How Veeva Drives a Culture of Speed on its Growth Path to 10k Employees

This video features an interview with Vivian Welsh, Chief People Officer of Veeva Systems, exploring how the company cultivates a culture of speed and employee success amidst rapid growth within the life sciences industry. The discussion centers on Veeva's unique approach to organizational values, leadership development, and performance management, all aimed at supporting its mission to enhance health and extend human life by accelerating medicine delivery to patients. As a high-growth software company serving primarily biopharma clients, Veeva has expanded to 7,000 employees across 40 countries, with ambitious plans to reach 10,000 by 2025.

Vivian Welsh elaborates on Veeva's foundational culture, which is shaped by its diverse workforce united by a clear vision: "building the industry Cloud for Life Sciences." This vision is underpinned by four core values: "do the right thing, customer success, employee success, and speed." The value of "speed" is particularly highlighted as a distinctive and deliberate choice, balanced with the operating principle to "keep it simple." This ensures that while innovation and market delivery are swift, they are never at the expense of quality. The conversation also delves into how Veeva supports its frontline leaders, acknowledging their critical role in employee engagement, and outlines specific programs designed to foster effective management.

The interview further explores Veeva's innovative approach to employee engagement and feedback, moving away from traditional annual performance reviews. Instead, they employ a "check-in process," a twice-yearly (or more frequent) open and authentic dialogue between employees and managers. This process separates compensation discussions from performance feedback, encouraging honest conversations about engagement, strengths, and growth areas. The goal is to foster mutual accountability and prevent surprises, ensuring continuous development and clear communication. Ultimately, Welsh expresses pride in Veeva's track record of customer success, viewing the company as a strategic partner to the industry rather than just a vendor, a sentiment that resonates deeply throughout the organization.

Key Takeaways:

• Veeva's Core Mission and Growth: Veeva Systems is a high-growth software company dedicated to supporting biopharma companies in their mission to improve health and extend human life by accelerating medicine to patients. The company, currently with 7,000 employees across 40+ countries, aims to reach 10,000 employees by 2025, underscoring its significant impact and expansion in the life sciences sector.
• Vision for Life Sciences: Veeva's overarching vision is to build "the industry Cloud for Life Sciences," positioning itself as a comprehensive technological backbone for the pharmaceutical and biotech ecosystem. This strategic focus drives its software, data, and services offerings.
• Distinctive Core Values: Veeva operates on four core values: "do the right thing, customer success, employee success, and speed." These values guide daily operations and strategic decisions, fostering a cohesive organizational culture.
• "Speed" as a Strategic Value: The inclusion of "speed" as a core value is unique and deliberate, emphasizing rapid innovation and execution. This value is balanced with an operating principle to "keep it simple," ensuring that pace does not compromise quality, especially in delivering critical software and services to the biopharma industry.
• Empowering Frontline Leaders: Recognizing that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement (as per Gallup research cited by the host), Veeva heavily invests in developing its frontline leaders. This highlights the critical role of direct management in shaping employee experience and organizational success.
• Comprehensive Manager Development: Veeva supports its managers through several initiatives, including a "Veeva Manager Bootcamp" for new or promoted managers, "Manager Communities of Practice" for peer learning and support, and quarterly "all-manager webinars" with the CEO for direct engagement and Q&A.
• Internal Mobility for Leadership: Veeva strongly believes in internal mobility, providing opportunities for employees to take on new roles, including management positions, even if they lack prior experience. This fosters growth from within and leverages deep institutional knowledge.
• Innovative "Check-in Process": Veeva has replaced traditional annual performance reviews with a more frequent, open, and authentic "check-in process" conducted twice a year or more. This two-way conversation allows employees to discuss their engagement and managers to provide performance feedback, focusing on strengths and growth areas.
• Separation of Compensation and Feedback: A key aspect of the "check-in process" is the separation of compensation discussions from performance feedback. This encourages more honest dialogue and focuses the conversation on development rather than financial outcomes, akin to "stay interviews" that prioritize continuous employee growth.
• Mutual Accountability and Transparency: The check-in process promotes mutual accountability, ensuring that neither employees nor managers are surprised by performance issues or career decisions. This fosters trust and open communication, aligning with Veeva's value of respecting the individual.
• Customer Success as a Core Pride Point: Vivian Welsh identifies customer success as the primary source of pride for most Veeva employees. The company strives to be a strategic partner to its clients, ensuring they are not just "live" but "live and happy" with Veeva's products, reinforcing its role beyond a mere vendor.
• Hiring for "Ideal Team Players": Veeva's hiring philosophy aligns with the principles of Patrick Lencioni's "The Ideal Team Player," seeking individuals who are "humble, nice, work hard, and quick learners." This emphasis on character and work ethic contributes to a collaborative and high-performing culture.
• Encouraging "Slow Thinking": Despite the core value of "speed," Veeva encourages its employees, particularly leadership, to practice "slow thinking" (system two thinking). This involves intentionally creating space for deeper reflection and different perspectives, balancing rapid execution with thoughtful decision-making.
• Future Growth and Innovation: The company remains excited about its continued growth potential, planning to introduce more applications and innovations to the market. This forward-looking perspective ensures Veeva remains at the forefront of technological advancement in the life sciences industry.

Key Concepts:

• Industry Cloud for Life Sciences: Veeva's strategic vision to build a comprehensive, specialized cloud platform tailored specifically for the pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences sectors, integrating various software, data, and services.
• Culture of Speed: A deliberate organizational value and operating principle at Veeva, emphasizing rapid innovation, quick decision-making, and efficient execution while maintaining high quality standards.
• Veeva Manager Bootcamp: A structured training program for new or internally promoted managers at Veeva, designed to educate them on the company's management philosophies, practices, and expectations for engaging with employees.
• Manager Communities of Practice: Informal or semi-formal groups where Veeva managers can connect, share experiences, learn from peers, and seek guidance on management challenges, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
• Check-in Process: Veeva's unique, twice-yearly (or more frequent) performance management system that replaces traditional annual reviews. It involves an open, authentic, two-way conversation between employees and managers, focusing on engagement, strengths, and growth areas, with compensation discussions separated.
• Stay Interviews: A concept similar to Veeva's check-in process, where managers regularly engage in proactive, developmental conversations with employees about their current role, future aspirations, and what the company can do to support their continued success and retention.
• System Two Thinking / Slow Thinking: A cognitive process, popularized by Daniel Kahneman, that involves deliberate, effortful, and analytical thought. Veeva encourages this to complement its "speed" value, allowing for deeper reflection and more nuanced decision-making.
• Ideal Team Player: A concept from Patrick Lencioni's book, referring to individuals who possess three key virtues: humble, hungry (hard-working), and smart (interpersonally adept). Veeva looks for these qualities in its hires, particularly emphasizing humility, hard work, and quick learning.