DOES CU/ANSCHUTZ OPERATE ON THE PETER PRINCIPAL?
PART THREE THE FINAL PART OF OUR SERIES!
In part one of our series the Anschutz medical campus blog outlined how an operations CEO operates/performs. Specifically John Elway the current CEO of the Denver Broncos. Elway will assume a more even prominent role with the recent resignation of Broncos owner Pat Bowlen with his public acknowledgment of alzheimers disease. In part two of our series we outlined the role of the visionary CEO namely Steve Jobs the now deceased CEO of Apple corporation. However what happens when you have a three billion dollar industry and the current CEO fails to operate using either the operations or visionary management style?
The entire billion dollar business entity flounders from lack of leadership direction! There is no comprehensive business plan, all departments are not coordinated, prospective financial investors are alienated, middle management has no definite direction and fails to follow a comprehensive business plan. And we have a multi billion dollar real life example of this occurring at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus the current tenure of CEO of Bruce Benson, Lilly marks and don Elliman assuming their current leadership roles.
Now lets cut through the continuous false rhetoric, emitted by these incompetent leaders, chronologically organize for easy comprehension and outline what has exactly occurred under these three leaders and nationally publish why this institution is a flat out failure! Talk is cheap lets look at the facts in chronological order to gain some sense of the consistent failure of the CU/Anschutz campus. This so called flag ship has be sinking now for almost a decade!
And let all perspective future financial donors, future students, academic researchers, take specific notes as their future, reputation, and financial resources are in jeopardy! As we have now moved beyond mere MBA analysis, we are operating in the real world using a specific example similar to a 300,000k dollar Harvard education. With that in mind lets begin with the public facts…..
In 2008 Colorado University paid 780,000 to Landor brand associates to conduct a brand study. The 120 page report found the following items: Cu is mismanaged with many different inconsistent logos and fragmented messages, on all their separate campuses.
Colorado University had an image problem! CU needed to improve their REPUTATION! The boulder campus had higher student opinion than the Cu/Anschutz campus. There was massive confusion on which name to call the separate campuses both internally and externally! A billion dollar entity, after receiving a 90 million dollar financial donation, and there is no comprehensive national branding moniker? And each of the current leadership of record is earning in excess of six figures (100,000+)?
Current CU/Anschutz leadership has been lobbying the Colorado legislature for more student funding. What state government would want to associate/jeopardize its disgruntled taxpayers with a failure of leadership and alienate its voters? Exactly where is the Colorado government leadership on this public university cu/anschutz campus?
In 2012 University of Colorado hired consulting firm Grenzenbach, Glier and associates (GGA) for six months and paid the consulting firm 380K dollars. This effort was established to help increase donations/revenue streams to CU. Apparently current Cu leadership is unable to properly access their former students for donations so an outside consulting firm was needed to educate and inform current Cu personal how to accomplish this basic task.
University of Colorado is now in a race towards the bottom of the national pack as University of Colorado is ranked 48th nationally in state fund raising. GGA has made several suggestions and improvements to president Bruce Benson and the University of Colorado regents to improve overall fund raising efforts.
One suggestion was to realign the developmental structure and move staff from the Cu foundation to the University. This would align responsibility, authority, ensure accountability and management. Cu fundraisers will now become employees of the university. Prior to this arrangement there was no accountability from top to bottom for fund raising at University of Colorado according to president Bruce Benson. A 2.5 billion dollar public university and no accountability from top to bottom?
Additional suggestions from GGA include how to improve University of Colorado efforts from fund operations, major gifts, (large donations where CU has consistently previously failed),as previously outlined in detail by this blog….. further engage and involve volunteers and former CU alumni. GGA recommended hiring a vice president for advancement who would over see and coordinate all CU fund raising activities.
