Leadership
Forging ahead
How James Anderson created a vision that pushed Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center into the future
By Meredyth McKenzie
Smart Business Cincinnati | November 2008
Page 1 of 3
When James M. Anderson started the
process of creating a new vision for
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical
Center, there was great skepticism from
the hospital’s employees that it would
ever happen.
“I suppose you could say nobody
believed that we would do this, and this
would invest in doing things that would
improve care and probably reduce revenue but deliver better outcomes,” he
says.
But as president and CEO of the children’s hospital, Anderson knew it was
important to brush off the doubts and
move forward on developing that vision
and executing it to help guide the hospital in future years.
As chairman of the hospital’s board,
Anderson was part of the group that developed the $1.16 billion hospital’s vision statement in 1996. The process took two years
before the statement was completed.
“It’s important to spend time defining your
vision because that points you in the direction you want to go,” he says. “Once you’re
comfortable with where you’re going, you
get to work doing it.”
When he became the hospital’s president
and CEO later that year, it became his
responsibility to execute on the vision he
helped create.
Anderson’s work hasn’t stopped there. He
has developed three strategic plans since
becoming CEO and has also declared a new
mission statement that better defines what
the hospital is looking to accomplish.
Here are the steps Anderson took to make
that vision development process a success.
