I have no words...Kent Thiry, again

[MooseMom]

 
Executive edge: Kent Thiry
DaVita CEO brings Fortune 500 cachet to Denver's Union Station
By Lynn Bronikowski
 
When Davita Inc. opens its $100 million headquarters near Denver's Union Station next year, the 14th floor penthouse will house a cafeteria with a huge terrace.

"In most corporate buildings the top floor has the CEO, the board room and things like that," said Kent Thiry, CEO of the Fortune 500 company that last year moved its corporate headquarters from El Segundo, Calif. "In ours, it's going to be the cafeteria so that every teammate - both the ones that live here and the ones who visit to attend DaVita University - gets the best view."

That's just one of the fingerprints Thiry has put on DaVita, where he calls employees teammates, likens the company to a village and labels himself Mayor KT. He developed the village metaphor shortly after taking over near bankrupt Total Renal Care in 1999 and overseeing its emergence as DaVita, which last year had revenues of $6.1 billion.

"We were trying to create a special place for people to work," Thiry said. "In a village you look out for each other; you pay your taxes; you don't litter. We wanted to be a healthy community, and everyone knows how to behave in a healthy village."

At first the idea of calling the company a village was met with dead silence by his senior team.

"We have a lot of people who never lived like that," he said. "But what we attempt to do here is we liberate people's desire to celebrate universal values. We're about humanness, and most people want to be about humanness."

Thiry himself grew up in small villages in Wisconsin - Thiensville and neighboring Maquon - where his father was a partner at Arthur Andersen and his mother was a stay-at-home-mom of six children. He envisioned growing up to become mayor or running a company, although not near the scope of DaVita where at 55 he is Colorado's highest-paid CEO, earning $13.8 million 2010.

"Being raised in a small community, you got exposed to people who made a difference and believed in the community," Thiry said. "All these people didn't give flowery conceptual speeches, but just the way they lived right in front of you, spoke of their quiet civic leadership."

He would go on to earn a B.A. in political science from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Today he delivers "State of the Village" addresses to his teammates, even pointing to some of his own shortcomings, which he admits can be brutal.
"Many of my faults were embarrassing, and yet it did set very positive forces in motion because once you discuss some of this stuff, you're really on the hook for improving," he said. "I used to be into micromanagement, and when I was disappointed, I would get angry. That took me a few years to get over so it was on my 360."

As part of his DaVita boosterism, Thiry regularly dons a "Three Musketeers" costume that he insists on calling "my uniform." Shortly before joining Total Renal Care, Thiry had seen the movie "The Man in the Iron Mask," and the company's "All for one and one for all" mantra was born.

The company was in terrible condition when 90 of its top executives were called to a meeting in a cramped restaurant meeting room.

"I thought, ‘We had to have a skit because we wanted to have fun,'" said Thiry, who sent people to Hollywood to rent costumes and equipment. "We did this skit about the "Three Muskateers" defending a dialysis center that was being taken over by evil forces. The energy was amazing so we did it for all our teammates months later.

"Even now before our earnings calls, the last thing we say before the call is ‘All for one and one for all.'"



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Page 1Readers RespondIs "humanness" even a word? Isn't it "humanity"? In Davita clinics, I've yet to see much "humanness" or even "humanity." Being a Davita employee may be marvellous; I hope it is better than being a Davita patient.

By Michelle on 2011 06 09
 
Davita is all smoke and mirrors. The VPs are pathetic and dump all the work on the Facility Administrators and Regional Managers. The "village" concept exists only in Thiry's mind.

By Peter North on 2011 06 09
 
If only this much attention were focused on the dialysis centers. It would be nice if the amount time that was focused on a cafeteria was shifted toward allowing Davita patients to perform Nocturnal Home Treatments with NxStage and other Cyclers.... Instead of trying to create the best place for people to work....how about spending some of that money on creating the facilies for those who dialyze.... I'm sure that in Kent's "villiage" will be only the best up to date equipment and flowers planted in the terrace...but yet in the Dialysis centers it continues to be "the lowest bidder" and cheapest when it comes to dialysis supplies.

By m3riddler on 2011 06 09
 

[jbeany]

Betcha the cafeteria serves nothing but Koolaid!

[okarol]

Betcha the cafeteria serves nothing but Koolaid!

 

[RealityCheck]

Thanks for posting!

DaVita has always been a company willing to pour money into image building.

I remember once at a national meeting they had someone come to the stage and say that Kent had heard about someone's family member needing a transplant THAT DAY and having no transportation so he sent his private jet.

Who wouldn't spend some money painting smileys on the fence if they were building a kingdom behind it?

[reno2360]

His "private jet" is actually paid for by Davita.  Ridiculous.

[MooseMom]

I think about how my mother suffered at her Davita clinic; they refused to let her do in-center nocturnal and never gave her a reason why.  I didn't know as much about dialysis back then as I do now, and in hindsight, I see how pitiful her clinic was.  It makes me want to vomit when I think of Kent Thiry dressing up and putting on skits and waxing lyrically about his "humanness".  I'm so angry right now I could spit.  You can't trust your own family, you can't trust your family attorney and you can't trust the people who are allowing you to dialyze like they're bestowing some privilege upon you.  It makes me sick.  I wish to God I had never come back to the US where all people care about is money.  So much for taking care of one another and looking after each other.  Kent Thiry is a nasty piece of work, and unfortunately, there are a lot more out there just like him.

I hope God is watching that man and is arranging for his place in the seventh circle.

[RealityCheck]

I read your post MooseMom and wonder why you were able to figure this out, and if you did, why doesn't every patient.

[MooseMom]

I read your post MooseMom and wonder why you were able to figure this out, and if you did, why doesn't every patient.

Perhaps for two reasons:

1.  I watched my mom go through dialysis, and

2.  I am, and have been, pre-dialysis for 20 years.  I've had a looooooong time to become aware of these things, plus I have had the energy to research them.  I have the advantage of a modicum of decent health.  I know it is very very difficult to advocate for yourself if you suddenly and unexpectedly find yourself in the world of dialysis with neither warning nor preparation.  All you are doing is trying to survive the emotional and physical tsunami that is dialysis.  As much as I would like to see every patient well educated and well prepared, not everyone can be, and it is up to those who are able to do the best we can for our fellow renal patients.

[tyefly]

Well said.....

[plugger]

That took me a few years to get over so it was on my 360."

Uh, my geometry is telling me if you go 360 degrees you are back where you started.  Wonder if that describes davita's improvement programs?

[plugger]

I'm sure in davita land their geometry is something different - if reality isn't cooperating, create your own!

[MooseMom]

Here is the link to the original article from a Colorado business magazine.

http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/executive-edge-kent-thiry/

If you follow the link, you will see that you can leave a comment, which a few people have done (all of whom seem to be patients).  If you want the Colorado business community see what Mr. Thiry and his Davita teammates are all about, leave your own comment.