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Our industry is changing at warp speed. The pressures on you are mounting in an ever-more complex world. You and your team are dealing with organizational and commercial issues for which many are ill-equipped. The skills necessary for success are deepening.
While I believe that the future is full of opportunity for private practice optometry, it’s clearly no longer business as usual.
In simple terms, you and your team must change. Darwin’s words were not “survival of the fittest,” but “survival of the adaptive.” And just as our clients must change, so too must we. One of the hallmarks of our now 27-year young firm is that we always challenge the status quo. That said, we remain steadfast and singular in our belief that our success is the result of the success of our clients; both personally and professionally.
What makes an optometry practice different; insulated from competition? Certainly, processes and experience levels must be unique. But I believe that true differentiation comes when clients place their focus on understanding and genuinely appreciating the challenges of their patients. Optometry practices will remain successful, despite competition, when you hire and develop a team with intrinsic passion towards helping to improve patient’s lives. When you can honestly say that your primary focus is not to make money or improve the value of your enterprise, you’ll clear the path to a higher level of thinking. When you and each member of your team institutionalization this passion, you’ll set yourself apart and insulate yourself from competition. In my opinion, it is that simple. Yet developing a patient-centric culture is elusive to many.
As we respond to a changing world, I ask that each of you remain steadfast in focusing attention on continuous improvement. How can you ever-more effectively deliver on your patient’s needs and wants? How can you do so efficiently? You must continually innovate, at every level of your practice, in order to thrive.
Process innovation takes a two-pronged approach. First, each member of your team must be diligent in delivering on your practice’ commitments, both internal and external. While delivering exceptional service, you must, at the same time, continually look at the way that you do things to ensure that you’re squeezing inefficiencies and redundancies out of your processes. You must push your entire team to look deeper into their individual responsibilities. It’s as important to explore what steps you can eliminate as it is to drive new initiatives. As you plan for 2017 and beyond, your entire team must become more deeply engrossed in identifying the right things to do and the right way to do them.
As North America’s largest optometric practice development consultancy, we will continue to push ourselves and our clients to innovate. It’s not the destination, but the journey, that matters. The ±30 members of Team Cleinman maintain a continued commitment to organizational and individual advancement. And we sincerely appreciate our journey with our clients.
Can you say that about you and your team?
