How would you describe the business, operations and marketing plans you have for your practice? Would it be defined as strategic, tactical or a spaghetti strategy? Common vernacular defines the spaghetti strategy as throwing ideas and plans up against the wall and seeing what sticks. Typically, the result of this strategy is a messy wall as well as wasted assets and resources. Albeit rare, there are times where despite a lack of planning, direction, systems and tracking success prevails.
But more often than not offices are left with a lack of consistency and predictability and little to no data to determine the actual return on investment. By investment, I am referring to time, talent (yours and your staff’s) and treasures (money).
The Strategic Approach
Creating a business development process allows you to be dynamic and flexible in the ever changing business environment. You can be responsive to move with changes in trends, marketing tools, economics and internal flux.
In addition, your business development process becomes the template for the communication that takes place in your office. Consider it the foundation for how all information will be shared. This article will touch on 7 areas of opportunity to help you create a foundation for business development success.
Mission/Vision Statements
A mission statement defines an organization’s purpose. It concisely conveys the intent of the organization and outlines what the organization does, how the organization conducts business and who are the customers of the organization.
You might have written your mission statement years ago when you created your first business plan for a bank loan. Have you revisited it recently? Is it relevant to your business today? Whether you have a seasoned practice that needs to revisit your mission or a newer practice preparing to launch, consider your mission’s goal, purpose and audience.
The goal of the mission statement is to motivate and lead the team in achieving the organization’s identified mission. The statement’s function is to memorialize the intent of the organization and its primary objectives. The primary audience is the management and employees of the organization.
Many offices will make the creation or revision of a practice mission statement a team activity. Here are several questions you can ask to get you started on creating your current mission statement:
• What is the primary activity
of our practice?
• What are our practice’s primary objectives?
• How do we implement our primary activity?
• Who are our primary clients?
A vision statement identifies the purpose of the organization, its future and core values. An organization’s vision can be a personal validation, a financial accomplishment or a lifelong dream. The goal of the vision statement is to identify why you are in business, the core values of the organization and the organization’s future aspirations. The vision statement memorializes why you decided to enter into your current business, to help steer you by maintaining the integrity of your core values and to help you keep an eye to the future of the organization. The primary audience of the vision statement is ownership, management and stakeholders of the organization.
Questions you can ask to get you started on creating your current vision statement include:
• Why do I have or want to have this type of medical practice? (50/50 general dermatology and cosmetic, 100% general dermatology, combination general dermatology, dermatology surgery and cosmetic, large group, boutique)
• What are our core values? (integrity, patient care, safety, service, respect, success)
• Where would we like to be? (multiple locations, multiple providers, accredited operating room, clinical trial center, 3-day work week)
Once you have finalized your practice’s mission and vision statements, they should not be stored on a shelf to become dated and dusty. Use them actively in a variety of settings, such as the interviewing and hiring process for new employees; during staff meetings have your staff check in and be sure they are delivering and performing their roles and responsibilities according to the mission and vision statements and while making business decisions they can be used as a measuring stick. For example, you can ask, “Is this decision in line with our practice mission and vision?”
These statements can also be used externally on your website, blog and social media. Have your practice leader create a video sharing the mission and vision with viewers.
An Organizational Chart
Many small businesses fail to develop a formal organizational chart due to the assumption that everyone knows what they should be doing. However, an organizational chart provides direction, purpose, business style and interactions with intention and integrity. Often without the organizational chart, confusion, discord and conflict result. With the chart, however, the direction, purpose and business style are balanced, interacting purposefully and progressing with intention and integrity toward a cohesive and sensible goal. In addition, the organizational chart provides a framework for writing manuals and other materials for your business.
To create your organizational chart (Figure), list tier 1 positions held in the practice (eg, physician owner, chief executive officer and president). Then, list tier 2 positions (eg, vice presidents, administrator, director of operations, director of marketing) that report to the top tier. Next, list tier 3 positions (eg, department managers [including front office, back office/clinic team, accounting/billing, human resources] that report to tier 2. Finally, list tier 4 positions (eg, front office staff, clinical staff, patient coordinators) that report to tier 3.
Figure. An organizational chart provides direction, purpose, business style and interactions with intention and integrity within a business.
