Episode #98 – Martin Traub-Werner

Beyond the Numbers
Martin Traub-Werner talks about his entrepreneurial journey and the evolving role of data and financial management in Veterinary medicine. He shares insights from founding VetSuccess and VetBooks, helping independent practices improve financial performance, and investing in entrepreneurs developing innovative solutions throughout the Animal Health industry.

Transcript

Stacy Pursell:
Do you work in the animal health industry or veterinary profession? Have you ever wondered how successful people got their start and what led them to where they are today? Hi everyone, I’m Stacy Pursell, founder and CEO of The VET Recruiter, the leading executive search and recruiting firm specializing in the animal health industry and veterinary profession. I was the first recruiter in the United States to focus exclusively on this space, building the first search firm dedicated to this unique niche. Over the past 28+ years, I’ve developed relationships with many of the industry’s top leaders and trailblazers. The People of Animal Health Podcast features the incredible individuals I’ve had the privilege to connect with throughout my career. In each episode, you’ll hear their stories, their career journeys, leadership lessons, and the impact they’ve made on the industry. With a wide range of expert guests, you’ll gain insights, inspiration, and ideas you can apply to your own career. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the People of Animal Health Podcast. Today’s guest on our show is Martin Traub-Werner, founder and CEO of VetBooks, and a pioneering entrepreneur in veterinary data and financial services. After beginning his career in human resources and strategic management with Fortune 500 companies, Martin turned his attention to the veterinary profession. In 2013, he founded VetSuccess, creating the industry’s first specialized business intelligence and data analytics platform. Following its acquisition by VetSource, he continued leading data and technology initiatives. Today, Martin helps independent veterinary practices strengthen financial control through VetBooks while investing in, advising, and mentoring entrepreneurs throughout the animal health industry. Martin, thank you for being my guest today on the People of Animal Health Podcast, and how are you today?

Martin Traub-Werner:
I’m great, Stacy, thanks. I’m happy that we finally get a chance to connect.

Stacy Pursell:
I am as well. I still remember the time we were both headed to New York Vet, and we were standing in the lobby of the hotel, and we had a chance to chit-chat, and that was one of the first times I think we had a chance to really connect.

Martin Traub-Werner:
New York Vet, that was pre-COVID, I think even.

Stacy Pursell:
It was it was pre-COVID. In fact, I think it was the first New York Vet show they had.

Martin Traub-Werner:
That’s right.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Martin, I would love to start off at the beginning. Where did you grow up and what was your life like for you growing up?

Martin Traub-Werner:
So, I’m Canadian, which is a great thing to be despite the challenging politics between our countries these days, and I grew up in Toronto. It was a comfortable, middle-class upbringing, Dad was a doc, mom was a social worker. And I was just a normal active kid, interested in business, interested in politics. Some of my interests have lasted throughout my life, and it was just a regular upbringing… I don’t know, regular. I guess regular for me.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, how did you first find your way into the animal health industry?

