One day around 5 a.m., as my dad stirred a large pot of hot custard, he said, “Someday this could all be yours.” I was not exactly thrilled at the prospect. He probably would have liked one of us to take over for him, but he also said we all have our own destiny.
In 1976, I graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a liberal arts degree. My first job was in sales at the Purdue Frederick Company, a pharmaceutical concern. The patent for one of its surgical products had expired and there was competition from generic products, so it was a hard sell but a great learning experience for me. Sometimes you must do more than differentiate your product; you must differentiate yourself. You have to build relationships, so interpersonal skills really matter.
In 1981, I joined what is now Baxter International, a health care company, in its renal division, and became a sales manager for the western United States. Baxter wanted me to move from California to its headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., but I’d always lived in California and my wife, Jerese, was pregnant, so moving didn’t appeal to us.
In 1985, I left Baxter to head two dialysis centers that John Capsavage, a nephrologist, owned with his wife, Pat. Moving to a smaller company was a risk, but it paid off, because the smaller organization was more entrepreneurial. In 1991, four physicians and I were in the process of buying the dialysis centers when Satellite Healthcare contacted me about becoming its chief executive. The offer was attractive, and it was timely because it was difficult to obtain financing in the early 1990s. The offer gave me another idea — to ask the Satellite group to partner with the physicians and me.
They agreed, and in 1991 we all formed a joint venture called California Kidney Centers and bought the dialysis centers. I became chief executive of both Satellite and C.K.C., which we sold six years later to another dialysis company.
That first joint venture became a model for Satellite’s future growth. Over the years, we’ve formed more than 20 joint ventures, acquired several companies and expanded to six states. Our Satellite Dialysis division has 38 centers that provide dialysis treatment. In 2002, we added the Satellite WellBound division, which has 18 centers with homelike interiors for training patients to perform dialysis at home.
Someday, hopefully, medication will replace dialysis, or perhaps people will be able to grow a new kidney. But that’s far in the future. Our mission is to improve the lives of those with kidney disease.
For example, we have a grants program to finance young nephrologists doing research, and we support the National Kidney Foundation. We also help our patients with medication, food and finding transportation.
When Satellite was smaller and I could visit our centers more often, I became friends with one patient. When I’d walk in, he’d say, “Hey, chief, how’s it going?” Sadly, he later died, but he left a note for me in which he said how much he and others depended on the center. The man’s note reminded me that people suffering from disease are fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, and that they all have a story.
As told to Patricia R. Olsen.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/jobs/satellite-healthcares-chief-on-setting-yourself-apart.html?partner=rss&emc=rss