The Interview: Greenberg On All Things Great & Small

Suffice it to say, Ken Greenberg is always up to something.

That’s what makes it fun to run into the banker-turned-ad-guy-turned-healthcare-exec at networking events: He’s always upbeat, always has a story, always ready with a laugh. And all that positive energy is usually wrapped up inside quite a smart-looking suit, to boot.

Here, he talks about what he’s done, what he’s doing and how he’d like to be remembered. A bit of news, politics, guilty pleasures and old-time TV is sprinkled throughout the conversation, which means few will make it through the read without Googling something. Enjoy.

FMC: What’s your choice of super hero superpowers?
KG: Flying and being impervious.

FMC: What’s your current state of mind?
KG: I wonder why my wife wonders about my mind all the time.

‘Ad guy who eliminated waiting in doctors’ offices.’ i’d like that to be my legacy.

FMC: What mistake did you make that turned out to be your best learning experience?
KG: “Everybody’s a genius in the interview.” That’s a saying I coined after making some dumb hires – or allowing myself to be talked into some dumb hires. That’s especially dangerous with potential sales associates and – even more deadly – with partners who aren’t really planning to be your partner. Mistakes like that wake you up around the fourth time.

FMC: What is your greatest accomplishment?
KG: That’s a tough one. I have four, actually. First, I married up. I have two incredible children. Lisa and Josh are both menches I’m very proud of.  I co-founded Austin & Williams – which became the most-awarded advertising agency on Long Island. I co-founded Patient Innovations, and developed OnTime Care® software to eliminate waiting in doctors’ offices. I’d like that to be my legacy: Ad guy who eliminated waiting in doctors’ offices.

FMC: When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
KG: Gee. I just applied for Medicare, so i don’t remember five. I think I wanted to be a really good cowboy – quick on the draw – because I grew up on TV shows that some would think are too un-PC to air today, like The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, The Roy Rogers Show, The Cisco Kid… OK. I’m dating myself. Somewhere around 11 I upgraded to becoming the next 007. But, my eyesight wasn’t good enough. Same with being a pilot.

FMC: Why do you do what you do?
KG: I want to create something global. A legacy. Nobody remembers a single ad I created at Austin & Williams. I barely remember most of them. Even ones that won awards. But if I can eliminate waiting in doctors’ offices and hospitals – that will be a real legacy accomplishment. And the innovation, the big ideas, that’s what keeps me going. It’s also amazing that for somebody who only touched medicine peripherally – advertising it – I can see the solutions they can’t because they’re too close to the problem.

FMC: What’s your guilty pleasure?
KG: Ice cream. Mint chocolate chip, coffee and pistachio. Also, homemade potato chips.

FMC: What gives you hope for the future?
KG: That America stopped Hillary Clinton dead in her tracks. People can’t simply be coronated. It was average Americans – part of the 70-plus percent of people surveyed – who felt the country has been moving in the wrong direction … and we stopped the direction.

FMC: What’s your idea of happiness?
KG: Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners at home. Especially if Joyce did the cooking. Oh, and a good BBQ with family and friends on the deck.

FMC: Coke or Pepsi?
KG: Neither. Outgrew the stuff. Pellegrino with a slice of orange. Nespresso in the morning.

FMC: Who’s the most influential person in your life?
KG: Bill Pesce, co-founder of Austin & Williams. He took me out of the corporate world into entrepreneurship… and being my own boss.

FMC: Favorite restaurant?
KG: La Giostra, Florence, Italy.

FMC: Last book read?
KG: Treason, by Newt Gingrich.

Our good friend, Marie Zere, went to his book signing at the Huntington Book Revue, and got me a signed copy. It’s fiction, and a page turner. I read half of it on a flight to Dallas, and the balance on the way up. I couldn’t put it down! It flowed like the DaVinci Code, and I realized I have to read more fiction – gotta break away from the frickalacka devices! They’re sucking our brains out! My mind so expanded reading Treason. I was so aware I was using my imagination – and it soared. I could literally see the characters and scenarios. Get the book!

FMC: Where do you get your news?
KG: I’m taking it all in. I read the Wall Street Journal daily on my iPad. I also read – brace yourself liberals: Breitbart – on the iPad. In the car I listen to mostly talk of all kinds. My presets are Fox Business News, NPR, Fox News, Potus, Fox Headline News and the Patriot Channel. I look to get both sides of the argument. It’s sad too many people only listen to one side and want to blot out the other. In the morning when I exercise, I watch Mark Levin on what was LevinTV. It’s now CRTV and includes Mark Steyn and Michelle Malkin. Levin’s analysis is incredible.

FMC: What five people, living or dead, would you want to have dinner with?
KG: John D. Rockefeller, Jamie Dimon, Abe Lincoln, John Adams, Donald Trump. (He can treat.)

FMC: Favorite drink?
KG: Iced mocha. I imagine you wanted an alcoholic beverage, but I don’t really order mixed drinks. I tend to go for Italian or French wines, and only at dinner out.

FMC: What’s the biggest misconception people have about you?
KG: They think I have all the answers. I don’t.

FMC: Define leadership and tell us, who is your favorite leader?
KG: Leadership is having vision, and the will to see that vision through in such a way that you inspire people to want to help you achieve it.

Gerald Grinstein, former CEO of Delta Airlines, is my favorite leader. He saved that company when they needed to cut $5 billion a year from operating expenses. He not only turned it around, but when they wanted to give him a bonus of something like $170 million for achieving it, he wouldn’t accept it, and insisted the money be distributed to the tens of thousands of team members who sacrificed and followed him.

FMC: What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career?
KG: I was a VP at a bank that was failing back in 1990. I was going to be out of a job at a time when Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover had just merged. Wall Street was in a recession. Thousands of people were out of work. I wasn’t sure I’d land, so I decided to approach banks as a consultant, and at the same time agreed to work with Bill Pesce to form Austin & Williams. I went from the corporate (quasi) security of a paycheck, to having to make payroll.

FMC: What’s your idea of success?
KG: When the business becomes self sustaining without you… you’ve made it.

FMC: What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you?
KG: Lee Gillespie told me, “Don’t expect the process to be logical.” He was a great guy, and a former colleague at Central Federal Savings. Sadly, he passed way too early. I miss him.

FMC: If you weren’t you, who would you want to be?
KG: A healthy Steve Jobs.

FMC: What’s the biggest challenge facing your industry right now?
KG: Regulation. It’s our biggest challenge, and I hope Trump does manage to cut a bunch.

The amount of regulation in banking and healthcare is screwing everything up. Unless our new president reverses it, the mountain of regs coming at banks and healthcare institutions is crippling and dangerous. If you’re not touching the industry as I am, you’re not seeing it.

FMC: Which talent would you most like to have?
KG: I’d like to be a virtuoso pianist… like my son. And I’d like to be able to do it in any key, while I’m at it. Oh, and give me perfect pitch, too.

FMC: What quality do you most like in a person?
KG: Empathy.

FMC: What is your most treasured possession?
KG: I have a very scratched up copy of the 1957 Danny Kaye LP, “Mommy, Gimme a Drinka Water.” Got it new back then. I played that thing over and over until you could practically hear the other side playing through the first one. It’s a classic. Too bad most young folks haven’t experienced it.