15 Aug OVID Health Founder’s Five at Five
“Fail fast, fail often and hire an office dog”
Jenny Ousbey, CEO OVID Health
Today is OVID’s 5th Birthday! To mark this milestone celebration, our Founder and CEO Jenny Ousbey reflects on the past 5 years of our journey and shares her vision for the future of OVID.
It’s been 5 years; how do you feel about OVID’s growth so far?
I’m very proud of how much we’ve grown – considering it was me on my lonesome in my home office for nearly the first year! I always think we can grow faster – but that’s because I’m incredibly ambitious for the agency, and for myself personally.
My motivation for founding OVID was two-fold. I spotted a gap in the market for an independent agency which could reinvent health communications by integrating advocacy, public affairs, and PR.
If you could go back to the beginning, what would you do differently and why?
Such a tough one! I think if CEOs are honest, they probably make at least five mistakes a day – let alone the multitude made when you’re at the beginning of your company’s journey.
Looking back, I should have been more confident in my vision at the start. It took a while for me to believe in myself the way others believed in me, so I’d bottle that positive energy earlier to grow faster. Otherwise, I’m not sure I would do many things differently because all the mistakes I’ve made are how I’ve learnt and become a better leader. I’m a strong believer in the fail fast, fail often mentality and that’s what we encourage at OVID even now.
What 5 things have you learnt whilst running OVID?
- Invest in process early – it will make it much smoother when you grow!
- Be clear on which clients you will and won’t work with – we’ve stopped working with a few clients who don’t share our values and it’s always been the best decision
- Hire great quality consultants and the work will follow
- Don’t be afraid to reach out to as many mentors as you can, listen to a diverse set of voices and you will be a better leader as a result
- Have an office dog – they make a demonstrable difference to workplace culture! It helps if it’s your own dog…..
What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?
A key milestone was when I founded the Patient Partnership Index – a pro bono global initiative that has so far engaged with over 60 pharmaceutical-patient programmes and shared best practice to ensure advocacy programmes deliver real world impact for patients in different disease areas. It’s made a massive impact on the sector and will continue to do so for years to come.
In the next 5 years what do you hope to accomplish?
In the long term, I would like OVID to be a £10m+ agency. I believe this is well within our reach, as we are doing something unique in the industry and already work with most of the world’s top 20 pharma companies – a great foundation for our long-term future.
We are a profitable agency making a strategic choice to build foundations which will deliver for us in the long-term. For our existing and new clients, we deliver work that is consistently impressive – building reputations, kickstarting opportunities and changing policies (and lives).
Successfully bottling up our purpose, to increase the number of people living healthy lives and inspiring good care through the power of communications, will be key to achieving this goal.