1. “They had me at “Hello”…”
“They had me at “Hello”…”. So said Stuart Fletcher, CEO of Bupa, when discussing his
reason for joining the organisation after 26 years with Diageo. We were privileged to
welcome Stuart as the speaker at our most recent HR Dinner Event (co-sponsored by
Mercer). Attended by over 60 senior HR Directors, Stuart shared his thoughts on his
personal journey over the past 12 months.
He provided insight on how he has gone about creating:
 a global vision for the organisation
 a cohesive and aligned senior leadership team
 a framework for transformation, across different geographic markets and multiple
business units
 a living, breathing, global roadmap for growth - Bupa 2020.
Stuart was appointed Chief Executive of Bupa in March 2012. Bupa is a leading
international healthcare group providing health insurance, care homes, hospitals and a
range of other health services. With over 52,000 people (soon to become 62,000) in
operations in 17 markets, servicing over 11 million customers, they are dedicated to
helping people live “longer, healthier, happier lives”.
International growth through collaboration and engagement
Stuart is a leading international figure from the consumer goods sector, having been
President, International at Diageo between 2004 and 2011. With a track record of
shaping and delivering growth strategies for over two decades, he has worked in both
developed markets in Europe and North America as well as emerging markets in Asia
Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Throughout, he has developed a
reputation for building a collaborative ethos, underpinned by a commitment to employee
engagement and to growing and developing people at all levels.
The opportunity for a CEO role with transformation at its core was compelling, but he still
needed to reassure himself that the non-executive directors’ understanding of what
transformation means was the same as his own. Stuart spent over 10 hours in
discussion with them prior to accepting the role, to ensure the appetite for transformation
was shared.
Releasing the energy and passion in the business
Stuart inherited a really interesting challenge; a complex business that was not broken
and did not require fixing, yet one that had to evolve, transform and become clearer and
more focused about its identity and its direction. This transformation would allow the
organisation to realise its potential and to deliver significantly better results, to truly
unleash the pent-up energy and passion of its employees and allow the organisation to
flourish on both a local and global stage. By doing so, and delivering exceptional results,
Bupa could fulfil its aim of delivering longer, healthier, happier lives for more people
around the globe.
When Stuart was President, International at Diageo and “International” was responsible
for 60-70% of Diageo’s growth, part of their success was attributed to his belief that his
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2. teams needed a sense of purpose and then be able to see their part in delivering that
purpose. Diageo International brought deep meaning to the Company’s strapline
“celebrating life every day, everywhere” and turned it into real purpose. As part of this
they committed to bring water to a million people in sub-Saharan Africa every year for
five years. Similarly, the “Learning for Life” educational programme they supported in
Latin America had the same galvanising effect on the workforce – to have a
wholehearted purpose was hugely motivating.
So, what did he find at Bupa? There was no collective ownership of an over-arching
strategy. As such, the business wasn’t aligned across its divisions and different
geographic markets, and there was no clear sense of purpose about where the
organisation wanted to get to. So while the organisation had a very clear reason-for-
being, “longer, healthier, happier lives”, there was paradoxically no real clarity about how
they were going to achieve that.
Having done it before in Diageo, he knew he could create it again and this has been a
big driver over the last 12 months.
Bupa’s special status
Bupa is a private company, limited by guarantee without share capital. It is not a
provident or a mutual or a charity but exists for the benefit of its customers. This
provided Stuart with “a gift”, an opportunity to work with his senior team to truly bring
Bupa’s purpose of “longer, healthier, happier lives” front and centre for the whole
organisation, rather than it being an umbrella statement for the business.
Bupa 2020 and shared ownership of the strategy
Stuart proved to be an animated and engaging speaker, and was happy to answer
questions from our HR guests. Speaking from the heart and with a clear passion about
his mission as CEO, absolutely committed in his belief that to deliver outstanding results,
you need to create a forward-thinking working environment where big ideas are
encouraged, discussed and given life to grow. When asked by an FMCG HR Director
how he set up the purpose for his initial executive meeting, he told us that in order to get
to the vision, prior to his first meeting with his Executive team, he asked them to consider
“If you had a magic wand, what would Bupa look like in any dimension in 2020?”
