Pros
- Development: significant investment in personal and professional development for its employees - General Management: values general managers and enables inexperienced employees to take small risks (at least conceptually) - Smart people: There are a lot of many smart people at DaVita, but unfortunately most are not quite as smart as they think
Cons
- Busy work: The two senior leaders make virtually every decision, so VPs and mid-levels people spend most of their time spinning wheels and doing busy work but lack the ability to make any decisions - Culture: purely a cosmetic costume designed to reduce turnover and facilitate below average wages for field employees. The paragon of culture is just on the posters but not really lived. - Highly political: Headquarters operates at the opposite pole of "one for all." There are lots of musketeers because everyone is stabbing each other in the back. - Unethical: Employs dishonest or bush-league tactics to reduce costs (laughable 401(k) program, "unlimited" PTO for some, phony bonus numbers, PTO required for holidays, ESSP program) and inflate the "poster" value of benefits (you have to read the fine print for everything it promises) - Strategically: has accomplished nothing outside of dialysis, which is about the easiest thing to run in health care. It really does not understand how to articulate and analyze strategic frameworks, and its strategy can be summarized with: "what is Fresenius doing?"