Author Archives: Larry Janis

Chief Digital Officer

The Role

The CDO for Healthcare is responsible for overall product and technology innovation, development and solution delivery in Healthcare Division representing over $200M in annual revenues. The role is directly responsible for leading digital products, innovation and technology operations across 4 service lines in the Payer, Provider, Pharma and Healthcare Data Services markets.

The position will operate in a matrix environment reporting directly to our client’s Chief Technology Officer, participating as an active member in the leadership team of the Digital Products organization. The position will also have strong dotted line alignment directly to the P&L Business Owners of the Healthcare Division and will participate as an active member in the senior leadership team of the Healthcare business.

The position will be responsible, directly and indirectly, for approximately 150+ employees across multiple locations in the US and India.

The Digital Products organization is an exciting and dynamic software solutions group focused on building the commercial go-to-market products across multiple industry verticals including Insurance, Healthcare, Finance Services, and more. We emphasize innovation, world-class delivery and leading-edge thinking as a competitive advantage in delivering solutions to our clients and markets. The Healthcare is a high growth division of our client that is focused on delivering a full range of Digital, Consulting, Analytics and BPO services to solve the industries toughest challenges and deliver great outcomes for our clients.

Responsibilities Include:

  • Provide thought leadership in the Healthcare Industry and represent our client at select Healthcare technology conferences and analyst meetings
  • Partner with the sales organization to close client accounts, building strong relationships with peers at strategic accounts, participating in client meetings/conferences
  • Active participation in Division and Business unit leadership teams
  • Active participation in CTO Digital Products leadership team
  • Participate in developing the technology vision and strategy for the overall product and solution domain
  • Provides Product and Innovation leadership for the Healthcare industry solutions and business
  • Initiates and directs innovation and product engineering programs for effective introduction of new products and processes in the market
  • Collaborates with the Healthcare leadership, sales, service and operations delivery leaders, strategic marketing, and key stakeholders in the development and delivery of solutions to clients
  • Ensure the company’s awareness of key technologies and make investment recommendations and decisions accordingly.
  • Maintains an overview of state-of-the-art technology development, best practices, and trends within the industry and its impact or potential impact on business operations and goals, including digital (web/mobile), analytics, cloud, architecture, leading software development methodologies, and user experience.
  • Day-to-day execution delivery of all the Healthcare technology platforms and initiatives
  • Coordinate, coach, and inspire a global, distributed and diverse set of technical teams and resources to greatness

Qualifications and Past Experiences:

  • Bachelor’s degree (B.E./B. Tech preferred), MBA desired
  • 15+ years’ experience leading commercial software product development and delivery of multiple products in the Healthcare domain or equivalent experience in large scale Enterprise or Cloud-based solutions
  • Passionate about business results, with a strong sense of execution, accountability, metrics and ownership. – Strong organization and prioritization skills
  • Ability to communicate confidently at the C-level to build meaningful internal and external relationships in business organizations
  • History of collaborating closely and effectively with delivery, operations, and consulting practice teams in business development, relationship management, and competency building scenarios
  • Entrepreneurial mindset
  • Strategic thinker balanced with a grasp of details
  • Open minded, Innovative and leading-edge “change the way the world works” perspective

 If this could be a fit for you or perhaps someone you might know, please let me know!

Larry Janis, Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

P-516-767-3030 I C-516-445-2377

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The VP of Global Secure Facilities and Operations

The VP will be responsible for all Secure Sites and Operations in Plano, TX;  Cavite, PH (Philippines) and Exeter, UK along with developing our Strategic Global Secure Facility Plan.   The VP will form a company-wide global team comprised of some of the existing resources drawn from the company’s Client Services Delivery and Specialists & PMO operations along with newly created roles. The role reports directly to the SVP Client Services and is pivotal to supporting the company’s continuing high growth, un-equalled project delivery and high-quality customer service from our Global Secure Facility Operations. The company’s organizational refinement is ongoing. Anticipated direct reports to the position include Cavite and Exeter Site Leaders, Operations Sr Managers with support from Service Excellence Sr Mgrs. There is also a full functional support team for each respective site.

