Breakthroughs with VitusVet’s Mark Olcott

1: What advantage do you think being a veterinarian who developed a solution for other veterinarians gives you in the marketplace?

Mark Olcott: From day one, we’ve tried to focus on solving real problems for veterinarians. I view this company as an extension of me as a veterinarian. There’s only so much I can do with my two hands in an exam room. VitusVet allows me to help more patients. We’re very mission-driven. At the end of every one of these refills or appointments is a pet that’s getting the care that they might not have otherwise gotten. As a company, we understand that as much as the veterinarians we serve.

2: How do you generate good ideas within your organization?

Olcott: One of the big ways we generate ideas is by promoting transparency within the organization. This is one of the advantages that smaller companies have; we don’t have a bureaucracy to worry about. A great idea can make it into my ears that same day, rather than working up the food chain and then down the food chain. So, we can be very nimble.

As a leader, it’s important to drive out “siloing,” to drive out friction, so that good ideas connect up or across the team. Changes that we want to make at the leadership level can be implemented very quickly. That’s really hard to do in larger companies.

When you look at the PIMS landscape, a lot of those are very big companies. And we all have heard from people in the space: “That idea is on our roadmap, we want to do that.” But two years later, and they still haven’t done it. Whereas we’re able to do something in two months. We pride ourselves on being nimble, agile, and listening to the voice of the actual practice manager and practice owner.

3: How do you get veterinary practices to buy into a new idea or concept?

Olcott: There’s a great book called “The Challenger Sale” where I got this idea. I like for our sales team to have demos where even if the practice doesn’t sign up, they learned something. We’re not just telling them what they want to hear.

Steve Jobs famously said, “People don’t know what they need until you show it to them.” Part of being an innovator is to not just be an order taker and do what practices tell you they want. You’ve got to look ahead of the trends to innovate. And, even if you get a “no,” use that meeting as an opportunity to educate the veterinary practice.

MEET THE LEADER

Mark Olcott, DVM

Co-founder & CEO of VitusVet. Olcott is a former partner at a multi-doctor small animal practice, co-founded VitusVet to solve the client-communication problems he saw each day.

Photo credit: istockphoto.com/STUDIOGSTOCK