An organization chart not only helps your employees understand who their boss is and whom they supervise, if anything, it shows everyone the main functions in your business. In a small business, you will initially have people doing many different tasks. Until you have people to fulfill each role (box on your chart), the person who holds the position above it is responsible for handling that position.
Position Contracts
Now that you have defined the purpose of your practice through your mission and vision statements and outlined the organizational structure, it is time to define the exact roles and responsibilities for your employees as well as set the stage for effective performance management.
In the book The E Myth Revisited. Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It,1 author Michael Gerber reviews the position contract versus a job description. He notes that, “More than a simple job description, a position contract is a summary of the results to be achieved by each position in the company. The person in that position is accountable for these results.”
According to Gerber, the position contract “provides a list of standards by which the results are to be evaluated and a line for the signature of each person who agrees to fulfill those accountabilities. [It] provides a sense of commitment and accountability.” Each practice can prepare a position contract for each role specifying the results to be achieved and the standards by which results will be measured.
Business Analysis
With the aforementioned foundations in place, the next 3 activities provide the power to make changes and move forward. These activities can help the practice to stay on track when creating your business processes and systems.
Most practices rely on the experience, skills and discretion of the employees rather than having sound processes in place. However, when that employee departs the practice they take with them all of their knowledge of how the business was run “their” way.
Keep in mind the overall objective is to create a business model, which is ordered, predictable and structured in such a way that results can be realized repeatedly by following the systems that are in place. This goal can be accomplished through innovation, quantification and orchestration.
Innovation is the way your business differentiates itself in the mind of your customer. It is the result of scientifically generated and quantifiable verified profile of the customers perceived needs and unconscious expectations. The profile may include:
• Technology platforms
• Office image
• Telephone skills
• Customer service
• Style guide (eg, dress code)
• Amenities
• Physician and clinical staff expertise
• Patient coordinator sales and service skills
• Professional physical contact
All innovations must be quantified to be effective. Consider the following: How many calls received per day?
• How many calls were in the morning and afternoon?
• How many price inquiries did the office receive?
• How many callers were scheduled for an appointment?
• How many of each type of appointment?
• What is the return on investment on marketing initiatives?
• What time of day are most calls converted?
• Which days are busiest?
• How often is tracking done?
• How many calls were inquiries
to consult?
• How many consults resulted in treatment?
• How many treatments required additional treatments?
• How many treatments led to maintenance follow-up?
• How many patient surveys were sent out and received?
Orchestration is required to produce a consistent, predictable and sustainable result. Keep in mind that orchestration is a unique way of doing business, maintains customer perceptions and is a dynamic process. It is important to make sure you are always achieving results and adapting to business changes.
People Strategy
Create an environment in which fulfilling the responsibilities is more important than avoiding them. This means investing in your employees and taking them seriously. Make sure they are properly trained and provided the direction to help them master your practice systems.
Three key concepts for the people focus strategy include making sure the patient is always made to feel they are right, the employees should act like they are the best and growth comes by developing new skills. When practices establish a strong training, orientation and career development program this provides a sense of purpose and meaning for employees.
Management Strategy
With the information culled, create your simple, direct management system. This includes an operations manual, checklist for each responsibility or task and an itemized list of specific steps required to create a satisfied patient. Your employees are accountable for the tasks on their checklists and the level of service or manner in which they are delivered to your patients.
Systems Strategy
Now you are ready to create your systems for each activity that takes place in the office. Three types of systems every practice needs to be successful are hard systems (eg, inanimate objects like computers, phones, work materials etc.), soft systems (eg, people, ideas, scripts, procedures etc.) and information systems, which provide data about the interaction between soft and hard systems (Table).
A practice can review its current systems and operations routinely — at the beginning of a new year, tax time or when there is a practice lull. If you find that they are lacking in luster and results, take the time to freshen things up, wipe the spaghetti off the wall and begin your new strategic adventure.
