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What attracted you to the health care industry?
There are two main reasons I’m in health care: 1) I have a great mentor, who I respect immensely, and who has had a great career leading several health care organizations, and 2) I’ve got a bit of altruism in me; I like the fact that the work we do has a positive impact on people and makes their lives better.
How does your accounting degree assist you with health care consulting?
I never really wanted to be an accountant, but I thought it would be a solid undergraduate degree that would give me a good understanding of the dynamics of business. In the years I’ve been consulting, I’ve never been asked about debits and credits, but I have been asked to evaluate financial performance, develop pro-forma analyses, and recommend whether or not to make or buy a service. In that respect, the nuts and bolts of accounting have served me well. Additionally, accountants typically think pretty logically, and having a solid logic trail is essential to being a great consultant.
What advice would you give a student wanting to enter consulting?
Take a good look at the things you enjoy doing and what makes you tick. Consulting isn’t for everyone, and having an understanding of what consultants do, and how that meshes with who you are as a person is critical. I don’t think there is a perfect Myers-Briggs profile for a consultant, although there are some strong thematic elements. If you’re intellectually engaged by working on multiple disparate tasks for completely different clients, enjoy working with data and can see beyond the numbers, have a strategic bent to the way you think, are great on your feet, and are articulate and comfortable with ambiguity, consulting is a blast.
Describe your favorite client project.
There are a ton of favorites — that’s one of the reasons I’m still consulting. One particular engagement I enjoyed was the development of a cancer center at an academic medical center. We had a six-week window to take the client team through a visioning process to define what was in and what was out, understand size, scope, components, programs, etc., and develop a program and plan for Board approval for an approximately $100 million building project. We ran full blast; spent a fair amount of time, effort, and energy to get the job done; and still managed to keep our other projects going. My role on the project was officially project manager, but was also just about any other role required to get the job done. I learned that when a timeframe is tight, there is no margin of error for peripheral, non-core analyses or work. I also learned how to frame the meeting discussions in a way that leads to conclusions.
Do you travel often for client projects?
Definitely, travel is a big component of the job. There are many technologies that enable communication with clients without getting on a plane, but there is no substitute for face-to-face interaction. There is an understanding that travel is demanding and work/life balance is difficult, and we work hard to make travel commitments reasonable. My personal philosophy is that if the work can be done in our offices, let’s do it in our offices. The other factor that impacts travel is that we’re typically on multiple projects simultaneously, which may mean multiple cities in the same week. Travel fluctuates throughout the course of each project, but on average I’m out of town a couple of nights a week.
What was the most difficult golf course you played? What did you score?
I love to golf, and have been playing since I was young. I’ve had to keep my golf clubs in the garage more than I’d like given that I have little kids — it’s hard to break away on a Saturday and spend four to five hours on the golf course after being gone a fair bit during the week. The most difficult course I’ve played was in Indian Wells Country Club, which is one of the courses where the pros play the Bob Hope Classic. I needed sunscreen and a beach towel for as much time as I spent in the sand traps. Close runner-ups include the Kauai Lagoons course and the TPC in Scottsdale, AZ. I’ll plead not to incriminate myself by sharing scores.
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