"DC": Please tell us about Leander Health Technologies' commitment to chiropractic.
Mr. Flaherty: I got involved in chiropractic in 1984 when I purchased Creative Concepts Group, an advertising/marketing firm that was doing generic advertising for the chiropractic profession. Generic advertising, in the simplest form, is creating an entire ad campaign, and then you sell it in various geographic markets around the country to a specific provider, who then uses that to sell his practice within a specific geographical radius. From that I started doing advertising for some of the major suppliers in the profession, one of them being Leander Eckard. Leander at the time was Leander Chiropractic Sales. From 1985 to 1989 I did the bulk of his journal advertising brochures, letterhead, and specialty advertising, etc. I took him from doing 1/6 page ads to full page, or multi-page four color ads, and sales in the company went from 1.2 million to over 2.8 million in sales. It had a major impact on the growth of his business.
In 1989 he asked me to come out to Port Orchard to visit the company, which I had never seen in all of the years I had been working for him. I came out to Port Orchard and it was a disguised, quasi-visit with the real intent of asking me to come out and run his company. I did that, coming out in January of 1990, and came to work as his president of the manufacturing company. After being here a couple of years, there were some health problems that his wife was having, she was diagnosed with cancer, and he lost interest in the company. I decided to purchase the company from him and did so in 1992. The year before that, through my involvement with Leander Eckard and Leander's prestige in the marketplace, and what I was doing for Dr. Eckard on a day to day basis, I actively got involved in the Mercy Guidelines Conference as an observer and as a consultant. That sparked quite a few other things happening just from that one participation. After buying the company in 1992 and doing quite a bit with starting a college donation program, we instituted for the first time in the company's history a formal program of seeking to have our products put in the chiropractic colleges, and came out with the "Excellence in Education" college donation program. It began to get all of Leander's products in the colleges throughout the country and around the world.
Then some some smart aleck guy by the name of Don Petersen Jr. called me early one morning and said, "How would you like to be famous?" and I was dumb enough to say, "Really? How?" He asked me if was interested in chairing one of the committees of the Centennial Foundation. That was in the summer or fall of 1992. Instead of saying no I said yes and got involved with the Centennial Foundation as one of the chairpersons. I ended up being on the development committee, which is fundraising, which is something that I had a lot of experience in, being in the stockbroker business. I've been a licensed broker for going on 18 years. One of my major contributions in brokerage was corporate financed fund- raising for purchases of real estate syndication, oil and gas syndication, and corporate acquisition. So with that experience, I said I would take on a committee chairmanship and got involved in developing the initial concepts to put forth the fundraising, and we set some goals. Since then I've gotten involved in the Centennial Foundation on several other committees. I'm on four committees of the Centennial Foundation.
I think this company has become one of the most visual chiropractic suppliers, and is known for its quality products and unparalleled service. I felt that if I could put the same qualities that I brought to this company into the centennial and helped spread some of this into the profession, then we could increase the viability of the profession and make the chiropractic profession known around the country, much in the same manner as I had contributed to Leander Health Technologies becoming a well known company in the profession.
My commitment for the future is to take a profession that is perceived by other providers to be second class, by the public to be misunderstood, and by government to be cautious but fair, and turn it into one of the leading health care provider paradigms in the United States if not in the world. My commitment won't stop until I accomplish some of these major goals.
"DC": Tell us why Leander Health Technologies decided to become a Platinum Club Crown Sponsor.
Mr. Flaherty: There are two reasons for that. One is that I felt as chairman of the committee, if I was planning to ask people to give money, the first thing I had to do was not only to give as a company, but to give as an individual. My wife and me both gave individually $1,000 as well as the company giving $50,000. It was also at that time when I was establishing the different levels of giving where there were limitations on the numbers of sponsors in each category, and I felt that I wanted to be one of the top, most visible givers. I knew the company could not afford $300,000, but could afford $50,000 if it were spread out over a period of time. I wanted to take a leadership role. When you go to others to ask for donations, usually the first question you get is, "Well how much are you putting in?" I could tell them my company was contributing at the second highest level, putting in $50,000. When I went to the doctors I could say, "I'd really like you to give $1,000. That's how much I contributed personally." There is no "trick" to fundraising. You contribute to the level you want others to give, and it's awfully hard for them to say no. I took that position and that was one of the primary reasons.
The second reason is that there's an adage, which over the years I've learned to be true: "The more you give, the more you get." I knew that putting in a substantial portion of money would some way, some how would return substantially more in the future than our contribution. So far that has happened many times over.
If I had one wish, it would be that chiropractors came together all over the country and attended Washington and Davenport by the thousands, to support the hundreds of thousands of hours that all the volunteers have put forth to make the centennial year a series of events that will never be forgotten.
"DC": Now that chiropractic is entering its second century, what do you think the future holds for the chiropractic profession?
Mr. Flaherty: I think right now the profession has the greatest opportunity of its 100 year history to make a major impact in the future of health care, because of its cost effectiveness. Its efficacy is being proven more and more every day, and in managed care they are going to have an opportunity to expand their presence in health care to 97 percent of the population, from its current 8-10 percent.
I think the future is bright. I don't think that the marketplace is going to be open to all chiropractors, but those who are willing to abide by a protocol-driven, guidelines-directed, quality controlled system of providing chiropractic care are going to be the major winners in the future. I think they are going to see more patients, but I think they are going to get less dollars (that is what managed care is all about), but they are going to be more efficient in the job that they do, and are going to be the big winners in the future.
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