Kavita Tandon had a candid conversation with Vinay Nadig, who has joined Simplify Healthcare as the Chief Strategy Officer. Vinay brings 20+ years of experience as a consultant and an operational leader within the industry, leading large-scale digital and operational transformation for several Payer organizations.
Listen to Kavita and Vinay talk about his role at Simplify Healthcare, the importance of strategy-aligned execution, and his vision for Simplify Healthcare’s path moving forward.

My primary goal then is to figure out how we expand to markets, how we get deeper into the payers that we already serve, how we get into payers that we are not serving yet, and then what other innovations we can focus on, in terms of products as well as markets. — Vinay Nadig

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Transcript

Kavita Tandon: Hello and welcome to the Simplify Healthcare Podcast. My name is Kavita Tandon, and I’m the Global Head of HR at Simplify Healthcare and your host for today’s episode. I’m very excited to introduce a special guest today. I hope our listeners are ready for a very interesting and interactive conversation with Mr. Vinay Nadig. Vinay has recently joined Simplify Healthcare as the Chief Strategy Officer. He has 20+ years of experience working with large health plans and enterprise software companies. In his previous role, Vinay led the Payer transformation practice at First Quadrant Advisory and worked with HCSC, BCBSMA, and Elevance (Anthem), among others. Prior to that, Vinay served as a Senior Executive at HCSC and led the digital and operational transformation in the commercial line of business, which helped the company increase revenues and reduced operating costs. As a consulting leader, he led the global healthcare practice at Genpact and served the largest Payers and PBMs nationwide. Vinay holds an MBA from Texas A&M and a Postgraduate Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT Sloan School of Management. He has authored several white papers and healthcare reform studies published by industry associations such as AHIP and Delta Dental Association.

 

Vinay has also written a book on leadership and has some interesting topics which we will learn about as we get to know Vinay on this podcast. Vinay, welcome to our podcast, and thank you for joining us today.

 

Vinay Nadig: Kavita, thank you. It’s really great to be here, and I’m excited to have this conversation with you.

Kavita Tandon: Thank you. Vinay, why don't we begin by you telling us something about your professional journey and what led you to Simplify Healthcare? (1:54)

Vinay Nadig: Sure. I started, or actually, I’ve been in and around the Payer business domain for almost 20+ years, so, you know, I can talk a little bit about that. And I didn’t get into healthcare by choice, design, or intention. As these things happen, I found myself in jobs and consulting engagements in and around health insurance for most of my career. Initially, I had no affinity towards it, but as I learned more about it and as I learned more about the impact that it has on healthcare in general and on people in particular, I got more passionate about that. And so, 20 years later, I guess I’m a healthcare subject matter expert, but that’s my experience in the domain. I’ve worked in and around these kinds of areas that Simplify Healthcare operates in benefit and plan management, provider data management, enabling services, customer service, and so on for a number of years in my career, and when I came into contact with Mohammed and Ruchir, and other leaders at Simplify Healthcare, we just found so many common intersection points that we thought, how cool would it be if I could figure out a way to join you guys and help take this journey forward?

 

So that’s how I came across Simplify Healthcare, and I’m really glad to be on the same journey with you guys.

Kavita Tandon: Wonderful Vinay, I must tell you, we are equally very excited to have you on board as our Chief Strategy Officer. Moving on, could you also tell us a little about your new role here and some initiatives that you have in mind for your first 100 days? (3:52)

Vinay Nadig: Sure. So, it’s really exciting. First and foremost, or primarily my charter, is to help internal and external stakeholders as the Chief Strategy Officer in fueling growth for Simplify Healthcare. Mohammed and the Executive team have visionary aspirations and pretty ambitious goals in terms of where we want to take Simplify Healthcare in the next three to five years. And my primary goal then is to figure out how do we expand to markets, how do we get deeper into the payers that we are already in, how do we get into payers that we are not in, and then what other innovations can we focus on in terms of products as well as markets. Right, so primarily, that’s my charter. Of course, as part of that, there are some functions that I will be serving as a leader as well, those that are involved in the growth strategy. And what I mean by that is from a functional perspective, marketing and the newly formed Business Solutions Group or Business Solutions Architecture Group will report up through me. And then we are also focused on building out an organizational change, acceleration, and Business Transformation group with a new leader I’m recruiting for right now that he will put up through me as well.

