aodo 2011 building an internal culture

Mitch Beckman, Executive Director of DevelopmentOctober 2011

The University of Iowa Foundation


“It’s still the mission, stupid”

Glaucoma

Genetics Lab

7 pplBioinformatics

Lab

12 ppl

Chorioretinal Degeneration

Lab

7 ppl

Stem

Cell Lab

7 ppl

Visual & Perimetry Reading

Lab

5 ppl

Animal Behavior

Lab

2 ppl

Electro-physiology

Lab

4 ppl

Proteinomics Lab

1 ppl

Carver

Nonprofit

Genetic Testing

Lab

22 ppl

Pediatric

Genetics

Lab

5 ppl

Mouse Genetics

Lab

10 ppl

Gene

TherapyLab

4 ppl

Cellular Delivery

Lab

6 ppl

VisionRehab

Lab

2 ppl

Developmental

Biology

Lab

10 ppl

Statistics Lab

4 ppl

Ed Stone, DirectorMD/PhD, HHMI Investigator

Advisory Board

11 ppl

$100 million


Internal Champions/Leaders

Empowering and Recognizing Faculty/Staff

Donors/Volunteers Advocating up the Chain of Command

Maximize (the heck out of) Your Sustainable Competitive Advantages

Lasting Changes are Really Hard and Take Time


They believe in you and give you complete “access”

Senior faculty authored “Culture Document”

Used in many forms to help advance/strengthen our culture

Leadership = Giving


Partner with key faculty & ask them for their opinion

Educate other key faculty who have potential

Work closely with front-line staff and provide praise

Embed yourself whenever/wherever possible


Must believe in the culture

Advocate for culture up the chain

Your B2 Bomber

An Extension of Your Staff


Determine them and benchmark

DO spend all of your energy only in your best 2-3 areas

DON’T waste critical fuel


Building anything important takes time

Be completely transparent

Constantly tweaking

Always close the loop


10 years in the making

2 chairs/professorships to 17

Philanthropy assets have grown from $10M to $50M

FTE staff was at .50 FTE; now at 4.0 FTE

Otolaryngology just added


“Nothing we’ve done in the past, no matterthe degree of excellence we have achieved,will keep us from exceeding that performanceat the first opportunity we encounter in thefuture.”

—Bob GaynorIVR Advisory Board Member

aodo 2011 building an internal culture

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