Ms. Merlo is director of professional marketing at Alphaeon Corporation, a lifestyle healthcare company that brings to market highly innovative products and services to promote consumer wellness, beauty and performance. For more information, please visit www.alphaeon.com.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Reference
1. Gerber M. The E Myth Revisited. Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.; 2009.
How would you describe the business, operations and marketing plans you have for your practice? Would it be defined as strategic, tactical or a spaghetti strategy? Common vernacular defines the spaghetti strategy as throwing ideas and plans up against the wall and seeing what sticks. Typically, the result of this strategy is a messy wall as well as wasted assets and resources. Albeit rare, there are times where despite a lack of planning, direction, systems and tracking success prevails.
But more often than not offices are left with a lack of consistency and predictability and little to no data to determine the actual return on investment. By investment, I am referring to time, talent (yours and your staff’s) and treasures (money).
The Strategic Approach
Creating a business development process allows you to be dynamic and flexible in the ever changing business environment. You can be responsive to move with changes in trends, marketing tools, economics and internal flux.
In addition, your business development process becomes the template for the communication that takes place in your office. Consider it the foundation for how all information will be shared. This article will touch on 7 areas of opportunity to help you create a foundation for business development success.
Mission/Vision Statements
A mission statement defines an organization’s purpose. It concisely conveys the intent of the organization and outlines what the organization does, how the organization conducts business and who are the customers of the organization.
You might have written your mission statement years ago when you created your first business plan for a bank loan. Have you revisited it recently? Is it relevant to your business today? Whether you have a seasoned practice that needs to revisit your mission or a newer practice preparing to launch, consider your mission’s goal, purpose and audience.
The goal of the mission statement is to motivate and lead the team in achieving the organization’s identified mission. The statement’s function is to memorialize the intent of the organization and its primary objectives. The primary audience is the management and employees of the organization.
Many offices will make the creation or revision of a practice mission statement a team activity. Here are several questions you can ask to get you started on creating your current mission statement:
• What is the primary activity
of our practice?
• What are our practice’s primary objectives?
• How do we implement our primary activity?
• Who are our primary clients?
A vision statement identifies the purpose of the organization, its future and core values. An organization’s vision can be a personal validation, a financial accomplishment or a lifelong dream. The goal of the vision statement is to identify why you are in business, the core values of the organization and the organization’s future aspirations. The vision statement memorializes why you decided to enter into your current business, to help steer you by maintaining the integrity of your core values and to help you keep an eye to the future of the organization. The primary audience of the vision statement is ownership, management and stakeholders of the organization.
Questions you can ask to get you started on creating your current vision statement include:
• Why do I have or want to have this type of medical practice? (50/50 general dermatology and cosmetic, 100% general dermatology, combination general dermatology, dermatology surgery and cosmetic, large group, boutique)
• What are our core values? (integrity, patient care, safety, service, respect, success)
• Where would we like to be? (multiple locations, multiple providers, accredited operating room, clinical trial center, 3-day work week)
Once you have finalized your practice’s mission and vision statements, they should not be stored on a shelf to become dated and dusty. Use them actively in a variety of settings, such as the interviewing and hiring process for new employees; during staff meetings have your staff check in and be sure they are delivering and performing their roles and responsibilities according to the mission and vision statements and while making business decisions they can be used as a measuring stick. For example, you can ask, “Is this decision in line with our practice mission and vision?”
These statements can also be used externally on your website, blog and social media. Have your practice leader create a video sharing the mission and vision with viewers.
An Organizational Chart
Many small businesses fail to develop a formal organizational chart due to the assumption that everyone knows what they should be doing. However, an organizational chart provides direction, purpose, business style and interactions with intention and integrity. Often without the organizational chart, confusion, discord and conflict result. With the chart, however, the direction, purpose and business style are balanced, interacting purposefully and progressing with intention and integrity toward a cohesive and sensible goal. In addition, the organizational chart provides a framework for writing manuals and other materials for your business.
To create your organizational chart (Figure), list tier 1 positions held in the practice (eg, physician owner, chief executive officer and president). Then, list tier 2 positions (eg, vice presidents, administrator, director of operations, director of marketing) that report to the top tier. Next, list tier 3 positions (eg, department managers [including front office, back office/clinic team, accounting/billing, human resources] that report to tier 2. Finally, list tier 4 positions (eg, front office staff, clinical staff, patient coordinators) that report to tier 3.
Figure. An organizational chart provides direction, purpose, business style and interactions with intention and integrity within a business.
