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Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic
Book

Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic

Inside One of the World’s Most Admired Service Organizations

Leonard L. Berry and Kent D. Seltman
McGraw-Hill, 2008
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Professor Leonard L. Berry and former Mayo marketing chair Kent D. Seltman had wide access to the Mayo community, but their book is independent of Mayo Clinic, which had no control over its content, although the authors offer consistent glowing praise. Their engaging guide draws on research and interviews to present a rigorously structured, detailed portrait of an intensely patient-focused “medical group practice.” This overview’s most critical lesson about service as an art comes from its big-picture understanding of how the Mayo brand rose to – and stays at – the top of its field based on delivering high-quality care. getAbstract prescribes this manual to entrepreneurs, administrators, managers, systems analysts for service organizations in all fields, and branding and marketing professionals.

Summary

“The 100-Year Brand” of the Doctors Mayo

Mayo Clinic is the world’s first nonprofit “medical group practice”; it is also one of the largest. Patients and their families hold it in high regard as a “medical mecca” where they can get clear, authoritative answers few other health facilities can provide. More than 90% of its patients report that they speak highly of Mayo, serving as the organization’s word-of-mouth marketers.

Dr. William Worrall Mayo opened his medical office in Rochester, Minnesota, in the late 1800s. His sons, Dr. William J. (“Will”) Mayo and Dr. Charles H. Mayo, eventually joined the practice, carrying on their father’s vision, values, and focus on infrastructure and corporate culture. By the 1880s, their practice was already well known as a place where settlers new to the region could obtain medical care. By 1914, when the practice took the name Mayo Clinic, its reputation for quality care had spread. Word of mouth was so effective that Mayo didn’t rely on marketing staff until 1986. Mayo Clinic grew by absorbing other hospitals in Rochester. In 1986, it added a campus in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1987, it opened its Scottsdale, Arizona, campus. All...

About the Authors

Leonard L. Berry, PhD, teaches marketing and humanities in medicine at Texas A&M University. He was a visiting scientist at Mayo. Kent D. Seltman, PhD, served as Mayo’s marketing chair. Berry, formerly of the American Marketing Association, was national president of Marketing Health Services quarterly, which Seltman edited.

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