Company: Medtech College, Atlanta, GA
Entry Submitted By: O'Connell & Goldberg PR
Company Description: A healthcare education and continuing professional development brand, Medtech College is a nationally accredited post-secondary network of colleges and institutes with the goal of advancing healthcare career training. Working hand-in-hand with students to provide an exceptional learning environment, Medtech College helps them create an extraordinary new future for themselves.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year - Diversified Service Industries

Nomination Title: Medtech College

Tell the story about what this nominated organization achieved since January 1 2013 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Why does Medtech deserve recognition? The four-year-old company achieved success when competitors with decades of experience couldn’t. Built on its distinctions – Customer Service, Associate Experience, Regulatory Excellence…in Every Moment (the acronym C.A.R.E.), Medtech’s passionate about customer service – an anomaly in an imperious education industry - embracing a distinctive “tribal culture” where everyone works toward common goals. Through this commitment to “Be Extraordinary”, Medtech enjoyed revenue growth during a year of industry-wide decline by outpacing competitors in new student enrollments.

It starts with a culture created through the vision of associates that encourages engagement. They, not leadership, insisted Medtech focus on key values like integrity, accountability, excellence, collaboration, innovation, straight talk, fun and contributing to the community. Shunning the typical employee hierarchy, Medtech focuses on cultivating extraordinary associates who, in turn, create exemplary student experiences and learning environments that produce successful graduates. Everyone is accountable and empowered to meet the needs of their customers – students. Hopkins created something he calls “the messy organization”, which avoids rigid formal organizational charting of roles and responsibilities, allowing associates to work in a more collaborative “tribal” culture.

How well are they doing? Medtech’s always monitoring engagement and how well its collective core values are upheld through semi-annual Associate Engagement Surveys measuring:

•Customer Service – how well Medtech keeps its student commitment.
•Associate Experience – overall experience provided to associates.
•Regulatory Excellence – is Medtech reinforcing/upholding its commitment to operate with integrity?
•Associate Engagement – extent associates are proud to work for Medtech, contributions are valued, and effective training and tools provided.
•Values & Culture – how successfully the company lives its values.

June 2013’s survey recorded a 28% improvement in associate engagement over the previous September (10% is considered “healthy”). Medtech also increased faculty engagement 20% - Medtech’s “face” for students. That survey has become the benchmark against which all indices are measured going forward.

Besides offering associates myriad flexible workplace arrangements and schedules, Medtech began re-inventing the learning experience by selecting faculty through a proprietary method of identifying customer-obsessive instructors, then changing how they teach by coupling a significant investment in technology with computer-based adaptive learning. A game-changer, it’s able to evaluate how quickly students learn and comprehend.

Medtech’s uncommon faculty development also provides instructor coaches who offer mentoring and creative ideas for energizing class presentations. Every faculty member undergoes constant coaching based upon real time, automated customer feedback and observations.

The company’s culture, designed through associate input, makes Medtech an extraordinary place and a noteworthy industry model. Following the philosophy “culture trumps strategy,” Medtech creates an associate-based, service-obsessed culture that is heavy with human interaction, designed to put students first, and remarkably different from competitive educational companies.

It’s yielding extraordinary performance results. When 2013 new student growth dropped dramatically sector-wide, Medtech’s increased 22%, outperforming the industry. Medtech consistently posts yearly revenue gains and a 20% five-year compound annual growth rate, increasing revenue from less than $16 million to $100+ million in four years. Every metric indicator’s pointed in the right direction - no small feat given the past several years’ operating environment, and what much larger competitors have done; worthy of Company of the Year.

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Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader of this nominated organization:

John Hopkins’ organizational transformation at Medtech College garnered great admiration from for-profit education and private equity sectors. When industry revenues decreased, he led Medtech to 20% year-over-year growth despite extensive transformative change. Hopkins attributes that to a strategy of re-inventing the overall education experience while integrating multiple campuses and operational cultures.

Hopkins’ more than 20 years as a senior hospitality executive developed his deep appreciation of the customer satisfaction business model. Previously Chairman, President and CEO of the former MedVance Institute, his vision guided industry-leading branding, expansion, and performance outcomes. Recipient of a 2012 Stevie Award as Maverick of the Year for his leadership strategies at Medtech College, Mr. Hopkins is not just transforming a company and an industry…he’s once again transforming the educational experience.