October 2009

October 2009

Dr Charlie Easmon
Business Blog

People Internal/External:

We have welcomed back Ms KE after extended maternity leave. K’s key current project is re-organisation of office space as we have grown. I am reviewing the long-term plan in terms of space and the options are 1) 100% move 2) 100% stay and 3) partial stay (i.e. clinical services at 1 Harley Street and admin functions local bit at a lower cost per square foot). Ms ABW now works on HR and special projects as planned and has a main task of cutting our transport costs by half for a Primary Care Trust (PCT) project in which we would otherwise loose money.

Sadly 2 nurses have had to be disciplined. One suspended but we do suspect a serious medical problem and await confirmation of that.


Operations:

I have spoken to bursars, GPs and Travel underwrites on swine flu H1N1 and I must say I learn something new every time. I spoke again to the Diploma in Occupational Medicine students on ‘Caring for Employees Overseas’ and made some useful medical contacts in Qatar, Bahrain and Nigeria.

Mr LL has excellently demonstrated that as we have grown the need for a specific stock-controller has increased – this cannot be the job of one busy clinical nurse. So post-office reorganisation, Ms KE will sort this one (I am excited by the possibilities and can see how it will make the lives’ of the clinical staff easier and ensure good stock control!).


KE has set up my appointments for the November-December clinical audits and appraisal of the medical team. We also have a visit from the Australians in November appraising our visa medical processes.

We have had a big review of future IT needs (I still dream of a Mac office!).

Ms KE and ABW have set up our future Management Team and whole team meetings.



Strategic:

Our biggest challenge has related to providing cervical cancer vaccines for NHS Primary Care Trusts, especially after the death of the unfortunate girl. Some of the press were very one-sided but common sense seems to have prevailed overall and things swung back into action surprisingly quickly.


The visit to India (Delhi/Mumbai) is all set for November 14-22. My good friend Dr John Llewellyn of the FCO will host me in Delhi and Ms Sheela Kennan is acting a consultant and has set up the relevant meetings.

Our Objectives are as follows:
To meet potential Indian Medical Partners
To identify a property lawyer
To identify a suitable location for a clinic in each city
To meet with 1-2- Indian companies in each location that might use our services
To discuss our plans with the British Commercial attaché

Have discussed with Dr MS a new role as Deputy MD since I will be travelling more and this will become increasingly important.


Financial: A unique opportunity has arisen to buy back 40% of my shares. I must say I am disappointed with one bank where we had several meetings and in the end ‘the computer says no’. Why lead business people up the garden path? Let the computer do the talking first and help us all save loads of time and effort.

Marketing: The YouTube channel has 6 new videos.
• Travel Health Basics
• Occupational Health: The Basics
• A simple guide to what NHS GP services can and cannot provide v
• Mole in One: Mole Screening
• The Pill Cam: Coming soon to NOH
• My response to anti-vaccination questions Flu and Seasonal Flu
Previously uploaded
• Flu and Seasonal Flu and HPV2009

This information will be emailed to our key contacts and we will need to work on the search engine optimisations to make these more popular.

Dr JB spoke at the World Youth and Student Travel conference. I made some good contacts and found a suitable location for Manchester clinic.

Innovation: Once again I sing the delights of the Flip camera (best £100 spent on marketing).

Best business reads this month: Harvard Business Review – they review a book that I have not read but it sounds really interesting: Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich (Metropolitan Books 2009)


Best past business reads: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono (a must for managing meetings)

Quote of the month: ‘Profits in their true sense are simply the reward of foresight and courage - the foresight to see where opportunities exist to meet mankind's needs more adequately and cheaply than before; and the courage to risk one's energies and one's savings in exploiting these opportunities’ Deterding Royal Dutch Shell

Charity of the month: Transplant Links
www.transplantlinks.org and Kids Company www.kidso.org.uk