Lessons from a Leader: What Healthcare Can Learn From PPG's Management Blueprint

PITTSBURGH, PA – December 12, 2025

This week, PPG, a global giant in paints and coatings, announced its inclusion in The Wall Street Journal’s 250 Best-Managed Companies list for the second consecutive year. It’s a significant corporate achievement, certainly. But why should it merit a discussion in a column dedicated to healthcare innovation? The answer is simple: the American healthcare system is grappling with a crisis of management, and the blueprint for what makes PPG a top-tier organization holds powerful, if unconventional, lessons for building the resilient and efficient health systems of the future.

While hospitals and med-tech firms hunt for the next disruptive technology, this recognition of a 140-year-old industrial company suggests that the most profound innovation might not be a new AI algorithm or robotic surgical arm, but a fundamental rethinking of management itself. PPG's success, measured against a rigorous framework of holistic effectiveness, provides a compelling case study for healthcare leaders looking to solve intractable problems ranging from clinician burnout and supply chain fragility to patient dissatisfaction and financial instability.

Deconstructing Excellence: The Drucker Institute's Modern Mandate

To understand the significance of PPG’s achievement, one must look beyond the headline to the methodology behind it. The ‘Management Top 250’ ranking is not a simple measure of stock performance or revenue growth. Developed by the Drucker Institute, it is a data-driven application of the principles of Peter Drucker, the legendary thinker who shaped modern management theory. The ranking evaluates corporate effectiveness across five key dimensions, each offering a direct parallel to a critical pain point in healthcare.

First is Customer Satisfaction, weighted at 19%. For healthcare, this is the patient experience—an area where the industry consistently underperforms despite its stated mission. Second is Employee Engagement and Development (19%), a metric that should set off alarm bells in every hospital C-suite currently battling record levels of staff turnover and burnout. Third is Innovation (23%), which in Drucker’s view means not just invention, but the disciplined process of improvement and the courage to make one's own products obsolete. Fourth, and most heavily weighted, is Social Responsibility (25%), a measure of an organization's commitment to the public good and its impact on society. Finally, Financial Strength (14%) provides the foundation, assessing an enterprise's ability to generate value sustainably.

The weighting itself is a radical lesson for a healthcare industry often fixated on the financial bottom line. The Drucker model argues that long-term financial health is an outcome of excellence in other areas, particularly social impact and innovation. It posits that a truly effective organization is one that balances the needs of all its stakeholders—a philosophy that could transform how we measure success in healthcare.

Disciplined Innovation and Resilient Operations

PPG earned its spot on the list in part for its “commitment to disciplined innovation.” This concept stands in stark contrast to healthcare’s often-frenzied pursuit of “disruptive” tech, which can lead to fragmented systems, poor interoperability, and expensive tools that fail to deliver on their promise. PPG’s century-spanning success was built not on chasing trends, but on a culture of systematic improvement and solving customer challenges. For healthcare, this is a call to move beyond the allure of shiny new objects and focus on innovations that are integrated, scalable, and genuinely improve the delivery of care.

Perhaps more urgently, PPG’s operational prowess offers a model for addressing one of healthcare’s most glaring vulnerabilities: the supply chain. The company operates and innovates in over 70 countries, managing a complex global network to deliver its products. This expertise in logistics, sourcing, and inventory management is precisely what was missing when the pandemic brought healthcare supply chains to their knees. A hospital system that could manage its flow of pharmaceuticals, personal protective equipment, and medical devices with the same efficiency as a global industrial leader would not only be more resilient in a crisis but also more cost-effective in its day-to-day operations.

The Human Factor: A Cure for Clinician Burnout?

While operational efficiency is critical, the Drucker methodology places immense value on the human side of the enterprise. The 19% weighting for Employee Engagement and Development should serve as a wake-up call for healthcare organizations. The current system is hemorrhaging its most valuable asset: its people. Clinician burnout is not just a human resources issue; it is a patient safety crisis and an existential threat to the stability of our health systems.

The Drucker principles suggest that engagement is fostered when an organization provides a clear sense of mission and empowers its people to contribute meaningfully. Healthcare, with its life-saving purpose, should have a natural advantage here. Yet, administrative burdens, misaligned incentives, and a lack of support have eroded that sense of mission for many. As PPG’s vice president and chief communications officer, Bryan Iams, noted, the WSJ recognition “reaffirms our dedication to our employees, customers and communities, and highlights how purposeful leadership drives long-term success.”

This statement encapsulates the core lesson: investing in employees is not a cost center but a driver of long-term value. For a hospital, a fully engaged and supported workforce translates directly into lower error rates, higher patient satisfaction scores, and improved clinical outcomes. The path to a better healthcare system is paved by creating an environment where caregivers themselves feel cared for.

Beyond Hospital Walls: Social Responsibility as a Core Function

The most surprising and perhaps most important insight from the Drucker ranking is its emphasis on Social Responsibility, which constitutes a full quarter of a company’s total score. PPG was recognized for its stakeholder engagement and responsible management—a testament to its commitment to the communities it serves. For healthcare, this reframes social programs from a public relations exercise to a strategic imperative.

A hospital is more than a place that treats illness; it is an anchor institution with a profound impact on the economic and social health of its community. By embracing social responsibility as a core management function, health systems can move beyond the walls of the clinic to address the social determinants of health—such as housing, nutrition, and education—that are the root causes of so many chronic conditions. This is not just philanthropy; it is the ultimate form of preventative care and the hallmark of a truly effective, Drucker-inspired health organization.

While the worlds of industrial coatings and intensive care may seem far apart, the principles that define a well-managed organization are universal. To build the patient-centered, resilient, and sustainable healthcare systems of tomorrow, leaders must be willing to look for answers in unexpected places. The success of a company like PPG demonstrates that a relentless focus on purpose, people, and disciplined execution is not just good for business—it may be the most powerful medicine of all.