Curtis Rooney and the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) have once again proven that Leadership Excellence is, without doubt, The Ultimate Strategy for Success.
As President of HIGPA, Curtis Rooney leads HIGPA’s efforts to advocate on behalf of the healthcare GPO industry. One can only imagine how busy Curtis and HIGPA have been over the past two years during the federal healthcare reform debate.
I recently asked Curtis about the Mission of HIGPA. Curtis responded as follows:
“Our mission is to advocate for our members on Capitol Hill and with the Administration. We do this by engaging our membership in issue campaigns, political action with candidates that support the GPO industry and by implementing a coordinated and a multi-disciplined communications strategy to our target audiences.”
I asked Curtis about the results of HIGPA’s recent advocacy. Curtis responded as follow:
“The GPO industry is modest in size compared to the much larger industries it must contend with in public policy arena. Despite being severely outmanned and outgunned during the federal health care reform debate we did very well.”
HIGPA was outmanned and outgunned in terms of staff and money spent on advocacy for sure. Public records indicate that HIGPA spent $420,000 on lobbying. Two other organizations, with competing interests, spent $1,960,000 and $26,000,000 respectively!
Yet according to Curtis,
“HIGPA was very successful in navigating the GPO industry through healthcare reform. We’re very proud of our success and believe that this was a great accomplishment.”
Money and staff help – no question about that – but money and staff, particularly being “outmanned and outgunned” by organizations with overwhelmingly more money and staff, does not necessary assure desired outcomes, effectiveness and leadership excellence.
Congratulations to Curtis Rooney and the HIGPA board and staff for effective leadership and advocacy, even though they were “outmanned and outgunned” during the recent historic national healthcare debate.
Leadership Excellence is, without doubt, The Ultimate Strategy for Success.