Martin Traub-Werner:
So, I had been doing some sales and marketing integration work, so data-driven marketing, and this is in the days before email even, just to date myself a little bit. So, a lot of big, heavy data lists and integrating that data into print marketing, and using algorithms to create variable marketing pieces. And then, email came along and it was like, oh, well, everybody wants to do email, it was more cost-effective, still novel, and so we were doing data-driven email marketing. And a partner and I created a tool called SalesLink, and SalesLink was an email template where you could select topics and push a variable email to a small volume of people, one to five people kind of thing. And I was selling that, and I cold called into John Hayward at… He was then with Pfizer Animal Health in Montreal, and it’s for the Canadian division of Pfizer.
And he said, “Martin, this is a great solution for the compliance problem in animal health.” And I said, “Yeah, I mean, John, it’s perfect, it’s purpose built for the compliance problem in animal health.” And he said, “Okay, well, listen, I’ve got my leadership team coming to Montreal in a few weeks, I’d like you to come do a presentation, we’ll try to do a pilot across Canada.” I said, “Great.” Got off the phone, high-fived, and then quickly Googled compliance problem animal health, because I had no idea what he was talking about. From there, Pfizer put us in 90 practices across the country, which Canada is 1/10th the market size of the US, so that would be I think the equivalent of a 900-pilot practice. So, that was a big deal. It was a tough job.
And as we were pushing these emails for practices, they would say to us, “Listen, love the fact that we’re doing variable email to practices, but I need you to hit the send button,” because we had put a burden, an administrative burden onto the administration of the practice. I said, “Great, no problem, I can do that, I just need access to all your data.” And the docs were like, “Sure, no problem.” And I was like, “Wait, what? I need access to all of your data.” They were like, “No problem.” And so, from there, we started getting into the data, and the data was super, super messy, and so we started cleaning up the data, and that’s where VetSuccess was born, cleaning up data and feeding it back to people in ways that they could understand it.
It started off as, there are still a very small handful of people in animal health who remember SalesLink, which was this variable email tool that was the genesis for VetSuccess, and just data analytics in general.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, when you founded VetSuccess in 2013, specialized business intelligence was still new to veterinary medicine, what resistance did you encounter and how did you demonstrate the practical value of practice data?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah, it’s funny, I’ve told this story a couple of times. In my early, early presentations, I used a clip from the movie Moneyball, and it’s the Island of Misfit toys clip. And it talks about how you could use data to win baseball games, and I made the analogy that you could use data to win at the game of business. And that was revelatory at the time. Now, today, of course, if you showed that clip, people would be like… It would be insulting to suggest that people hadn’t figured out that data was important. And so, it was really just a matter of highlighting that data was important and getting people comfortable with sharing their data, that was the biggest resistance. The biggest resistance was the early adopters were like, “Yep, no problem.” But there was obviously some resistance to the idea of sharing data.
There was one doctor who, every time I gave a presentation… It wasn’t every time. He was in the room a number of times when I gave a presentation, and he would sit with his arms crossed at the back of the room, and he’d come up to me afterwards and he’d say, “You want me to pay you to analyze my data, but I’m giving you my data, you should pay me for my data.” And I was like, “Doc, it’s not about just your one practice’s data, it’s about the collective view of all of the data.” After about three or four years, this doc finally came up to me after one of my presentations, he said, “You’re doing a good job. I’m not going to give you my data, but you’re doing a good job.” That was a bit of a win.

Stacy Pursell:
That is a win. Well, veterinary practices have access to more data than ever today, but information alone does not improve performance. How can practice leaders turn financial and operational data into meaningful action?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think I’ll make a couple of comments, the first is not being overwhelmed. I know this quote to be from an economist, Joan Robinson, but I’m not sure who to attribute it to, but there’s this idea that a map on a scale of one to one is useless. And so, if you have too much data, too many points, too big a data set, too big a set of KPIs to look at, you’re going to get lost. And the truth is you can only do two to five major initiatives in a year if you’re really focused on them. And so, I’m sort of dodging the question a little bit around what to look at, but rather how much to look at because you really need to pick a lane, stay focused, and look at the data that improves or shows your performance against that particular initiative.
That’s one. The other, and this is a bit self-serving, but is an outcrop of the work that I did at VetSuccess, VetBooks is an outcrop of the work that I did at VetSuccess, because fundamentals, the financial fundamentals of the business are the foundational building block. You can have great compliance, but if you’re losing money every month, then you’re in a whole world of hurt. Or you can have great dental performance, but if you’re losing money every month, you’re in a world of hurt. And so, I think really understanding the financials and how they interact is wildly important. I say frequently, it’s much more fun to work in a business that’s making money than one that’s losing money. By the way, I happen to know because I’ve worked in both.
And a business that’s making money, a business owner, an entrepreneur that is connected to the financials of the practice, and knows the levers to pull, and makes sure that there’s always some profit, and that there’s a reserve as well, just has a lot more leeway to be able to take on initiatives and do more planful initiatives than one that’s losing money, you’re writing checks into the business… I guess I should stop saying writing checks. You’re injecting cash into the business, nobody writes checks anymore. You’re injecting cash into the business, you’re not taking money home, that is just a stressful, stressful place to be. So, just being connected to the financials of the practice I think is super important.

