Notes from the Boardroom: Caroline Shaw, Christie NHS Foundation Trust CEO

Caroline Shaw is Chief Executive of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust – one of Europe’s largest cancer treatment centres.

Our cancer patients are at the heart of everything we do – but first and foremost we are a business. We have very different income streams and customers to commercial organisations.  We have different targets and different measurements.  But we are still a business.

And being responsible for 40,000 patients a year at Europe’s largest cancer centre certainly requires a strong business approach.

Twenty years ago I was a young midwife, outspoken and critical of ‘business’ managers in the NHS. But I quickly realised that to develop patient services I needed to jump to the other side.

As a manager I was able to drive through changes that had a significant impact across services. Changes that could not just benefit individual patients, but huge groups of patients.

I wasn’t frightened of challenging the doctors. And I wasn’t frightened of pushing through ideas. I developed business-effective techniques, and skills at ensuring engagement and commitment from others.

And I always focused on the patients.

I built up a reputation for turning round teams through reform and modernisation, and started to climb up the ladder.

I am now so proud to head-up an organisation that includes NHS and private patient services, a charity, clinical research and education.

We are currently ranked as the best hospital in the country for cancer treatment and care, the best centre in the country for cancer research – we also run the second-largest hospital charity in the country and have top marks for our financial management.

The challenge is to stay strong and ahead of the game in this difficult economic climate. Ensuring that we keep pulling in additional income through our charity, private patients and research to keep developing services. And to continue with efficiency savings through robust financial management, without compromising on quality.

That’s why we’ve just announced a joint commercial venture with HCA International to develop a new private patient cancer centre.

I am lucky to work with brilliant people and that I can keep learning.

Sometimes I feel like a football manager keeping his star strikers happy – medical consultants are incredible, very intelligent people who do brilliant things but, with that brilliance you understandably get strong opinions.  But I welcome strong opinions and challenge. It’s all about team-work and none of us ‘know it all’.

I have always had many different role models – from my mother, to famous women leaders to amazingly successful entrepreneurs – and I take inspiration from everyone around me and beyond.

Especially our cancer patients.  They are the most precious ‘customer’ anyone could have.

It is the patients who give me courage and inspiration. Every day I hear about inspiring, heart warming and incredible patient stories.

Most days, this is the best job in the world. The expectations and pressure can be huge. But passion and determination are my two key ingredients. They always keep me going and never let me down.

And for me it’s not about using business skills in an academic or scientific way. I’ve done everything with my heart as well as my head.

I entered nursing because my father had been very ill and needed the NHS. I saw first hand the impact good, and bad, care could have on his life and I wanted to make a difference.

“Whatever you do with your life, don’t have any regrets.” This is what my mother used to repeat to me when I was young.

And I can honestly say I never have.

Caroline Shaw was presented with a prestigious First Women Award on 23 June. Held in association with Lloyds Banking Group, supported by the CBI and with Sarah Brown as patron, the awards were founded six years ago to recognise women at the top of their professions who are leading the way for the next generation.Click here to see FMWF’s report on the full line-up of women honoured at this year’s awards.

>> Our last Notes from the Boardroom guest blog featured John Lewis board member and commercial director Andrea O’Donnell. Andrea revealed how the company won and maintained its hard-earned reputation for customer service and offered advice on how your business might achieve similar results

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Posted by Caroline Shaw on Monday, June 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am.

Filed under Ask an Expert, Business Icons, Careers, Features, SMEs, Starting a Business, Tagged as: , Notes from the Boardroom.