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Everyone wants to live longer, healthier and happier lives, but that would be impossible without high-quality health care. Although there’s no shortage of healthcare heroes, they are often hamstrung by systems that make care impersonal, inefficient and ineffective.
Bupa, a leading provider of private health care, headquartered in the United Kingdom, is trying to change that. As the CEO of Bupa Global, India & United Kingdom, Carlos Jaureguizar explains the organization is committed to providing best-in-class health care that is truly customer-centric.
“Each year the number of customers, patients, members and residents is increasing, which is a great achievement,” Jaureguizar tells The CEO Magazine. “It means we’re helping people live better lives, and really adding value to society.”
Over Jaureguizar’s 18-year career at Bupa, he has traversed the globe, successfully adapting to leadership roles in varying circumstances. His journey with Bupa began in Madrid in 2006, when he joined its Spanish brand Sanitas as Director of Strategy and Acquisitions.
In 2018, after 12 years in Madrid, Jaureguizar took the leap across the Atlantic to become General Manager for Bupa Chile, home to the organization’s biggest hospital. But less than two years into the role, the worst health crisis in a generation struck.
“As you can imagine, running a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a country that has a lack of doctors and a lack of beds, was not easy,” Jaureguizar says.
Yet despite the scale of the challenge that the pandemic presented, the determination of Jaureguizar and his team shone through.
“I’m really proud of what the team achieved,” he says. “I can tell you that because of Bupa, Chileans had a much better experience dealing with the pandemic. This is a really proud achievement for me.”
His successful management of the pandemic earned him a move back across the pond to London in 2021 to assume the top job. It is rightly a point of pride for him that he has thrived in the varying cultures and health care setups across Spain, Chile and the United Kingdom.
“The models are very different. In my case, that capacity to adapt to new countries, new ways of doing things, new models, has been a very important capability,” he says.
Jaureguizar’s international perspective aligns well with that of Bupa, a multicultural organization that is keen to further strengthen its cross-border connections.
When discussing the medium to long-term prospects for Bupa, Jaureguizar first talks about the exciting potential in the Indian market. In January, Bupa became the majority shareholder in Niva Bupa, the third-largest retail health insurer in India with 11.9 million customers.
“We have high expectations in terms of organic growth in India,” he says. “Currently the team is doing a fantastic job in terms of touching the lives of millions of people, and I’m confident that India will become one of the biggest markets for Bupa.”
Growth opportunities also lie in their more traditional markets, with Jaureguizar making particular reference to the United Kingdom.
“These markets are much more mature, so you might think that the opportunities are limited – but that’s not the case,” he says. “This is because the customer experience in these countries is disjointed. At Bupa, we can present a much more connected, holistic health experience with less pain points for customers.”
As Bupa makes these significant advances, it is pulling the entire industry along with it.
“This isn’t just for the benefit of our customers. I think the industry needs players that can bring innovation and efficiencies into the system to provide health care to more people while using less resources,” he says. “There is a big opportunity to grow our customer base, but in an efficient way.”
With customers at the heart of everything Bupa does, Jaureguizar takes prides in the organization being highly tuned in to their needs. This isn’t something that has fallen out of the ether; Bupa has worked tirelessly to achieve and retain this status.
“We make sure that we listen to the customer, which is easy to say and difficult to do,” he says.
When a customer reports a negative experience, Bupa will make a telephone call in every case to get to the bottom of the issue. “So, executives actually do listen to customers,” he asserts.
“We’ve listened to more than 10,000 audio recordings from our customers, and we implemented more than 2,500 customer initiatives in 2023 alone. And we see that this is having a great impact on the net promoter score.”
As well as keeping a watchful eye on customer feedback, Bupa understands the significance of nurturing the frontline workers who are driving the organization.
“We have to be a customer-centric company. To do that, we need to make life easier for our people – our nurses, doctors and call center workers,” Jaureguizar says.
“Instead of having systems they are constantly fighting against, they have ones that empower them to do a great job and help the customer.”
In just three years, Bupa has come a long way in terms of its digital transformation. Again, the focus is all about creating a smoother and more holistic customer journey.
“We are bringing all of our services – dental care, health care and insurance – into one unique platform, merging all of our apps into one,” Jaureguizar explains.
Made possible with the help of digital transformation partners Spectrum.Life, this new one-stop shop allows better communication between Bupa and its customers, making it easier to arrange consultations.
“Digital is a key area of focus, but not digital as a goal in itself. They’re the levers that you can use in order to deliver an outcome,” Jaureguizar reflects. “The goal in itself is to improve the customer journey.”
This philosophy is carried through to Bupa’s exploration of data and AI, which he describes as a game-changer while also urging caution.
“Despite its potential, it’s important that we understand that AI is not a silver bullet,” he says. “It’s more bottom up than top down, with the power to improve the efficiency of systems and processes.
“But we all need to be aware of what we are doing and make sure we are doing it in a safe way, especially in health care where data is very confidential,” he warns. “So we’re going to make sure that the customer’s needs and values are in front of everything we do.”
It is this central purpose, to best serve the health needs of Bupa’s customers, that Jaureguizar says underpins the entire organization and its culture.
“We have more than 23,000 people,” he says. “If they didn’t believe in our purpose, if they didn’t believe that they can change the world by working with Bupa, it would be impossible to achieve the targets that we have set.”
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