When David Molina, founder of Long Beach, Calif.-based Molina Healthcare, died
after a short illness in late 1996, his family faced the enormous task of
deciding how to take the private and rapidly growing family business forward.
“My father was the sole shareholder, chairman of the board and CEO of the
company,” explains Mario Molina, who, like his father, is a doctor and now the
company’s president and chairman. “He owned it lock, stock and barrel, and he
did what he thought was best, how he chose to do it.” Hands-on control,
combined with a strong strategic vision, is often the hallmark of entrepreneurs
who build successful companies. The late Dr. Molina was by all accounts of this
caliber—a man who devised a successful business in an underserved niche with an
innovative strategy. His firm, Molina Healthcare, provides health care services
to low-income families and individuals who qualify for Medicaid and other
government health care programs. From its roots in California in the early
1980s, Molina Healthcare has since expanded to Michigan, Utah and Washington,
posting nearly $650 million in revenues in 2002.
Upon the death of the
patriarch, the Molina family faced a number of hard business decisions, but with
no individual wielding full control, the family had to work hard to reach a
consensus on business issues. “I ended up being one of many responsible for
running this company,” Mario Molina says. “It’s really owned by my family—my
brothers and sisters and my mother—and I didn’t have that omnipotent position my
father had, in which I could just do whatever I wanted. I now had to negotiate
with everybody as to what we were going to agree to do.”
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