Game Changers – Restructuring

Perhaps the ultimate Game Changer response to changing trends in the marketplace could be described as Extreme Practice Makeover (EPM). Market leaders have already begun.


Like the hit TV show Extreme Home Makeover, it’s “down with the old and up in the new.” It’s all about restructuring for success. While EPM occasionally involves physical facilities more often it’s about restructuring attitudes, performance standards, management controls, marketing strategies, service offerings and fees, clinical documentation, business contracts, staff compensation, and operational finance. It involves building profit into the practice rather than trying ever-harder to squeeze it out.


It’s a story that predictably begins with the gathering of help for a job too big to do alone and reliably ends with new possibilities and reward. ...”Welcome home”.


At least half of practices today are struggling against progressive financial erosion resulting from the relentless waves of increasing competition and costs amidst declining reimbursement – then there are matters of regulatory compliance, staff that expect and often deserve more, and operating systems that are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Many owners/managers privately acknowledge that, “work’s no fun anymore” and that they are, “at their wits end and need help”.


We all acknowledge the incredible rate of change that is happening in the world around us. But, we often don’t connect the dots to understand and anticipate what it likely means for our families, professions, and practices. We become comfortable and complacent inside the familiar walls and routines of our practices and fail to fully appreciate the implications and certainties that follow trends.


As in matters ranging from auto repair to obesity and global warming there are tendencies to delay, defer, and deny. With each passing day, practices and careers become either more obsolete or more relevant. It all depends on the decisions management makes and the actions it takes.


Consider a few technology changes over the past 25 years – Internet, laptop computers, Google, plasma TV, HDTV and now 3D TV, cell phones, airbags, GPS, CDs and DVDs, email and voice mail, digital cameras, ATMs, and space shuttles already being sent to museums rather than the moon. Then there is medical technology!


The current economy is a grim reminder for governments, companies, and individuals that the traveling companions of change are obsolescence and risk.


Futurists tell us that most jobs that will be performed 20 years from now have not yet been created and most have not even been imagined! Rohit Talwar, a London based futurist, suggests such jobs might include:


“Body Part Maker - Due to the huge advances being made in bio-tissues, robotics and plastics, the creation of body parts - from organs to limbs - will soon be possible, requiring body part makers, body part stores and body part repair shops.


Nano-Medic - Advances in nanotechnology offer the potential for a range of sub-atomic 'nanoscale' devices, inserts and procedures that could transform personal healthcare. A new range of nano-medicine specialists will be required to administer these treatments.
nano-medic,


Pharmer of Genetically Engineered Crops and Livestock - New-age farmers will raise crops and livestock that have been genetically engineered to improve yields and produce therapeutic proteins. Works in progress include a vaccine-carrying tomato and therapeutic milk from cows, sheep and goats.


Old Age Wellness Manager / Consultant Specialists - Drawing on a range of medical, pharmaceutical, prosthetic, psychiatric, natural and fitness solutions to help manage the various health and personal needs of the aging population. Memory Augmentation Surgeon - Surgeons that add extra memory to people who want to increase their memory capacity and to help those who have been over exposed to information in the course of their life and simply can no longer take on any more information - thus leading to sensory shutdown.”


Then of course there is the New Science Ethicist, Climate Change Reversal Specialist, Virtual Clutter Specialist, Waste Data Handler, and... Well, you get the picture.


As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”


To be continued....


All The Best!


Bob

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