McKesson CEO focuses on bonds
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John Hammergren, as CEO of one of the USA’s largest companies, is far from his small-town Minnesota upbringing. But one insight that propelled his career came years ago from a man there who sold medical supplies out of the trunk of his car. The salesman was Hammergren’s father. In boyhood summers, Hammergren sometimes accompanied his dad on sales trips to hospitals, doctors and nursing homes. At times, the salesman and son spent the night at a customer’s home. Hammergren observed the strong bonds his father built. “I got the sense that he wasn’t selling them, but that he was working for them,” Hammergren says. The lesson proved valuable when Hammergren became McKesson’s co-CEO in 1999. An accounting scandal in a company McKesson (MCK) had just bought had forced out the drug-distribution giant’s top officers. Investors lost billions of dollars as McKesson’s shares sank. Employees and customers were angry. Hammergren hit the road to reassure both that McKesson would bounce back. “Everybody was nervous,” says Ingo Angermeier, CEO of Spartanburg Regional health care System, a McKesson customer in South Carolina. “But John was out saying what he was going to do to take care of customers and retain employees, and he did it. He walked the talk.” At headquarters, Hammergren pumped up product research. To center employees, he launched ICARE, a philosophy stressing integrity, customers, accountability, respect and excellence. He also started surveying customers and employees. He watched satisfaction tank, then climb. “He inherited a crisis, and he stabilized the company,” says John Ransom, industry analyst at Raymond James. Bounce back McKesson has. Since Hammergren became sole CEO in 2001, its revenue and earnings, excluding charges, have more than doubled. Its shares are up 106% vs. 23% for the S&P 500. Twice since 2002, No. 1 retailer Wal-Mart has named McKesson a supplier of the year. With $88 billion in fiscal 2006 revenue, McKesson ranked No. 16 on last year’s Fortune 500, up from No. 35 in 2001. More : usatoday.com |