A tasty little position has just opened up in Joburg, any takers?
Recruiters’ ears would have perked up this week as the CEOs of two giant hospital groups announced their departure, but they might have a job on their hands in more ways than one.
This week we learnt André Meyer of Life and Garry Watts of Spire will both be replaced as the heads of their listed hospital groups. Watts is leaving for medical reasons, and we wish him a speedy recovery, while subscribers can read more about the circumstances of Meyer’s departure here. The two take around 40 years of top level healthcare experience with them. That’s a loss to the industry, and investors we spoke to were worried about who would want to step into Meyer’s shoes in particular.
A potential beach-side mansion on the spectacular Garden Route coastal stretch of South Africa, and – for Meyer – an income that came to $711,000 in 2016, despite only picking up 65% of his short-term bonus, and a falling share price that took a Ferrari or two off the long-term incentives, might not be dismissed out of hand. Perhaps, take the weekend to mull it over?
But in FTSE250 (and JSE) terms these sums are par for the course. Watts’ package was worth a potential £1.5m and he only has UK tariff cuts to thank for sleepless nights not radical reform in Poland, stent price caps in India and the best place to pick up a bargain cyclotron.
It’s not money, however, that’s the main issue but the lack of candidates. Healthcare is short of entrepreneurs, for starters, but also suffers a political reputation that scares many away and is still taking its baby steps in internationalisation giving recruiters a pick of few top execs with knowledge of clinical governance on three continents, for example, to choose from.
The traditional way around this has been to promote from within as Bupa and Max Healthcare have done in recent years. We heard this may be unlikely to happen in Life’s case, however, and it’s questionable that the industry which falls behind others in digitalisation and marketing is best served by that practice. Pity the poor executive search agency that takes on this commission – though not for the commission they will make.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Claude Risner or call 0207 183 3779.