The executive management team spent 14 days in total together within the first two
months (more than they had spent together in the previous few years). They looked at
the healthcare market and how it might look in 2020 and shaped what Bupa would be in
2020. They did not delegate the crafting of the description of this future state, but rather
worked on the detail themselves.
Sprinkling magic dust
Stuart explained how he and his team went about creating the Bupa 2020 vision - one
that felt authentic and had genuine meaning for the employees. New to both the
organisation and the sector, he knew he didn’t have the credibility or the know-how to
create the vision on his own, so he focused on harnessing the thoughts, ideas and
talents of his global senior team, creating an open environment where anyone could say
anything, everyone would be listened to and ideas could be discussed.
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3. Denise Collis, Stuart’s Group People Officer, added “As soon as people realised they
had a voice, they became enrolled and came along with open hearts and minds. Stuart
sprinkled magic dust in those first few weeks.”
When asked by the HR Director of a leading digital organisation “What were the rituals
introduced within the team to build levels of trust?” He replied “I announced a top team
of 12. I retained 5 of my inherited direct reports; I have promoted 4 and only taken 3 from
outside the organisation. I ask all on-boarding executives to begin on-boarding before
they join, to be present in key meetings and have them build relationships before they
join. In these relationships, be deliberate but put yourself at risk. You can build a
relationship that matters in under an hour if you put yourself at risk.”
Redefining leadership
Stuart very deliberately set about transforming what had been previously known as the
Chief Executive’s Committee in to “a team” – in its truest sense – where a common
purpose was agreed, actions were coordinated and a vision created. Stuart wanted his
people to truly open themselves up to this process, to articulate what was in their heads
and hearts, to dream about what the organisation could become and what it could
achieve. To think the unthinkable and to dream of a brighter future. The ambition this
helped unleash was truly remarkable to Stuart and has formed the bedrock for their
future strategy and critically for action in the here and now. The team worked together to
create a vision for 2020 and importantly they agreed to jointly own the vision in all its
different facets.
Everyone had to have ownership of the whole. There had to be an equal contribution
from all, “I had to develop relationships with people who had not been successful as
internal candidates for my role as CEO; this was helped by creating something new and
them being at the heart of shaping it.”
People and engagement are the absolute fundamentals
Having taken this vision to the Board, Stuart and his team have created and launched
the vision across the Group. They initially launched the vision to Bupa’s top 200 senior
leaders and are currently rolling it out across the organisation. The Bupa 2020 vision is
centred on 3 core goals:
1. To become a healthcare partner to millions more people
2. To deliver extraordinary business results, (which allows the business to inject
more profits back into the organisation to deliver better healthcare to more
people) and
3. To ensure that people love working at Bupa (and are truly engaged at the highest
possible level).
Stuart outlined how the only way to achieve the first 2 goals was to ensure a heavy
emphasis on the third goal – their people agenda being absolutely core to the
organisation’s success.
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London: +44 207 964 9100 Manchester: +44 161 234 0400
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4. Retaining focus and a hard edge to business strategy
Asked by someone from the Asset Management community about spiralling corporate
costs for medical health insurance in the UK, Stuart was able to share some of the more
commercially practical approaches that any corporate would do well to heed.
“Private healthcare costs have been rising at c3 times the level of retail inflation for over
a decade and total income of medical consultants in private practice has risen threefold
in 17 years and 70% of total private healthcare costs are accounted for by private
hospital costs, where private equity ownership features strongly”.
We are the leaders in private medical insurance in the UK and we had to take action. So
what have we done?
 We looked at the main drivers in rising medical insurance costs and looked at the
private hospital fees and their rise compared to inflation. We negotiated with
hospital groups on pricing and data transparency to ensure quality care
 We undertook a complexity review for the most common medical procedures and
established new maximum prices for over 200 procedures. This included
procedures where advances in technology had reduced costs
 We have made substantive representations to the Competition Commission
inquiry into Private Healthcare and are looking to them to introduce some
material changes in the way the market operates.
Inspirational leadership
Our evening drew to a close with groups of people having animated conversations,
inspired by Stuart’s journey, his positive, ‘can-do’ engaging approach to leadership and
his determination to make a difference, both on a personal level and as the figurehead of
a leading global organisation of nearly (soon to be) 62,000 employees.
Hoggett Bowers Executive Search and Interim Management www.hoggett-bowers.com
London: +44 207 964 9100 Manchester: +44 161 234 0400
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