MinuteClinic’s slogan sums up its business and its story: “You’re Sick, We’re Quick.” Operating mini–medical offices (125 feet square or less) inside other companies’ retail locations, Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic specializes in common ailments, especially things like ear infections and strep throat that keep parents running to doctors’ offices with sick kids. Howe became CEO in June, bringing experience from Arby’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken. He says the opportunity for MinuteClinic is “to scale up the business on a national level.” The company can’t create additional consumer demand in the style of a fast-food chain—people get sick only so often. Therefore, Howe says the convenience of MinuteClinic must be “inculcated with consumers. They must know two things: What we are and where we are.” Right now, he believes the company’s concept can support 750 to 1,000 offices nationwide, a range he plans to reach over the next five years. An accelerated rollout of the MinuteClinic concept will hit cruising speed in 2006, when the company expects to add about 150 more locations to reach a year-end goal of 250.