An organization chart not only helps your employees understand who their boss is and whom they supervise, if anything, it shows everyone the main functions in your business. In a small business, you will initially have people doing many different tasks. Until you have people to fulfill each role (box on your chart), the person who holds the position above it is responsible for handling that position.
Position Contracts
Now that you have defined the purpose of your practice through your mission and vision statements and outlined the organizational structure, it is time to define the exact roles and responsibilities for your employees as well as set the stage for effective performance management.
In the book The E Myth Revisited. Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It,1 author Michael Gerber reviews the position contract versus a job description. He notes that, “More than a simple job description, a position contract is a summary of the results to be achieved by each position in the company. The person in that position is accountable for these results.”
According to Gerber, the position contract “provides a list of standards by which the results are to be evaluated and a line for the signature of each person who agrees to fulfill those accountabilities. [It] provides a sense of commitment and accountability.” Each practice can prepare a position contract for each role specifying the results to be achieved and the standards by which results will be measured.
Business Analysis
With the aforementioned foundations in place, the next 3 activities provide the power to make changes and move forward. These activities can help the practice to stay on track when creating your business processes and systems.
Most practices rely on the experience, skills and discretion of the employees rather than having sound processes in place. However, when that employee departs the practice they take with them all of their knowledge of how the business was run “their” way.
Keep in mind the overall objective is to create a business model, which is ordered, predictable and structured in such a way that results can be realized repeatedly by following the systems that are in place. This goal can be accomplished through innovation, quantification and orchestration.
Innovation is the way your business differentiates itself in the mind of your customer. It is the result of scientifically generated and quantifiable verified profile of the customers perceived needs and unconscious expectations. The profile may include:
• Technology platforms
• Office image
• Telephone skills
• Customer service
• Style guide (eg, dress code)
• Amenities
• Physician and clinical staff expertise
• Patient coordinator sales and service skills
• Professional physical contact
All innovations must be quantified to be effective. Consider the following: How many calls received per day?
• How many calls were in the morning and afternoon?
• How many price inquiries did the office receive?
• How many callers were scheduled for an appointment?
• How many of each type of appointment?
• What is the return on investment on marketing initiatives?
• What time of day are most calls converted?
• Which days are busiest?
• How often is tracking done?
• How many calls were inquiries
to consult?
• How many consults resulted in treatment?
• How many treatments required additional treatments?
• How many treatments led to maintenance follow-up?
• How many patient surveys were sent out and received?
Orchestration is required to produce a consistent, predictable and sustainable result. Keep in mind that orchestration is a unique way of doing business, maintains customer perceptions and is a dynamic process. It is important to make sure you are always achieving results and adapting to business changes.
People Strategy
Create an environment in which fulfilling the responsibilities is more important than avoiding them. This means investing in your employees and taking them seriously. Make sure they are properly trained and provided the direction to help them master your practice systems.
Three key concepts for the people focus strategy include making sure the patient is always made to feel they are right, the employees should act like they are the best and growth comes by developing new skills. When practices establish a strong training, orientation and career development program this provides a sense of purpose and meaning for employees.
Management Strategy
With the information culled, create your simple, direct management system. This includes an operations manual, checklist for each responsibility or task and an itemized list of specific steps required to create a satisfied patient. Your employees are accountable for the tasks on their checklists and the level of service or manner in which they are delivered to your patients.
Systems Strategy
Now you are ready to create your systems for each activity that takes place in the office. Three types of systems every practice needs to be successful are hard systems (eg, inanimate objects like computers, phones, work materials etc.), soft systems (eg, people, ideas, scripts, procedures etc.) and information systems, which provide data about the interaction between soft and hard systems (Table).
A practice can review its current systems and operations routinely — at the beginning of a new year, tax time or when there is a practice lull. If you find that they are lacking in luster and results, take the time to freshen things up, wipe the spaghetti off the wall and begin your new strategic adventure.