On September 1, 2013 following a recommendation from a 380k outside consulting study University of Colorado hired Kelly Cronin who was vice president of all four of CU’s campuses coordinating fund raising efforts. Soon afterwards planned implementation went awry, when a closed door private meeting was commencing between the CU foundation and the university, Kelly Cronin’s male assistant listened in on a thirty seven minute telephone conference call which should have been kept confidential. This unauthorized third party eavesdropping event, has now damaged the relationship between CU foundation and the University. Kelly Cronin has now negotiated a $150,000 severance package and resigned from the University of Colorado. These independent research results were reported by yet another private investigation which carried a cost of $40,000.
In 2013 The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus hired outside consultants Perkins and Will. Their focus is for the future development of the Cu Anschutz campus for the coming decade. Perkins and Will recommended three possible future development scenarios:
1. The street: Identify 19th avenue as an east west axis.
2. The mall: make the Anschutz Medical Campus pedestrian friendly
3. Front door scenario: align montview boulevard as an entry point to the Anschutz Medical Campus. Allowing Montview to be as busy as the Colfax avenue entry point.
Additional suggestions included additional parking spaces are needed and the need to include green spaces for the students and visiting patients.
As previously reported by this blog, our national readers are familiar there has not been adequate parking planned for or implemented on the entire Anschutz medical campus for the last ten years. Dramatically effecting and deteriorating the surrounding neighborhood. The city of Aurora has now used taxpayers money paying 25 million dollars in construction costs to off site, Fitzsimons village developer Corporex to build a 30,000 square, foot conference center and adjacent parking garage. Additionally the city of aurora will pay Corporex a $50,000 annual operating management fee.
With the continued failed comprehensive planning of the future Aurora light rail™ which was initially designed to bisect the Anschutz medical campus now being moved north towards montview boulevard. This realignment will be removing/eliminating valuable green space from the perimeter of the campus and will force thousands of wounded war veterans to take a polluting diesel bus to access the Veterans hospital approximately one half mile away, that is now 500 million over budget consistently escalating in price, and years behind in construction. This is garnering more negative national attention to the Anschutz medical campus!
Adjacent to north of the Anschutz medical campus is the 160 acre Fitzsimons redevelopment authority (FRA). This separate entity has been a failure for years with its leadership organization. Asleep at the wheel for nearly a decade with little activity and has now recently hired another outside consultant to advise the FRA how to develop its remaining 150+ acres of land. Mr. John Shaw who oversaw the development of the DTC in the 80’s, who previously worked for Opus development will be a real estate consultant advising the highest and best use of the FRA land holdings for redevelopment. The Fitzsimons campus currently consists of mainly a golf course with a few buildings located on the property, However after more than a decade of existence there is not one major pharmaceutical company, manufacturing facility, distribution center, warehouse space, or light industrial space. Commercially available developed retail, industrial, office, or warehouse space is virtually non existent.
In 2013 University of Colorado hired outside consultant Deloitte and Touche to upgrade Cu’s grants and contracts infrastructure. Cu also required consultation and advice on how to manage their on going research in the future. Deliotte and Touche was also contracted as an outside consultant to help set up a clinical trials office for the University of Colorado.
However, this clinical trials office will be a completely loosing proposition for University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. And its easy to decipher, recognize and predict. There is not one major pharmaceutical company located on the FRA campus and there will never be one in the future either. The reasoning is simple with the high cost of land, high cost of construction of new buildings, high labor costs, over 50% of entire worlds pharmaceutical clinical trials are moving offshore. The current cost of a single clinical trial in the United States is 150 million dollars 60% more than in India. China currently in number three world position will move to number two position next year. Surpassing India in the number two position. Therefore with the CU Anschutz medical campus misguided, maligned focus on development of real estate holdings, any clinical trial that is performed on this isolated campus will cost an additional 100 million dollars: PER DRUG! This cost will eventually be passed through to the patient! in the form of higher health care premiums! Now a mandatory requirement!
Major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can manage clinical trials more effectively and at less expense offshore. Being offshore allows for lesser FDA scrutiny, inexpensive labor costs, a large pool of available volunteers/participants. And offering genetic diversity through a large population base. China and India combined have close to a two billion population. There are many volunteers for free medical tests and medical participants. After the drugs are approved there is now a market of two billion consumers for the purchase of these drugs. Over a 50 billion dollar market readily available for new drug introductions! This is why applications for off shore clinical trials are soaring! You do not need to pay an outside consultant to read the tea leaves. This clearly illustrates and outlines the continuous failure of the current incompetent Cu leadership!
