🏆️ S3T Oct 20 Special Edition: Finishing Strong in 2023, Financial Innovation, Learning Path for Healthcare Leaders, Crypto Blue Chips

Welcome to a special edition of S3T: Your guide to finishing strong as 2023 winds down. Plus: Emerging Financial models for better affordability in healthcare; The rise of Crypto Blue Chips. For paying members: A New Learning Path for Healthcare Leaders.

🔊 Listen to this edition on the S3T Podcast

Opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not reflect the official positions of companies or organizations those individuals may be affiliated with. Not financial advice. Authors or guests may hold assets discussed.

Macroeconomics

Trend: Financial Innovation for Global Healthcare

Healthcare data is slowly becoming standardized enough to yield useful predictions and insights that can enable care that is more proactive and cost-effective. As this evolution unfolds, a set of new opportunities for financial innovation in healthcare will become possible. The following offer a glimpse of how financial innovation could bring some gamechanging new capabilities to healthcare finance.

• US Chamber of Commerce paper on paths to achieving global universal healthcare coverage (September 2023)
• Oxford explainer on Impact Bonds and evidence to date on how well they work.
• NIH: Social Impact Bonds as a Funding Method for Health and Social Programs: Potential Areas of Concern - notes the tendency of free market approaches to sometimes miss crucial inputs or goals. "The use of market-friendly accountability metrics to determine the success of services has also been shown to limit time spent with clients, undermine values such as “caring,” and leave little space for the voices of people using programs.⁴ Finally, the focus on individual behaviors as preeminent causes of health outcomes runs contrary to scholarship on the structural factors that generate preventable ill health.^7–9"

Nirvana Insurance uses AI trained on billions of miles of trucking data to offer more affordable insurance for small trucking companies. Look for similar approaches to be applied in healthcare as data standardization and use of modern analytics increases.

💎️ For Paying Members: Learning path for Healthcare leaders. This curated list of books and papers will give you a grounding in the current and evolving models of risk and capital management in healthcare.

Emerging Tech

Crypto Blue Chips? Fidelity's Investment Thesis for Ethereum

Fidelity has decades of experience helping institutional investors allocate funds across different kinds of investments. In a recent paper Fidelity applies this expertise to the question "Is Ethereum a good investment?"

In their Ethereum Investment Thesis, Fidelity employs traditional analysis approaches like discounted cash flow (DCF), to structure investor logic that institutions can use to determine whether Ethereum matches their goals and risk tolerance well enough to deserve an allocation in their portfolio.

Fidelity previously released a similar investment thesis for Bitcoin (PDF) but no other digital assets. Does this mark the start of "Crypto Blue Chips"? ...a new class of digital assets given higher credibility due to formal evaluation and endorsement of traditional finance players?

The Final Stretch: Your Countdown Guide Top 5 Ways to Finish the Year Strong"

There are about 2 months left in 2023!

Which of these feelings do you identify with the most, as you contemplate the end of the year and the time left?

• "I haven't achieved everything I set out to do."
• "We're running out of time and there's still so much!"
• "Others seem to be accomplishing more than I am."
• "I just want to relax and take it easy."
• "Next year we're going to have a tougher time"
• "I've grown and learned so much this year."
• "I'm grateful for the support and opportunities I've had this year."
• "I'm excited about the new opportunities next year."
• "I've accomplished a lot this year."

Some of these feelings are more helpful than others - some can be catalysts to help us prioritize and take the best actions in the time that remains. Some of these feelings are passing thoughts that don't add a lot of value. It's natural to feel them, just don't stay stuck with them.

I want to show you the top 5 ways you can give yourself the kind of strong finish that you want to have.

#5. Review your year-to-date progress and document your results:

Go through your notes and organize them succinctly. Highlight the major wins and the lessons you learned this year. Keep it short. Nothing says "clueless" like a long novel about all the great things you think you did. Keep the statements short. Share the impact, with dollar figures or other numbers.

• Reduced data quality issues by 95%
• Prevented $6M worth of cost overruns.

Do the necessary research to confirm your figures. This gives you confidence as you prepare for year-end evaluations.

Start it now, and take a few minutes every few days to read and update it. By the time you're wrapping up the year, you'll have the satisfaction of a nice organized record of your achievements and learning. :

• Revisit your initial goals and objectives.
• Measure your progress against your set OKRs or metrics.
• Identify areas where you're on track and areas that need more focus.

#4. Prioritize the Must Finish Critical Projects

List all ongoing projects and rank them by importance and deadline. Confirm with your manager or stakeholders which items are "must-finish" vs "nice-to-have" by year-end.

With their input, make a plan that maximizes your focus on completing the "must-finish" high-impact projects that align with annual goals. You can optimize teamwork by organizing regular check-ins to ensure open communication, monitor progress and address challenges quickly.

#3 Keep learning

Resist the temptation to assume that it's too late to learn something new:

• Identify any skills or tools that can accelerate project completion, and see if there are short courses or training sessions that can help you quickly sharpen up your skills.
• Seek Feedback: Engage stakeholders, clients, or users for their perspectives. Implement feedback that aligns with end-of-year objectives.
• Around the end of the year, a set of annual industry reviews and forecasts are published by tech and business consultancies and advisors. It's a perfect time to make yourself aware of industry shifts or changes that might impact your projects in the new year, and adjust your strategies to stay relevant.

#2 Embrace accountability and make things right

If there are individuals that you experienced tension or conflict with, or stakeholders you may have disappointed, go proactively and address the issue in an open humble way. It's hard yes, but at the same time, its not. Make the appointment. Sit down with them, take a deep breath, and speak from the heart. Suggested ways to start the conversation:

• "I wasn't happy with how I handled things."
• "I have been thinking about what happened, and what I can learn."
• "I wanted to share how I've been trying to improve, and see if you had additional suggestions."

Now, some people will advise you NOT to do this. They'll say you're admitting that you deserve lower marks on your annual review.

But remember:

You get to decide your definition of a successful year and a strong finish.

• Is it to keep a low profile and hope no one notices where you need improvement?
• Or does your definition of success call for you to have the courage to be accountable? To learn and improve as quickly as you can?

People's perceptions of you and your performance will generally be more positive if they see you being accountable, owning your opportunities for growth, and making efforts to improve.

#1 Don't wait till Thanksgiving to get a positive thankful attitude

Throughout this whole year, people helped you. They deferred to you, trusted your judgment, and gave you second chances. This happens all the time and we usually don’t see it. Instead we usually choose to focus on the insults, the slights, the misunderstandings, the negatives.

The biggest thing single thing that you can do to help you have a strong successful finish for the year is to deliberately switch to a positive grateful attitude. If that seems hard, just remember and realize, you were given a lot this year. Start noticing the opportunities, the great experiences and think about all the times others were patient with you and helped you. Went above and beyond maybe in ways that you didn't recognize at the time. Nothing will supercharge your end-of-year performance, open up the communication channels, and increase effective collaboration like switching into a positive grateful mindset.

Summary

As 2023 draws to a close, understand we all experience a range of emotions as we approach the end of the year. We can use them to propel us forward. Focus on your own unique learning and growth journey. Take the 5 tactics shared here and adapt them to make the most of the remaining days and weeks in 2023. Above all, remember: YOU get to define what a successful finish looks like for you. Best wishes for a strong finish!

Thank you for reading! Have a great week!

Ralph