“We should all realize, both public and private sectors, that we won’t get out of this crisis alone. The State, more than ever, needs a strong and enterprising private sector. The private sector needs a strong State, capable of adjusting inequalities and protecting citizens. This is not the time to promote dichotomy between public and private”, states the Luz Saúde CEO, in an interview to “Líder Magazine”. Isabel Vaz therefore hopes that “the pandemic can be an opportunity” uniting the Portuguese society “towards the same objective: to get out of this sanitary crisis and economic recession stronger and better prepared to reinforce the bases of a richer, fairer and more supportive society”. After reminding how the fact of having a Chinese shareholder (Fosun, also shareholder of hospitals and a major pharmaceutical company in China) was an advantage in Luz Saúde response to the pandemics, the CEO explained what were the priorities and first decisions – namely, to protect its collaborators, to ensure the distribution chains of the company, liquidity levels and operating fund, and to reorganize the network of hospitals and respective services. “For instance, in one weekend, we reallocated entire services, such as oncology, in order to ensure the safety of patients under treatment, and in the space of a single week, we placed hundreds of people in teleworking”, she explains. As for the future, Isabel Vaz sustains that “the success of the economic recovery will be closely related with the way the economy players on the whole will reorganize themselves towards a ‘new normal’”. This interview comes up within the challenge launched by “Líder Magazine” to 50 leaders and top managers of Portuguese companies for them to share their experiences concerning the crisis caused by covid-19. These entrepreneurs will participate in the Leadership Summit Portugal , in conferences taking place on October 7 and November 16 – with Isabel Vaz integrating the panel of speakers in the first conference, together with António Costa e Silva (Partex Oil and Gas), Pedro Castro e Almeida (Santander Portugal) and Rita Abecassis (AMP Associates). Complete interview to “Líder Magazine”: “Green light to a new normal” Key statements by Isabel Vaz in the interview: “On the whole, I have had the privilege of leading – maybe I should rather say that I have had the privilege of serving – an extraordinary team of professionals, who with great professionalism and dedication, navigated this storm in an exemplary way. In team, with no exaggerated egos, with assertiveness and a high sense of social and corporate responsibility. And together with doctors, nurses, technicians, managers and engineers, we have redefined procedures and hospital circuits, literally at all levels, and not merely for this new disease in particular. It was all accomplished at a dizzying speed.” “Our Chinese colleagues alerted us from the outset to the problematic of asymptomatic patients. (…) In the face of that contingency, the big decision was: let’s assume that all have covid and even if funding entities or our clients do not recognize that additional cost in the expenses, we will put all our professionals ‘in armour’. And thus we were able to efficiently control infections in professional groups.” “All companies of Fosun group at world level helped our colleagues in China, exporting personal protective equipment. (…) Our trading company GLSMED – tiny, when compared with so many others among Fosun group, at world level, that were trying to help the colleagues in China – was the first to establish an air corridor to deliver personal protective material to Shanghai airport. It was amazing.” “When it was our turn in Europe, Portugal in particular, to be in the need, (…) this turned out to be extraordinarily useful in the creation of air corridors and in the delivery of material fundamental in the fight against the pandemics, in a context of shortage in Europe and in a time where most countries adopted behaviours of ferocious protection of their national products stocks.” “I would like to highlight also the wave of philanthropy we once again had the opportunity to witness in Portugal on the part of the private sector, towards joining in and helping the community as a whole. And it is rather curious to detect, in parallel, in the media and in the words of politicians in general, a certain degree of cynicism concerning this philanthropy.” “Surely companies have objectives of return on the invested capital, but they are not limited to that goal, especially since the capacity to generate return for all stakeholders evenly is today part of the play, in the context of the present society values. Moreover: I believe we all, public and private sector, should be conscious that we will not get out of this crisis alone.” “We are resuming normal activity, guaranteeing safe infrastructures, safe professionals, stable work at home or in the workplace, with teams ‘in mirror’ and working scales already defined. We must return to normality. Almost two months of revenues were lost.” “From the strategical point of view, on the medium term, my concern is to ensure that this situation we live in turns into an opportunity for the company to ‘reinvent itself”, towards a ‘new normal’. And to do it quickly, so that it may be translated into a consistent competitive advantage.” “The most surprising finding? Perhaps our capacity of re-adaptation and organization. We held meetings that were much more efficient. We were much more organized, even at a distance.” “What this crisis taught me? Not to facilitate. It is better to overact, than to facilitate. Risk management assumed an extraordinarily important role within the company. There are no solo heroes.” “In the upturn, I worry about the most complex patients that, in the meanwhile, have been followed up via video consultation. At some point, I had to be more assertive and remind that there were more diseases besides covid-19, that there were patients needing us… This in a time where, everywhere else, the order was to shut down!” “Our Digital Clinical Centre is working for three years now. At strategic level, we needed to be able to compete on that ground. There are many consultations that can be made digitally. Our differentiation is that video consultations are made by a physician with Hospital da Luz accreditation, who knows his patients well.”