The United States is falling below the 50% mark in clinical trials. Particularly disturbing is the fact in critical late stage three clinical trials the United States is now falling below 40%. Behind China is India, Russia, Brazil and Czech republic.
With the publically documented failed vision of the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus now apparent to the outside world. Lets take a critical eye opening account, of exactly what has been just been publically assembled, outlined and previously documented.
A failed 750,000 outside Landor brand study, five years later has yet to be really implemented. Glier and Associates 380,000 outside study on how to capitalize on former students for donations. A failed vice president of donation coordination, Kelly Cronin who has now resigned, costing CU an additional 150,000 dollars in severance pay. Outside consultant Perkins and Will hired to inform current Cu leadership how to develop a medical campus ten years after the initial development commenced. The city of Aurora now using Aurora tax payers funds to build infrastructure outside this problematic medical campus due to the lack of comprehensive planning. Additional outside consultant Mr. John Shaw contracted on how to develop current FRA real estate holdings. Deliotte and Touche outside consultant contracted to inform Cu leadership how to implement grants, contracts, future research and setting up a clinical trials office.
At every single juncture, for the entire past decade, when a critical decision is mandated, the current Cu leadership is unable to originate, develop, manage, or implement a strategic decision! It’s that simple! An outside consultant is required to be contracted and substantially financially compensated to develop, manage and inform the current Cu leadership how to proceed with their job! This is a flat out failure for an institutional public leadership! And now publically, researched, articulated and documented for the entire world to discern and learn from. These documented results have far, far, reaching effects….adversely effecting existing students, future enrollments, financial donors, taxpayers, state reputation, international relations, brand reputation, and emitting a negative halo over the centennial state of Colorado!
This publically documented continuous series of incompetent events from the current Cu leadership publically reminds us all of the book written by professor Lawrence J. Peter in 1969 entitled “The Peter Principal”. Which stated: In an hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence. This is exactly what has occurred at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical Campus!
Colorado taxpayers now have the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus leadership lobbying the Colorado legislature for additional funding, a separate line in the Colorado state budget for funding, and the Colorado legislature attempting to give Fitzsimons campus angel investor tax credits.
Until a new effective CU leadership is elected, and placed in charge of daily management, there should be no financial funding allocated to the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus. Elimination of future student public tuition, With the current misguided focus on developing expensive real estate holdings, which add to the cost of every single Colorado citizen’s healthcare premiums. Health care is now becoming mandatory for all United States citizens, will continue to escalate in cost and annual premiums, the new Cu leadership focus should be on dramatically reducing overhead costs, and delivering low cost effective health care to all Colorado taxpayers! This should be the mission statement and mandatory Colorado legislation for the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus. This is obvious to every single Colorado taxpayer, and no Colorado government representative seems to recognize this failure or the ability to “right the ship” of this failing taxpayer funded public university…This should be considered as future regents run for public office as Colorado taxpayers can now evaluate their performance.
With The University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus structured as a public university there is no accounting of leadership, no focus on the bottom line of continuing escalating costs, failed comprehensive planning, outside consultants are hired, expensive overhead runs rampant. Colorado taxpayers continue to hear the false rhetoric emitting from the current Cu leadership. as a result Colorado taxpayers continue to “pay the piper” for failed incompetence in the form of higher monthly medical insurance premiums.
When you have failed institutionalized incompetence it eventually filters its way down and effects the entire student population! Tenure effects teachers and professors. Students suffer from inefficient teaching, research, receive less than acceptable education, and student service. The “Peter Principal” eventually starts to infect the entire student population. The negative effect on a paying student population, and how students are misguided, will be the subject of another publically documented, informative post on the Anschutz medical campus blog!
Copyright 2014. All rights reserved. all original content. All subject items believed to be accurate, but not guaranteed.
