Some Additional Insights into the Epic Corporate Culture
Posted Oct 05 2009 10:02pm
It's probably no coincidence that two of the most successful vendors of healthcare software, Epic Systems and Meditech, are very similar in their organizational structure and corporate culture. Both are dominated by their founders and a small set of insiders, have few management layers, are privately held, don't bother to advertise but rather let customers come to them, and prohibit their clients from meddling with their software. Multiple layer of managers are superfluous when the CEO/founder micro-manages or strongly influences most company decisions. There is no need for the CEO to bother with interviews because the opinions of the financial writers and pundits are largely irrelevant. If every hospital installation is almost identical, all of them can be managed centrally and efficiently. The software of these companies drifts toward vanilla -- not great, not terrible, but good enough to satisfy hospital CEOs who are not eager for IT failures. Client feedback, both positive and negative, is largely irrelevant.
1. Management...:It's awful and there's a trickle down effect from you know who. It's flat, meaning that the true decision-makers are spread thin. With a company of roughly 3500 employees, there are only a dozen that can make impactful [sic] decisions and it doesn't end there. The dirty dozen also have perfected the micro-management style.... When I left, I was only 3 steps from [CEO] Judy [Faulkner] on the [corporate ladder] but it might as well been 1000, yet the execs felt compelled to control every little detail, most of which could/should have been controlled by the next 100 in the company
2. Management [continued]...: Epic doesn't have "managers." They have team leads and group leads. A team lead usually directs a team of 5 to 7 employees. A group lead directs a subset of team leads. There are 24 year olds in the team lead role and I know of a 28 yo as a group lead. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, except the only quality needed to become a team lead is a strong work ethic. That's it.... As a result, there is an overwhelming lack of leadership throughout the middle ranks of the company...and here's the kicker: work ethic is basically determined by hours logged....People skills, communication, etc was rarely a factor. I was fortunate to have 2 competent team leads when I started but I was the exception to the rule. They "train" the newly promoted team leads but that training is a joke....
3. [CEO] Judy [Faulkner]. She's just strange. If you've dealt with her in the past, you'll understand what I'm saying. She's great for the company as the customers have great faith in her leadership. The company is her baby and she probably averages 90 hours/week. However, I think lack of a life has really skewed her vision....She's beyond demanding. She's mostly pleasant but if she's putting in 90 hours, she expects those working directly with her to do the same. She's the ultimate micro-manager.
Demanding long work days from "20-something" employees is the norm in the software industry. Hiring only youngsters and indoctrinating them in the "correct" way of thinking is also not novel. Many of these employees are learning the trade from scratch and getting their tickets stamped for subsequent positions. They will tolerate such conditions for the experience to be gained and will leave if unhappy. Moreover, hospital CEOs and CIOs really don't care about the morale among their various vendor employees. They only care whether the Epic software they have purchased for millions of dollars can be "slammed-in" and runs "adequately" in their hospitals. I think that the executives of other healthcare software companies should take note of the Epic and Meditech business models which appear to be the most successful in the industry.
It's probably no coincidence that two of the most successful vendors of healthcare software, Epic Systems and Meditech, are very similar in their organizational structure and corporate culture. Both are dominated by their founders and a small set of insiders, have few management layers, are privately held, don't bother to advertise but rather let customers come to them, and prohibit their clients from meddling with their software. Multiple layer of managers are superfluous when the CEO/founder micro-manages or strongly influences most company decisions. There is no need for the CEO to bother with interviews because the opinions of the financial writers and pundits are largely irrelevant. If every hospital installation is almost identical, all of them can be managed centrally and efficiently. The software of these companies drifts toward vanilla -- not great, not terrible, but good enough to satisfy hospital CEOs who are not eager for IT failures. Client feedback, both positive and negative, is largely irrelevant.
I have blogged about the Epic and its culture in previous notes (see: Epic Systems and Its Corporate Culture; More on the Epic Culture: Is This a Cult or a Company?; The Secret to Epic's Success in the Hospital EMR Market ). I have just come across a discussion thread about the company in one of the on-line corporate jobs and gossip boards called Indeed. I present below an excerpt from one of the anonymous reviews of Epic that focuses on the managerial aspects of the company:
2. Management [continued]...: Epic doesn't have "managers." They have team leads and group leads. A team lead usually directs a team of 5 to 7 employees. A group lead directs a subset of team leads. There are 24 year olds in the team lead role and I know of a 28 yo as a group lead. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, except the only quality needed to become a team lead is a strong work ethic. That's it.... As a result, there is an overwhelming lack of leadership throughout the middle ranks of the company...and here's the kicker: work ethic is basically determined by hours logged....People skills, communication, etc was rarely a factor. I was fortunate to have 2 competent team leads when I started but I was the exception to the rule. They "train" the newly promoted team leads but that training is a joke....
3. [CEO] Judy [Faulkner]. She's just strange. If you've dealt with her in the past, you'll understand what I'm saying. She's great for the company as the customers have great faith in her leadership. The company is her baby and she probably averages 90 hours/week. However, I think lack of a life has really skewed her vision....She's beyond demanding. She's mostly pleasant but if she's putting in 90 hours, she expects those working directly with her to do the same. She's the ultimate micro-manager.
Demanding long work days from "20-something" employees is the norm in the software industry. Hiring only youngsters and indoctrinating them in the "correct" way of thinking is also not novel. Many of these employees are learning the trade from scratch and getting their tickets stamped for subsequent positions. They will tolerate such conditions for the experience to be gained and will leave if unhappy. Moreover, hospital CEOs and CIOs really don't care about the morale among their various vendor employees. They only care whether the Epic software they have purchased for millions of dollars can be "slammed-in" and runs "adequately" in their hospitals. I think that the executives of other healthcare software companies should take note of the Epic and Meditech business models which appear to be the most successful in the industry.