New book teaches practical business skills to public health professionals
July 15, 2008
The University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School have announced the publication of Public Health Business Planning: A Practical Guide, a step-by-step manual for planning effective business strategies for public health-related programs.
Authors of the book include Stephen N. Orton, PhD, Anne J. Menkens, MA, and Pamela Santos, MBA. Orton and Menkens are, respectively, deputy director and program director in the Office of Executive Education at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, part of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Santos is senior management consultant in the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
The book, published by Jones and Bartlett, offers in-depth illustrations of why business strategies in public health are important and how to develop the strategies. Examples are provided from the more than 150 teams of working professionals who have passed through the Management Academy, a nine-month program housed in the N.C. Institute for Public Health. The Academy provides lectures, readings and coaching, and requires students to write business plans for initiatives they will implement in their work environments.
The book addresses assessment and industry analysis, program planning, implementation and evaluation, financial planning and budgeting, marketing, and strategies for creating the partnerships and alliances that will make programs sustainable.
“People who work in public health are knowledgeable health professionals, but many come up through the ranks with limited business skills,” Orton says. “We try here to give them the strategies that will help them take their effectiveness to the next level.”
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Note: The authors have created a Web site, www.publichealthbusinessplanning.org, where students, teachers and other readers can go for discussion, further examples and exercises that will supplement the text.