Family, Home, Values Shine At Clarity Grand Opening Thursday

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The grand opening for the new Clarity headquarters Thursday at 90-92 Wall Street in Madison on Thursday afternoon was packed with adults young and old, and lots of little kids too.

And that was entirely appropriate, because the day was all about family, coming home, and values.

Founder, President, and CEO Sean Rotermund's family was there, including his wife Holly and his children, Madison, Annie and Sam. His father, Ralph Rotermund was there as well. Sean credited his father with providing support, advice and help in many areas, including helping to figure out how to make the new headquarters deal work in the Madison location.

When asked why Madison, Sean Rotermund, who lives in Madison with his family, just grinned and said simply, "It's my homecoming." 

The company, which provides document management and communications delivery options to health plans, is coming home to Madison with almost sixty employees, from three at the start. Clarity has grown so fast it now ranks 107 on the the prestigious Inc. 500 list, growing jobs rapidly at a time when many other companies were hemorrhaging jobs. You can read more about what they do and their growth on their website: www.clarityssi.com

Already, the buildings at Clarity Commons have two tenants in addition to Clarity.  Dr. John Mastrobattisto and his Shoreline Chiropractic will be moving in, as will Moumen Almouzayn and his Madison Dental Spa.

A thriving business? A new office complex that already has two tenants, even before the grand opening? What's the key to Clarity's success? At the grand opening, Rotermund thanked a long list of people who helped, many of them from the local area. 

Rotermund, when asked for what advice he might have for other entrepreneurs, put hard work and passion at the top of the list. Being a little crazy doesn't hurt he said. And by that he means, you can't be afraid to fail. "You need to be prepared to pick yourself up each time a set-back lands in front of you," he said.

Perseverance is a key value, he said. 

"I have a little card that I have carried around with me since I was young that says 'If you want to succeed, get your BUT out of the way,'" he said. "It is easy to find excuses to quit no matter what your challenge is;  it takes perseverance to succeed.  This has been the single-most important theme behind Clarity's success." 

And there are other values as important, he added. 

"You need to be forward-thinking.  In just about all of my company-wide meetings I stress that Clarity must be relevant 10 years from now because our clients' needs are changing and we must change to be able to support them," he said. "You must be adaptive and reactive. Very often start-up companies take a different shape than what they originally set out to do, which is true with Clarity.  We originally intended to focus on one aspect of document management, but quickly changed our strategy as we reacted to the 'wish-list' of the marketplace."

Other advice? Don't be rigid.

"Flexibility is a word we often use to describe Clarity's solutions and culture," he said. 

It's important to not only exemplify those values, Rotermund said, it's important that the company's employees exemplify them as well. Each employee is expected to be a self-starter, he said. 

"In a rapidly growing organization it is ever important to bring in people who are "go-getters,'" he said. 

Now that the company is here in Madison, Rotermund said it intends to continue growing, going, and getting. And giving back. The company has a “Clarity for Charity” program that will support employees as they give back to the Connecticut shoreline community.

And Rotermund, and his fellow employees, will be giving back in another way, by supporting local businesses. Rotermund said that will include one of his favorite places, Bradley & Wall, right next to Clarity Commons.