Anil Prahlad’s Pragmatic Roadmap for the First 90 Days.
By Neill Marshall, Chairman, HealthSearch Partners and Kurt Mosley, Associations Practice Leader, HealthSearch Partners
Anil Prahlad has more than 25 years of experience as a leader of information services firms, spearheading industy-leading growth and breakthrough insight delivery to customers. Most recently, he was CEO of BWG Global, a primary research company that delivers proprietary investable insights to institutional investors. He came to BWG from Hanover Research where he was Chief Research Officer. Prahlad has also served as Chief Content Officer at RainKing, Sneior Vice President and Global Head of Research for Frontier Strategy Group, and Managing Director at the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner).
“Your first ninety days actually start before you arrive.” That’s the foundation of Anil Prahlad’s approach to new leadership roles—and it reframes how we think about executive transitions.
Prahlad, a veteran operator in data-driven, SaaS, and research-intensive businesses, shared his tactics for gaining early traction in a new role. His lessons offer a powerful reminder: success in your first 90 days often hinges on the legwork you do before you step into the office.
Hypothesize Before You Act
While many new executives walk in with ready-made playbooks, Prahlad prefers to enter with testable hypotheses. “You should begin forming views about the organization before you join—what’s likely working, what might be broken, and what needs a closer look,” he said.
To build those hypotheses, he recommends talking with ex-employees, former customers, or even the new executive’s predecessor—anyone who can offer early insight. “It’s about learning the terrain before you’re asked to lead the hike,” he added.
Listen Down, Not Just Up
Once inside the organization, Prahlad stresses the value of conversations with people who are one or two levels below you on the org chart. “That’s where the unfiltered truth lives,” he says. “Your direct reports are often calibrated to manage the message. But if you go a level or two down, you get the details, the friction points, the workarounds—the real indicators of how the place runs.” These conversations not only surface key insights but also send a cultural message: leadership is accessible, and every voice matters.
Reject The Paint-By-Numbers 30-60-90
While he initially used traditional 30-60-90-day plans, Prahlad has grown skeptical of them. “They’re often too prescriptive,” he said. “The moment you start the job, the realities of the business throw off that plan. You’re chasing precision that isn’t realistic.”
Instead, he advises aligning higher-level goals while remaining flexible on execution. “It’s more valuable to define core principles than exact actions by arbitrary day counts.”
Power Mapping: Who Really Drives The Business?
One of Prahlad’s more nuanced points is about understanding how power works in a new organization. “Org charts only tell part of the story,” he explained. “You want to know where influence lives. Who shapes decisions even if they don’t own the titles?”
Early conversations should help you uncover those hidden influencers and the company’s value system: what’s rewarded, what’s ignored, and what’s considered ‘success.’
In one past role, Prahlad discovered that the company culture was overly inward-facing. Employees were rewarded for satisfying their bosses rather than serving the customers. “The way to change that,” he said, “was by tying compensation and advancement to more outward-facing customer-focused behaviors.”
Flatten Fast
Another of Prahlad’s early-move tactics: take a hard look at your org chart. “You need to flatten it. Layers create complexity and dilute accountability,” he said.
Drawing inspiration from Jack Welch, he advises that every leader should have more direct reports than they think they can handle because that leanness fosters clarity and faster information flow.
A flat organizational chart sends a cultural signal: transparency, access, and ownership matter here.
Actionable Engagement Beats Market Excuses
One of the strongest illustrations of his method came when Prahlad took over a research subscription company. Renewal rates were falling. The prevailing wisdom was to blame the market downturn.
But as he dug deeper, he found the real culprit: a disengaged sales and account management team that had gotten lazy during the boom years.
His fix? The “Big” board on the office wall showed real-time call activity and a $100 reward for the top caller of each shift. “It wasn’t about the money,” he said. “It was about making expectations visible and urgent.”
That renewed urgency created a cultural shift, reenergized the team, and started to turn around client engagement.
Why This Matters In Healthcare
Prahlad’s story doesn’t emerge from a hospital or health system—but the principles are highly relevant. His playbook aligns with a core truth about healthcare leadership: culture, influence, and insight matter more than organizational charts and spreadsheets in the first 90 days.
Whether you’re stepping into a hospital C-suite or leading a clinical service line, the lesson holds: start before day one, listen more than you speak—especially to those below you—and tailor your tactics to what the organization truly needs, not what your last job trained you to do.
Stay tuned for more insights as we continue exploring the innovative tactics used by healthcare leaders to make their first 90 days count.
If you have adopted this tactic, or any others featured in this series, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us to share your story.