Stacy Pursell:
That makes sense. It’s not very sustainable if your business is losing money every month.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Nope.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Martin, VetSuccess was acquired by VetSource where you went on to lead the data and platform technologies business unit. What did that transition teach you about integrating an entrepreneurial company into a larger organization?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah, so the first thing I’ll say is there is no organization at the time, there was no organization other than VetSource that was better positioned to integrate the acquired company, the VetSuccess business into its organization. And a lot of it, the learnings for me had to do with team and alignment of values, and the leadership team at VetSource at the time, led by Kurt Green and Andy Bane, were and are today still top shelf. And the big takeaway there was the leadership and cultural alignment between the two organizations was super important, and the winning combination was the culture and leadership alignment as evidenced by the fact that even today, what are we, 2026, 2018 was the acquisition?
So, eight years later, many, many, many of the VetSuccess leaders, and the lead team, and many of their direct reports all have leadership positions at VetSource today, and that’s really a testament to the values alignment and cultural alignment between those two organizations.

Stacy Pursell:
Martin, you began your career in human resources and strategic management with Fortune 500 companies. How did those experiences prepare you for entrepreneurship in animal health?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah. So, I went into HR because I love business, and I’ve said before, the finance people will get the numbers to say what they need the numbers to say, the engineers will get the machines to do what the machines need to do. But if you can figure out the people part of it, the people part of it is always the magic in any business. And that’s sort of what I’ve put most of my emphasis on in my entrepreneurial career, both outside of and inside of animal health. So, hiring the very best people, getting alignment, great communication, and hiring the best people and letting them get out of their way and let them do the work they need to do, and pick the things that you’re going to focus on, communicate ruthlessly, effectively, and this is all HR 101 stuff.
I actually think the people part is the hardest part, and if you can manage that and have difficult conversations and support your team and be generous and be consistent, you can create great places to work, and that’s really all anybody really wants. We spend a lot of time at work, and I just want a drama-free day where we do good work with good people. Everybody’s an adult, there’s no, pardon the term phrase, but no bitching, and we just get the work done and feel good about it. And if you can’t and you don’t, then you got to either change the organization or change the people, or both.

Stacy Pursell:
You’re right, people are the hardest part, but like you said, people are the magic. You got to have good people, you got to have the right people to run a business. Well, now I know you’re involved in a number of different things, including a company called VetBooks, where you help independent veterinary practices establish greater financial control and discipline. What bookkeeping or financial management problems do you encounter most often?

Martin Traub-Werner:
I mean, it’s really basic stuff, it is surprising to me a little bit how uncomfortable people are with the idea of looking at the income statement or the profit and loss statement, I’ll call it the income statement, and making business decisions based on that income statement and knowing their numbers cold… There’s just no substitute for knowing your numbers cold. And to this day, I did this at VetSuccess, I’ve done this now at VetBooks, our leadership team reviews our financials intimately every month, line by line, how do we compare to last month? Are we on track for where we though we were going to be this year? If we are doing better, do we know why? If we’re doing worse, do we know why? What are we going to do about it? What projections are we making? How comfortable do we feel with the profit position of the company?
And this is just a muscle that needs to get exercised, and it starts with having good, clean, timely financials, which is the promise of VetBooks and something that I feel super passionate about. And then being able to look at those numbers and get some comfort around them. I have had many sleepless nights as an entrepreneur, and invariably when I am in financial control and I have a sleepless night, whether for good or bad, I’m excited because there’s some opportunity or a new piece of equipment or piece of technology we want to buy or somebody we’re excited to hire and bring onto the team, or on the negative side, somebody quits, we lose a piece of business, we have a competitive threat, competitive challenge… In both of those, I have always been able to turn to my income statement and then start asking questions like, what if my revenue grows by 20%?
What if I hire this person? What’s that going to do to my cost structure? What does that mean for the ultimate profitability? And today, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, I’d be having those conversations with myself in the middle of the night, working my Excel spreadsheets super hard. Today, you can sit and have a really lovely conversation with Claude, and Claude will answer all of your questions for you, but it requires having confidence that the books and the numbers that you’re looking at are right.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, that’s a good point. And I know that many veterinarians become practice owners because of their clinical abilities rather than formal business training. What financial numbers should every practice owner understand regardless of their comfort with accounting?

