Description of managing a veterinary clinic chain in Finland by Veikko Tuovinen. This presentation was sponsored by Provet Cloud in Brno 2nd of October 2015.

1. Managing
a Veterinary Clinic Chain
in Finland
Veikko Tuovinen
PhD, DVM, MS
Chief Development Officer
Three Plus Group Ltd.

2. Carrier
• Mixed practice, 5 years
• Disease prevention, 14 years
• Research, 6 years
• CEO, Tuhatjalka Clinics 2008-2015
• Chief Development Manager, TPG, 2015-
• DVM 1982 (Helsinki)
• MSc epid. 1990 (Cornell), PhD 1994 (Helsinki)
– Control of Swine Diseases by Slaughterhouse Activities
• Dipl. ECVPH 2003, Dipl. ECPHM 2004
• Honours (Finnish Vet Union)
– Golden Medal of Honour, 1998
– Vet of the Year, 2001

3. Helsinki – Brno = 1600 km

4. Finland?
• 5.5 million people
• 338,435 km²
• 70 % forest
• 10 % water
• 187,888 lakes
• Independent 1917
• EU member 1995 Capital: Helsinki

5. What is Management?
“Management is the function that
coordinates the efforts of people
to accomplish goals and objectives
by using available resources
efficiently and effectively”
Wikipedia

6. Management - POCCC
Planning
Organizing
Coordinating
Commanding
Controlling

7. • Plan:
• what needs to happen in the future
• how to generate plans for action
• Organize:
• Make sure the human and nonhuman
resources are put into place
Plan and organize

8. • Coordinate:
• Create a structure through which an
organization's goals can be accomplished
• Commande:
• Determine what must be done
and get people do it
• Control:
• Check progress against plans
CCC

9. Management via our Story
• Three Plus Group was established in 2007
(Parent company)
Small animals
(Verkavet)
IT technology
(Finnish Net Solutions)

10. Values
”The most valuable assets
of the company are its values”
TPG’s values
Honesty
Transparency
Appreciation of the others
Growth and Development

11. Homework
• Which are your values?
– Not nice sounding, but real ones
• Do you share the same values with your
possible business partners?
– Challenge each others

12. Vision
”How the company looks like
after 5-10 years”
Turnover is >7,5 million euros in 2015
The company is solid and profitable
Good quality pet health care for
customer’s needs
Verkavet’s Vision in 2007

13. Strategy
“High level plan to achieve the
goals under uncertainty”

14. Background for Strategy
• Market size
• Trends
• Demand / supply
• Competitors
• Consumers’ needs

15. Market 2007
• 100-130 million euros
• annual growth 7 %
• >600,000 dogs
• >500,000 cats
• >700,000 vet visits
• lack of vets, evening, night and weekend
services

16. Vets 2007
• 1843 vets
– 1400 active
– About 850 practitioners
• 440 pet vets
– 180 small clinics
POSITION* N %
Municipal and
Governmental 703 50.2
Private sector 444 31.7
Substitutes 207 14.8
Others 47 3.4
TOTAL OF ACTIVE VETS 1401 100.0
Students 290
Retired 293
*Finnish Veterinary Association’s members 2007

17. Four ”views”
Customers’ view
Personnel’s view
Process view
Owners’ view

18. Customers
• Who are our customers?
• What services they need?
• What is the trend in needs?
• Why customers choose / don’t choose us?
• What could we do better than competitors?

