I joined City of Hope almost 30 years ago when it was a single campus in Southern California and considered by many to be a “best kept secret” among cancer centers. I promised to stay for three years — long enough to contribute and learn before moving on to my next job.
That three-year plan turned into a lifelong calling.
Today, I have the honor of serving as CEO of one of the nation’s leading cancer research and treatment organizations. The primary reason I have stayed for three decades, and why I continue to feel inspired every day, is simple: the way City of Hope’s mission lives through its culture.
Over the years, I have learned two important lessons that organizations too often underappreciate in times of change and disruption. First, culture must be actively built and evolved. Second, values serve as the key mechanism for engaging the workforce.
Our ‘secret sauce’
Culture is not just something you safeguard. You must actively build and evolve it. It is the engine that drives connection between our mission and our actions, our growth and our purpose.
At City of Hope, our purpose is clear: save lives by ensuring that every person, no matter where they live, has access to world-class cancer care. Your ZIP code should never determine your chance of survival. This belief propelled us to evolve from a single site into a national system, now with cancer-specific hospitals within close driving distance for more than 86 million people across five major regions throughout the country.
Yes, scale matters. But what matters more is how we grow. Culture doesn’t stick without values that people can act on.
A few years ago, I saw one of our nurses walking across our campus with a suitcase filled with kitchenware. When I asked what she was up to, she explained that one of her long-time patients was fighting a particularly tough cancer and longed for the time she used to spend cooking with her teenage daughter.
The nurse decided to bring that experience to her. She organized a surprise cooking session in City of Hope’s kitchen, recreating an experience that allowed mother and daughter to be together in a familiar and healing way.
I found the moment deeply moving, but not surprising. At City of Hope, compassion is not reserved for special occasions. It shows up in everyday acts of humanity.
This story constantly reminds me that the “secret sauce” for City of Hope is rooted in a culture that connects, guides and nurtures.
As City of Hope has grown, we have intentionally nurtured and adapted our culture. Nothing was broken and needed fixing. Indeed, patients, donors, faculty, nurses and staff over the decades have consistently cited the organization’s culture as being its secret sauce and the primary reason for our success. Nevertheless, changes in healthcare — new biomedical innovations, changing federal and state priorities, and technology — are just a few examples that demand we continue to evolve our culture.
If you do not attend to your organizational culture, drift sets in. Not because people forget the mission, but because they lose the path forward. Silos emerge. Purpose blurs. Progress slows. A successful and beloved culture too often becomes the reason people give for resisting necessary change.
A dynamic culture does the opposite. It accelerates. It empowers people to act, to decide and to move. Momentum is essential in cancer care, where every moment matters. At City of Hope, we often say “wait is a four-letter word for a cancer patient.” Culture ensures we meet the needs of our patients and their families for whom waiting is not an option. It is our culture that makes it possible for us to move faster, think bigger and reach farther.
Transformation is part of our DNA. Our founders did not strive to preserve the status quo. They honored the past by rising to meet the future. They built something lasting that was anchored in humility, service and a belief that healing must treat the whole person.
Values are an invitation to join — and to stay
Here is the second-most important lesson about culture that I have learned: our values serve as the primary mechanism for engaging our faculty, nurses and staff.
Our values are an invitation to join our cause. They are the fenceposts that define the foundation for our culture. Because we have clearly woven our values of trailblazing, compassion, inclusion and integrity into everything we do, we have communicated to employees, donors and partners what we believe in: dreaming big and being courageous; all people deserve love and caring; we are better together; and doing the right thing is non-negotiable. In my experience, there is no better way to help people find joy in their work and connect with our mission.
No matter the role an individual serves at our organization, they can be sure that our legacy built over decades lives on today. We are still evolving. While we always have more to do; our mission has never been clearer and our purpose never more urgent.
Three decades later, I still remember my original three-year plan. My younger self could not have imagined this journey. I stayed because the culture gave me space to grow, to lead and to keep innovating in service to our patients.
That’s what culture does, after all. It does not ask you to stay.
It gives you a reason to.
Robert Stone is CEO of City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S. Recognized as one of the most influential figures in U.S. healthcare, Mr. Stone played a key role in transforming City of Hope into a national cancer research and treatment network. Under his leadership, the organization expanded into five major metropolitan areas, serving over 160,000 patients annually. This expansion significantly improves access to advanced treatments, clinical trials and critical programs like bone marrow transplants and CAR T therapy. Known for its groundbreaking biomedical innovations, City of Hope is also the birthplace of biotech that has had a life-changing impact on millions worldwide.
