Vice President of Operations bei Vets Pets

Description

Company Overview. Vets Pets is a collaborative network of small-animal veterinary hospitals based in Wilson, NC with 35 locations throughout North Carolina. We employ and serve 800 employees of which 140 are veterinarians. We operate a wide spectrum of practices from single doctor General Practices to 20+ doctor Emergency and Specialty Hospitals. Vets Pets manages for the long-term and is independently owned by the CEO/Co-Founder and his family. All but two practices are structured as Joint Ventures and co-owned by Vets Pets and veterinarians.

Vets Pets is 18 years young with an amazing opportunity to transform the profession. Vets Pets is innovative by nature in its unique approach to multi-site veterinary hospital strategy and operations. We are large and mature enough to have built a solid foundation and resources but small and nimble enough to still enact real progress. We believe our strong culture, people first approach, employer brand, diverse practice services and dense geography provide a competitive advantage and basis for a next-level veterinary hospital group.

Position Overview. This will be a new position which will report to the CEO and be a member of the senior leadership team. The Vice President of Operations will assume a significant role in the company’s strategy and continued growth. The role will be instrumental in leading Vets Pets to a new bar operationally by directing the Field Operations, Business Operations and Learning & Development teams. There is a tremendous opportunity to align these teams and drive improvement and advancement in practice operations and bring strategy to life. Focus areas will include optimizing practice workflows and evaluating, designing and implementing new initiatives around company strategy.

Vets Pets is seeking a leader capable of the following:

Strategy: See the forest from the trees and be able to work “on” the business as well as “in” the business. Work with the executive team to further develop Company Strategy and Vision.

Operations: Balance standardization with autonomy to optimize existing workflows while empowering field teams. Work closely with Human Resources to ensure we continue to lead with our people-first culture. Organize, structure and lead teams to identify, prioritize, design, implement, monitor and tweak operational initiatives.

Growth: Increase organic revenues with a heavy focus on client experience and retention. Expand 

practice margins by developing operational tools and coaching field operations leadership and local 

teams on how to execute.

Team: Assess and design the operations’ team organizational structure.  Evaluate and refine 

managerial operating systems to leverage throughout the organization.

Technology: Help lead a technology transformation towards 1 or 2 unified PiMS systems.  Work with 

our newly hired Solutions Architect and the Business Operations Team to enhance workflows with 

technology and integrate software systems for improved communication, data availability and client 

experience.

Responsibilities.

• Manage and lead Vets Pets’ operations including organizational structure and operating model with oversight responsibility for field, business and strategic operations
• Partner with the Executive Team to achieve favorable financial results with respect to sales, profitability, cash flow, mergers and acquisitions, start-ups, systems, reporting and controls
• Spend ~50% of time in practices working with field teams and resource groups to: 
  • identify and prioritize workflows ripe for standardization. 
  • Coach and reinforce operating model
  • Keep a pulse on initiative adoption and other needs and opportunities
  • Create best practices/SOPs, training materials, implementation/change-management plans and reinforcement to monitor feedback, effectiveness and make necessary tweaks to improve
• Create effective measurement tools to gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of workflows, systems and initiatives.

Requirements

Experience and Education

• BA or BS degree is required with an advanced degree(s) considered a plus.
• A minimum of 10+ years in a multi-site company with at least 5 years of senior management experience
• Experience influencing without formal authority, the ability to organize and manage multiple priorities and deliver results through others
• Strong general business acumen and proven experience managing profitability in a growing and diverse environment
• Knowledge of the operational functions needed to support a multi-site, clinical services business including operations, business development, integration, finance, IT, compliance, etc.
• Strategic perspective and planning experience with the ability to thoroughly understand and assess current operations and plans for the next 3-5 years
• Works with other c-level executives on budgeting, forecasting and resource allocation programs, excellent verbal and written communication with an interpersonal and collaborative approach to leadership. Provide accurate and timely reports outlining the operational condition of the company

Ideal Candidate. Our view of the ideal candidate is someone who:

• Fits our people first culture and is humble, competitive, resilient, flexible and hungry for a new challenge
• Demonstrates the ability to be a key member and contributor to the management team.
• Naturally builds trust and relationships with all levels of team members
• Possesses an unwavering positive attitude and the highest level of integrity
• Has proven success in identifying operational opportunities, working with stakeholders to create SOPs and implement across multi-site network utilizing a multi-functional team
• Gets as much or more excitement about getting better quicker than bigger
• Has proven success in scaling an operations team in a multi-site company
• Is operationally oriented and results-driven while maintaining strategic perspective
• Effectively frames business issues and inspires confidence with a variety of internal and external constituents