As a child growing up through the foster care system, Rick
Jackson yearned for stability and control of his environment and
destiny, so from a young age, he knew he wanted to run his own
business. He started by scalping tickets to Georgia Tech athletic
events as a 10-year-old and went on to found more than 25
health-care-related companies. He says his success is a result of
being in the blue ocean, a reference to the business strategy laid
out by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their book, “Blue
Ocean Strategy.”
While the idea of a blue ocean conjures images of crystal clear
water, white sand beaches and pink, fruity drinks with umbrellas
in them, Jackson’s blue ocean refers to his business endeavors.
Instead of looking to be another me-too player in existing markets, he strives to discover those little niches where he can differentiate himself.
In 2000, he saw an opportunity to serve the staffing and information technology needs of health care organizations, so he
founded Jackson Healthcare.
“A lot of the blue ocean strategy is to be the first one to do it,”
he says. “The definition of a business is really a solution to a
problem, and the problem that the hospitals and doctors have is
that they don’t have enough people, and it’s hard to find people,
so our focus was to create a business that only solves that problem.”
Within his company are seven different operating units that
each specialize in one niche, such as anesthesiologist staffing or
traveling nurse staffing.
“The mistakes that other people in our industry make are they
diversify, and they want to be everything to everybody,” says
Jackson, the company’s founder and CEO. “What I’ve found is
the more you focus, the better you are from an operational standpoint.”
That pinpoint focus has helped him grow the company from $19
million in revenue its first year to $261 million in 2006, earning it,
among many other awards, a spot on the Inc. 500 list in 2004 and
the Inc. 5,000 list in 2007. On top of his company’s recognition,
Jackson has twice been a southeast regional Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year award finalist.
Among the secrets to Jackson’s growth management success are
recruiting great people, setting stretch goals and regularly evaluating positions.