19. Customers’ needs 2007
– evening, night, and
weekend services
– basic and emergency services
– better phone service
– internet services

20. Personnel 2007
• No existing employees
• Must find vets, nurses and clinic managers
• Must find ”winner teams”
• We must offer an attractive choice

21. Process view
• How processes are planned to work?
• How processes work?
• Continuous iteration
CEO and clinic managers must have skills to recognize all processes!
• We had no existing processes
- A huge challenge
- Possibilities

22. Owners’ view
• A company
• Must produce profit
• Must follow the company values
• Has the company a winning team?
• Skills, motivation
• Does the company have strength to grow?
• Good vision, investment money

24. TPG’s Strategy 2007
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 24
Quick growth!
- turnover from 0,3 to 7,5 million e in 2015

25. TPG’s Strategy 2007
– Basic and emergency services
• Evening, night, and weekend services
• Cooperation with specialized vets
– Small animals only – a chain of clinics
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 25

26. TPG’s Strategy 2007
– Utilisation of internet
• Practice Management Software (Provet Net)
• web pages (www.tuhatjalka.fi), facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tuhatjalka?fref=ts),
google…
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 26

27. How to grow quickly?
Buy clinics (carefully…)
• customers, location, future market, staff…
 clear vision
• analyze the balance sheet with care
• don’t take unnecessary risks

28. How to grow quickly?
TPG bought two clinics in 2008
– Bank loan, biggest risk in our history
– First clinic (Tuhatjalka) was a succes
Name for the whole chain
Experiences from night and weekend service
– The other
• Too small (one vet + nurse)
• Closed 3 years later

29. How to grow quickly?
Build clinics (carefully…)
– Analyze market possibilities
– Location, location, location… - very important
– Layout
– Operation mode
– Tuhatjalka built six clinics
• one flopped, closed in one year

30. How to grow quickly?
Personnel
• Manager, vets
• Nurses, other
• A Winning Team
• one person can change the whole clinic

31. How to grow quickly?
Advertise
• Web pages, social media
• Mobile (http://tuhatjalka.fi/mobiili)
• Google
• Text messages, calls
• Street
• (phonebooks, magazines, radio, taxi windows, road signs, sponsoring,
tv (https://www.facebook.com/tuhatjalka/videos/146829552095125), calendar
(https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.254165527963440.63154.147004062012921&type=3)...
.

33. How to grow quickly?
Answer the phone - quickly
• Phone center
– professional phone service
• Tuhatjalka answers 24/365
• Phone connected to Provet
– recognizes the customer
– opens the patient card

34. How to grow quickly?
Web Pages
– connected to Provet
– time reservation
– treatment history
– reminders, messages
– chat, pictures, stories
– anamnesis, check in…
• let the customer do the work

35. How to grow quickly?
Mobile
– Popularity increases
– Interactive
– Tuhatjalka was the
first company
in Finland offering
mobile services

36. How to grow quickly?
Cost Effective Quality Service
– What ever you do, do it well
• Professional
• Customer Service
• Documentation
– Price is important in basic
services, less in special

37. Cat Friendly Clinic
- Tuhatjalka Turku was the first
Gold Certificate Cat Friendly Clinic in Finland
(http://icatcare.org/cat-campaigns-cat-friendly-clinic/accredited-clinics)
Quality

38. Chains?
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 38
• Save money
– medicines, supply…  better discounts
– adverts, management…
• Common procedures
– bencmarking, quality control, prices, …
• More together, synergy advantages
– contracts, salaries, accounting, management

39. Tuhatjalka Clinics 2015
Turku
Tampere
Jyväskylä
Kuopio
Virkkala
Helsinki
Savonlinna

40. Tuhatjalka personnel
13
18
45 45
53
63
60
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

41. 6734
16305
24535
34111
33232
37877
34997
32824
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Client visits
Estimate

42. Turnover
935,748
2,295,371
3,241,146
5,196,322
5,791,874
7,699,612
7 210 419
0
1,000,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
6,000,000
7,000,000
8,000,000
9,000,000
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Euros

43. Change in market
• Long economic depression
• More vets  supply>demand
– we, too, have lost customers
• Capital investors  two big chains
– Animagi 37 clinics, Univet 17 clinics
• merged in 2015
• 54 clinics (about 35 % market share)

44. Change in market
• Contract prices of 24/7-services down
• Competitors use Provet, too
• Digital marketing common
• Hard competition

