Presidential Insights From Dr. Howard Purcell
This episode is an interview with Dr. Howard Purcell, who is the President of the New England College of Optometry. My alma mater and his alma mater. In fact, he graduated from NECO in 1984, and his father also graduated from NECO 30 years earlier. A pretty strong history for the New England College of Optometry within Dr. Purcell here. He has quite the background experience himself having worked within the industry with a couple of big companies that I'm sure you have heard of, as well as working in academia. Now being at the head of one of the main optometric institutions in the country.
I'm very excited to have this conversation with Dr. Purcell to ask him a lot of different questions. We are hopefully diving deep into a couple of topics that are near and dear to me but also, he's such a fun, energetic guy. I'm sure it's going to be an entertaining conversation overall. Without hesitation, let's jump right in.
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Thank you, Dr. Purcell, for taking the time to join me here. I know you are a busy guy. You are very much in demand. I appreciate you spending the time with me here.
It's my pleasure.
We will start with some housekeeping or easier questions, things that personally I'm interested to know. I'm assuming if I'm asking the question, there are other people out there who are probably interested as well. Can you define your role as the President and maybe compare that to other roles within the school, the dean or other positions like that?
We have different ways we set up optometry schools around the country. Let’s start with the basics because not everybody is familiar with them. If you are part of a larger university, then the dean of the optometry school runs the school. They have all the decision-making capabilities but they do report to a university president typically or a provost. That's the majority.
There are only, to the best of my knowledge, three remaining independent private institutions. At those institutions, which mine happens to be one of those, the head of the optometry school is the president. I'm President and CEO because I have chief responsibilities for our clinical environments as well. In any case, at our institution, we are the end of the road. There are no other presidents and provosts, etc.
I liked that because if you look at an example where it can backfire on you. Nova, wonderful institution, I spent five years of my career there and I love those guys. They are great. They had a little situation in which perhaps things were misunderstood about a contribution that was intended to be made to them. There is where you get into a situation where the optometry school could think one way, the administration of the university thinks another. When you look at the big picture, I like the idea personally, I prefer to live and die by my own decisions. I will take the heat when it goes wrong and we will celebrate when we have good things happen. For me, I like that environment.
In our institution, we also have a dean but in a private institution. The dean is the head academic first. They have leadership and decision-making capabilities for the academic program. I'm not an academic. I don't come from that world. Our Dean, Erik Weissberg, has been at the institution since he graduated. He had brought so much knowledge. He has been in many different roles at the institution. I personally think for a dean, that is the perfect profile. They understand it and have been in the trenches. He and I can have great discussions because I come from such a different perspective than he does. At our institution, we also have associate deans. Our associate Dean could be up to the clinical side of the house as an example. Our clinical faculty have someone who represents them.
In a university setting, you could have your one dean that runs the institution. The deans and private institutions are at the end of the road. Other than perhaps the Board of Trustees, the people are interested. I report to the Board of Trustees. They have issues, do my review and look after fiduciary responsibilities, etc. It happens to be I was a member of the Board of Trustees at ASCO that has worked in my favor in knowing the board and understanding what drives them. It has been helpful. I hope that, to some extent, answers your question.
I had a little concept of where the lines were drawn on that, and I'm familiar with Dr. Weissberg. He was there when I was at school at NECO. That's cool to know that he's the Dean. I don't think I knew that already.
He has been the dean for about a year. He has done an outstanding job. The dean should bring that real experience of being in the trenches, etc. Eric does that in such an incredibly positive way and he's a great leader, too. At least for us, it works in our institution.
You have already alluded to this but your background is not so much in the academia you mentioned. You have done quite a bit of work in the industry, if I'm not mistaken, with J&J and with Essilor. I was curious to see how that experience has informed or shaped your approach as the President of an academic institute.
I will answer it by telling you a quick story. At the last step of my interview, I had been called much throughout the whole process, the square peg in a round hole. I'm not an academic. I don't come from that world. I spent five years of my career in academia and I appreciated it, and we laughed and joked about it at the end of the interview is my last interview with them.
Their final question to me was, “Dr. Purcell, you have been called the square peg in a round hole. How are you going to round off the edges of the square peg fit into the hole?” I already know the answer. I can tell already the answer I gave but let me admit first that I felt little pressure. I was happy in my job. I would have been happy to retire at Essilor and continue there but to be the President of my institution, which is something I couldn't pass up on the opportunity.
Anyway, my answer was, “If that's what you are looking for, I'm not your guy.” When I looked around the room, I remember calling my wife and saying, “Don't worry. We are not going to be moving at all.” We are pretty much sealed the deal but nevertheless that I think helps to answer the question. I come at it from a different perspective but at this point, it's not a bad thing. As I sit around the table with my colleagues at ASCO and they are amazing people, most of them have spent their entire career in academia. I hope what I can bring is a different perspective. My time in the industry allowed me to visit thousands of practices and talk to thousands of practitioners. I tried to understand as best as I could the challenges and issues they were facing.
