Over the years you have done an amazing job, both as clinician and business owner. As a clinician, you continuously strove to improve your skills and stay updated on the most advanced technologies. You have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on continuing education and state-of-the-art equipment to provide the best dentistry possible.
As a business owner, you ran a good ship. As a leader you have maintained a heartfelt vision, a clear purpose, a driving mission. You honored and cared for your employees. You continuously pressed for greater customer service. You managed by the numbers. You had deep appreciation for your patients, your staff and your business.
And this is as true today as it was yesterday.
But the fact is the world is changing. And dentistry is changing right along with it. As in any evolutionary process, single cell gives way to multi-cellular and solo practice is giving way to managed group practices and retail corporate dentistry.
My commitment is to prepare you to succeed in this new future. To educate, train and develop you to succeed in this new context of dental care. To help you understand the changes that are occurring and to help you position your business to succeed in this new environment.
You have mastered the skills required to be successful in solo practice. And I am clear you have the smarts, the courage, and the wherewithal to become a very competent professional capable of succeeding in a multi-cellular dental context.
And yes, I understand it isn't what you would have chosen as your future. But like everything else, from computers to the Internet, to 3D imaging, implants, OSHA, HIPPA, and lasers; you have mastered them all. And you can master the knowledge and skills necessary to win in this new environment as well.
Believe me; I appreciate that you are hugely invested in how you're currently constituted in dental practice. But my view is if you don't change, and change soon, you'll be operating like the pay phone. And when is the last time you saw a pay phone?
As you will discover upon reading the GET SMART! Overview, you have a huge opening for opportunity. Many dentists, many of your colleagues will work very hard to keep the old model of dental practice working for them. But you need to understand the risk in this approach. You need to understand what's going on and begin to make choices that will allow you to be financially successful and personally fulfilled in the future.
Joseph Campbell said, "If you see your steps clearly on the path, it's the wrong path." I have often wondered why my own background of experience did not always follow a logical path. Practice management consulting, corporate consulting, consulting hospitals, hospital systems and physicians groups, working with 3rd parties like Ameritas, DentaQuest, Delta MA, coaching executives with MSOs and DPMs, going to business school, participating in the Tekniko Consulting Group, being selected as a TED coach.
That is until now.
I was preparing to retire. I was more than ready to leave behind the airports, taxis and hotels of a consultant’s life. My clients were nervous, but I knew they’d be fine. I had coached them well. That is until the seismic shift from solo private practice to corporate dentistry began to shake up the industry. And I knew I had to see my clients through this change. And equally important, I had to stand with and contribute to my tribe through this transformation.
The GET SMART! Program is designed to help you get a better understanding of ‘who’ you are going to be for the rest of your career. The more of us who see a possible future, the better the chance we will live to be that future, to transform and forward a new possibility for dental healthcare.
Dr. Marc Cooper
The Mastery Company
2011
