Becker's Hospital Review

34 34 CEO / STRATEGY The 'secret sauce' powering a corporate leadership team others want to poach By Molly Gamble E xecutive recruiters are turning to Star- bucks more and more to poach talent. What exactly makes its corporate lead- ership team and management training special? "Culturally, the company has a lot of strengths that modern employers want to emulate, and poaching its talent is one of the fastest ways to do that," Jeff Green and Leslie Patton wrote for Bloomberg. Bloomberg analyzed the career histories of active employees on management teams to find that Starbucks has produced as many executives as significantly larger companies, including Amazon and Walmart. Starbucks doesn't fear its top leaders being tapped by other employers, either. Angela Lis, the company's chief partner officer, said developing leaders "for the world" is actually Starbucks' goal. A few things power the Starbucks secret sauce, according to the Bloomberg article: 1. Its corporate conscience is well-devel- oped. Starbucks began addressing racism years before other companies and held dif- ficult conversations about discrimination in the workplace years before rivals' more recent racial reckonings. 2. Executives are well-rounded. Starbucks executives move around. Time spent in fi- nance, operations and international jobs isn't unusual. 3. Discipline is a muscle flexed oen. Star- bucks' culture is big on ditching ideas that could be profitable but would have a negative effect on workers or customers. 4. Employees are expected to think beyond the bottom line. Usually, those who don't are not around for long. "We were taught to inte- grate and balance results with not just what you did, but how you did it," former Starbucks executive Adam Brotman told Bloomberg. 5. People come back. Current CFO Ra- chel Ruggeri le her finance role in 2018 to become CFO at Continental Mills. She re- turned to Starbucks in 2020 and was named the outgoing finance chief 's successor when he announced his retirement in January. "We never lost touch with Rachel," Ms. Lis told Bloomberg. "at's also a 'secret sauce' thing. She came back to us." n New Hampshire HCA hospital interim CEO says he wasn't blindsided by physician exodus By Kelly Gooch M att Larkin, interim CEO of Rochester, N.H.-based Frisbie Memorial Hospital, is focused on rebuild- ing practices after an exodus of 12 of 14 prima- ry care physicians. He discussed with Becker's what it has been like leading the 112-bed facility, the circumstances surrounding the physician departures and his strategy for the future. Mr. Larkin, who previously was COO of HCA's Portsmouth (N.H.) Regional Hospital, became interim CEO of Frisbie at the beginning of June, after Jeff Scionti retired. "It's been great. I think I've learned a lot, and I think we had a great foundation set by Jeff Scionti, the previous CEO, and I was able to come in, hit the ground running and be able to continue on with the great work," said Mr. Larkin. "I fit right into the great culture and town. It's been a very welcoming community and a great transition." On July 15, Foster's Daily Democrat reported the physician departures, about a year and a half after Nashville, Tenn.- based HCA Healthcare completed its acquisition of the hos- pital in March 2020. Physicians who have left practices cited various reasons for leaving, with the hospital's acquisition by HCA and contract issues among the contributing factors. But Mr. Larkin told Becker's the exodus was among the top- ics in talking with others about the future, and he "didn't get blindsided" when he took over at the hospital. "I knew coming in we were going to continue to recruit and rebuild those practices, and we're excited about that," he said. He said the hospital's strategy has been and continues to be having vibrant practices and continuing to expand services. He pointed to HCA's investment of more than $25 million in the hospital and practices, including a new MRI machine and investing in women's health and mammography. "I see that firsthand going on — which others might not — so I can speak more intimately to it. And that, for me, is the growth plan for us to continue to provide the services for the city and the surrounding communities. We continue to do that and plan to do that for a very long time," said Mr. Larkin. Regarding recruitment of primary care providers, there were three offers out and two providers had already ac- cepted, he said at the time of the interview in July. Mr. Larkin said he views this as a sign Frisbie is headed in the right direction. "We've been honest with the team about what our strategy has been," he said. "Staff here have been great, welcomed me with open arms and are listening and really are taking in our strategy and are seeing those investments locally here when they walk in every day. I think that helps them understand that strategy is going forward." n

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