It enabled me to be better at leadership, management and holding different positions at different levels but maybe most importantly, I would have to say and it started at J&J. They have something called the Credo, if your readers are not familiar with the Credo, you should take a look at it. It was written by General Johnson a couple of hundred years ago. It says that when you have difficult decisions to make, here's how you prioritize. For J&J it's, “The users of our product and our patients that use us are number one. Our employees, our environment and our shareholders.”
I find that interesting in a big company, the shareholders at the bottom. What they will tell you is to take care of those first three and your shareholders will be fine. That left an impression on me because we all have difficult decisions to make. I'm sitting in my office and what comes into my office now and levelize it is the ones that people can't out. There are good arguments on both sides.
All of a sudden, I'm supposed to be the smartest guy in the room and I'm going to be able to know what the right decision is here, and both people are making great points. I have learned a lot from the industry but this is probably the biggest thing. If you can share with people ahead of time, this is how we prioritize. We are going to make a tough decision. This is the number 1, 2, and 3 things we are going to look at.
What I found happens and it's interesting, you have two people that made their great points and both sound legit. What you don't say is, “Here's what I think that's what we are going to do.” I haven't found that to be quite as successful. If I say, “You remember this. Our priority number one is the student first. That is how we make decisions. It's how we are going to make all this.” If we agree on that, then clearly, you two have both made great arguments but your argument seems to me to be much more focused on students first. That's how we are going to go. Even though that other person who didn't get their way is still okay with it because it wasn't some person who thought they could make a decision. It was based on something we have all agreed on. I saw the same thing at Essilor.
You work for Fortune 500 companies. You learn why they are Fortune 500 companies. If you prioritize and know what guidelines you are going to use, call it a Credo, prioritization or whatever it is but if you all agree on it, it does make those difficult decisions easier. They are still not easy but they become a little easier and you get more support because people understand how you are making decisions.
It's not because you think that's what it should be. Now you get to sit in the big office, therefore, you make the decision. I could probably list ten more things but that was the first one that came to mind. I think about it almost daily. That's why it comes to my mind when you ask and that is a great question but I learned a ton.
I hope that the experience I have will help guide the college to the future because we are looking towards the future. We are trying to prepare our students for not only what we see nowadays but as best possible, what we see upfront. One of my functions in Essilor was to look at everybody's new widget and the newest thing that was going to change the industry. I’ve got to see so much of that that I hope I can bring some of that, not only to the college but to academic optometry in general.
In that answer, what I love is that you have given me a segue to the next question. I appreciate that. Some decisions are always going to be hard but at least the person who doesn't get their way sees why that decision was made. I think that's powerful in keeping a team or an organization institute working on the same path and the same direction. It reminds me of something I learned about Jeff Bezos, speaking of large companies, which when he was having a meeting, he's always got a chair for the customer. It's an empty chair but he says, “This is the customer is sitting here.”
It’s amazing how he does things. I also learned something that I have implemented. When you have a tough project that you are looking at, it’s way on front and it's a long project. The way he approaches it, write the press release first and sit down. You are just starting the project. Write then what do you want it to say? What do you want the differentiator to be? It's an incredibly powerful tool because now, once you agree on that, and it takes a while to agree on writing what the press release is going to say, you can plan the path to get there.
There's a reason why the success that he has been. I may get argued all different kinds of things but overall, the guy has been incredibly successful. He has some unique ways. One with the chair, I have heard two. That one I liked, too. Write the press first, and then you know what the targeting is and where are you going?
We talk about having a clear vision. That's about as clear as your vision's ever going to get is what are you telling the world when the product is ready. The segue that you had made for me was talking about the future, and I have heard you say you are preparing students for tomorrow’s optometry if I'm hearing that correctly. I’m sorry if I'm misquoting that. I was curious then in your mind, what tomorrow's optometry looks like however, many years in advance in the future you would like to go. What are you telling students that are in NECO now? What would you like them to learn that would prepare them for that future?
Here's how we approach it and I have taken some heat for this but I'm happy to tell you that I believe it's the right thing to do. Our students should not graduate after four years of being in an optometry school and not see some of the things out there that are disruptive, that is changing the way we practice. Even if I like them or I don't like them, personally, I shouldn't be the judge of that.
The first step to it for me is I want to expose our students to everything that's possibly going on out there. I want them to be able to ask questions, to challenge people, to talk about it, and I will tell you we have done it. We have started doing it several years ago. Our students ask amazing questions. They don't have biases and preexisting thought processes, and they ask great questions. Telehealth is a great example of that.
Several years ago, we decided we were going to heavily learn more about Telehealth. We were going to look at how we validate. Dr. Gary Chu and his team have been doing a wonderful job, along with many. It came in handy and I had to step away. Another example, Warby Parker. We know our friends at Warby Parker and we have been friends for a while. Neil Blumenthal is the Head of Warby. I have known him for a long time.
