Creating Engaging Healthcare Brands with Sharon Knight
Sep 30, 2024
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Sharon Knight, a Partner at JAZZ Venture Partners, brings her diverse background in finance and operations to the conversation. She discusses essential strategies for creating consumer-centric healthcare brands and emphasizes viewing patients as customers. Sharon shares insights on navigating industry changes and the qualities she seeks in exceptional entrepreneurs. With her experience from leading teams at KFC and One Medical, she highlights the importance of enhancing patient communication and tackling challenges like wait times.
Building consumer-centric healthcare brands involves treating patients as customers by understanding their needs and enhancing trust through accountability.
Effective leadership in health tech startups relies on focusing on core objectives, building strong teams, and fostering a collaborative environment.
Deep dives
Treating Patients as Customers
Building consumer-centric healthcare brands requires treating patients as customers, which means actively listening to their needs and managing their expectations. Companies should strive to understand what values patients prioritize and work to meet those needs effectively. In cases where errors occur, it is crucial for organizations to acknowledge mistakes and apologize, cultivating trust and loyalty. This customer-centric approach not only enhances the patient experience but also contributes to higher expectations from healthcare providers as consumers become more engaged in their own health care.
The Value of a Membership Model
Implementing a membership model in healthcare allows organizations to create a sense of community and belonging among patients. This model encourages patient engagement by enabling providers to establish direct communication with active members, thereby enhancing the quality of care. Focus groups can help determine the appropriate price for membership fees, ensuring they reflect the perceived value of the services offered while also being affordable. Such an approach not only differentiates a brand but also allows for better understanding and retention of patients' needs.
The Role of Strong Leadership in Startups
Effective leadership is critical for the success of health tech startups, where the ability to focus on core objectives and avoid distractions can determine success or failure. Investors look for entrepreneurs who possess bold ideas and the talent to assemble strong teams that can execute those ideas. Leadership also involves building trust with team members and being accountable while maintaining a collaborative atmosphere. Emphasizing followership—how well team members resonate with and support their leaders—can significantly impact a startup’s potential for success.
After leading finance and development functions and multi-national teams at KFC, Gap, and Electronic Arts, Sharon Knight joined One Medical Group, growing the clinic nationwide. With deep experience in finance and operations, Sharon is now improving wellness and advancing the human health span as a Partner at JAZZ Venture Partners, where she focuses on building consumer-centric healthcare brands and supporting innovative healthtech startups.
In this episode, we discuss Sharon’s advice for building consumer-centric healthcare brands, approach to treating patients as customers, and her insight on leading teams through significant industry changes. She also shares her strategies for successful investment in health tech and the qualities she looks for in exceptional entrepreneurs. Enjoy our conversation.