At Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCT) our mission is to improve lives through the power of cannabinoids. Our vision is to be the best at turning cannabinoids into prescription medication to address the significant unmet medical needs of millions of patients around the world living with severe and chronic pain.
Our company values form the foundation of what we do at OCT, underpinning how we approach the pursuit of our mission and vision as a team. I know from my experience working as a coach, that to set a team up for success you need a strong values-based foundation. When the management team at OCT first came together we spent a good deal of time and energy building that foundation from scratch. Drug development can be a rocky road, pharmaceutical companies like ours face many challenges along the way, so we knew that it was important to have a solid base we could rely on.
As a company, the things we hold most dear are excellence, collaboration, respect, fairness and integrity. Let’s take these in turn, so I can explain why they are so important to us.
Excellence
For us, this is an end and a means. Developing prescription medications does not happen overnight – it’s a long game. We want to make sure that we remember the journey as well as the destination. So, we make sure to celebrate successes along the way. The pursuit of excellence drives us to care deeply about our company’s mission and the patients that we are ultimately hoping to help. It underpins our commitment to rigorous research and our attention to detail, as we work to develop life-changing treatments for the patients most in need.
Collaboration
We all know the old saying: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We want to go far and, if you ask John Lucas, he’ll tell you we’d like to get there as fast as possible.
The successful outcomes of our research depend upon collaboration. As a tight-knit team, we strive to always be supportive of each other. We are generous with our time, care and expertise. This has created a highly collegiate culture in which we are happy to learn from our mistakes. We recognise that we are better together. This approach extends beyond OCT to our work with external partners who we approach with the same principle of collaboration. It’s this focus on collaboration that has helped us to work seamlessly alongside prestigious academic institutions, such as Oxford University, and to partner with top-tier research organisations.
Respect
Regardless of whether we collaborate as a team or with external partners, we demonstrate high regard for everyone: each other, our stakeholders, and the wider community. By making respect a cornerstone, we empower people to speak up, to take risks and to be vulnerable. Having a respectful workplace culture promotes conversation, encourages people to ask questions, and makes for better outcomes overall.
Fairness
We value authenticity. We don’t want to work with your ‘representative’, we want the real you. We listen to each other and we are prepared to evolve together. Our company is free from discrimination and dishonesty and we treat each other with dignity. We look out for each other’s health and wellbeing. We recognise that people who are valued and nurtured do great work.
Integrity
As a team we are committed to doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. We make sure colleagues and external partners can rely on us: we keep our promises. When something goes wrong, we put our hands up and work together to resolve the issue.
This has been a challenging year for everyone and on so many fronts. One of the things that has made a difference here at OCT has been having our values so clearly defined. With such a strong foundation, it’s been easier to ride the 2020 rollercoaster.
As we prepare for the year ahead, we know that those values will continue to support us as we work to fulfil our mission, whatever the future might hold.
Author: Clarissa Sowemimo-Coker