CEO of Novartis shares a 30-Second MBA Insight (Fast Company)

Fast Company has an online series of short video segments titled "30 Second MBA"

In this clip, you'll hear Joe Jimenez, the CEO of Novartis share his insights:

14th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference

14th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference
February 13-14, 2012
New York City

The BIO CEO & Investor Conference is the largest investor conference focused on publicly traded biotech companies. Because our mission is to support industry-wide success, we present a broad and unbiased view of investment opportunities.

Our therapeutic workshops feature the latest information on pipeline innovation, and no other investor conference offers as many sessions involving MDs, CSOs, and industry analysts.

BIO One-on-One Partnering also provides an opportunity to arrange meetings between investors; companies; and industry BD, licensing and therapeutic franchise heads.

Learn more here.

From CMO to CEO of a hospital

Congratulations to Dr. Jeff Sperring who is the new President and CEO of Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health! Dr. Sperring (age 42) was formerly the Chief Medical Officer of Riley since 2009.

Here's a snippet from a recent press release:

As president and CEO, Dr. Sperring will be responsible for providing overall strategic direction and leadership for pediatric services throughout IU Health. This includes direct operational and strategic oversight of pediatric programs, services and facilities at Riley at IU Health, along with shared program oversight for pediatric programs based in the community hospitals. Dr. Sperring will serve on the senior executive team for IU Health. 

When Dr. Sperring first joined IU Health, he was appointed director of the Pediatric Hospitalist Program for Methodist’s Children’s Pavilion as part of the Riley Children’s Health Partnership. He led the expansion of the program to IU Health North in 2005 and then both IU Health West and Riley at IU Health in 2007. Later that year, Dr. Sperring was appointed associate chief medical officer at Riley at IU Health and assumed the position of chief medical officer upon the retirement of Dr. Richard L. Schreiner. 

Dr. Sperring is a graduate of Emory University and received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1995. He completed his pediatric residency at the Naval Medical Center San Diego and served as an officer in the United States Navy Medical Corps from 1995-2001. Prior to joining the faculty at Riley, Dr. Sperring was a community pediatrician at the Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and New Castle Pediatrics in New Castle, Ind. He and his wife Amie, a graduate of Indiana University School of Nursing, reside in Noblesville, Ind.

The transition from CMO to CEO wasn't very common in the past, but we're seeing more of these transitions as physician executives demonstrate their exceptional ability to effectively lead complex hospital systems.

Featured Physician Executive: Howard Grant, J.D., M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Howard Grant, J.D., M.D.
President/CEO Lahey Clinic

A physician, attorney and health care chief executive, Howard R. Grant, JD, MD, the president and chief executive officer of Lahey Clinic, has played a vital role in influencing patient safety and superior clinical care for more than two decades at some of the nation’s most preeminent health care institutions.

At Geisinger Health System, Dr. Grant was the executive vice president and chief medical officer responsible, with his administrative colleagues, for operations and budgets for 27 clinical service lines, and physician and administrator recruitment. He was also charged with aligning clinical operations with Geisinger Health Plan, a not-for-profit insurance company.

Dr. Peter Angood Chosen to Lead American College of Physician Executives

The American College of Physician Executives today announced the selection of Peter B. Angood, MD, as its new chief executive officer.

Dr. Angood, who is currently president and CEO of a Boston-based health care consulting firm, replaces Barry R. Silbaugh, MD, MS, CPE, FACPE, who served as CEO for four years. ACPE is the nation's oldest and largest medical management educational association for physicians.

Dr. Angood said he was humbled and honored to be chosen for the position. As CEO, he plans to focus on expanding ACPE’s educational offerings and other initiatives while keeping pace with evolving technologies to allow all types of physician leaders to make meaningful contributions to health care.

AMA names new executive vice president/CEO

The AMA today named James L. Madara, MD (left), as its new executive vice president and CEO. Dr. Madara will assume leadership of the nation’s oldest and largest physician group July 1.

Dr. Madara, 60, is an accomplished academic medical center physician, medical scientist and administrator who served as Timmie Professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine before assuming the Thompson Distinguished Service Professorship and deanship at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Madara was the longest-serving Pritzker dean in the last 35 years.

CMO = Chief Medical Officer or Chief Marketing Officer

When you see someone who has the title CMO, what do those three letters mean to you? To physicians, we interpret CMO to mean Chief Medical Officer. To the rest of the world, CMO means Chief Marketing Officer.

We all know CEO, COO, and CFO. The C-suite can be an interesting place when you have a CMO as well. Hospitals may also have a CMIO or Chief Medical Information Officer.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the C-suite:

The highest level executives are usually called "C-level" or part of the "C-suite", referring to the 3-letter initials starting with "C" and ending with "O" (for "Chief __________ Officer"); the major traditional such offices are Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Operations Officer (COO), and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In technology companies, a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is also central, and for companies with a strong IT capacity a Chief Information Officer (CIO) is also significant. (Most other C-level titles are not universally recognized, and tend to be specific to particular organizational cultures or preferences.)

What's a "high-paying non-clinical job?"