Martin Traub-Werner:
So, at a bare minimum, bare, bare minimum, just the income statement. Balance sheet is important, but income statement is more. I’m an operations guy, so income statement is where I live, and at a bare minimum, just understanding the relationship between revenue, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, labor, and all other operating expenses, and what the net result on profitability is. Just understanding how those are all related is the bare, bare, bare minimum. But when you have that foundation and you know how those are all related, you can then start getting into, okay, what are the elements of revenue, and what are their related cost of goods sold implications against that revenue?
When you know the revenue of a thing, and you know the cost of delivering that thing, the gross margin of that thing… And one of the many beautiful benefits of the VMG/AAHA Chart of Accounts is that we have a nice structure to measure the revenue and costs of key components of the business, and we can figure out the gross margins, and we can figure out how to titrate up those margins, leaving more gross profit to be then spent on operating expenses, both labor and other.

Stacy Pursell:
Hey everyone, we are interrupting the episode briefly to talk to you about today’s sponsor. This episode is brought to you by The Vet Recruiter. The Vet Recruiter is the go-to executive search and recruitment firm in the animal health industry and veterinary profession, dedicated to connecting exceptional employers with high caliber candidates. With a deep understanding of the animal health industry and veterinary profession, and a vast pool of talented candidates, we make the hiring process seamless and efficient for the animal health and veterinary employers who have critical hiring needs. If you are an employer in search of top talent, or you work in the animal health industry, or are a veterinarian ready to take the next step in your career, look no further than The Vet Recruiter.
The Vet Recruiter has placed many of the industry’s top leaders from CEOs to COOs to chief veterinary officers to VPs of marketing and sales and heads of R&D and chief scientific officers. We have built sales forces for many leading animal health companies and have placed more veterinarians in clinical practice than any other search firm in the US. Ready to take the next step? Visit thevetrecruiter.com today. That’s thevetrecruiter.com. And now let’s get back into the episode.
Martin, independent veterinary practices face pressures involving staffing, rising expenses, changing client expectations, and corporate competition. What can independent practice owners do to strengthen their financial position without compromising patient care or workplace culture?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah. So, it’s a great question, right? So, first of all, veterinary practices are wildly complex places to begin with, and then you’ve got the added pressure of staffing for a complex business and corporate competition. But this is one of the things that I love about businesses in general, and this is true of all businesses and especially true in vet practices, is that the fundamentals are the fundamentals. If revenue is less than expense, you’re in trouble. It sounds super basic. And so, becoming intimately connected and comfortable with the financial position of your business and improving that financial position is wildly important.
You’ll get to a place, if you review your financials on a bare minimum monthly basis, and monthly basis is enough if you’re under financial control. If you’re not under financial control, you need to be looking at subsets of your financials on a weekly basis, like what was our revenue, know what your burn rate is, what do I mean by burn rate? What are your fixed costs that you’re going to have to spend to keep the doors open no matter what? If you’re in a leased facility, whether you see one patient in a month or 500 patients in a month, your rent is going to be your rent. Same for much of your staff, most, if not all of your staffing. Your staffing costs are going to be your staffing costs. You need to know what your underlying financials are because that’s the only place where…
Sorry, this is the only place where you get peace of mind, it’s the only place I get peace of mind. The only place I get peace of mind is knowing that my revenue is greater than my expense, and then it’s a question of how much greater, and what else can I afford to do with the profit that I’ve got? Do I want new technology? Do I want to increase benefits and opportunities for my existing staff? Do I want to hire additional staff? They’re all trade-offs that all flow from the very, very, very basic fundamentals of understand your revenue, understand your cost structure. There is no substitute, you cannot just open your doors and hope for the best.