45. Future
• Back to basics
– market size
– trends
– demand / supply
– competitors
– consumers’ needs
– our strenghs
– SWOT
• Values

46. Market 2015
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 46
• about 200-250 million euros
• annual growth 5-10 % (?)
• 2450 vets, about 1800 in working life
• approx. 1 - 1.2 million vet visits

47. Finnish vets 2015
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 47
POSITION N %
Municipal 414 22,9
Governmental 204 11,3
Private: employees 268 14,8
Private: entrepreneurs 259 14,3
Substitutes 462 25,5
Others 204 11,3
TOTAL 1811 100,0

48. Our strengths
• Second biggest chain in finland
– About 3 % market share
– 7 clinics, own phone center
– Biggest in 24/7-services (4 clinics)
• Qualified, international personnel
• Solid financial standing
• Full Provet utilisation
• Ten multidisciplinary owners

49. 5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 49
Economic depression
=
a great possibility to
strong companies!
Depression

50. Tuhatjalka decided?
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 50
Secret, but guess 

51. Managerial skills
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 51
What skills does a manager need?

52. Managerial skills
• Political
– Connections
– Power
• Conceptual
– Ability to analyze complex situations
• Critical thinking
• Interpersonal
– Ability to communicate, motivate, mentor and delegate

53. Managerial skills
• Diagnostic
– Ability to visualize most appropriate response to a
situation
• Leadership
– Ability to lead and provide guidance to a specific group
• Technical
– Expertise in one's particular functional area

54. • How many vets, nurses, other
• Working hours, shift cycle
• Required skills
• Salaries
– Per hour / provisional / bonuses
– Shift differentials
– Staff benefits
Example: Human Resources

55. • Motivation, basic and further training
• Staff benefits (Tuhatjalka examples)
– Sports and culture voucher (400 e/y)
– Discounts of pet feed and treatment
– Relaxation evenings and trips
– Free time health ensurance, etc.
• Occupational health care and wellbeing
• Participation on decision making
Human Resources Policy

56. • Trust / control
• How to handle problems
– Violation of company values
– Violations of privacy protection
– Avoiding duties, negligent to superior advices
– Recurrent mistakes
– Bad customer service
– Stealing, narcotics, alcohol, smoking at work...
– Etc.
Human Resources Policy

57. • Basic principles
• Location
– Good parking spots /
better location
• Hardware
• Services and products
• Pricing
Building clinics

58. • Independent / chain / francising
• Small / big
• Hospital / clinic / (alone)
• Many small clinics / one big
• Close to / far away from the other clinics
• Services and products
• Shop / only vet work
• Etc.
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 58
Consepts

59. Concepts
• Similar or different clinics?
Laboratory (every clinic)
• VetABC
• VetScan, etc.
Half Digital X-ray (every clinic)
• GeR
• Agfa
Savonlinna’s reception

60. Operation room, Tuhatjalka
Jyväskylä

61. • Partners (devices, pet feed, supply…)
• Cooperation (other clinics, experts…)
• Contracts
• Media
• Social media
• Etc…
Other examples

62. Services and products
• Shop / webshop
• Treating / Preventive
• Services:
– All possible / short list
– Basic / specialised

63. Services and products
• Which animals you treat
• Basic /special
• Specialists
– own / contracts
• Prices and paying
– Cash, card, invoice, installments, in advance
– Per service / time, even monthly payments

64. • Do you recognize your competitors?
– Other clinics
– Clinic chains, also foreign chains
– Capital investors
– Insurance companies
– Pet accessory shops
– Department stores
– You?
Possible competitors

65. Conclusions
• Management is taking care of everything
in the company
– Lead doing
– Delegate and trust your team members
• Control by key economic figures, quality
work and customer satisfaction
– Utilize Clinic Management Program’s reports
5.10.2015 Veikko Tuovinen 65

66. Managing is full of intresting challenges
Thank you!