We caught up with our Knowledge Partner CultureBlox and found out about their vision, perceived challenges, and hopes for the partnership with Health Proc Europe.
James Thirkill
Position: Chief Revenue Officer
Organisation: CultureBlox
Country: United Kingdom
Learn more about CultureBlox
1. Who is behind CultureBlox/Healthcare Supply Chain Community and what is your vision?
Simon Murphy (CEO and Founder of CultureBlox) and I have both worked in Healthcare Supply Chain and Finance for many years. Simon was a former Director of NHS Shared Business Services, leading a team of 1,500 staff both in the UK and India who are responsible for processing millions of Accounts Payable invoices and Purchasing Transactions each year.
James Thirkill (Chief Revenue Officer) has worked in the Healthcare Supply Chain for many years at KPMG, TriSolve (Co-Founder), GHX and Virtualstock.
James and Simon have worked on many major system implementations and initiatives in Healthcare. Successful implementations of process, technology and major transformation were all heavily reliant upon the culture of the organisations involved.
We created the Healthcare Supply Chain Community to bring providers, suppliers and distributors together with the aim of promoting best practice, adopting standards and promoting proactive cultures that deliver sustainable change.
CultureBlox SaaS platform to define, measure and build ideal cultures, with associated methodologies and processes to support sustainable results and transformation. It is being used to great effect in other sectors, so why not healthcare?
We have adapted our platform and processes for Healthcare to create a solution to support the sustainability agenda and help providers and suppliers measure and reduce their carbon footprint.
2. What do you see as challenges in the organizational and technical field in the healthcare supply chain community?
The Healthcare Supply Chain continues to face significant challenges, over and above those that the current pandemic has brought. The continued drive and need to improve efficiency and reduce costs across the supply chain whilst improving outcomes for patients is the major challenge facing the industry.
Suppliers and providers are adopting data standards and technology to support the ever growing need to break down the current barriers that prevent the complete transparency and automation of the supply chain from manufacturer to patient issue.
The reality is that solutions are there that can be adopted to provide this complete transparency, implementing them effectively across all stakeholders in the supply chain is the biggest challenge, however often they do not get the necessary exposure that new innovations or established solutions that continue to deliver results should.
The need for change and clear focus and drive to improve the supply chain will be taking an increased focus over the next decade in the UK. The NHS has recently published its “Net Zero” directive that has a target for making the NHS the world’s first Carbon Neutral Health system. With over 90% of the NHS’s Carbon Footprint being attributable to the Supply Chain this will be the next major challenge for the industry as the implications for not hitting targets will continue to have a significant impact on the world’s health.
The other major organizational challenge that we see facing the industry is the recruitment, retention and development of resources in the Healthcare Supply Chain to support the continued and sustained change required to improve processes and ultimately clinical outcomes and the patient experience.
3. Which opportunities do you see for culture alignment solutions in order to reshape the medical procurement world?
CultureBlox has a SaaS platform and methodology that helps define, build, and measure high-performing organisations cultures. We have through our partners been able to develop a solution that measures the carbon footprint of all products and services that an organization buys. This data can be presented at an organization, division and individual department level. Our methodology provides the platform, governance and transparency required to support behavioural change that will in turn build the culture required to achieve the “Net Zero” targets.
The other major obstacle for the Healthcare Supply Chain is the culture that currently exists in many organisations around the adoption of standards and technology. Any organisation that does not proactively invest and focus on promoting the behaviours, recruiting and retaining suitable staff, and developing the culture required to change will struggle to meet the major challenges the next few years will bring. Aligning culture and behaviours on the ground as part of any sustained supply chain transformation will increase its chances of success.
4. What are your current objectives?
At CultureBlox our objective is to deploy our SaaS platform and methodology to Healthcare Providers in the UK and beyond to support organisations in the need to create the culture required to adopt innovative technology, data standards and reduce their carbon footprint.
5. From a procurement perspective: Who could benefit from your approach?
The approach we take I believe would be beneficial to both Healthcare Providers and Suppliers. The approach and platform can be flexed for both suppliers and providers.
Providers will be able to benefit not only from delivering change in their culture and ability to implement and adopt technology solutions but if they take our Carbon reduction solution, we are highly confident that they will achieve significant savings on their Non-Pay expenditure.
Providers procurement behaviours and motivations are evolving. Tenders and contracts will be won based upon sustainability in the very near future, it is vital that suppliers can react and demonstrate their ability to support providers in meeting their challenging targets.
6. Are you looking for any collaboration partner from the procurement scene?
Yes, we would very much welcome conversations with any partners who feel a collaboration would be complementary to their services. I am also particularly keen to hear from innovative solution providers who have delivered excellence in the Healthcare Supply Chain and would be keen to explore new opportunities in new markets.
7. We are excited to present CultureBlox as our new member. What are you particularly looking forward to in our partnership?
At CultureBlox we are particularly pleased with the partnership as we will be able to present our solutions to a new audience, whilst also welcoming Health Proc Europe members to share best practices with our supply chain community members.