“You have had an enormous impact in
helping me develop my leadership capacity. Your perspectives have
brought critical insight into senior leadership decision-making.
Your conflict resolution skills in difficult negotiations at the
highest company levels have been superb. You have a spectacular
skill set and your guidance is priceless.”
Dr. Robert Fisher’s assignment in
working with senior leaders at Kaiser Permanente was daunting. The
initial challenge was to find common experience and values to appeal
to a very diverse group of regional presidents, physician
executives, not for profit administrators, and for profit COOs of
Kaiser Permanente.
After guiding us in building common
vision and values, he then undertook individual leadership and
organizational development work to help us enhance our operational
and organizational effectiveness. In some cases this required
substantial improvements in multiple disciplines.
It is a measure of Dr. Fisher’s
success and skill that not only did the several businesses
experience dramatic improvements in sales, revenue, operational
effectiveness and medical/administrative cooperation, but even those
of us who were most resistant in the beginning, including myself,
became devoted to his highly successful strategies which created
stronger leaders and sustained results. Robert is wise, patient, and
persuasive and has a keen eye for business strategy and positioning.
Dr. Fisher’s ability to work with
senior leaders in health care is superb.
Chris DuLaney
Former Regional President, Kaiser Permanente
You provided the leadership for
the high morale with which we look forward to the merger. You
built and executed a plan that helped us deal with conflicts of
nearly every conceivable form. You guided us in several important
relationships resulting in substantial new revenue.”
Thomas K. Reed, Jr.
Former Chairman and CEO
Vivigen Labs (Publicly traded and purchased by Genzyme)
I have been involved in healthcare
and medical administration at a private not-for-profit academic
medical center for twenty-five years. Six months ago, I was promoted
to the position of Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of
Medical Affairs.
I am not the typical hospital
executive. I am opinionated- sometimes to a fault. I like to laugh
and to make others laugh. Some like me, others don’t. I am not shy
about entering difficult discussions and I have the usual M.D.
bravado of thinking that my knowledge base knows no bounds. When
first advised that I would have an executive coach as part of my new
employment agreement as a Vice President, I assumed that this was
the CEO’s way of trying to fit my personality into his perception of
“acceptable executive behavior”.
In my new role, I was provided the
services of Dr. Robert Fisher. I have now worked with Dr. Robert
Fisher for approximately six months. Our meetings have become a
highlight of my employment. In addition, I have gained insights that
certainly have improved my performance. In fact, I am not certain
that I would stayed on the job without our interactions.
Dr. Fisher is smart, and he has a
great sense of humor. He has a background and experience that allows
comparisons to previous difficult situations. History is a great
teacher. In addition, he is totally trustworthy. When we meet, I
outline those situations that I believe are difficult. After twenty
years of surviving hospital administration, I am no novice. However,
he has helped me to understand that new challenges may require new
approaches. He has helped me gain insight into the characters and
needs of my fellow executives.. His insights lead to success. I can
state with certainty that I gain immensely by reviewing potential
new approaches to problems and people. I find myself effecting
approaches that would not have come naturally.
I look forward to my meetings with
Dr. Fisher. He is clearly a good person who cares about excellence.
I know that he has had a huge positive influence on me in terms of
adapting to a difficult new challenge. He has my very highest
recommendation.
Allan Pont MD
Vice President – Medical Affairs
California Pacific Medical Center
San Francisco, CA
In my role as Chief Clinical Safety
Officer and Medical Director of Quality Management at Lucille
Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford I am called upon to assess
and introduce change in practice to enhance care across multiple
disciplines and often with speed, always with efficiency and with
requisite acceptance. This change must be sustained and measured.
The speed in which you were able to
assess with me the issues facing my leadership and position and help
institute a plan to ensure its rapid effectiveness was a great
contribution. You proceed with keen insight and seasoned
effectiveness to help me accelerate the transformation into the
leader that I must be in my role. This amalgam of complex
communication and assessment tools that you have helped me develop
in addition to skills at conflict resolution and negotiation have
helped multiple initiatives succeed in a much shorter and easier
path than I would have expected. My insight into the strategy and
organizational change has become an invaluable tool.
We are moving at an unprecedented
rate of change resulting in improved and measurable change. My
abilities to chair a meeting, introduce complex and often
challenging new ideas, institute them and work with peers and senior
medical and administrative colleagues has strengthened to the
advantage of my work and the quality of care in our institution as
well as accelerate my contributions to the quality and safety on a
national stage.
