Rita Numerof has always been interested in exploring and trying to solve big, complex problems that have strategic and practical implications. While conducting undergraduate research at the Honors College at Syracuse University, she focused on the psychology of joining. She took a break from academia to work in healthcare delivery and clinical work as a strategic consultant.
Numerof continued her career at Washington University while writing her first book, “The Practice of Management for Healthcare Professionals,” and created a market-based model for healthcare. That model is one of the foundational underpinnings of the work of her consulting firm, Numerof & Associates.
Numerof & Associates is a strategy consulting firm that develops customized, market-based solutions for strategic and operational challenges of organizations in industries undergoing significant transition. Working globally across the healthcare industry with clients in delivery, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, payers and policy, Numerof brings a unique cross-disciplinary approach to a broad range of engagements designed to sharpen strategic focus, increase revenues, reduce costs and risk and enhance customer value.
“The best strategy is only as good as stellar execution; implementation without the context of a strategic vision and a compelling value proposition that resonates with internal and external stakeholders won’t be sustainable,” said Numerof. The model has served Numerof well as the business has grown globally with a home base in St. Louis.
Under Numerof’s leadership, the firm has added Fortune 500 clients such as Johnson & Johnson, United Healthcare, Merrill Lynch and government agencies.
“Under her leadership, Numerof has developed proprietary approaches that provide insight and practical solutions to some of the industry’s most complex business challenges,” said her staff. “Taking a systematic approach, she has addressed such issues as merger/acquisition integration, portfolio management, the identification of growth platforms that provide sustainable differentiation and effective commercialization based on value propositions that matter to key constituencies.”
According to Numerof, leaving the security of an established business to start the firm and venture without a safety net involved enormous risk. “We were committed to established firms recognized as industry leaders and we needed to find a novel way of differentiating what we did and why they should engage us,” she said. “Thirty years later, we are recognized globally as a strategy and implementation consulting firm helping industry leaders navigate the dynamics of disruptive change.”
Having a vision for the future is what motivates Numerof. “Leaders need to have a vision of the future, the ability to articulate what it means and to engage others in creating the path to realize it,” she said.
For creating a path for growth within the industry, Numerof has been named a titan.
