What’s good, folk. To start off this entry, I’d like to send a huge shout out to one of my Stanford GSB roommates, Rashad B., who recently launched his new company, Power Learning (Link to the site). Power Learning is basically an online community for teachers that provides value-added tools for lesson and curriculum development. At Stanford, Rashad completed the same MBA/MA.Ed joint degree program as me and he and I spent countless hours talking about his vision for the company. I’m so proud to see that he has finally reached his launch date. He’s going to do a whole lot to help kids during his career and this is only the first stage of those efforts. If you have any interest in education, you might want to give his site a look.

This entry’s email is from a reader who is interested in business opportunities available to MBAs in the healthcare industry. Messages like this always make me chuckle a little because I don’t have any sort of healthcare background and don’t know much about the industry aside from what I read and see on TV. So, in order to answer the question, I have to step back and try to break it into pieces for which I can come up with something. After having answered a few emails like this over the years, I think I’m getting the hang of this sort of thing.

——
VK wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

I read through your blog and felt that you had a pulse of the market and would be in a position to address my query. Could you comment on the business opportunities available to graduating MBA students in the healthcare industry? My background is in IT of Clinical Data Management ?

Regards

VK”
——
My response:

VK,

Thanks for reaching out to me as a resource for your question. You’re question is a good one that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, but I don’t know if I’m the best resource to answer it. I know a little about the healthcare from what I’ve seen in news coverage and heard from friends, but I’m not really an expert in what’s going on there. That said, I’ll try to put together a rough framework that you can use to think through the types of opportunities that might be out there for you. I can’t guarantee that it’ll help you find the perfect job in the healthcare industry, but I hope it’ll spark some ideas for you to work with.

Once again, I’ll remind you that I’m not an expert on the healthcare industry, but I’m certain that we can back into something to answer your question. To generate ideas for healthcare jobs, you might want to think about the following three areas:

- Segments of the healthcare industry: As you know, the healthcare industry covers a wide range of sub-segments, which gives you a lot of options in looking for positions. One could move into medical research, hospitals, payer-provider companies, or nursing homes…there are so many options out there that one would have to think long and hard about which ones would interest him/her most. With the current debate over healthcare reform in the US, the most desirable segments could change significantly over the next few years. If I were making a run at healthcare gigs and wanted to target some potential high-growth areas, I’d look at:
–> Medical/diagnostic research: I have a feeling that there will be some major breakthroughs coming in the next few years and this segment could be positioned well. Also, this could bring some great industry context could be lucrative in the future
–> Nursing homes and other elder-care segments: Americans are living longer and the average age of the population is getting higher. As these folks get old, someone’s got to take care of them and players in this space could see some serious revenue growth in the next 10-15 years. I could be wrong, but I wouldn’t expect there to be many MBAs in this segment, so one could move the needle quite a bit by bringing in some strong business practices.

- Roles tied to business functions: Once you’ve figured out the healthcare segment that interest you, the next step could be to think through functional areas that match up with your career goals. So, what do I mean by “functional areas”?…In this case, one would basically look in the areas that make up a standard MBA core curriculum, including strategy, operations, HR, IT, and marketing. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of many specific position titles, but I know that there are lots of functional positions in healthcare that could lay the groundwork for a great career.

- Healthcare-related consulting: When all else fails in coming up with jobs directly in the industry, you can always go with consulting to the industry, right? There are plenty of healthcare-related positions in the consulting industry at both the larger global firms and the smaller boutique shops. Often, the best candidates for those positions are people who’ve worked in the industry previously, so your background in healthcare IT could give you a decent foundation to make that sort of transition. But, previous healthcare experience isn’t always necessary from what I’ve seen if the person is coming in out of grad school. If this might be an area that interests you, I’d recommend doing some Google searches to see what you can come up with on this one.

As I read over what I’ve typed above, I’m recognizing that I might not have provided you with the “answer” you were seeking, but I hope this serves as a framework to help you think through your options. I’m not sure if you’re currently in business school or are about to apply, but I wish you the best of luck in your quest to re-position yourself in the Healthcare industry. Take care.

Marquis