CEO Corner
Hello MVPs!
The Home Office Team has a monthly Operations Huddle where we discuss our 2019 goals, go over operational successes and challenges, and of course plan out strategic topics and initiatives for the future. It only took me 11 months in my role for it to occur to me that you may be interested in some of the highlights from that meeting! I hope you caught my sarcasm and self-deprecation. ????
In the spirit of transparency and soliciting your feedback, going forward I plan to summarize the key topics in our newsletter. With that context, below are some highlights from the July meeting and on our progress toward our 2019 goals.
Improve Team Member Satisfaction 10%
This is our most important business objective. I hope you can see the investments we are making towards this. We have obviously hired Karlene Belyea who is pouring her heart and soul into training, launched Kazoo and is working hard to respond to what our team members indicated they needed help with in the Dream Fund Survey. She has entered MVP into partnerships to assist with home loans, discounted CE, wellness webinars/initiatives, an employee assistance program, fitness club discounts, Plumb’s discounts and more! She hopes to roll out Wellness Champions in every practice by 2020. But the proof will be in the pudding, and we will be rolling out a survey in late October to you and your clinics. We are eager to get your feedback. While we certainly hope to see improvement in the results, we value your honest feedback and will strive to continuously improve to make MVP the best place to work in Veterinary Medicine.
Achieve organic growth (without acquisitions) of 5%+
Year to date, we up 8%! Let me just say I am extremely proud of you and I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for your hard work! There is no question, the effort of our clinical teams is the primary reason for the revenue growth. But I do think the support team in Novi is helping. Specifically:
Since launching the new marketing campaigns, MVP new client numbers have significantly outpaced industry trends as reported by the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association. In fact, the VHMA is reporting new clients are down 15% across the country, but since MVP’s marketing team launched our updated campaigns, MVP’s new client numbers are up 6% over last year. This means MVP clinics are outpacing some of the best hospitals in the industry 21%!
Our talent team is doing a great job. As you know by now, I truly believe people are the most important piece of the puzzle to having a successful company. And in 2019, MVP has hired 40 new veterinarians, 13 practice managers, 54 receptionists, 37 Vet Techs, and 64 Vet assistants and support staff in 2019! Under Molly McVay’s leadership, the Talent Acquisition team has expanded and now has two additional full-time DVM recruiters (Christie O’Quinn and Erin Galvin) and two full-time staff recruiters (Amy Maktari and Evelyn Siergiej) to make sure your teams have the talent you need. Please use them, they are doing a great job!
Acquire 15 Great Hospitals
We have acquired 7 fantastic hospitals in 2019 and we have another 8 outstanding clinics under Letter of Intent that we expect to close by the end of the third quarter. And while it may not seem like this should matter to you, I assure you it does matter. The larger we get, the more infrastructure and resources we can afford to support you, our MVPs! So with that in mind, we would love referrals to great hospitals!
Save $500,000 on supplier contracts
As you know by now, MVP entered into a partnership with VMG, a buying group. The move to VMG will save MVP approximately $700,000 which we can put back into things like IT infrastructure and equipment. We hope over time, that with the addition of Courtney Kennedy (see below) we can do even better on our cost positioning.
Build the Infrastructure to support you, our clinical teams
By the end of the third quarter, MVP will be comprised of 50 brother and sister clinics. As I tell our team at the Home Office, we are the restaurant and the clinics are our patrons. Unlike other Corporate Groups, the MVP way is that we are here to serve them, not the other way around. If we do our part, they will do theirs.
Which is why getting the right senior leadership team is so critical. The truth is, MVP has not been able to do it’s part very well up to this point because we lacked the infrastructure and department level leadership that is required at an organization like ours. Since I joined MVP last September, I have been hard at work recruiting a senior leadership team that the organization desperately needs. I am pleased to say after interviewing dozens of candidates, MVP now has a fantastic senior leadership team in place to support the Company’s growth initiatives.
- Dr. John Talmadge, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board started August 5th.
- Perry Kirby, Chief Operations Officer started August 12th.
- Courtney Kennedy, Vice President of Operations, Program Management started August 12th.
- Lisa Love, Vice President of Integrations started August 12th.
I can already see the value each will bring and am confident you will too! Please check out their bios on MVP’s website!
Despite the great start to 2019, and the fantastic team we are building, we know we still have a ton of work to do. A Strategic Planning session will be held on September 9-10 for our senior leadership team. My goal for the two days is to come out with the beginnings of a clear way to prioritize all the initiatives the company could take on and get the team to focus on the one’s that matter most. In my experience that process can take 30-45 days and once it’s finalized, we will be sure to communicate it to you.
While I am proud of the hard work the team at the Home Office is doing to better serve you, the real thanks goes to you, our team members in the clinics. It’s an honor to serve you! I joined in September 2018 and always have my best days when I get to interact with you, our valued MVPs! If you have questions about any of the above, feel free to contact me/us. Thanks for all you do!
All my Best,
Michael Aubrey, CEO MVP