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The business of good health
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Lauret Howard 05WEMBA Vice President for Strategic Alignment and Performances Services NASCO LLC Atlanta, Ga. |
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The timing was perfect. A few years ago, Lauret Howard 05WEMBA was ready for a change, and so was her company.
NASCO, which supports Blue Cross/Blue Shield Plans, was growing quickly. But it lacked tools for managing the associated risk, its ten-year-old finance systems couldn’t provide information necessary to support NASCO’s complex business decisions, and the company needed to develop new capabilities to help nonprofit health plans compete against for-profit insurers.
As CFO, Howard wanted to solve these problems and find new opportunities for NASCO. Personally, she wanted to shift her career into the field of business transformation and organizational development.
After looking at several business schools near her home in Atlanta, Howard picked Goizueta, based on the caliber of its professors and students. She chose its weekend EMBA program because it allowed her to fulfill her responsibilities at work and home while learning in a classroom setting. Outgoing and relationship-oriented, Howard found this educational method more fulfilling than online study.
Her supervisor, NASCO’s CEO, and her staff supported her in pursuing an MBA. They scheduled around the days she was in class (every other Friday and Saturday) and made it possible for her to leave work every day at 4:30 p.m. to spend time with her family.
At home, her husband and daughter adapted to a new routine, designed to ensure each got enough time with her and the household ran smoothly. Howard spent time with her family every evening until after dinner, when she started studying. Her daughter took over the family’s laundry responsibilities, and Howard and her husband instituted date night, which began every Saturday at 6:00 p.m. He chose the activity.
Howard says that her sixteen months at Goizueta changed her and her company. Through classes and discussions with fellow students, she acquired tools and practices she now applies at NASCO. An independent study project on health care transformation became the basis for several changes she’s made at the company.
Since graduating, Howard has assumed a newly created position at NASCO: vice president for strategic alignment and performances services. Goizueta, she says gratefully, prepared her for this role.
“It also reignited my desire to learn,” she adds. Now, she finds she’s constantly looking for new ideas, fresh solutions that might work at NASCO. She attends at least one conference a year, not necessarily in health care, and reads more professional literature. Once a week she has breakfast or lunch with a professional colleague.
Howard’s new knowledge is transforming NASCO–as well as herself.
—Christian Kirkpatrick