Anurag Jaiswal Brings Diverse Experience to University of Chicago Medicine

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What do Walmart and hospital supply chains have in common? Anurag Jaiswal says it may be more than what you think.

The executive director of supply chain systems and analytics at University of Chicago Medicine brings a variety of experience to his current role, including time spent working in retail. That likely served as some of the best preparation for him to make impact in hospital supply chain.

“A Walmart has about 142,000 products in one store. An average 1,000 bed acute care hospital has about 120,000 products to support patient care,” Jaiswal explains. “In that respect, we are more similar to Walmart than one may think.”

With a résumé boasting supply chain leadership positions at Sears, Conagra Foods, and Capgemini Group’s IGATE, Jaiswal has relied on his varied professional background during his tenure at University of Chicago Medicine.

American Healthcare Leader spoke with Jaiswal about his accomplished legal career, passion for supply chain, and advice for the next generation of leaders.

What challenges did you face when you entered the healthcare industry?

I have experienced good challenges. I don’t have to travel to a new town every week anymore, which was the norm in my previous job. So that is good, favorable adjustment for me and my family. I also learned to practice and develop lean culture, and University of Chicago has a very strong lean culture.

Also, while the University of Chicago is a big organization, within supply chain, we have a start-up culture. It’s a very small team and when we’re provided opportunity and we go get done with owner mindset. So, I like the team and organization I have had the opportunity to relive the early days of my career building team in start-up organization.

How did you go about familiarizing yourself with the healthcare space given you came from very different industries?

From day one, I walked for at least an hour every day around the hospital, meeting teams, and building relationship for improvements. Most of the high impact improvements came from collaboration of cross-functional teams working towards common goal.

I would never imagine a team in such a large healthcare organization running like a start-up. That’s really interesting. How large is your current team?

I have small team and three direct reports. One group manages purchasing operation and closely works with the account payable team to resolve any issues related to suppliers. And the other team that manages source-to-pay master data, support supply chain technology, and drives technology based process improvements.

What characteristics do you credit for your success in your current leadership role?

Supply chains are complex and important function with goal to support care for patient with positive experiences. Being humble and driving small continuous improvements is key to the success. Small improvements and projects creates the organization strength to successfully drive bigger change such as implementing a new ERP projects.  Having multi-industry experience helped me definitely understand similarities with retail supply chains and influence leadership decisions.

How did growing up in India shape the person you are today, both professionally and personally?

My wife often says to our kids, “Whatever you learn, it never goes waste.” I feel that way, too. I was trained as a civil engineer and I never went on to do a civil engineering job, but I still borrowed some things from my education. When I was based in India, I worked with the clients in the UK, US, and Australia. It was a good learning [experience].

I also worked in retail and manufacturing before coming to healthcare. I borrow different ideas from all of these experiences in my life today. That makes the sum bigger than the parts.

What obstacles have you faced throughout your career and how did you tackle them?

I have been very lucky in my life. Receiving great education, support from parents and family, and now working for University of Chicago Medicine, I am very fortunate. One of my obstacles was setting the correct goals for myself. If I have to redo my career, I probably would have set more ambitious goals for myself. As a young professional, if you don’t set yourself a stretch target, you are leaving some of your potential underutilized. I didn’t have that vision early on in my career.

What advice do you have for young professionals aspiring to follow in your footsteps?

Do your research, figure out your preferred marketplace, figure out your industry, and go for a job that you are passionate about—personally, professionally, and spiritually. Choose opportunities and locations that match your personality type. And it could be different in different stages of life too. This doesn’t mean that everything will fit exactly how you plan, but planning gives us a little bit more of a vision down the line.

If you are going into the healthcare space, you have to be mindful. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is not the last pandemic we will see in our lifetime. So, be prepared to be closer to the clinical setting. You need to have the drive to make an impact for the patients.

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