Medco Health Solutions
Identify the noble cause that will drive the business as well as the hearts and minds of the company’s employees.
“An effective CEO integrates multiple techniques to lead an organization,” says David Snow of Medco. “The most successful leader will first identify and then clearly articulate the noble cause that will drive the business, as well as the hearts and minds of the company’s employees.
“By definition, the noble cause is a view from inside the company looking out—not about a self-interest, but rather revolving around a selfless intent to help others. Those pursuing a noble cause inherently believe that if they always do what’s right for others, their reward will follow.
“Every business—whether it yearns to cure cancer or build a better mousetrap—can discover its unique noble cause. The noble cause becomes the underpinning of what it does; it sharpens the vision, directs the strategy and guides the tactics. In turn, that noble cause places the enterprise on a critical path of integrity that embodies how you conduct your business.
“The noble cause creates an alignment that unites your corporate goals with your customer’s objectives. Of equal importance, the noble cause serves as a catalyst to stimulate the passion required for your people to dedicate their hearts and their heads—and willingly make the sacrifices required—to achieve world-class performance.
“While many tasks of a corporation require teamwork, teams don’t determine the noble cause. It’s the single point of accountability and the sole responsibility of the company’s leader, charting the course for what will ultimately become a CEO’s lasting leadership legacy.
“At Medco Health Solutions, our noble cause is to continually improve a system that provides millions of Americans with access to the world’s highest quality pharmaceutical health care, and to ensure that care is affordable for our clients, who bear the cost. It has been my experience that finding the noble cause within a company drives a passion for world-class excellence, which, in turn, drives growth and profitability.
“Through the process of defining and articulating the noble cause, your organization is essentially developing its brandable difference—the characteristics that leverage your unique strengths, drive demand, and make your products and services strategically relevant to your clients and customers, which forges long-term loyalties and enduring success.
“Fresh out of grad school, I started my career by running hospitals. It didn’t take long to realize that even in the best health care system in the world, there was significant opportunity for improvement. This kindled a passion for reforming the medical delivery system, preserving those things that worked well and fixing those things that didn’t. It’s a focus that I’ve carried with me whether I was starting a business, managing a business, or taking a company public.
“In 1988, with three partners, I founded MHS—Managed Health Care Systems, Inc., which established Medicaid HMOs in several states. It was founded out of a desire to extend managed care to benefit the underserved—those who didn’t have access to the health care system.
“We built the company as a vehicle to provide better health care for the poor, while at the same time reducing costs for taxpayers. It created sanity out of the insanity that defined the health care system for the underserved—how could you not become passionate about that?
“That noble cause channeled my passion into a vision and strategy that drove a business plan to recruit the believers and win over regulators and legislators whose cooperation was essential in delivering on the promise. MHS continued to thrive well after I moved on to my next venture and, known today as AmeriChoice, it is part of United Healthcare.
“The noble cause is also a means to restore lost glory. When I agreed to take on the President and COO role at Empire BlueCross BlueShield, it was a turnaround situation.
“What had at one time been the premiere health care company in New York, had eroded into a financially struggling organization with a damaged brand, no membership growth, and disheartened employees. Although the company said that its goal was providing high-quality health care for its members, its actions said otherwise.
“The company was inwardly focused and its members became disenfranchised. Even seemingly simple execution, such as member communications explaining benefits and coverage, was mired in corporatespeak that resulted in confusion, drove up inbound complaints, and yielded high rates of rejected claims.
“The turnaround hinged on a noble cause. We needed to reclaim our rightful place as the pre-eminent insurer in New York, to be the best again in the minds of our customers.
“That was the start of a four-year journey to achieve world-class service-through operational excellence. The vision was articulated across the organization and employees who yearned for something in which they could again believe were transformed into a passionate and proud army committed to their clients in order to rebuild their brand. It redefined the culture. The noble cause stirred a passion that led to performance and profits.
“We transitioned from negative growth to a quarter of a million net new customers a year, the strongest growth rate in twenty years. We improved our margins and our bond ratings. Empire BlueCross BlueShield grew to attain revenue of more than $5 billion and became a stable and profitable health plan that we took public late in 2002 under their new name of WellChoice.
“Communicating clearly and effectively is a linchpin to building the alignment around the noble cause. The most effective leaders articulate in a simple and straightforward manner what they are doing and why, which results in a natural alignment of interests. Great institutions are built with believers and volunteers, not mercenaries and conscripts.
“The best leaders surround themselves with diversity in the broadest-sense. A diverse management team of individuals who challenge convention and bring to the table multiple perspectives and experiences have 360-degree vision—no blind spots. It’s the only way to reach the best result every time. If each member of the team is a clone, you haven’t protected your company from your blind spots.
“Hire the right people who can execute around the vision and the passion—the noble cause. You can’t do it all by yourself.
“Never forget that you get the best out of people by igniting their passion. Those people are motivated by a burning internal desire to achieve greatness, not because they’re getting paid a few extra bucks. They won’t check their hearts and heads at the door. And they won’t abandon you in times of adversity.”