So, these are additional responsibilities that I’ll have. My primary focus is always keeping my mind on how do we help grow Simplify Healthcare to the goals and targets that Mohammed and the team have set for us. I’m just going to talk about what is really exciting about it. Simplify Healthcare has one of the best platforms I have seen in this domain. I firmly believe that it can be extended and expanded beyond the processes we’re already in and into adjacent markets we could potentially enter. As much as we have scaled and grown over the past three or four years, the best is yet to come, and that’s really exciting to me as I can be a part of that journey.

Kavita Tandon: Very interesting, and thank you for sharing that, Vinay. Also, Vinay, as we know, you have over 20 years of experience with several strategic growth initiatives for enterprises. What are some of the learnings and observations from your vast experience that you would like to share with our listeners? (6:42)

Vinay Nadig: Sure. I think sometimes we all get excited and enamored by laying out strategies. It looks very shiny, and it looks great. We want to do X by Y, and we want to grow here, and we’ll do this, that, and the other. And that process is very stimulating. It’s brainstorming, getting our thought processes engaged, and so on. The lesson that I’ve learned right is that strategy is meaningless and not of much value without execution. So, I’ve always focused on what I would call strategy-aligned execution, which means that if a strategy is not executable, then it’s not a strategy at all. So, the lesson I’ve learned is that once we set our target, the job has just begun, right? Achieving the target is more about the hard yards of execution, those activities and actions, and behaviors we have to take to get to where we want to be based on some kind of target, we paint ourselves. So that’s one thing that I would like to share with the listenership as well, that I’ll be very focused on making things that we talk about here executable and achievable at the end of the day.

Kavita Tandon: Very aptly said, Vinay, I think the key to strategy lies in its execution, and I think you’ve very well put it for the audience to get that understanding. So, Vinay, also tell us more about the book you've authored. I'm sure listeners will be curious to know why you felt compelled to write such a book. (8:41)

Vinay Nadig: Interesting question. Throughout my career, up to the point that I wrote the book, I always felt that I had the privilege of working alongside great leaders who taught me a lot about leadership. These were folks that I reported to, that reported to me and that I worked alongside, customers as well as stakeholders, and I always felt that wouldn’t it be great to put it in a framework that all of us could use, all of the lessons I had learned up till that point. So, the exercise I went through was how about putting it into 20 secrets, as I call it, that were short, easily digestible, and had a little tool to self-assess and execute on it, and that’s how the book was born. I have always felt in my philosophy that leadership has nothing to do with the title you hold or the number of people who report to you or do not report to you. I think leadership is available to everyone, and it is up to us to assume that and start behaving that way. So that was why I wrote the book.

Kavita Tandon: Interesting. Would you also like to share the name of your book? (10:27)

Vinay Nadig: The book is called Leadership is for Everyone.

Kavita Tandon: Interesting. Thank you, Vinay. And as you mentioned, you have shared with us a list of hobbies you like to do. I take it that you love the outdoors and approach your hobbies with the same kind of enthusiasm that you approach your work. Why don’t you tell us what it is you felt like to reach the top of Mt. Le Conte? (10:35)

Vinay Nadig: Mt. Le Conte is in what is known as the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee here in the US. It’s about 7000 ft. in height. My son, who had some time off from work, wanted to go with me and hike up the mountain, so we did. It was a great experience. It was a rainy day, so that point of it was not enjoyable, but we decided to stick it out and go up to the summit. So, weather-wise not so great, but the experience of going up there and coming down was amazing. We even ran into a black bear 50 ft from us. We stopped, and you’re supposed to make noises, we all did that, and the bear went away. So no harm was done there. I say it’s a great feeling of accomplishment, and I felt really good.

Kavita Tandon: Listening to you, I’m sure you both had some memories made that day. (12:8)

Vinay Nadig: Ya, Absolutely

Kavita Tandon: Wonderful. So, Vinay, coming to the end of the podcast, I would also like to understand from you the one thing you would like to leave our listeners with. (12:18)

Vinay Nadig: I think, the state of where we are as an organization, a team, and a company, I would say that each one of us should have this amazing feeling of excitement and anticipation at the growth to come here at Simplify Healthcare, as I mentioned earlier, the best is yet to come and I for one am really excited about that.

Kavita Tandon: Thank you so much for taking the time to be on this podcast and helping our listeners to know you better, and sharing your nuggets of wisdom. Your professional journey and life are an inspiration to all of us, and it has been a pleasure talking to you. We wish you all the best in this next chapter of your journey with Simplify Healthcare.

 

To all our listeners, thank you for tuning in to this podcast. Join us next time for more interesting conversations with our dynamic leaders at Simplify Healthcare. Bye for now.

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