Ms. Merlo is director of professional marketing at Alphaeon Corporation, a lifestyle healthcare company that brings to market highly innovative products and services to promote consumer wellness, beauty and performance. For more information, please visit www.alphaeon.com.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Reference
1. Gerber M. The E Myth Revisited. Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.; 2009.
How would you describe the business, operations and marketing plans you have for your practice? Would it be defined as strategic, tactical or a spaghetti strategy? Common vernacular defines the spaghetti strategy as throwing ideas and plans up against the wall and seeing what sticks. Typically, the result of this strategy is a messy wall as well as wasted assets and resources. Albeit rare, there are times where despite a lack of planning, direction, systems and tracking success prevails.
But more often than not offices are left with a lack of consistency and predictability and little to no data to determine the actual return on investment. By investment, I am referring to time, talent (yours and your staff’s) and treasures (money).
The Strategic Approach
Creating a business development process allows you to be dynamic and flexible in the ever changing business environment. You can be responsive to move with changes in trends, marketing tools, economics and internal flux.
In addition, your business development process becomes the template for the communication that takes place in your office. Consider it the foundation for how all information will be shared. This article will touch on 7 areas of opportunity to help you create a foundation for business development success.
Mission/Vision Statements
A mission statement defines an organization’s purpose. It concisely conveys the intent of the organization and outlines what the organization does, how the organization conducts business and who are the customers of the organization.
You might have written your mission statement years ago when you created your first business plan for a bank loan. Have you revisited it recently? Is it relevant to your business today? Whether you have a seasoned practice that needs to revisit your mission or a newer practice preparing to launch, consider your mission’s goal, purpose and audience.
The goal of the mission statement is to motivate and lead the team in achieving the organization’s identified mission. The statement’s function is to memorialize the intent of the organization and its primary objectives. The primary audience is the management and employees of the organization.
Many offices will make the creation or revision of a practice mission statement a team activity. Here are several questions you can ask to get you started on creating your current mission statement:
• What is the primary activity
of our practice?
• What are our practice’s primary objectives?
• How do we implement our primary activity?
• Who are our primary clients?
A vision statement identifies the purpose of the organization, its future and core values. An organization’s vision can be a personal validation, a financial accomplishment or a lifelong dream. The goal of the vision statement is to identify why you are in business, the core values of the organization and the organization’s future aspirations. The vision statement memorializes why you decided to enter into your current business, to help steer you by maintaining the integrity of your core values and to help you keep an eye to the future of the organization. The primary audience of the vision statement is ownership, management and stakeholders of the organization.
Questions you can ask to get you started on creating your current vision statement include:
• Why do I have or want to have this type of medical practice? (50/50 general dermatology and cosmetic, 100% general dermatology, combination general dermatology, dermatology surgery and cosmetic, large group, boutique)
• What are our core values? (integrity, patient care, safety, service, respect, success)
• Where would we like to be? (multiple locations, multiple providers, accredited operating room, clinical trial center, 3-day work week)
Once you have finalized your practice’s mission and vision statements, they should not be stored on a shelf to become dated and dusty. Use them actively in a variety of settings, such as the interviewing and hiring process for new employees; during staff meetings have your staff check in and be sure they are delivering and performing their roles and responsibilities according to the mission and vision statements and while making business decisions they can be used as a measuring stick. For example, you can ask, “Is this decision in line with our practice mission and vision?”
These statements can also be used externally on your website, blog and social media. Have your practice leader create a video sharing the mission and vision with viewers.
An Organizational Chart
Many small businesses fail to develop a formal organizational chart due to the assumption that everyone knows what they should be doing. However, an organizational chart provides direction, purpose, business style and interactions with intention and integrity. Often without the organizational chart, confusion, discord and conflict result. With the chart, however, the direction, purpose and business style are balanced, interacting purposefully and progressing with intention and integrity toward a cohesive and sensible goal. In addition, the organizational chart provides a framework for writing manuals and other materials for your business.
To create your organizational chart (Figure), list tier 1 positions held in the practice (eg, physician owner, chief executive officer and president). Then, list tier 2 positions (eg, vice presidents, administrator, director of operations, director of marketing) that report to the top tier. Next, list tier 3 positions (eg, department managers [including front office, back office/clinic team, accounting/billing, human resources] that report to tier 2. Finally, list tier 4 positions (eg, front office staff, clinical staff, patient coordinators) that report to tier 3.
Figure. An organizational chart provides direction, purpose, business style and interactions with intention and integrity within a business.
