Value Rx: How to Make the Most of Your Organization's Assets and Relationships

The human genome has a counterpart in the business world, as this timely book explains, in plain English and as no book has done before. The authors show how organizations in the healthcare industry can use this business genome to identify, for the first time, all of the sources of value at their disposal. Beyond that, the book presents a detailed plan for using this new understanding to revolutionize a company's value-creating potential.

Thus, the title, Value Rx, is to be understood literally. In the original Latin, the "R" in Rx stands for the word "recipe," meaning "to take," and the book is, literally, a prescription for increasing the value of healthcare companies. In it you will find a new view of today's volatile economic realities -- and a new perspective on how to reinvent your company to meet those realities. Healthcare is everyone's business -- from consumers to policy makers to healthcare providers, suppliers, investors, and bondholders -- and these insights are important to us all.

Drawing on the results of a three-year, 10,000-company study, Value Rx reveals how value can be created in the healthcare industry. The authors detail four rules that enable managers in healthcare (indeed, in every industry) to create value by assembling and re-assembling all their assets and relationships in an infinite variety of combinations, much as human genes combine and recombine to create a healthy person. Further, they show how today's technology enables ever more valuable connections.

This book resounds with a call to action for regulators, business leaders and managers, caregivers and other providers, and consumers to manage and measure the assets and relationships that matter.

Value Rx offers a complete guide to value creation in America's largest industry.

Edward J. Giniat is a partner in Andersen's Chicago office, where he advises a number of pharmaceutical and healthcare-delivery organizations. Giniat is also worldwide director of Andersen's Pharmaceutical, Biomedical, and Health Services Industry Practice. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Committee for Quality Healthcare and the National Children's Eye Care Foundation and writes and lectures extensively on healthcare topics.

Barry D. Libert is an independent consultant, worldwide lecturer, and advisor to companies and institutional investors on enterprise value and relationships. Libert is a coauthor of Cracking the Value Code: How Successful Businesses Are Creating Wealth in the New Economy, the forerunner of this book. He has been featured in major publications including The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Barron's, The New York Times, and Industry Standard, and is a frequent guest on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg TV, and Reuters TV. He is represented by the Leigh Bureau.