CASE STUDY #2

Fortune 200 Company Finds Two Professionals to Launch Behavioral Health Start-up

Opportunity
A large Fortune 200 company that did not have a health care presence was eager to launch a Midwest-based managed behavioral healthcare operation. The company sought a Senior Vice-President of Operations who could lead claims processing, assume control of a national call center, run network contracting and be responsible for the overall business strategy. Start up and or turn around experience was critical. The company also required a second professional (Director) who could take on the day-to-day operations of the claims and call center. But how would BeechTree Partners find the two talented executives who could build a complex healthcare operation from scratch?

Implementation

• Analyze qualifications and expectations for working within a start-up.
• Identify and address the challenges of starting a health care company within a larger company that lacked health care experience.
• Identify similar companies who recently started up operations and tap their leaders for referrals.
• Identify candidate responsibilities, skills, experiences and attributes.
• Strategize on how to excite candidates with a start-up opportunity.
• Identify growth oriented organizations for candidates or referrals.
• Identify the industry leaders in behavioral health care as was well managed care
• Design a recruiting and on boarding process that would allow the client to bring on the SVP and then the Director.

Results

• The two-person search was completed within 82 days. The SVP was hired within 65 days and the Director approximately 10 days later.
• Both candidates share experience in claims processing, call center, managed care and behavioral health.
• The new SVP was able to interview the finalists for the Director position, ensuring a good fit.

Lessons Learned

• The timing of the candidate on- boarding was critical in this case. Both searches needed to be run simultaneously due to our client’s time constraints but we needed to secure the SVP prior to the Director. We learned that it is critical to keep all parties up to date of exactly what was happening in the search and to be very upfront with the candidates at all times. This open channel of communication allowed us to keep the potential Director hire interested while we waited for the SVP so start and then interview that individual.
• Start-up companies require individuals to possess unique skill sets and tolerances that may otherwise not be necessary in a more mature organization. These requirements added a unique dimension to the search process and consequently narrowed the slate of qualified candidates.
• Working on a start- up requires a lot of focus and attention to detail. A short search time was critical to the operation getting off the ground successfully.