An organization chart not only helps your employees understand who their boss is and whom they supervise, if anything, it shows everyone the main functions in your business. In a small business, you will initially have people doing many different tasks. Until you have people to fulfill each role (box on your chart), the person who holds the position above it is responsible for handling that position.
Position Contracts
Now that you have defined the purpose of your practice through your mission and vision statements and outlined the organizational structure, it is time to define the exact roles and responsibilities for your employees as well as set the stage for effective performance management.
In the book The E Myth Revisited. Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It,1 author Michael Gerber reviews the position contract versus a job description. He notes that, “More than a simple job description, a position contract is a summary of the results to be achieved by each position in the company. The person in that position is accountable for these results.”
According to Gerber, the position contract “provides a list of standards by which the results are to be evaluated and a line for the signature of each person who agrees to fulfill those accountabilities. [It] provides a sense of commitment and accountability.” Each practice can prepare a position contract for each role specifying the results to be achieved and the standards by which results will be measured.
Business Analysis
With the aforementioned foundations in place, the next 3 activities provide the power to make changes and move forward. These activities can help the practice to stay on track when creating your business processes and systems.
Most practices rely on the experience, skills and discretion of the employees rather than having sound processes in place. However, when that employee departs the practice they take with them all of their knowledge of how the business was run “their” way.
Keep in mind the overall objective is to create a business model, which is ordered, predictable and structured in such a way that results can be realized repeatedly by following the systems that are in place. This goal can be accomplished through innovation, quantification and orchestration.
Innovation is the way your business differentiates itself in the mind of your customer. It is the result of scientifically generated and quantifiable verified profile of the customers perceived needs and unconscious expectations. The profile may include:
• Technology platforms
• Office image
• Telephone skills
• Customer service
• Style guide (eg, dress code)
• Amenities
• Physician and clinical staff expertise
• Patient coordinator sales and service skills
• Professional physical contact
All innovations must be quantified to be effective. Consider the following: How many calls received per day?
• How many calls were in the morning and afternoon?
• How many price inquiries did the office receive?
• How many callers were scheduled for an appointment?
• How many of each type of appointment?
• What is the return on investment on marketing initiatives?
• What time of day are most calls converted?
• Which days are busiest?
• How often is tracking done?
• How many calls were inquiries
to consult?
• How many consults resulted in treatment?
• How many treatments required additional treatments?
• How many treatments led to maintenance follow-up?
• How many patient surveys were sent out and received?
Orchestration is required to produce a consistent, predictable and sustainable result. Keep in mind that orchestration is a unique way of doing business, maintains customer perceptions and is a dynamic process. It is important to make sure you are always achieving results and adapting to business changes.
People Strategy
Create an environment in which fulfilling the responsibilities is more important than avoiding them. This means investing in your employees and taking them seriously. Make sure they are properly trained and provided the direction to help them master your practice systems.
Three key concepts for the people focus strategy include making sure the patient is always made to feel they are right, the employees should act like they are the best and growth comes by developing new skills. When practices establish a strong training, orientation and career development program this provides a sense of purpose and meaning for employees.
Management Strategy
With the information culled, create your simple, direct management system. This includes an operations manual, checklist for each responsibility or task and an itemized list of specific steps required to create a satisfied patient. Your employees are accountable for the tasks on their checklists and the level of service or manner in which they are delivered to your patients.
Systems Strategy
Now you are ready to create your systems for each activity that takes place in the office. Three types of systems every practice needs to be successful are hard systems (eg, inanimate objects like computers, phones, work materials etc.), soft systems (eg, people, ideas, scripts, procedures etc.) and information systems, which provide data about the interaction between soft and hard systems (Table).
A practice can review its current systems and operations routinely — at the beginning of a new year, tax time or when there is a practice lull. If you find that they are lacking in luster and results, take the time to freshen things up, wipe the spaghetti off the wall and begin your new strategic adventure.
Ms. Merlo is director of professional marketing at Alphaeon Corporation, a lifestyle healthcare company that brings to market highly innovative products and services to promote consumer wellness, beauty and performance. For more information, please visit www.alphaeon.com.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Reference
1. Gerber M. The E Myth Revisited. Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.; 2009.
