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Making good health globalDanie Meintjes acquired the hard yards through a quarter of a century’s corporate experience at Rembrandt and Mediclinic; the rest he learnt at Harvard Business School. Perhaps that partially explains why he is considered a man with the Midas touch, contributing to the halving of staff turnovers and transforming Middle-East operations into business empires.
Meintjes, the perennial understated champion, would prefer to attribute his quick rise to the position of chief executive officer of Mediclinic International to “some hard work, the privilege of being identified as a potential corporate leader by your superiors, and a stroke of luck.”
When Mediclinic Middle East was formed, the group swelled its revenue in its previous financial years by 37% to R1.12 billion, according to the Financial Mail.
Meintjes played a pivotal role in this robust growth as managing director of Emirates Healthcare, although those five years required sacrifices, as he was away from his two daughters for such a prolonged period.
He received high fives for his role in assisting the company to halve its staff turnover from 30% four years ago.
Meintjes currently presides over a global empire with three operational platforms known as Mediclinic Southern Africa, Mediclinic Middle East and Mediclinic Switzerland.
There had been several quantum leaps since the company started 28 years ago with a humble vision of establishing a mid-sized private hospital in the Western Cape.
In 1995, it acquired the MediCor group and grew from nine to more than 20 hospitals. Today, Mediclinic Southern Africa has 52 hospitals and 7 100 beds.
When confronted with several regulatory challenges at home, Meintjes and Co. decided that rather than to diversify into related businesses, they would opt to diversify geographically.
Medi-Clinic acquired controlling shares in an existing Dubai group in 2005 and currently boasts two hospitals in Dubai with a 330-bed capacity supported by eight multidisciplinary clinics that refer work to these hospitals.
A significant international medical takeover occurred in 2007 when the group acquired Hirslanden in Switzerland – the largest hospital group in that country, with 14 hospitals and 1 500 beds.
The international group employs in excess of 20 000 permanent employees as Mediclinic International has swelled to a significant global player, while the Stellenbosch-based Mediclinic is South Africa’s third-largest private hospital operator.
It has been 25 brief years from Meintjes’ being the hospital manager at Sandton to becoming the CEO.
His parents would have been proud of the young kid who started at a farm school in Reitz in the Free State, driving to and from the educational facility in a horse and cart.
Meintjes’ other formative school years were spent in Sentraal Hoërskool in Bloemfontein before he attended Free State University to complete a degree in Human Resources.
He had a short stint at what is currently known as the National Intelligence Agency before landing his first job at Rembrandt. This decision was a master stroke, and 25 years later he became CEO of Mediclinic International.
Meintjes is an adventurist and pioneer by nature, always challenging his own comfort zone. That is why he ventured to Harvard Business School shortly after his appointment as CEO, for an advanced management programme of two months, which proved to be nothing short of inspirational. (Luckily for Pedro, his wife of more than 30 years, and their daughters Christine and Lydia, it was an intense but short course, not a drawn-out two-year affair.)
Under his inspired leadership, Mediclinic International is committed to exploring new frontiers. “We are constantly evaluating and comparing; and with the relative size of our groups on international basis, you get a lot of opportunities over your desk, so there is no problem to find opportunities. The challenge is to select the best you can afford, offering the best opportunities at the lowest risk,” says Meintjes.
“My personal vision for Mediclinic International is for the brand to be entrenched globally, defining us as a hospital group and not only as a group of hospitals. We must also differentiate our brand promise globally on our slogan: ‘Expertise you can trust’.”
He says satisfying customers (in their case, the patients) is still the best strategy in securing robust growth for Mediclinic International. “Ensuring a clinically safe environment and delivering cost-effective services are still the springboards for a business such as ours,” he adds.
Productiveness or lack thereof has been one of the problem areas of South African businesses. Probed about the Mediclinic effectiveness in this regard, Meintjes says data on hospital staff ratios and productivity from different parts of the world are freely available and the Mediclinic group compares very well with international standards.
The introduction of the National Health Insurance (NHI) has been a talking point on Twitter, Facebook and in magazines and television talk shows.
But Meintjes has embraced the new challenges offered by the emergence of the NHI.
“It is difficult to make an accurate prediction at this stage,” he says.
“The NHI is an additional form of insurance, funded by some form of tax. Any additional funds made available to fund healthcare are positive for us.
