Our Man Across the Pond

It is exactly a year since Sirius Partners was established as a company. So, what has gone well, what we could have done differently and where we should focus our efforts for the coming year?

The opportunity for reflection is even greater as I have an opportunity to be in the USA for 3 months as my partner is on an exchange programme teaching at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York State until the end of May. Our 13-year old daughter is now established in a US school and getting to grips with all that is different – including getting picked up by a big yellow bus at 06:42 for a 07:20 start (!), doing Math rather than Maths, and being the newcomer to class with an interesting and different accent. And what was the most frequently asked question from her fellow 8th Grade students on day 1 at school? “What is the worst curse word you know?”

Whilst I plan to be spreading my time between work (client-work and business development) and pleasure (visits to NYC, odd ski-trips and general sightseeing), I also plan to get into the routine of writing regular blogs. Some will be reflections on cultural and environmental differences between the UK and USA, some will no doubt be triggered by random events or sights, and I guess the subject matter will come round to the Affordable Care Act (AKA ObamaCare) which was passed in May 2010 and comparisons with the UK healthcare system. These blogs will be featured on the Sirius Partners website as a series of themed blogs – SiriUS Stateside.

We launched Sirius Partners at the Commissioning Show way back in June. The show was useful, and apart from the opportunity to meet potential customers and keep up to speed with changes in the commissioning environment it also acted as a focal point for us to set out our stall as far as the new company was concerned. This meant that we were able to articulate where we could best add value to customers, and really think about how we could bring our offerings to potential clients.

Summer saw a steady increase in customer activity, and we secured work with a number of organisations including Mental Health and Social Care Trusts, CCG consortia, Acute Trusts, IT solution providers and the NHS Wales Informatics Service We have had universally positive customer feedback, and some great testimonials – something we have every intention of maintaining as we grow as a company by maintaining a relentless focus of delivering value.

The autumn saw a consolidation of all the preparation and hard work allowing us to demonstrate that we had appropriate experience and expertise and could deliver excellent value for money on every engagement. This resulted in a number of existing customers asking Sirius Partners to carry out further work for them, making best use of our skills and knowledge, as well as the time spent really getting to know their organisations. We are also gaining traction with our Business Management System (QOREX) which is really helping a number of organisations focus on the activities that derive the greatest impact on delivery of their strategic objectives.

So … the analysis of our first year as Sirius Partners. Do I regret making the decision to establish the new company in partnership with Phil? Not a single bit. Despite initial anxieties it has been a great year, and one where we have been able to focus on what we are good at. We have stayed true to our core values and this is really important to us. We have attracted a lot of interest from potential partners and associates and can feel our brand and presence in the Healthcare market growing and developing. We are confident that we will see further expansion in our customer base over the next 12 months, which will enable us to further support Health and Social Care organisations to make the very most of their constrained budgets.

And I look forward to contemplating my world in the context of my trans-Atlantic experiences over the next 3 months in the SiriUS Stateside series of blogs. As they say over here, “Have a nice day”.