Scenario: Work Culture at a Startup Company
A startup company, DiagnosisPlus, has just four executive employees to start. The president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew Hinds, is a highly respected surgeon, and top diagnostician. His co-founders are the director of finance, the director of technology operations (former founder of various technology companies), and the director of human resources and administration. Andrew Hinds originally came up with the idea for this company after his 17-year old daughter contracted a tropical illness while volunteering in Brazil. No one, including Hinds and other experts, could diagnose her illness. Finally, Hinds went on the Internet and began networking through his Georgetown Medical School contacts, who connected him with others. Finally, after four months, he and several colleagues (his co-founders) came up with the diagnosis and effected a complete cure for his daughter. Through this experience, he and his colleagues realized how many illnesses go undiagnosed due to the lack of shared information or the resources to pay for good diagnoses and medical care.
They plan for their medical consultation business to be an online platform allowing everyone in the U.S. to access good medical care. They have myriad ways of using online testing and kits that can be sent to peoples’ homes to assess a person’s medical condition, heart rate, sugar levels, temperature, blood pressure, etc., and diagnose/prescribe accordingly. When necessary, they also use walk-in clinics across the country to assess a situation in person. The overall cost to be a member is $300 per year for each person — $1,000 per year for 4-6 members (the low cost being due to economies of scale). Any routine surgeries are $1,000, and any others are priced on costs incurred. They also have the best diagnosticians on call.
The company is using a hybrid of a networked structure. There are 43 full-time employees with several labs and 100 diagnosticians on-call and paid per consult. Only the top teaching hospitals are used for any necessary surgery — robots do routine surgeries. The president believes in getting the best advice, based on the best diagnostics, for a reasonable price for all. Since the president is so concerned with the quality of service, he hand-picked the lab technicians, the contracted labs, and the diagnosticians. The president works daily at the in-house lab in the Kansas City, Missouri office. The Technology Operations group is also housed at the site. The Finance Director works from home and has his reports working virtually as well. An HR /Admin. Director who previously worked for a large hospital group works virtually with a team of four specialists who all work from home (one for each region of the U.S.).
Checklist:
- Create a market-oriented mission statement (see the unit reading area), a vision statement, and a company values statement.
- Provide the pattern of leadership at this organization.
- Explain the president’s and executive management’s responsibility for creating and supporting the organization’s culture.
- Design a work culture to address this new startup company’s needs and create a positive and motivating work culture.