Responsibilities

The VP is responsible for leading and managing the Global Secure Facility and Operations team to support the company’s business and strategic objectives:

  • Leading the global facilities and team of Operations Experts in supporting Client Services which will mainly include data annotation, but also data collection, search, social media, linguistics, translation and transcription all in support of providing high quality training data for AI.
  • Anticipating and identifying business needs, both strategic and tactical, and building a Global Strategy and Operational capability across the Secure Facilities to support the growth agenda.
  • Operationalize Standardized Service Lines, by optimally delivering high quality data for various AI project areas that include Data Collection/Annotation, Linguistics (Translation/ Transcription), etc.
  • Developing and implementing robust short, mid and long-term resource plans aligned with company forecasts to ensure the business has the resources to support client projects.
  • Supporting the SVP in winning business by building technical tools and capabilities (supporting service delivery) that maintains its high quality, but in an increasingly cost effective and efficient manner.
  • Understanding and providing leadership and expertise in managing complex data acquisition projects supported by industry tools, systems and technology.
  • Understanding and promoting Service Excellence that ensures the business can scale, be adaptable and cost effective in a demanding customer-centric environment.
  • Being engaging, and encouraging a culture of coaching, professional development and self-improvement.
  • Establishing annual budgets and identifying strategic and tactical projects, with associated investments required for continuous improvement.
  • Maintaining knowledge of operational processes and procedures and providing input on areas to automate wherever practical to ensure a robust, scalable and clearly understandable set of rules, guidelines and KPIs.
  • Driving change with empathy to take the business on a journey to improved quality and service excellence.
  • Maintaining and improving an organized and productive working environment through positive and timely feedback, ensuring appropriate involvement, delegation and monitoring of staff.
  • As a senior member of the local management team, providing leadership and support to staff outside of the Global Secure Facility and Operations organization as required.

(more…)

New Study: There Are 2 Types of Leaders and You Can Spot Them by How They Stand

By Jessica Stillman

Take a moment and picture a leader. Imagine not just their face or character, but visualize their whole body from their hair down to their feet. Did you picture someone standing wide and tall, looking down sternly from on high? Or did you picture someone equally confident but friendlier, smiling up at their followers?

Whichever way your imagination went, new science says you’re probably right. Research by a team of Canadian psychologists recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that all leaders can actually be divided into two types. If you want to know which type someone is, just look at their body language.

What type of leader are you? Check your body language.

The research was built on a simple observation: There are two ways to get ahead. You can dominate people by making them fear you or you can win their loyalty with your intelligence and kindness. Anyone who has ever gotten through high school or voted in a presidential election has probably made a similar observation, but does this common sense model of leadership hold up under scientific scrutiny?

Several previous studies suggested so, but to confirm this and dig into how these types of leaders present themselves, the researchers behind the latest study designed a series of five experiments. They generated computer avatars of leaders, asked actors to perform the role of leaders, observed real-life groups sort themselves into hierarchies during a task, and asked volunteers to evaluate real-life politicians.

No matter how they ran the experiments, the same pattern emerged. Those asked to rate leaders responded to two distinct body language patterns. Both were associated with power and leadership, but people viewed the two types of leaders very differently.

The first type of leader tended to adopt a stereotypical “power pose“: Think of Donald Trump and staring down from a campaign poster with a serious expression and his body spread wide. Observers saw this type as dominant. Essentially, they intimidate people into following them.

Instead of looking down with a scowl, the other type of leader looked up with a smile. Like dominant types, they stood with their chest out, but they took up less space. These folks were also seen as leaders, but they were viewed as caring and competent rather than as dominating. They gained followers through prestige, which they developed by demonstrating their expertise and helping people.

In the words of the authors, all this “provides strong converging evidence that dominance and prestige are associated with distinct nonverbal signals which naturally emerge in ecologically valid group settings and real-world rank contests, and result in rank conferral from others.”