Stacy Pursell:
That’s good advice. And I know that you invest in and advise animal health entrepreneurs through ventures such as NxVET and Juniper Genomics, what qualities distinguish a promising idea from a business that can create lasting value?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah. So, those are two companies that I both invest and advise, Juniper is actually not in the animal health space, but the fundamentals are for all companies that I advise and/or invest in are the same. I look for great people. I actually don’t invest… I, of course, invest in the concept and idea, but fundamentally, I want honest, hardworking, innovative leaders who have vision and passion and drive, and who aren’t jerks.

Stacy Pursell:
Nobody wants to work with a jerk, right?

Martin Traub-Werner:
No, no.

Stacy Pursell:
And your career has included human resources, consulting, data analytics, entrepreneurship, investing, and financial services. Looking ahead, where do you see the greatest opportunities to solve meaningful problems across the animal health industry and veterinary profession?

Martin Traub-Werner:
It’s funny, I was asked a question in a similar vein recently of what’s the next thing, what’s the next frontier? And it seems so trite to say, well, I’m paying attention to AI. I am going to ultimately fall back on I’m paying attention to AI, but I think I’ve got some anxiety about the underlying macroeconomic fundamentals. And I’ve had this anxiety for long enough now that it might be misplaced, the macroeconomic sky is falling for the last 24 months, and yet the sky hasn’t fallen yet, so maybe I’m wrong. But for me personally, I just feel this sense of economic uncertainty, which means not to discount the question. But I’m not making any sudden big moves, I’m not swinging for the fences on big investments, I’m trying really hard not to raise prices, I’m trying really hard to just hunker down and provide great service within my existing cost structure, and not make wild changes.
Now, that of course is mitigated by the swarm of activity and enthusiasm for AI, and two companies that I’m involved with, you mentioned one, NxVET, the other is OpenVet, are each in their own ways leaning in heavy, heavy, heavy into AI and that technology, and are absolutely changing the way that animal health is going to be practiced and delivered. And the whole pressure on the software ecosystem with the rise of AI, I’ve got friends in the space who regularly tell me that they could or they have built a new PIMS in a matter of a day or two… Not that I think that they’re going to disintermediate all the PIMs, but just more as an example of the technology changing so quickly and being so accessible and easy.
NxVET just had a hackathon where they helped nine or 10 practitioners, people who have never coded anything in their life, code tools to help their day-to-day workflow. So, I think that is a tsunami of innovation that’s going to come upon us pretty quickly, but again, it’s against this backdrop of, I’m not making any sudden big changes in my business because I’m still anxious and nervous. And I just may be anxious and nervous, but…

Stacy Pursell:
Well, we see the numbers that come across the emails.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Well, that’s right. Visits are down, continuing to be down, continuing to decrease. And I mean, you can only price increase your rate of success for so long. And so, there’s going to have to be a change in productivity, by which I mean doing more with the same or fewer people, and technology’s going to be a big part of that, big answer to that.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, I agree with you. Martin, what surprised you the most during your career around the veterinary profession?

Martin Traub-Werner:
What surprised me the most in my career? I guess I am surprised. I’ve been in the industry now for a lot of years, almost 15 years… Nope, almost 18 years. And when I talk to my friends outside the industry about our industry, I’m surprised, I guess, by how tight-knit and friendly the industry is, meaning, you’re one degree of separation away from anybody in this industry, maybe two degrees of separation tops. And by and large, people are remarkably generous with their time. By and large, they are incredibly friendly, and even competitors aren’t ruthless, cutthroat, unethical, all of the sort of negative things, it’s just a genuinely…
And I think this is why many of us who found their way into animal health never left, or never want to leave, is just because it’s a lovely place to work. I’ve made many, many, many great, great friends in this industry. And I guess I’m a little surprised by that. I’m surprised by how at home I continue to feel and how at home I know many others feel.

