitely. Rewind 10 years previous, what advice would you give yourself?
Matt Hanrahan 4:36
Yeah, good question. That the immediate thing that comes to mind is work-life balance. Now and what I mean by that is, I’ve had jobs where I’ve been on call 24 seven, pretty much 365 and that has had an impact on both myself and family. I’ve you can never get back. The end of school. concert with the soccer game, the swimming carnival. If you miss that you never get it back. Yes. So understanding work-life balance would be the one, be prepared to be wrong. And plan to be wrong when you make big decisions. And certainly when you are wrong, and I have been wrong and probably will continue to make wrong decisions is being prepared for what happens when you are wrong and taking accountability and responsibility for that.
Michael Murray 5:30
So looking back at your career, what decision do you regret the most?
Matt Hanrahan 5:35
We’ll go try to avoid regrets. Yeah. But I think it would be not calling people on poor behavior, okay. And early on, I was probably nervous, to a degree scared to call either colleagues or managers on poor behavior was episodic or on a regular basis. And when I started doing that, and I did it early on my career, I got much more comfortable. Yeah, doing that, and got much better outcome. Okay. And if you flip that coin, what about your crowning achievement? What would that be? It’s been a few establishing after hours GP services on the Central Coast, working with Aboriginal Health communities on the Central Coast, but probably establishing the clinical service and Capital Planning for the Central Coast, which the outcome was a $600 million injection in very valuable capital for providing new hospitals for this people a central coast.
Michael Murray 6:36
Incredible, and what about a 30-second elevator pitch for your career legacy. How would you describe it?
Matt Hanrahan 6:44
Every patient every time perfectly.
Michael Murray 6:46
Perfect. Matt, thank you very much for being with C-Suite Partners in the boardroom.
Matt Hanrahan 6:49
Thank you.
