Overcoming Obstacles
John Pennisi has a simple approach to management that's based on the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you would like to be treated. By putting himself in others' shoes, Pennisi says he has created an environment of respect and trust that promotes hard work and good client service. It's this basic, empathetic approach that has helped him create a company where team members feel empowered and are given responsibility and a chance to prove themselves.Good work/life balance and team spirit bring company to a new level of performance.
The management structure for Medical Management Resources, Inc. (MMRI), a medical billing and consulting firm, is decentralized with a large team of managers overseeing the day-to-day operations, which is unusual in the industry and has numerous positive side effects, says Pennisi.
"The employees feel empowered and are encouraged to speak up," he says. "MMRI employees formed a productivity and technology committee, which actively gathers employee suggestions for improving our processes. Employee suggestions in the last two years have led to the creation of our own intranet and a number of time and money saving innovations."
Another employee-inspired change was the implementation of a more flexible "9x9" schedule. Employees work an extra hour each day and as a result get every other Friday off. This kind of flexibility fosters loyalty, because employees appreciate the company's commitment to a healthy work/life balance. It's also good for clients.
"The company always listens to employees," says Tom Kraus, a team leader at MMRI. "They realize that if the employees have buy-in into everything, they are going to give more to the clients. Everyone is going in the same direction and has a commitment to that satisfaction."
MMRI helps ensure that everyone is going in the same direction by providing new hires with an orientation program. New employees are matched with experienced employees on their first day of work to help ease their transition into the company.
Learning continues after the first day. Employees receive extensive position-specific training, including annual compliance instruction to update them on laws and regulations governing the medical billing industry. All employees are eligible to attend outside seminars and continuing education in issues affecting the medical billing and practice management industry plus tuition reimbursement for college classes in medical terminology, anatomy, physiology and coding. Lastly, the company continues to ensure that employees develop and improve other skills such as software knowledge through a partnership with a local adult learning center.
Pennisi says that the employee commitment resulting from a people-friendly culture has helped the company overcome some tough challenges in recent years. For example, in 2002 the company's largest client representing approximately 25 percent of the firm's revenue decided to take its billing operation in-house. Compounding the problem was the loss of the computer system MMRI used to do its billing when the equipment lease expired. Faced with the loss of a major client and the need to transition to a completely new billing system, Pennisi says his senior staff persuaded him to attack the problem head-on.
"I consulted with my senior management team and instead of downsizing we decided to respond aggressively," Pennisi says. "We hired an experienced software executive as our new director of sales and marketing and made increasing sales our number-one priority."
In addition, the company opted to purchase a new state-of-the-art billing system instead of leasing access. This meant adding new staff members to support it in a time when revenues were "uncertain at best." However, the gamble paid off and instead of taking a loss, the company was able to not only replace the revenue generated by the largest client but experienced a 4 percent and 17 percent growth rate in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
"I believe we successfully weathered those events because of MMRI's investment in its employees. Our large team of capable managers and our staff's loyalty made the difference," Pennisi says.
Since 2002, Pennisi says that the company has risen to a new level of performance as a direct result of coming together to face tough challenges as a team. "Our new diverse client base is part of the success, but there is also a psychological component to the change I see at MMRI," Pennisi says. "Although it sounds cliche, my management team welcomes challenges and approaches problems as opportunities."
Christopher Farnum, an MMRI client, agrees that Pennisi's investment in his staff is what sets the company apart. "John truly does excel at staff development. He is amazing at recruiting people with the right skills to do the job. If you wanted a numbers guy, he knows what to look for. Marketing, he knows what to look for," Farnum says.
Of course a little competitive spirit helps, too. "The other side is that he [Pennisi] is extremely competitive and takes such pride in what his group does," says Farnum. "He will go to umpteen lengths to stay at the top of his field. He delivers what he promises, and you can go to sleep knowing what he said is going to happen."
Company: Medical Management Resources, Inc. (MMRI)
Web Site: www.mmri-ny.com
Industry: Medical Billing Services and Practice Management
Location: East Syracuse, NY
Number of employees: 138
Sales: $6 million to $10 million
