When I took over a global health tech P&L it was early-pandemic, we were mid-platform migration, and demand was scaling faster than our systems could absorb. The instinct was to move fast, fight fires, and build capacity. But this wasn't strategy - it was merely reaction. So instead, I took vital time to gather my team and take stock so we could develop a framework for how we would address numerous challenges under heavy duress. It started with defining how we wanted to work before tackling what needed to change.
Why Philosophy Before Process
There's a pattern I've seen repeat across health tech organisations under pressure: the impulse to jump straight into process redesign: map the workflows, tighten the SLAs, add analytic dashboards. Those things matter — eventually. But when a team is navigating significant change such as a platform transition, rapid scaling, and/or shifts in leadership, process optimisation without a shared foundation is like renovating a house before you've agreed on the floor plan.
The business I inherited had all the hallmarks of an operation that was growing faster than its operating culture could sustain. We were managing a complex platform migration while serving global clients who couldn't afford disruption. Quality control had expanded to three layers, yet issues were still surfacing at the final stage. Project management was fragmented. And then a pandemic arrived, bringing a surge in demand that required us to scale fast, with no margin for error.
Rather than starting with the org chart or the process map, I started with conversations. I gathered my direct reports first, and we planned a unique Kaizen event that would incorporate input from every function and level across the global business unit. Before kicking it off, we asked ourselves a vital question: What do we believe about how we should work together?
Guiding Principles
Working with my team, we co-created a set of eight foundational principles — not corporate values designed for a poster (although we did ultimately make a poster, too), but an operational contract. Eight commitments that would govern how we made decisions, owned quality, and treated each other through the transformation ahead.
- We streamline and simplify processes wherever possible and eliminate redundancy.
- We standardise procedures and deviate only with clear justification.
- We maintain a laser-focus on quality — every individual is accountable for quality the first time and every time.
- We value data-driven decisions; collecting, analyzing, and course correcting based on clearly defined metrics.
- We are solution-focused; thinking creatively and sharing ideas for continuous improvement.
- We promote a supportive culture of empowered teams and roles; leadership at every level.
- We take a consultative approach over a strict task orientation offering our clients expert guidance; We partner with our clients to help them solve problems.
- We always assume positive intent - accepting questions, challenges and criticism with the understanding that everyone on the team is focused on the principles above.
These weren't aspirational. They were our operational DNA. Every principle was designed to solve a real tension we were experiencing. With buy-in from across the entire business, these became the foundation for what came next.
The Kaizen: Giving Everyone a Voice
With the principles established, we needed a structured vehicle to translate them into action. We launched a global Kaizen — a continuous improvement event rooted in Lean Six Sigma methodology — but adapted for a distributed, pandemic reality.
The design was deliberate at every stage.
Before the event
Everyone had a voice before anyone entered the room. We surveyed the entire business unit — over 100 people — to surface ideas, identify pain points, and invite volunteers. This wasn't a token gesture. The survey shaped the agenda and ensured the Kaizen addressed what the team actually experienced, not just what leadership assumed.
During the event
We made the event hybrid in a way that was genuinely inclusive. We brought approximately 15 people (spaced out and masked up!) together in a large conference room. Another dozen global team members joined remotely, visible on a large screen, able to see and be heard as full participants. Over three days, facilitated by a Lean Six Sigma expert, we mapped waste, prioritised improvements, and formed working groups around the highest-impact opportunities.
After the event — where the real transformation happened
The Kaizen didn't end when the room emptied. The five working groups that emerged were open to anyone in the business, not just event participants. Non-participants could join a cross-functional group aligned with their expertise or interest, giving the entire organisation a stake in the outcome.
Implementation followed a structured cadence:
The guiding principles governed every decision along the way. When a working group debated whether to standardise a procedure or allow regional variation, they had a principle to reference. When someone pushed back on a proposed change, the team could engage with the challenge productively — because the eighth principle, always assume positive intent, had already set the tone. These principles were shared with every new hire and anchored at the front of key internal meeting presentations for the next two years as a reminder of who we are and how we operate.
What Changed
The combination of shared principles and structured methodology transformed the business unit's operating metrics within a year. Quality control was streamlined successfully. Project management was unified. The team moved from a reactive posture to a proactive one, with clear ownership at every level. We identified over 800K in year-one cost savings or avoidance. And team morale was vastly improved in the process.
The initiative was recognised with a CEO Award for Operational Excellence, and our team was the first of over a dozen product lines invited to share the story as a company-wide best practice — a recognition that the approach, not just the outcomes, was worth replicating.
The principles gave us a shared language for accountability. The Kaizen gave us a structured vehicle to act on it. The combination — philosophy plus method — is what made the transformation sustainable.
Why This Matters for Health Tech Today
I think about this experience when advising health tech companies navigating rapid growth in regulated markets. The operational challenges may look different — building a pharmacy network instead of managing clinical trial sites, scaling patient support instead of scaling study deployments — but the underlying pattern is remarkably consistent.
When a health tech operation is growing fast, under regulatory scrutiny, and possibly navigating a significant corporate transition — a merger, an acquisition, a new market launch — the temptation is to optimise the machine while it's running. And sometimes you have to. But the organisations that scale sustainably are the ones that invest in building a culture of operational discipline first.
That means defining what good looks like. Creating shared language. Making accountability visible. Giving every team member — not just the leadership layer — a voice in how the operation evolves.
Principles first. Then process. Then scale.
It feels slow - even counterintuitive - when everything around you is demanding speed. But it's the foundation that lets you move fast without breaking things and without losing the people who make the operation work.
