
Chapter 12: Bringing Structure to MD Anderson’s Finances; Developing Spiritual Strength
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Description
In this segment, Dr. Leach summarizes his contributions to MD Anderson and the growth his work on higher degrees has offered him. He first stresses that MD Anderson has undergone exponential growth and moved to a more businesslike structure, and he underscores that an institution must be self-sufficient so it is free to reinvent itself.
Dr. Leach then says he has been pleased to have a role guiding the finances and structure for the institution’s accomplishments, which have come through the efforts of fantastic doctors, scientists, and research support.
Dr. Leach then talks about the degrees he earned while serving as Executive Vice President: his Ph.D. in Public Health and his M.A. in Christian Education and what they contributed to his abilities to perform in his role for MD Anderson. The M.A., he explains, helped him develop patience, a quality that takes spiritual strength. He needed patience to deal with complex challenges in strategic positioning.
Identifier
LeachL_02_20121127_ C12
Publication Date
11-27-2012
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD , Oral History Interview, November 27, 2012
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - View on Career and Accomplishments; The Administrator; Contributions; Institutional Mission and Values; The MD Anderson Ethos; On the Nature of Institutions; Fiscal Realities in Healthcare; Building/Transforming the Institution; Growth and/or Change; Career and Accomplishments; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Personal Background; Faith, Values, Beliefs; Evolution of Career
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How would you say the institution has changed since you arrived?
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
Well, just the numbers alone— There were 7,000 people when I got here, and now there are 18,300. The square footage, I forget the numbers. I can’t rattle them off, but it’s like a threefold increase in square footage. The revenue numbers, oh gosh, I think it was around 700 million the year before I got here, and now we’ll be 3.6 billion this year. So that’s about a fivefold increase roughly—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
A fivefold increase in philanthropy—
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
So I think that just in size, it’s been exponential, but I think more importantly the way we conduct ourselves. We have—what I’m fond of telling people is we’ve moved to a more businesslike structure, not to be confused with a businesslike structure. We’ve moved in that direction. We are more businesslike in what we do, but we’re not a business per se. We are in many, many ways, but the way we’re run—we’re still an academic entity at heart, which is the way I think it should be. I think if you were to run this as MD Anderson, Inc., you would lose a lot of what’s important to making MD Anderson MD Anderson. It’s not all about the bottom line, but the bottom line has to be sufficient enough to let you reinvest in yourself, and we’ve been able to do that over my years here. That is going to become more challenging. That’s going to be—this is where the external factors—the government and managed care companies—are going to perhaps have more control and influence. If our funds are reduced, then we could be in a more difficult position as far as reinvesting in our own success.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
As you look back over the time that you’ve spent here, what have you been most pleased to have participated in—? What have you been most pleased to have participated in? What have you been gratified to have worked on and pushed forward?
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
Just to be able to be in a position where I could help guide what we’ve done with the place in fifteen or sixteen years—guide the financial and the structure for that, the business infrastructure for that—to be able to support that. We have just fantastic doctors and scientists, world class, and I think we have world-class business support and financial support for them, and I think that’s important. Just being involved in that process in a position where I could help guide that process has been the capstone of my career.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What if you—? It seems sort of trite to say what have you learned? But how have you—? You came here with enormous experience, but how did this institution help you to continue to grow and become more sophisticated?
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
Well, it has helped me in several ways. Since I’ve been here, I’ve completed a PhD. I’ve also completed a master of arts in Christian education. I guess in short it’s developed the humanistic side of me. When I came in, I was a businessman, you know. I’m still very much a businessman, but I’m probably a lot more rounded than what I was, or at least I like to think that I’m a lot more rounded. People would probably disabuse me of that pretty quick, but I think I’m a kinder, gentler version of the person that came here. I think what I’ve learned is— I was very used to the command and control model of the business world, and here you have to get a lot more things done by moral suasion. So it’s the weight of your argument and the weight of your ideas that carry the day, not because I said so.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I was curious—why did you do the MA in Christian education? What drew you to that? Leon Leach, MBA, PhD Well, I went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and I’ve always had strong religious beliefs. I just really didn’t have a plan to use that degree, so to speak. It was more the curiosity. I already had a masters degree, an MBA—that’s what I do every day. And that was more of an intellectual curiosity thing. Now the PhD was a little bit different. The PhD was one part intellectual curiosity and something that I use. Because what I wrote on—I think we—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, yeah, Uh-hunh (affirmative).
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
—those studies we did at Baylor and MD Anderson. When you asked me about the one decision point, well there were fifty-some—I think it was fifty-three—different presentations given to different committees and faculty leadership in that eighteen-month period that we were trying to convince folks they had to change—fifty-three . Now what I’ve learned is to not let my blood pressure go up quite so much when that happens because the world that I came out of, you would not do fifty-three. You would get fired for doing fifty-three presentations in eighteen months to try to convince people to change. You would just issue an edict and away you go. The chief financial officer was truly the chief financial officer. Here you’ve got to bring people along with you. You’ve got to convince them of your ideas, and you’ve got to do it in a fashion that is timely so you don’t burn through the resources. Baylor didn’t do that—they burned through their resources.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
This was with their hospital project.
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
Yeah, with their hospital project they burned through their resources. We had to make the changes, and we really should have made them sooner than what we did, but we just—as it was told to me by one of the folks that I interviewed for the PhD, you really didn’t have a burning platform. You were still making money. Well, we were essentially breaking even. We had a little bit of an operating margin, so he was right. We were still making money. But you know, the world I came out of, if your bridge catches on fire, you get fired. Your job is to keep the bridge from burning. So it’s two different mindsets. Here, I didn’t have a burning bridge, so therefore I shouldn’t have made the changes. We made them too soon. Part of it was suggested that we did too much too soon. And my religious studies taught me that only one person has gotten it right in 2000 years, so I’m either going to be too much too soon or too little too late. Guess which one I’m going to pick—too much too soon. I didn’t want my tombstone to say, “Leon Leach, he did too little too late,” because that would not make a good tombstone. I want one that says, “Leon Leach, he did too much too soon.” I can live or die with that.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s funny. I’ve any number of interviews where people have mentioned what they would or would not want to have on their tombstones.
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
Yeah, “He did too little too late” really bothers me.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Is there anything from your MA or your time at the theological seminary that you feel you draw on?
Leon Leach, MBA, PhD :
Yeah, I draw— I mean, it needs a lot of spiritual strength to have the patience to— One of the things my wife said to me—you know—I had this kind of fantasy about being a pastor in a West Texas church somewhere, and she said, “You might as well give that up. You don’t have the patience to do that. The next time Bubba comes in with a drinking problem, you’re going to tell him to get a life. You don’t have the patience.” And she’s right, I don’t. But I had to develop a lot more patience in dealing with things here, and I’m still probably viewed as being somewhat impatient because I want the changes to happen tomorrow. I view it as more of a sense of urgency than impatience, but there’s a thin line between the two. Academic medical centers—if you’re in the clinics, there is distinct sense of urgency—if you’re in surgery or something like that.
Recommended Citation
Leach, Leon MBA, PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 12: Bringing Structure to MD Anderson’s Finances; Developing Spiritual Strength" (2012). Interview Chapters. 1207.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1207
Conditions Governing Access
Open
