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Building a Business with Integrity: Lila Cherri

 

Lila Cherri’s Story: Primis Healthcare Systems lets patients go home. Whether patients are elderly and frail, or recovering from surgery at any age, Lila Cherri’s company eases recuperation by supplying, installing and maintaining the medical equipment necessary for long-term care in the home. She helps about 50-75 different patients a day, and revenues are growing by more than 25% a year.

Lila was working for a home-equipment supplier in the early Eighties when she figured “it would be easier and more creative to do this myself. So I started in 1984 with a one-room office and a typewriter on the floor.”

Over the years, Lila has leveraged her understanding of the industry, and her customer-centric focus, to become a $6-million company with several employees serving eleven counties in Southeast Michigan.

Growth and profitability have become more problematic in recent years with government cutbacks in the government funding that most of Primis’s patients require to have care in the home. But Lila says she can only conduct business one way. “It’s about not compromising the quality of care, no matter what’s happening with the quantity,” she says.

And in a way, Lila applies the same standard to Primis. It’s not only about profits, which usually follow good service. “You have to look into the spirit of that patient in order to be able to do the job,” she says. “It’s about enjoying the journey, and not just trying to arrive.”

Lila’s Key Move: Building a Business with Integrity

Lila’s story is unusual because it’s not about a key moment or epiphany in building her business, but rather her dependence on a key concept: integrity.

To Lila, integrity requires a way of life, as well as a way of business. “I live a life based on principle, and that’s how the company is run -- going the extra mile for the customer,” she says. “You need a solid foundation of both determination and integrity to start a company. It’s about the vision, and our customers see that: In a business that involves [a patient’s] entire family, the guidance of principle, integrity and sincerity is a huge bonus.”

Every entrepreneur might say – or like to say – that he or she operates with integrity. But Lila puts her performance where her principles are.

For example, as the industry is struggling with operating debt and a growing population of patients, it’s more difficult to provide truly high-quality care. Lila has sacrificed some “easy” growth over the years for her principles. “We aren’t compromising our integrity or quality despite the pressures on the industry,” she says.

Another way that Lila’s integrity differentiates Primis is that “our equipment is always state-of-the-art,” she says.

“There are no hidden agendas,” she says. “We’re extremely careful to communicate to patients and their families what their options are for quality, service and pricing. We will take as much time as they need educating and explaining the process and service to our customers.”

And when she talks with one of the many insurers who pay Primis, Lila beams, “They tell us how exemplary we are – that it’s clear we go above and beyond the call of duty.”

To Lila, integrity also includes expecting her employees to respond to their patients’ needs promptly – in the case of emergencies and new admissions, prompt means any time, day or night. “It’s not just about making numbers, it’s about taking care of a client,” she stresses. “It’s a relationship with the client, and it’s not unusual for staff members to go the extra mile to ensure the satisfaction of the client and patients.

That’s why she tries to discern in the hiring process whether integrity is as important to the candidate as it is to her. “You can tell whether a person is living for themselves or for a purpose,” she says. “So we can usually tell that someone will have an attitude of gratitude and service. And if they don’t fit that bill, they’re not going to last here, because their level of commitment isn’t a match with the organization.”

Lila is gratified that her integrity nearly always leads to long-term benefits for Primis. In an industry where trust can be a matter of life or death, the business maxim about unhappy customers tends to get turned on its head. Families and patients tell people about great experiences, so word of mouth is still a very powerful way of getting business in home healthcare.

And in addition to the psychic rewards of conducting her affairs with integrity, Lila’s payoff comes when customers talk about Primis. “Make one customer happy in this business,” she says, “and you’ll get ten in return.

Lila’s Bonus Insight

There’s no better way to receive outstanding performance from employees, Lila believes, than to reward them handsomely. “They share in company profits,” she says.

“I personally believe in an attitude of prosperity and abundance, rewarding those who create the service the company was built on.”