Stacy Pursell:
That’s the same draw that drew me into this profession. This is my 30th year working across the animal health industry and vet profession, and that was the one thing that drew me to this industry and has kept me here all these years.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Well, and that would be a good time, Stacy, for us to give a shout-out to VetPartners who brought you and me together originally, and without whom I’ve said before, VetSuccess would never have existed without VetPartners because of the generosity and kindhearted support of our peers to helping others be successful.

Stacy Pursell:
That is a good shout-out, I have made so many great connections and friends, close friends through the VetPartners organization and business opportunities. It’s an incredible group of people.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah.

Stacy Pursell:
What does your crystal ball say about the future of the veterinary profession?

Martin Traub-Werner:
Oh, this question makes me always very uncomfortable because as my wife likes to say, my crystal ball is in the shop. My crystal ball is not particularly effective right now. I’m bullish on… I want to make sure I say this in a politically correct way. I’m bullish on independent practices. I’m bullish on independent practices because I have nostalgic… I’m showing my old age now. I want to believe that people want to be served by independent veterinarians, who know them, know their beloved family, and want to do great work, and keep the money that they make in the community, and aren’t driven by corporate decisions.
And so, I did this presentation with Matt Salois from VMG two years ago now, maybe three, that hypothesized that the time was right for Renaissance of independent practices, and I’m seeing it. I’m seeing it. I’m getting calls, not weekly, but maybe weekly, three, four times a month of, “I’m starting a new practice, it’s de novo, it’s independent, I worked for corporate, I’m starting my own practice.” And I have a sense that corporate acquisition has slowed a little bit. I mean, it has slowed a little bit, I don’t have the numbers top of hand, but we know it’s slowed since the heyday of 2018, sort of pre-COVID, and just a little bit through COVID. Valuations have come down, seemingly have come down.
And so, I still feel like there’s a robust independent ecosystem that is developing and developing quickly with supports from things like peer learning from VMG, technology that is available and widespread and easier to adopt, and just the IVPA, the Independent Vet Practitioners Association. And those decisions, independents can make decisions faster than corporates. And I’m just feeling encouraged, hopeful… I hate the word hope because hope is not a strategy, but…

Stacy Pursell:
I had that book on my bookshelf, Hope is Not a Strategy. That’s a book.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Hope is not… I didn’t know it was a book, I’ve been saying it for years. Hope is not a strategy. But I can’t help but feel hopeful that our industry is going to continue to be supportive of and supporting independent practices.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I’m glad that you’re encouraged. What advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Martin Traub-Werner:
So, two things. The first is it’s a long game. I think I am much more patient and tolerant of taking a bit longer to do some stuff, to complete particular initiatives, I’m not thinking of any one in particular, but just taking a longer term approach to it. There are entrepreneurs that I know in our industry who are young and aggressive and growing fast, and I did that too. And boy, when you can step back and be reflective and take a little bit longer and go a little bit slower, it just takes so much of the stress and pressure off. It’s amazing. There was a time when I had hair, and I lost my hair at about the time that I was building many of my businesses. And so, what I would tell my younger self is just be patient and generous with yourself.
And the other thing, and this ties back to the very first question you asked about my upbringing, where I said it was a regular upbringing, I think I probably take this opportunity to give my parents a lot of credit for providing a safety net. And so, what I tell my younger self is to appreciate and be grateful for the safety net that you had. And I think about this a lot when I’m talking to entrepreneurs because I could afford to take risks because I knew that I would never be hungry, I would never lose my house. I might lose my house, but I’d always have a roof over my head. I’d always have a roof over my head, I’d always have food on the table, I’d always have support. And that for an entrepreneur is wildly, wildly important, and if you have that and you can appreciate it early, you can actually afford to take risks, calculated risks, but risks nonetheless.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, that’s a good spot to be in. And Martin, what message or principle do you wish you could teach everyone listening to our podcast today?

