Don’t Leave Meaning on the Table – A Conversation on Healthcare, Purpose & Brand with Nathan Goldstein
Read time: 3.5 min
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What do Healthcare companies typically over promise? Why is it important to work on your brand at the beginning? What do people often get wrong about corporate culture?
I had a fascinating discussion with Nathan Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Duo Health, a new kind of medical group serving patients with chronic kidney disease about all things healthcare and brand. As a highly successful executive and entrepreneur, Nathan shares his views about how to build organizations that can make a practical difference in healthcare.
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In this episode, we explore a variety of topics:
Duo Health, a new kind of medical group that promises to be by your side
If you don’t have a brand, you can’t scale
Think behaviors NOT culture
Develop mavericks not renegades through organizational identity
Don’t make promises you can’t keep – ie. transforming healthcare
Serve EVERYONE, don’t leave money but most of all meaning on the table
Health equity doesn’t happen on its own
Brand is relationships and relationships grow at the speed of trust
Strategy is defining the obstacles that are in your way
KEY LESSONS
Define Your Brand Early for Effective Scaling
A well-defined brand serves as the foundation for scalability. While scaling involves implementing systems, technology, and standards, the importance of understanding the "why" behind the business cannot be overlooked. Without a clear brand identity communicated to employees and customers, scaling becomes challenging. As a company grows, you simply cannot micromanage and process to death every interaction, especially if it involves a level of service that is responsive to a myriad of situations.
This is the case for Nathan’s Duo Health, which has experts and care teams working with patients. Hence the brand's essence, the "why," is important in creating a sense of purpose and empowers teams to develop their own relationships with that meaning, leading to better experiences for employees and clients.
“A brand isn't a logo… it's a promise you make to the market or to your consumers. It's the why behind the business. if you don't define that early, really have a sense of it that you can communicate to employees, to your end users, to your customers, to your clients, you actually can't scale.
The scale is certainly about systems. It's certainly about tech technology. It's about standards of care in our case. And having defined care pathways, your nurses know what to do in any given morning, but if they don't understand the why, you're robbing them of the opportunity to develop their own relationship to that meaning.”
Brand Guides Autonomous and Flexible Decision-Making
Nathan emphasized the significance of providing teams with a clear sense of purpose and rules of engagement. By understanding the brand's North Star, teams can autonomously and flexibly navigate challenges and make decisions aligned with the brand's essence. This autonomy fosters a better experience for employees and enhances the care relationship with patients. The distinction between mavericks (who understand the intent and improvise) and renegades (who disregard the intent) further emphasizes the importance of aligning behavior with the brand's deeper purpose.
“A maverick by his definition is being one who understands the commander's intent and improvises on their way to success. And a renegade is someone who doesn't give a flip about what the intent is. Maybe they're just in it for the notches on their belt or glory”
Brand Behavior Trumps Abstract Culture
In our conversation, Nathan also challenged the notion of abstract culture and highlights the value of brand expression through behavior. While culture can be abstract and difficult to address, brand behavior offers a tangible framework for individuals and teams to understand their actions' alignment with the brand's standards. By providing feedback on behavior that deviates from those standards, a company can maintain a cohesive brand identity and ensure consistent experiences for stakeholders.
“Rather than talking about the culture decals that go on the walls. The question that the executive leadership team and the senior leadership team is, are the behaviors that I'm portraying first aligned with that brand, that value, that why and that promise? And then am I holding accountable my peers and subordinates and, and frankly my superiors to that same standard?”
Don’t make a promise you can’t keep – like transforming healthcare
One of the biggest pet peeves for Nathan are companies claiming to transform or disrupt healthcare. We’ve all seen it, big statements about transforming healthcare on website homepages and launch campaigns, but it’s fictitious. He believes that the fragmentation of care is not something one company can change. Many different stakeholders with different incentives make for a very complex system to align and anyone who promises to completely change the experience is making a false promise.
“I don't know many people who are receiving care that want things disrupted. I'm gonna disrupt surgery <laugh>, please don't. To my internal team, something that I've become fond of saying is, we can't promise to fix the healthcare system. That's a promise you can't keep.”
Conclusion
Nathan’s experience in building healthcare companies and philosophy for brand speaks to me deeply. He underscores the significance of defining the brand early on and aligning it with organizational behavior for effective scaling. Moreover, he emphasizes the role of brand behavior in guiding autonomous decision-making and fostering meaningful relationships with stakeholders and not making any sweeping promises you can’t keep. By incorporating these lessons you’re your brand building strategies, businesses can harness the power of purposeful branding to achieve sustained growth and create a positive impact on their employees, customers, and communities.
Learn more about Nathan:
Other Resources:
Book mentioned in the podcast: A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit
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