He was going to be at Harvard speaking and he said, “I will come over to NECO if you would like and I will talk over there. I thought, “That would be fantastic. I want a student council. Would you guys be interested?” “We love it.” We had a packed house, people sitting in the stairway and we listened to Neil tell us about this incredible vision and tell us what an amazing entrepreneur and philanthropist he is. We also listened to him explain optometry.
It was clear. He didn't understand that optometry well. He recognized it and he asked a lot of questions, and it made for great dialogue. I think our students got a lot out of it and Warby got a lot out of it. I’ve got a lot of nasty ramps from people saying, “How dare we let such a person even walk in the door?” My philosophy is, I owe to you, the students, to expose you to as much as I possibly can.
Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, 3D printing of lenses and frames, and what we talked about. All these different applications and it's not about, do we think they are good? They are not. The students should have a chance to play with it, utilize it, involve themselves in it, and then ultimately make their decision as to, whether they think this is something good or not but I believe we owe it to them.
I am always searching with Gary to find out what is new and innovative going on out there. We want those people to come and visit us. The unique thing and you know this because you are an alum. There's a huge advantage to being in Boston. There’s going on when it comes to healthcare, IT, and technology across the river.
You know this from MIT. We've got Tufts, BC, BU, Harvard, Northeastern and it goes on. We are in a wonderful position to be able to take full advantage. I would say over these past several years, I'm proud of how things have accelerated. I recognize that some will love this idea but I think it's hard to argue that we should not present this to the student.
They shouldn't see it after they graduate and say, “What is this? I never heard of it. I didn't even know what was going on.” That's how I look at it. We say, “Prepare today’s optometrist for tomorrow's optometry.” We haven't fully assessed what we think is going to truly be tomorrow's optometry but we work on that every day. When we see something, we think it influences it positively, negatively or we don't know. We feel it's important that our students have a chance to see it, touch it, feel it, play with it, and ask questions about it. To me, that's education. That's what you have to do in addition to the poor principal.
There is a lot more to it but that's the root of the thinking and I will tell you, the students have responded incredibly positively. They want it, they want more of it and ask incredibly good questions. I continue to reinforce to do it but I do occasionally take a little heat. The other thing that's come up and I will throw out there is, what should the relationship between industry and academia look like? This has been a little bit of a church and state relationship in many ways. We draw that wall, create that wall, we don't want either. I look at that a little differently and probably because of where I came from but we cannot achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves at NECO. I suspect this is true at every institution, without the supportive industry. We have to find the right balance.
The industry doesn't want to come in and dictate our programming. That's not what they do. They want to expose themselves to students early. Students know who's supporting them that they are out there. Ultimately their products have to stand on their own but I believe we have to perhaps change the dynamic a little bit of the relationship between industry and academia. It's why we started the industry collaborative. We have now over 60 companies that are part of it.
I'm proud of the work Gary Chu and his team have done to bring us closer, to talk to each other, to understand the importance of that relationship. What's okay and what's not okay? To lift up the hood and show people what's going on in optometric education because I have said this before and you have probably heard me say it. If I had these two years of experience in academia and went back to my old job, I would be ten times better because now I have a better appreciation for what the issues and the needs are.
Our industry collaborative part of the emphasis behind that or the purpose of it is to help each other understand the key issues as well as have something at stake. If we graduate better optometry, for example, as a better business thinker because that's something we do poorly nowadays, in my opinion, and not just my opinion. I think in a lot of people's opinion in optometry schools.
One example, if the industry could help us save with a post-graduate course is difficult, as you know to incorporate it into the four years. We do it but it's hard for lots of reasons but if we could create some type of accelerated two-week program after graduation, where people could come in or even if you are out 1 or 2 years and you want to brush up on some of the business of optometry, that it didn't matter where you practice. You would be prepared for a better understanding of the business.
One example, I believe we have to reframe our relationship with industry because I have sat in both seats, I think it's doable without inappropriate influence but together we can do so much more. If you think of this new entity, EssilorLuxottica says whatever you will about them, you love it, you don't love it. The resources they have now are immense.
If we can ask the right way, do the right things to get their support, we will be able to do things that we have only dreamed of. Sorry, I'm a little bit on my soapbox on that one. I feel strongly about that for a lot of reasons, I have been to both places and the intentions are good. We have our colleagues and top optometrist at every major company that supports us. These are our own colleagues. We need to be talking to them.
In my opinion, we need to be freer in sharing the real issues. What I learned when I was in the industry were superficial issues. I didn't hear about the deeper ones that you learn when you come to academia. Some of the challenges exist in any situation but without industry support and they want to support it. We have a meeting in Boston, which is incredibly enthusiastic. We had a panel of students and a panel of faculty talk to the industry, and those could have gone on for 2 or 3 more hours.
