ARG’s Environment Of Support & Success: 20 Years Of Impact
May 2, 2024Making an impact looks different for any business, especially for the variety of Contract Research Organizations (CROs) in the world. For CEO Paul Bishop and President & COO Lyle Camblos, co-founders of Atlantic Research Group, their impact stems from creating a CRO where employees feel valued and clients can confidently rest in the experience of the team. The pair have spent 20 years establishing a culture that’s led to the company’s success.
The two met at a large CRO and quickly realized that most employees weren’t happy and many clients weren’t well appreciated or supported. They thought there must be a market for a company that focused on smaller clients while appreciating and supporting all of their employees.
But even with that vision, it was not always easy to get off the ground.
“It sounds naive now but at the time we had to believe we could be competitive with [larger CROs],” Camblos said. “As we got started, we realized we were even more right than we thought. Thankfully, a lot of companies were interested in our story and were willing to talk to us. We really only needed a few that shared our vision for partnerships and from there we took off.”
Bishop explained that the foundations gradually grew.
“When we first started, we weren’t full service,” he said. “We both come from a clinical operations background so that’s where we started. We built the foundation on clinical operations experience and slowly added functional services like data management and stats. And then expanded as well geographically.”
Even with that growth, one element became a priority for ARG: Quality.
“We’ve always operated with the intention to have controlled and sustained growth, without sacrificing quality and still creating an environment where employees want to work,” Bishop said.
ARG’s Staffing Commitment
From the start, quality was rooted in staffing for the CRO.
“From the beginning we wanted to create a place where people wanted to work, because we would be working there too,” Camblos said. “The bread and butter of our industry are the operational staff that work with our investigator and sponsor partners. Because of the inherent travel and stress, those employees tend to have the highest turnover rates at CROs. As Paul said, we emphasized the work environment for our staff. If we didn’t create a place where our employees wanted to be, and if we experienced the turnover that most CROs experience, we would not have created the organization we envisioned.”
With both Bishop and Camblos having previous roles in management, they understood the value of keeping good people around for team success.
Exceptional internal management meant that a happy ARG team could establish exceptional relationships with their clients through the years.
“When you have the recommendations of the site coordinators and investigators, there's no better reference a CRO can get,” Bishop said.
How ARG Has Shaped Clinical Trials
ARG prioritizes exceptional relationships with sites, physicians, labs and vendors. The CRO knows that those relationships are key to success and longevity.
“I think we’ve already made an impact on those we’ve touched directly,” Camblos said, reflecting on 20 years of partnerships. “We execute soundly and do what we say we’re going to do. The more of that we can do the better. The more trials we can pick up, the more people we can impact, the better our general morale and focus will be… Research will never be easy, but we want it to go as smoothly and cleanly as possible.”
ARG has a few particular areas where its passions come into sharp focus —neurology and oncology. For the ARG team, working hands-on with such personal diseases that affect millions help shape the work.
“ALS is a terrible disease. Oncology doesn’t have 100% cure rates,” Bishop said. “Our employees get to have some touchpoints into benefits for our patients that go beyond monitoring data. There’s an inherent connection to the diseases we have. When you’re working on projects relating to neurological disorders, it hits home because someone you know is affected by these diseases. It’s rewarding to work in therapeutic areas.”
“As far as it relates to our employees, I remember being a young CRA and being proud of the work I was doing,” Camblos reflected. “It’s nice to be doing something that you know is impacting society in a positive way.”
The ARG Difference
Throughout 20 years, ARG has done a lot to establish itself and set itself apart from other CROs. Some of that, Bishop said, can come from selection.
“We turn down projects when we don’t consider ourselves the best fit,” Bishop said. “Other CROs aren’t as selective and will take any job from anyone.”
Camblos added that giving employees a bigger stake in the company’s success has proven integral as well.
“We share the profits with our employees,” Camblos said. “It’s not just the C-suite that gets bonuses every year, it’s everyone from our newest employees to us who get that bonus… We’ve had so many people appreciate that we actually celebrate them and show it financially. It’s something that we decided to do early on and made it so.”
That support also leads to a dynamic and balanced team.
“We want to make day-to-day life more enjoyable so [our employees] don’t feel against the ropes at all times,” Camblos explained.
“And by doing this, we’re keeping our customers happy,” Bishop added.
Bishop and Camblos also add another piece to ARG’s longevity — their personal involvement.
“It’s not common for executives to be involved in the day-to-day activities,” Bishop said. “But with us it’s a critical piece in how relationships are successful. We have a stake in this and it goes a long way for our clients.”
The Future of ARG
When it comes to looking forward, it’s nigh impossible to talk about how advancements in AI and similar technologies will shape how ARG and other CROs function. But thanks to ARG’s commitment to using technology when it was founded, integrating new technology won’t be a problem. They’re just hoping the regulators can keep pace with what’s on the horizon.
“We’ve always put an emphasis on technology,” Bishop said. “We were ahead of the curve on systems 10-15 years ago, and we’ll be on the leading edge on what tech helps us do our jobs more effectively. We want to be part of the solution for diseases like ALS while still maintaining our foundational ethics of providing good employment and providing the best service to our customers”
For Camblos, a goal for ARG is to add more market approvals to their already-growing list of approvals.
“I would love to get a couple more market approvals… to have a few studies go all the way through the research process successfully and be approved for use would be amazing,” Camblos said. “It’s a good feeling [when a drug gets approved], we’ve had that feeling several times, and I’d love to have a couple more of those in the next 5 years. It helps everyone get a boost in confidence.”
But in the immediate future? The two are excited to celebrate this two-decade milestone with their company in DC. It will be a blow-out party to commemorate a milestone few CROs reach.
