Leadership
Man on a mission
How Dennis Dawes makes the company vision and mission statement a part of everyone’s job at Hendricks Regional Health
By Erik Cassano
Smart Business Indianapolis | January 2009
Page 1 of 4
Dennis Dawes president and CEO, Hendricks Regional Health
Dennis Dawes, the president and CEO of
Hendricks Regional Health, likes to hammer away at the fundamentals, just like a
coach. The only difference between the
world of business and the field of play is
what constitutes “fundamentals.”
Where Indianapolis Colts coach Tony
Dungy might harp on tackling, blocking
and other basic football skills to his players, Dawes reinforces the Hendricks’ mission statement, vision and core values to
his team of more than 1,600 employees.
Of course, keeping a work force of several thousand focused on uniform goals can
be more challenging than rallying a roster
of 53 football players. That means good
communication is paramount for Dawes at
the Danville-based health care system,
which reported $278 million in gross
patient revenue for 2007.
“Repetition is always good, it’s like baseball or football, you always go back to the
basics and practice over and over the
things that get you to succeed,” Dawes
says. “Revisiting those (mission and values) statements is always a good thing, or
they won’t be mired in your mind.”
That’s why Dawes strives to stay in front
of his employees as often as possible,
speaking, listening, but always interacting
and staying in touch with the employees
who make Hendricks run. If you don’t stay
engaged, your ability to communicate will
suffer and you’ll never be able to create
buy-in on your vision.
If you can’t communicate the basic building
blocks of your company and live by those
principles each day, then no one else will.
“We try hard to keep those things in the
forefront,” Dawes says. “We try to keep
that in front of everyone and make decisions based on that, and we try to live it as
best we can.”
