In this blog series, Dan Purvis, Velentium’s CEO and Co-Founder, will walk you through the fundamentals of how he has built a company from the culture up.
Dan will take you through why Velentium exists, how it relies on its values even in day-to-day operation, how to avoid having to govern bottom performers, how to inspire the top performer, who to hire to create a cohesive team, the company’s vision for the future, what Velentium’s core competencies are, and finally some quotes that Velentium lives by.
The core of our company is our culture.
When Tim Carroll and I set out to create Velentium, our goal was to build a company where every aspect was built around a set of values before it was centered around a set of functions.
When people ask, "What does your company do?" a typical response is usually, "We make medical devices," right?
Why does Velentium exist?
But before I tell you what Velentium does, I want to tell you about what Velentium is. This distinction sets us apart, and we take it very seriously. Lots of companies pay lip service to being “culture-centered” - they post their values on the company website, the break room wall, or wherever else. Here, it's the core of who we are.
Why?
Our passion. You've heard us say it; it's on our marketing materials, it’s even printed on our office coffee mugs. “Velentium exists to improve lives for a better world.” That's how our game is scored: we want to improve lives. And that starts with each of the people who work here. We want to make a difference in your life. Our intention is that you will be a different person because you worked here.
This purpose could be misconstrued as arrogant or overreaching, but it happens naturally because of who we are as a company. I want our staff’s family and close friends to be different because that individual works here. I dream that their grandkids would someday recognize, "I would have grown up to be a different kind of person if my grandad hadn’t worked at Velentium." And is that crazy? Maybe. But the bottom line is, a lot of companies aren't thinking about that, and I sincerely believe that a company, whether it means to or not, is very influential in its employees’ lives.
It's our goal to have a positive impact on our staff’s lives, and that goes beyond the hours spent in our office. I want them to be healthy, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And all three of those matter. Together, they're the three elements of a full human being. If someone wasn’t getting enough sleep, eating correctly, or exercising enough, I'm hopeful that their colleagues, as well as their leadership, would say to them, "Hey, take care of yourself." We don't want to push our people beyond what they can bear from an emotional standpoint. We want our people to be “work-life fit.”
“Work-life balance” is a corporate buzzword these days, but it's not always about balance. There are going to be times when you have friends or family that need you. Hence you can't work as much. At other times, the company will demand more of your time, and you won’t be around your family as much. Both situations must work together to create a positive work-life fit.
Our staff’s spiritual life is vital to us as well. I believe that there is a higher standard, and the higher standard defines what is right and wrong. And that is independent of what we think or feel; it's simply true. There is true right; there is true wrong. Business requires us to navigate a lot of gray areas. No matter what, we want always to be trending toward that true right.
When we say we want to improve lives for a better world, it truly starts with our people, the actual people in the company. We don’t hire individuals to become corporate assets who can make a profit. Because we take that position about our employees, we believe we have a more significant positive impact on our suppliers, customers, hospitals, caregivers, and ultimately, on patients.
In the next post, we will discuss the values that Velentium was built upon.