The work that I have accomplished
with your assistance with outcomes recognized in our institution. It
has caused true and critical change and has been measurable and
sustained. It is a credit to what we have done together. It has
contributed great and lasting value both to me as a leader and
physician and to Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital as a whole.
Because I have both an internal audience here at Packard and at
Stanford Hospital and a National and International Audience to whom
I communicate in writing and speaking, the leverage of what we have
done has lasting and critical impact beyond the doors of Lucille
Packard.
I love the work that we have done. I
look forward to continuing my work with Dr Fisher in the future.
Paul Sharek, MD,
MPH
Chief Clinical Safety Officer, LPCH
Medical Director of Quality Management, LPCH
Asst. Prof. of Pediatrics, Stanford Univ. School of Medicine
“I view Dr. Fisher’s coaching as a
true turn-around talent. His observations and opinions are
insightful and his ability to translate this into sustained actions
is key to the success of these assignments. We are thrilled with
his work and I would recommend him for the most challenging
assignments.”
Steve Scheid
Former Vice Chairman & CFO, Financial Products & Services, The
Charles Schwab Corporation
Current Chairman, Janus Capital Management
Dear Robert,
Perhaps the best testament to the success of the leadership work
that you and I have done is that Washington Mutual’s Chief Auditor
recommended to his senior management that I fill a newly created
role to parachute into a highly complex issue for the bank. This
issue, which is in the public domain, is focused on a Cease and
Desist order issued to Washington Mutual by the Federal Regulators
to increase the effectiveness of processes that identify and report
suspicious activity related to possible criminal activity, money
laundering, and terrorist financing across the enterprise.
When I accepted the assignment, I asked senior management to engage
your services. In that role you have helped me to move process,
people development, reporting, teaming, hiring, training, peer,
direct and upward management with high speed and great efficiency.
These outcomes are essential for the bank to meet the requirements
of the Federal Regulators. You have been a critical factor in our
progress.
Your incisive thinking has been exactly what I had hoped for and
actually exceeded what I had imagined. You have uncanny intuitive
skills that helped me develop and trust my own intuition as a
leader. The outcomes have exceeded my expectations and those of my
department. Your expertise in this critical issue for the bank
demonstrates your unusual capability to jump in anywhere and create
high level success.
I thank you for your dedication and skill in your work with me and
Washington Mutual.
Gilbert Ayala
Formerly, Director or BSA/AML Operations, WAMU
Currently, Compliance Director, BSA/AML Operations, JP Morgan
Chase
Your contribution to my success has
proven immensely valuable to my clients, our firm and me
personally. I am currently leading an effort to integrate the
supply chains of three recently merged companies. The scope is
enormous: a $40 billion global organization of 60,000 people with
three distinct cultures. As a result of your advising on leadership,
problem resolution and delivering difficult messages, this effort is
proceeding smoothly and with relative ease, despite its complexity
and scope.”
Allen J. Delattre
Partner, Global Comm. & High Tech/Supply Chain Practice,
Accenture
I engaged Robert to assist me with a
cultural change with my International Finance Group at Visa
International when I was there in the role of EVP of International
Finance. Robert helped establish a workable model of trust with
the staff, improve communication and team spirit and create an
environment where people felt more a part of creating solutions.
Essentially, he strongly helped me jump start effective change to my
finance group. I highly recommend him and look forward to working
with him in the future.”
Mark Tremont
Former EVP, International Finance Group
Visa International
“I wasn’t prepared for the depth of
personal caring you demonstrated to all the team members. That is an
extraordinary capability and personal trait I’ve never before
encountered by anyone in your profession. The energy that you
brought to our discussions and the personal commitment to help us
with the hard issues has benefited the entire company.”
Ken Campbell,
Former CEO and President, Centegy and Co-Founder US Web
“Robert has served on the Board of
Directors of STC.UNM (the technology transfer organization wholly
owned by the University of New Mexico for many years. His
leadership and insight have played a key role in the success of STC.
In particular, his knowledge of organizational dynamics and
networking have helped STC further its mission with the expansion of
contacts worldwide.”
Lisa Kuuttila,
President and CEO, STC.UNM
STC.UNM (STC)
is a nonprofit corporation formed by and owned
entirely by the University of New Mexico (UNM) (formed in 1995
by the Regents of UNM to protect and transfer its faculty
inventions to the commercial marketplace. STC licenses
innovative technology developed at UNM, including optics,
microfluidics and high performance materials as well as
therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and discovery tools.