“We try to calculate and predict the impact of NHI. According to calculations done by our health policy unit, we are not overly concerned about the negative impact at this stage.
“We believe the government will follow a pragmatic phase-in approach over a period of 14 years. We will watch it closely, but we are not overly concerned at this stage,” he reiterates.
“We are of the opinion that South Africa needs a two-tier approach where private healthcare supports and augments the national delivery system for those people who can afford it.”
Questioned about the role he envisions for himself as a CEO in business, Meintjes salutes the role of two legendary mentors, Dr Anton Rupert and Dr Edwin Hertzog.
“When I joined Rembrandt group in 1981, I was very impressed and inspired by what Dr Rupert and his team achieved in terms of company culture, business ethics, fairness, their contribution to the wider community, and the quality of their products,” he says.
“When I became one of the first hospital managers in the Medi-Clinic group, I worked closely with the founder and current chairperson, Dr Hertzog. Although he had little business and management experience, his work ethic and ability to make judgments calls on pure logic and gut feel rubbed off on me.”
The Lone Ranger approach will not cut it for Meintjes: “I believe it is not possible for a single person to make it happen (to be a big mover and shaker in a corporate environment). You need the enthusiastic team of senior leaders to create an environment within which each individual can perform to their maximum potential.
“The senior leaders within the organisation need to create the culture and environment for that to happen,” he says.
The global economic implosion of 2008 and the jittery performance by global financial markets in July and August 2011, after the downgrade of the United States credit rating, might have caused a number of concerns in private healthcare industries.
Asked how Mediclinic International may be affected, Meintjes replies: “We have a well-established infrastructure and experienced management team with a proven business model that was developed over almost three decades.
“There is an additional benefit that we have operational knowledge and experience in three diverse territories – it lays a solid foundation for future growth.
“We cannot ignore that we form part of the bigger international economy, and we cannot totally escape what is happening in the world around us,” he adds.
“But we have learnt over three decades that our industry is less sensitive to economic cycles compared to some other industries.
“Our track record over 30 years confirms a pattern of steady growth, despite cyclical movements in the economy,” Meintjes says.
Neither has the talk of a European recession caused turbulence within the Mediclinic International stable.
So far, the Swiss economy showed to be resilient, and the Swiss franc seems to be a safe alternative to the euro. Lately, the Swiss franc has appreciated strongly against the other currencies.
It could potentially have a slowdown effect on the economy, as it negatively impacts on the group’s ability to export on a competitive basis, says Meintjes.
On the other hand, Mediclinic International has had significant investments in property in Switzerland and so far it seems real estate is doing extremely well compared to that which is happening to other companies in Europe and the United Kingdom.
Meintjes says the change in brand identity from Medi-Clinic to Mediclinic International will not be harmful to its South African operations.
Quite the opposite is true: “Medi-Clinic was founded 28 years ago and we achieved very good growth in South Africa over the last two and a half decades. But we entered the international arena in 2006, and we are of the opinion that Mediclinic International would reflect our global presence across three platforms much better than the old Medi-Clinic operation,” Meintjes explains.
“The new name will enhance the Mediclinic brand in South Africa as well as the fact that we link it to an internationally represented company.
“We are very committed to growth in South Africa. For this reason, we keep investing serious capital in South Africa to support the local business,” he adds.
The Financial Mail reported that Mediclinic International used the expertise of the UK-based international branding expert, Landor, and paid an estimated R15 million to give the brand a new feel.
Over and above that, R40m was allocated in the financial year ending in March 2011 for the brand to be incorporated into its hospitals.
Asked what his message on national TV would be to medical practitioners of South Africa if presented with a 10-minute time slot, Meintjes says the key message would be that the private hospital industry is doing a great job; all the people involved can be proud of that.
Various studies have showcased the fact that private healthcare in South Africa compares well to international best practices and standards with regard to quality, accessibility, physical environment and cost.
“But having said that, we cannot be complacent because affordability of healthcare is an international challenge – and we cannot ignore that reality,” Meintjes emphasises.
“Doctors, private practitioners and specialists form an integral part of the private healthcare delivery system. We need to find innovative solutions going forward. We need to work as a close partnership and create trust in this relationship.
“No single party can do this on their own. We need an effective team approach, always keeping the focus on the patient,” he concludes.
Fanie Heyns