Martin Traub-Werner:
I think I am really focused on generosity, it’s something that I try… I try to be generous, not just financially, but with time is actually what I’m actually thinking about. Generous with your time, generous with your comments, generous of other people’s skills and abilities, appreciative of other people’s skills and abilities, generous with your comments about other people… Just be generous. I mean, if we were all as generous as the people at VetPartners were with me, as I was starting that success, and I’m thinking the Karen Felsteds, Karen Gavzers, and many, many, many others, many others. John Hayward, Mike Braswells, the Jamie McDougal, Jess Petty, many, many, many people, and so many others that I have not named. If we could be as generous with them, just be generous in general, the industry will benefit from it, and so will we personally.

Stacy Pursell:
Dr. Karen Felsted was an earlier guest on The People of Animal Health Podcast. So, if you’re listening and you haven’t heard that episode, be sure to listen in to the episode with Dr. Karen Felsted, that’s a good one as well. Well, Martin, some of our guests have a book that have changed their mindset or their approach to success. Is there a book that’s had an impact on your life? I’d love to hear the story if there is.

Martin Traub-Werner:
So, there have been many, many books that pass through my shelves and that I’ve revered over time. Good to Great is one that business people often comment on. But I recently found, again, a book that I read years ago around the time that I was doing my grad degree, and I have it on my desk, can’t even see it there, called, The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack. And it talks about a failing manufacturing firm that gets purchased by the employees, and they turn it around, and they turn it into this massively successfully… They gamify business. They teach the fundamentals of business to all of the employees.
They listen to the employees who, by the way, are the ones who are making the product and know how to improve, how to make improvements in the business, and they turn this failed business into a wildly successful business by gamifying it. It’s called the Great Game of Business. I’ve often thought, I’m a big fan of open book management and being inclusive, and so The Great Game of Business is another of those terrific books. Yeah, it’s a great book.

Stacy Pursell:
It sounds like a great book, I’m going to have to put that in my Amazon cart. Well, Martin, you’ve got the mic, what is one thing you want to share with our listeners of The People of Animal Health Podcast before you drop the mic today?

Martin Traub-Werner:
I must be terribly self-promotional on your podcast, but recently started a podcast with Peter Weinstein called The Stethoscope and the Spreadsheet.

Stacy Pursell:
I saw that.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Yeah, it’s super fun. We’re having a great time. And in our first episode with Matt Salois, Matt talked about how the complexity that we don’t give enough credit to veterinary practice owners and veterinary businesses for the complexity. Their starting point is so far ahead of so many other businesses because of the complexity that’s inherent in the business. And I just found that it’s something that I understood and I knew, but I never had some language around, and it really struck me because I don’t think we give ourselves, meaning the veterinary practices that we serve, the practice owners, the practice teams, the practice managers, the vet techs, and the entire team, we don’t give them enough credit for the number of balls that they juggle, the wild complexity that’s involved in their businesses.
And along the lines of being generous, I think we need to remind ourselves that, in our case, the clients that we serve, and in their case, the businesses that they are operating are wildly complex animals, and they do a fabulous job. They do a fabulous job. And it’s such an honor and a pleasure to be able to service such committed business owners that we should all feel grateful for the opportunity. I know that I certainly am.

Stacy Pursell:
If you’re a veterinarian or you work in a veterinary practice as a technician or practice manager or other member of the team, pat yourself on the back because you are doing an amazing job.

Martin Traub-Werner:
100%. 100%.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Martin, thank you for being my guest today on the People of Animal Health Podcast, I enjoyed this time we had together, and really enjoyed our chat today. Thank you for being here.

Martin Traub-Werner:
Thanks, Stacy. Thanks for the opportunity, it’s great to spend some time together. Appreciate you.