You may have heard the phrase, "high-paying non-clinical job." What does that mean? How do you define "high-paying"? Are we talking about base salary? Performance-based compensation? Commission plus bonus? Stock options?  In the business world of consulting or pharma, the term "high paying" really has no cap (see: CEO salaries in the pharmaceutical industry)

I doubt that most primary care physicians will jump right into a CEO seat in any major corporation, but there are some non-clinical jobs that pay more compared to others. Are you thinking about a career transition just so that you can earn more? Is money the main motivator?

For most professionals, money (unfair compensation) ends up being a de-motivator. Now, does that mean that high-paying jobs end up being great motivators? Not really. Clearly, some people are motivated by large salaries, but I think we all know wealthy people who aren't happy with work or life.

If you're looking for a high-paying non-clinical job, you may need to be patient. If you're making a high salary as a physician, the reality is that you may take a pay cut if you transition into the non-clinical world. This won't happen to everyone, but it will happen to some. I've worked with individuals who were making over $200k each year, and they took a job paying $150k annually. They were much happier because work/life balance and overall job satisfaction was more important than a high-paying job. Maybe you're in a similar situation. Maybe you'd be willing to reduce your salary so that you can experience more enjoyment in life.

So, what's your definition of a high-paying job, and what are you willing to give up?

CEO salaries in the pharmaceutical industry

Last week, you may have caught some news indicating that "Pfizer CEO Gets 12.5 Percent Raise From Last Year's $14.9M." Wow, it's hard to imagine what you could do with that much money.

Is that a base salary of $14.9 million? No, but this is how it breaks down:

CEO Jeff Kindler’s overall compensation for last year was $14.9 million, according to Dow Jones Newswire, a slight decrease from the year before, mostly because of lower stock prices for much of 2009. But Kindler stands to receive more this year: a base salary of $1.8 million (versus $1.6 million last year), an incentive target award of up to $2.7 million (from $2.4 million last year) and a long-term incentive award of $12 million (compared with $8.3 million last year).

Now, let's compare Kindler’s compensation package to a few other CEOs in the pharma industry:

• Abbott Laboratories’ Miles White reportedly received $25.3 million in 2008
• Merck & Co.’s Richard T. Clark, reportedly received $17.3 million in 2008
• Andrew Witty from GlaxoSmithKline received 1.78 million pounds ($2.51 million) in 2008
• David Brennan from AstraZeneca  received $4.7 million in 2008

You can actually find pharma CEO salaries posted on Forbes.com and other websites.

Why "average salary" is frequently misleading in medicine

When you hear the phrase "average salary," do you think of mean, median, or mode?

Let's suppose that the average salary for a primary care physician is $150,000 (I'm just making up numbers here). Now, is that because the majority of people fall between $140,000 to $160,000 (a very narrow range)? Or, is it because the range of pay is from $90,000 all the way up to $210,000 (a very wide range)?

I know many primary care physicians who are making around $90,000 (academic medicine or salaried) each year, and others who are making well over $200,000 (they do a ton of procedures and see a very high volume of patients). So, although the average salary of $150,000 may provide one perspective, we know that salary ranges are very wide in the field of medicine. Is this also true in the non-clinical world?

The short answer is "yes."

The phrase "average salary" tells you nothing about the range of salaries. Hence, it's a very misleading term unless you know the range of salaries. When you're thinking about a career transition and you're researching salary ranges, avoid the question of "average salary." Instead, explore the potential range of salaries and then you'll have a realistic idea for compensation. When you have some outliers, the average can become very unreliable (unless you're not using mean as your average). For instance, some physicians end up becoming CEOs of hospitals and major corporations. Some CEOs may have a base salary of $300,000 per year, while others make several million dollars annually. Now how do you calculate an "average" in this type of situation? It's hard for me to imagine making several million dollars each year.

Speaking of salary, I find it refreshing that physicians on Sermo are willing to disclose their salary (since it's anonymous) and that's where you can get a more accurate representation of salary ranges and distribution trends.

What does CMO mean to you?

In the world of business, CEO, COO, CFO, and several other acronyms for C-level executives have established meanings. You don't have to ask, "what does CEO stand for?" We all know that it generally stands for Chief Executive Officer.

CMO is an acronym that means one thing (Chief Medical Officer) in the world of healthcare, but outside that world, it can mean all sorts of other things. Let's look at a few examples:

• Chief Marketing Officer
• Chief Military Observer
• Chief Maintenance Officer
• Chief Monitoring Officer

So, if your business card says "CMO," you may want to have it spelled out the next time you go to get your cards printed. Otherwise, people may think that you're in charge of marketing.

How Much Does a Chief Medical Officer Make?

You can be a CEO overnight if you start your own business. However, you can't be a CMO overnight. According to Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, Inc., a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has a median base salary of $373,000 if you work in a healthcare system and a median base salary of $286,000 if you work in an individual hospital. That's just the base salary. Once you include other compensation figures, that number can be significantly higher. Are these numbers accurate? Surprising? What do you think?

I'm putting together something that will address some of the salary figures that are commonly found in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, so stay tuned.