10/02/1995 Park Board Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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"When mission comes first, people are more open to change. " Surviving An Interview with the Nature Conservancy's John Sawhill too � (d x-0 by Alice Howard and Joan Magretta l l� k x' an an organization with a four-decade track record of growth !; avoid becoming the victim of its own success?Since the Nature r� Conservancy was founded in 1951, it has worked to save i threatened habitats and species by buying and setting aside land. i Year by year, the number of acres under its protection has increased, membership has risen, and donations have grown. Today the Conservancy manages some 1,600 separate preserves- the largest private system of nature sanctuaries in the world-from more than 200 offices spread from Maine to Micronesia. With an esti- mated$1 billion in assets,it has become one of the largest conserva- tion organizations in the world. Among its peers, the Conservancy has had the fastest growth rate during the 1990s. The leader of any nonprofit company might justifiably envy the Conservancy's performance, but its president and CEO,John Sawhill, isn't satisfied. Since taking the job in 1990, the 59-year-old Sawhill has led a major shift in strategy with far-reaching implications for the day-to-day activities of the organization's 2,000 employees. He be- lieves that the Conservancy must change now to achieve its mission over the long term-and that the organization's mission holds the key to guiding that change. Sawhill's career has spanned the social,public,and private sectors. He was president of New York University from 1975 to 1979, deputy secretary of the Department of Energy during the Carter administra- tion, and a director at McKinsey&Company from 1981 to 1990. In this interview with HBR editors Alice Howard and Joan Magretta, Sawhill discusses the challenges inherent in refocusing I a large,successful,mission-driven organization. 0 1995 ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS/RONALD FELDMAN FINE ARTS/ARS,NEW YORK