Or in everyday language, the researchers’ initial hypothesis played out. When we say “leader,” we actually have two distinct types of people in mind. One rises through dominating others. This type of leader physically takes up a lot of space, tends to tilt their head downward, and often wears a fierce facial expression. The other type relies on prestige, not fear. You can spot them by the upward tilt of their heads, their far greater likelihood of smiling, and their less expansive posture.

Prestige or dominance

As the British Psychological Society Research Digest write-up of the new research notes, this difference may help explain why the popular idea of “power posing” seems to offer inconsistent results. Maybe it works sometimes and not others because the traditional “superman” (or woman) stance mimics dominant leaders and this approach works only in some situations and only for some people.

Which is fascinating if you happen to have been following the fierce (if sometimes nerdy) debate on the subject. But this research is useful even if you haven’t. It can help you assess both your own leadership style and the style of those you work with. All you have to do to start getting a sense of whether someone relies on dominance or prestige to get ahead is to look at their body language.

Source: Inc

Account Manager

Account Manager is responsible for all client interfaces within the assigned account scope. S/He works together with his/her manager to build an account plan and is responsible for client management based on the account plan. Usually, the Account Manager handles multiple accounts or a large account depending on the value. He / She is responsible for Revenue Growth within these accounts.

Job Description –Account Manager

  • Client relationship management –managing relationships with operational client personnel – those directly involved with the client’s presence
  • Business Development – responsible for building a portfolio of USD 10MN + driving revenues within the assigned account scope by being the owner of the entire Opportunity Management cycle: Prospect-Evaluate-Propose-Close. This involves identifying business opportunities, selling concepts to the client where required and influencing the client to give additional business based on demonstrated capability and past performance.
  • Conduct research as well as competitor analysis, create proposals / pitches, validate estimates / effort, deliver client presentations and negotiate with clients.
  • Client delivery assurance – assuring the client of Tech Mahindra commitment and driving the delivery process by working collaboratively with the Program Managers in the Business Unit
  • Collaborate with the Program Manager to address all people or infrastructure related issues that may be affecting the delivery of the project vis-à-vis the specific client.
  • Balance different projects running for the client that may involve different Program managers or horizontal competency units’ resources.
  • Work closely with the Solutions Leader / Middle Office to build customized solutions pitches for the target account and driving the revenues and delivery of these solutions to the account scope
  • Account Planning and Governance – completely responsible for all Client Management processes – Plan-Sell-Deliver-Manage.
  • Build an Account Plan for the account scope – with details of the relationships required, the opportunities that have to be chased, and the revenue expected from such opportunities, as well as potential threats and weaknesses that need to be addressed
  • Pricing decisions within the scope of the Master Services Agreement
  • Middle Office proposal support for new business development outside of account scope
  • Provide necessary input for building future alliances with relevant product vendors

Leadership Skills

  • Strategic Business Orientation
  • Leadership through Sustainability
  • Customer Focus
  • Innovation led transformation
  • Result Orientation with execution excellence
  • Leveraging Human Capital Experience

Experience

  • MBA and/ or Graduate with specialization in sales
  • a minimum of 7-10 years of experience in BPO, Contact Center, ITES space
  • Managing and growing accounts

Location

  • Kansas City, MS

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please let me know

Sincerely,

Larry Janis, Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

Email: janis@issg.net

P-516-767-3030

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Should I stay or should I go?

The topic of counter offers is an interesting one. I am sure you have seen articles and thoughts about the subject and they are usually one person’s perspective on the topic. For a somewhat different approach, we’ve reached out to people in our network to gain their thoughts and perspective on the topic.

 

 

We asked: You have just received an offer to join a new firm. You are giving notice to leave your current position and your employer makes a “counter offer” to keep you from leaving. You start to think about whether or not to take that “counter offer.”

 

I’m going to share my opinion from the employer’s side. My experience is that at best this is a short term affair when a counteroffer is made and accepted. Whenever I have made counteroffers, if accepted at all, the person may only be around another 6 months until they move on. Typically, the reasons for looking and leaving run much deeper than just money and if that is all that it was a much better way to handle it is to bring it to the company’s attention that you are, based on market research, underpaid.

