Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/kindercare-looks-to-the-future-an-interview-with-kindercares-ceo/5009989/
In July of this year, KinderCare Learning Centers, Inc. celebrated its 25th anniversary. Being the nation's largest child care organization, operating nearly 1,200 centers serving over 100,000 families, KinderCare is frequently in the spotlight. We thought our readers would be interested in the insights of KinderCare's CEO, Tull Gearreald. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Gearreald worked for over a decade on Wall Street in the turbulent world of mergers and acquisitions. He was appointed president and CEO of KinderCare in February 1991.Exchange: KinderCare has gone through quite a roller coaster ride in recent years. Prior to 1989, KinderCare was growing at an annual rate of nearly 20%. Since 1989, it has experienced a reorganization, a bankruptcy, and some downsizing. Could you walk us through this chain of events?
Gearreald: KinderCare's growth period ended in 1989, but it began to waver in 1986, when it tried to create a diversified portfolio of businesses - all the rest of which were totally unrelated to child care. Once the company made that decision to diversify, most of management's attention was devoted to these other businesses. Profits from the child care business were then ...