For all its inevitability, how we deal with change can make or break us. This becomes especially evident when large companies start shifting. With sixteen years’ experience in change management fueled by technology, CVP (Customer Value Partners) is a powerful ally in navigating organizational transitions.
CVP is a trusted advisor that eases and smooths periods of change for organizations including federal government departments like national security and healthcare divisions, allowing these to meet the future with confidence. Working from three large Washington offices in the District of Columbia’s metropolitan area, this company is prized for its mission-focused attention to clients’ needs. Over the past year, the company has expanded its reach significantly by establishing new operations in Denver, Colorado and Kansas City, Missouri, with more to follow.
Concentrating on the detail as well as the bigger picture, this unique firm prides itself on its approach to the challenges facing organizations during transitions. Whether the solutions lie in introducing advanced technology, advanced analytics, cybersecurity, digital transformation, or soft-skilled business transformation, CVP facilitates change in the most intelligent ways available today.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Anirudh Kulkarni leads several of the new staff training sessions and likes to remind those new to CVP that everything in the company starts and ends with its clients’ mission and problem set. “The deeper we can embed ourselves in our clients’ world, the better a consulting partner we can be,” he says.
Big organizations are shifting the world from the baby boomer era into the millennial age. From technology to the differences in how generations approach work, the potential pitfalls are plenty. If left to fester, problems have the unfortunate habit of eating away at institutions. This is where CVP (Customer Value Partners) steps in. The firm is committed to keeping its business relationships clear of all possible conflicts, presenting clients with simple, high-value solutions that will be easy to implement and manage.
In the healthcare arena, the company seeks to improve service and operational quality by analyzing data and statistics. The company also specializes in reducing fraud, again with the help of advanced technology. Then there is value-based purchasing, a trend in the medical world since the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on 23 March 2010.
Value-based purchasing was formally introduced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alongside the act which intends to transform the industry by making healthcare more affordable and promoting inclusivity. The concept defines several ways in which healthcare providers are incentivized to curb their spending and provide better quality care.
CVP supports its healthcare clients in transitioning to and improving their value-based healthcare and purchasing culture, as well as implementing new payment models in accordance with the healthcare act.
In terms of its work for Federal Agencies focused on national security, improving cyber security is increasingly becoming central to CVP’s services. The main aim is to apply analytics to avoid threat intelligence – or fact-based espionage – and cyber-attacks. Another chief part of the company’s contribution to national security is educating the department on the importance of continuous systems monitoring to enable real-time response and remediation, rather than traditional triennial audits.
For CVP, clients, speed dictates success. Technological advancement means that the days of spending nine months on developing and updating software are long gone. Today, developers are in a race against time to design and implement fully functional software in under a month. And, with business at large moving to a cloud-based world of continuous development, systems integration, and never-ending testing, the company provides speedy solutions for departments overcome by a technological avalanche.
The effective transformation of systems combined with integrating the human aspect can only happen successfully when everyone in a company or department is committed. To aid in this, Customer Value Partners has several experts in communication and institutional transformation who guide employees along the path to growth. This often involves retraining staff while seeing that clients are provided with the tools with which to navigate new challenges. Over time, these efforts culminate in seamless transitions from old to new.
This is not a company that comes in with a plan and leaves with its payment; Customer Value Partners stands by its name, offering value and partnership to its clients. To ensure that its client partners can provide their millions of customers and end-users with quality services, CVP also provides consultants who are stationed onsite at clients’ facilities. This type of collaboration is typically offered during the introduction phases of new systems and processes.
“We are not the outside advisers who come in and deliver a PowerPoint deck and then walk away. We’re actually rolling up our sleeves and helping [our clients] by doing [the work] with them,” says Anirudh.
CVP focuses on the best software suites the market has to offer and has strong relationships with both Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud and is also in the process of negotiating an agreement with Microsoft for access to its Azure cloud computing service. In addition, its own development crew is currently working on artificial intelligence learning, based on open-source models. To coordinate large data sets across different computer clusters, the company uses many different cloud-native tools, many based on open-source software. “We see a lot of opportunity with open source software that is now starting to make their way into the government as well,” says Anirudh.
Considering the mayhem that can ensue if change is not done correctly, it is normal for clients to be concerned – especially when it comes to upgrading or implementing software. CVP. considers replacing entire software suites as inappropriate unless expressly requested by clients. Instead, it focuses on modernizing existing suites through systems engineering and architecture to render them user-friendly and operationally more resilient thanks to improved functionality. Replacement of the “guts” often involves migration to modern architectural constructs with a strong focus on system interoperability. A thorough process of consultation and an assessment of existing technologies are followed by digital optimization.
Considering the often-steep cost involved in maintaining outdated technology, most people now realize the value of spending money on modernized platforms to save money. Often, however, the change that comes along with massive technological systems updates is not equally welcomed by all stakeholders.
“Proving the necessity for change is not hard. The biggest hurdle we have is [driving change] in a way that all stakeholders feel like they are a part of the journey,” Anirudh says. The company has developed a sensitive approach that gathers input from all involved to ensure that the changes it suggests are acceptable to the organization.
This is a problem that appears to occur because systems development was done very differently than before. As a result, the stakeholder challenge is typically encountered where generations cohabitate in a working environment. Software implementation was much slower in years gone by, and we now see developing, building, user testing, security evaluations, and integration running on rapid cycles. This radical adjustment can lead to conflicts of interest between generations and departments. It is in solving such power struggles that CVP (Customer Value Partners’) organizational change management skills are invaluable.
Of course, transparency and diplomacy are key. When taking on the maintenance of existing systems on behalf of a client, CVP first considers the entire company, starting with its technology and then looking at organizational maturity, capacity for change, and office politics. It also creates a detailed master plan for achieving its goals. This plan underlines risks such as talent gaps and any obstacles that could hamper positive change. This detailed assessment then becomes a project plan, eventually evolving into a schedule.
Anirudh is proud to be the “servant leader” of this dynamic company, coaching its people and helping them to become the best version of themselves. Despite the company’s tremendous growth, he also still does the orientation of new hires. That is because, for him, a company’s culture is in its people. Having started the business from scratch with no capital, he is especially pleased with its current growth rate, estimating that the company’s recruitment efforts could see its staff count grow to around 475 over the rest of the year.
While Anirudh’s long-term goal is to create a firm that can survive without him, this entrepreneur is committed to ensuring that the company’s values of integrity, mutual respect, and individual responsibility are woven tightly into its fabric.
It invests in continuous learning to remain at the forefront of industry developments and guide clients through the best and latest solutions available. Keeping up with trends is set to be the main driver of its growth over the next few years, closely followed by its passion for putting its clients first. This passion is something that is reflected in a long list of client awards. CVP’s credentials, its modern approach to employment, and its pledge to hire a good number of its employees straight from college, make this a company fit for America’s most talented change-makers.