Monty P. Hamilton,  CEO Rural Sourcing

If you make the decision to pursue an opportunity outside of your organization, you have made the decision to leave your organization.   If you are offered a job by a new company that you have prepared for, interviewed for and expressed interest in sincerely, you should take it and move on.    The key is to address the issues with your current company before you make the decision to pursue an opportunity outside.   If you feel you have earned a promotion or a raise, make your case to your employer and ask for what you want.   If you are not happy with your boss or colleagues, make an effort to improve the relationship.  If you want a new opportunity with your company, raise your hand and go for it.   If you do not get the answers you desire, then look for a new opportunity outside of the company.   If you get what you want after you tell your company that you are leaving, your company has communicated its true interest in supporting your career previously and you should move forward.  But beware, every company has its relative strengths and weaknesses – there will always be things you like and don’t like – they are just different.   If you expect to be happy elsewhere, by just changing your circumstances, you will be deeply disappointed.

Jonathan Donahue, Vice President Client Partner & Sales Executive, US Healthcare Insurance & Payments

Over a 30 year consulting career I have had three situations where changes in executive leadership direction have forced me into an external job search.  My takeaway is to pay closer attention to changes in executive leadership, and to take action looking for opportunities (internally and externally) more quickly than you would normally due to loyalty, job satisfaction, hope for better times, and inertia.

The first situation started when my manager’s manager accepted a role outside the company and brought my manager along.  New leadership flew in and changed the focus of our business (away from what I was doing).  I had inside knowledge 3 months in advance but said and did nothing (it was a confidential, F500 CEO move).

The second situation was when my manager and CEO (who hired me) left the company.  The 2nd line leadership team (four of us, plus functional leads) had a great 6 month run and exceeded all financial targets while the search for a new CEO progressed.  This period was the highlight of my career performance.  However, a new CEO was hired, business structures were changed, the leadership culture changed, and within 3 months I was asked to make room for my replacement.  I had maintained hope that things would ‘return to normal.’

The third situation started almost 18 months before when I was asked to participate in a possible spin-out of my business to another part of the corporation.  My manager’s manager rejected the change and we stayed in place.  A year before all hiring in our business was frozen, but the sales target was greatly increased which made the overall plan impossible.  Management reiterated an unwillingness to invest even a single resource in the business.  Four months before, an unrelated executive departure was filled, and the scope was increased to add a few businesses (including mine).  Even then I kept hoping that a healthy, profitable and synergistic consulting business would be safe.

Net-Net:  Pay closer attention to changes in management direction and act on signs earlier than you might normally.  I have waited too long to look internally and externally for opportunities, and to voice my concerns to my manager.  I suggest a more balanced approach.

Jeffrey Cohen, President, US Advanced Computing Infrastructure, Inc

More often than not, compensation is only one reason people decide to change employers, and often not the #1 reason.  So if everything else about the current situation is ideal, then the counter-offer may be worth considering.  If on the other hand the new opportunity is also a position upgrade, a dream opportunity with a desired employer, relocation to a favorite location, or other factors, then the counter offer is a non-event.

My advice when changing jobs is:  Be sure you are running TO something, not running FROM something.

Tom Mead, Senior Consultant at The Pedowitz Group

“Counter offers are a sensitive and polarizing topic, and there are consequences to them, even if they are received. While I was in a large CPG company’s Marketing department, a co-worker got a higher salary offer from another company, took that to her supervisor and management made a better offer to keep her so she stayed.  However, within the next year, the company went through some layoffs and she was let go:  Perhaps it was due to her now relatively-high compensation and/or because they knew she was disloyal or not happy (or she wouldn’t have been looking for a new job to begin with).

All circumstances are different, but one should weigh why you want to leave in the first place and be aware of the potential ramifications of asking for a counter offer.”

Steve Udell, Chief Marketing & Branding Officer / Marketing Consultant

 

We hope you find these perspectives interesting. If you would like to share your thoughts on this for future blogs, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Larry Janis, Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

P-516-767-3030

Email: janis@issg.net

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