Heather Morel is the President of Provider Solutions, a business unit of the McKesson Corporation. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing day-to-day business operations and leading long-term strategic planning for the company’s specialty clinic provider business, Biologics specialty pharmacy, value added services business and group purchasing organizations (GPOs), Onmark, and Unity. Morel has been with McKesson for over fourteen years and in her job immediately prior, served as the SVP of CoverMyMeds, leading the access and adherence services for McKesson’s newest product, AMP (Access for More Patients).

How did you become an executive in the health care industry? Did you always have an interest in health care?

​​​​​It took a long time to become an executive in the healthcare industry. I started out as most people do in their careers: working as an entry-level analyst at a healthcare consulting company. In addition to my professional work, I fetched coffee, built databases, and got the president of the company his lunch. I basically did whatever needed to get done to help grow the business. I grew my career from a very humble start to eventually being the vice president of that business. It took persistence and taking any chance that I could to add value and learn something new.

I think my interest in healthcare stemmed from my love of learning and understanding what I didn’t understand. I just had a curiosity and as I moved into a certain area of medicine or healthcare, I would express interest in a specific field or knowing more about how a certain payer system worked. I would go and investigate it, and I’d not only experience and learn more, but realize how much I still didn’t know. Healthcare is incredibly complex and interconnected. There is so much to continue to learn!

I think over time, as I grew in my career, I began to realize that I most enjoyed working with, coaching, and developing teams and people—and that the best part about healthcare was the people. I love how you can multiply your influence and impact to touch more lives through a team. That, for me, was the best part about growing in my career: not so much the title or anything else. It was the team.

What drove you to continue your education and earn your PhD in Health Services? What do you see as the biggest benefits to having a doctoral degree as an executive in the healthcare industry?

I think being a woman in healthcare, there was always a sense that I had to do more and be more to be accepted and heard. Even though I might have had the equivalent experience to my colleagues, I didn’t have that PhD or MD after my name when I found myself in high-powered situations. I also felt the additional degree would help if I wanted that next turn in my board service career.

My PhD was in health service, and that is really the study of how healthcare is delivered optimally. Pursuing a PhD teaches you how to research—how to break down a problem, analyze it and then put it back together again—along with teaching you to write and analyze things well. I wanted to complete my doctoral degree to push myself through that really difficult phase of completing original research from beginning to end.

Truly, the biggest benefit is for me. I pursued that degree for myself. I have the moment of accomplishment that I did it and I didn’t quit. There were a lot of times when I would finish a class and it would have been so easy not to register for the next one, but I kept going, and I can say to my daughter, “Look what I did.” No one can ever take your education away from you, and it does help to give you that added level of experience and knowledge.

How has your approach to long-term strategic planning changed over your many years of operations experience? What advice can you share with fellow WBL members when building out inclusive and flexible strategic plans?

I used to find strategic planning very stressful because it was a big event. But now it’s become more of a routine, because I think a good strategic plan is something that you’re constantly working on, reexamining, and updating on a quarterly basis. You have it in your pocket or out on your desk, and you’re looking at it and thinking about its impact in light of events that happen on a weekly or daily basis.

You want to make sure each year you’re refreshing all your facts and your figures, and that you’re truly examining the industry landscape and your competitive environment. But the biggest change in how I treat strategy is that it’s more of a compass, and you check in on it regularly.

It’s also quite important that strategy does not just sit in the boardroom. It can be frustrating when leaders don’t bring the strategy down to all employees and tell folks what they’re doing and how they plan to bring the company forward. You want people to understand what your roadmap is, how you plan to grow your business, and why decisions are being made. I think strategy needs to live in the hearts and minds of all employees. Being able to articulate a long-term plan can be hard, frankly. But I encourage you to share your strategy in clear language and communicate it in a way that resonates with people.

You are a strong advocate for bringing more women into executive roles. How do you support the advancement of women leaders within McKesson?

I think the biggest thing is just spending one-on-one time with leaders and helping to coach them, talk with them, and listen to them. To me, it’s that simple.  At McKesson, we have nine Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), with more being established. These ERGs function as part of McKesson’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and they are a critical area of focus for our company today. I’m a proud member of several of them, including our ERGs focused on women and Black professionals.

Personally, or professionally, what might the WBL network be surprised to know about you?

I have taken hip-hop dance lessons! I love to dance, although I am really not good. My friend and I here in Scottsdale decided that we wanted to get better at hip-hop. She’s actually really good— and I’m really bad—but we went out and did it! What fun that was. See you all out on the dance floor at our next Summit!