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| Dear Friend,
There might not be a free lunch, but there are ways to make a free acquisition.
If you participated in the live or on-demand version of the How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy webinar, which is a prerequisite to participation in the Strategy Working Group Program, then nothing I'm going to describe below will shock you. In fact, it will make you smile. (If you haven't done that initial work, you can start by accessing the on-demand webinar here.)
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The five orthopedic surgeons who dissolved their private practice in 2016 to become employees of Aspen Valley Hospital (“AVH”) are out of jobs, maybe permanently, in their little slice of what was a mountain paradise.
The majority of the seven surgeons from the current outside ortho group practicing at AVH, OrthoAspen, will soon be in the same avalanche, at least as to practice at the AVH location.
And The Steadman Clinic will have taken a giant opportunistic leap forward.
It appears that Steadman executed on one of the strategies explored in the How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy webinar and to be minutely dissected in the Working Group program: “buying” a practice without paying a cent.
The public reaction (for example, see this article in the Aspen Times) is one of shock. Why wouldn't Steadman simply hire all of the currently AVH-based orthopedic surgeons? The public, and I'd guess the soon to be unemployed OrthoAspen surgeons, apparently misunderstood what the word “partnership” means in the healthcare deal context.
Earlier this year, AVH’s CEO was reported to have said that AVH thought it wise for Steadman and OrthoAspen to be strategic partners instead of operating as separate entities.
But in the real world context of opportunistic action, “partnership” is a euphemism for “acquired” or "controlled." As in, "sure, we're your partner, but you work for us, I mean, if we let you work for us."
Steadman understood this. AVH understood this. One can only wonder what OrthoAspen thought.
Apparently, no one consulted the hospital employed doctors because, well, no one had to.
[To become an inner Steadman (and not an inner OrthoApen), start by accessing the on-demand webinar here.] |
| | | Business Life in the Time of Coronavirus Mini-Series
The coronavirus crisis caused a short term economic crisis for many medical groups. Our mini-series shows you the way out. Plus, many of the concepts discussed are applicable during both good times and bad.
[If you haven't already seen them, follow this link to watch our entire series.] |
| | Tuesday - Have You Been Assigned Busywork?
Watch Tuesday's video here, or just keep reading below for a revised, more polished transcript: |
| When I was in third grade, my teacher, Mrs. White (and I’m sure you had a teacher like Mrs. White) assigned us busywork. You know, just stuff to keep you busy.
I think she wanted to give us homework. But she didn’t have any idea what to give us. So, she just came up with something. For all I know there was a teacher’s manual called How to Assign Busywork.
Well, the problem is that busywork isn’t just a 3rd grade experience or even an elementary school experience, it can be an exclusive contract experience, a Medicare experience, and so on.
I’m talking about stuff that you have to do just because everyone thinks you have to do it – but it actually has no benefit. Reporting something to get a little reward, a percentage here or a percentage there. Being told that you have to attend a certain meeting at which nothing at all happens.
Or worse, does your own medical group have the equivalent of busywork? For example, required participation on some committee that is, come on, admit it, totally useless? Doing some reporting that is totally useless? Some task that is useless?
Have you even assigned yourself busywork, confusing busyness with business?
Think about what busywork you can cut out.
When negotiating agreements, ask why when someone attempts to require you to do something. “We need you to do such and such." Why?
When they answer, ask again and again until you truly understand if there is valid reason for it, or if it’s simply their equivalent of Mrs. White’s busywork.
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| | How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy
Webinar On Demand
They say that COVID-19 has changed the world, creating the "new normal." Many of your colleagues and many hospital administrators are running scared.
Others, leaders like you, know that crisis means opportunity.
Let me provide you with the strategic tools and insights that you need in order to seize opportunities, whether they’re in the context of your current business relationships, the expansion of your business activities, or the creation of new ventures.
You will learn:
•Defense as a defective default: It’s necessary, but not sufficient.
•Exploiting weakness: Drop the guilt and identify opportunity.
•Flat line negotiation is fatal: Understand its myths and limitations.
•Negotiation reality: Learn to identify and deploy on multiple planes to affect the outcome.
•Maneuver: Harness the power of maneuver, both in overall strategy and in specific negotiation strategy.
Others see a crisis and freeze in fear. Learn how to see the opportunities and obtain the tools to increase your odds of obtaining them.
The price to attend is $479. The cost of not attending is astronomical. |
| | | Wednesday - The Strategy of Power in Negotiations
Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:
You're probably familiar, if not personally, then at least conceptually, with the notion of "F.U. money" - having enough money that you can simply walk away.
That concept, whether you have the money or not, applies directly to your negotiation strategy.
Have you ever simply stood up and walked away from the negotiating table, saying to your teammates, "let's go, we're done here"?
As I've espoused many times before, for example, see here and here (and, by the way, it's the subject of my on-demand webinar, How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy) negotiation is far, far more than what takes place at a negotiating table.
But the overall ability to walk from a deal requires either the actual ability to walk away from the deal because you don't actually need it, or the guts, strategic thinking, and the ability to project your power to do the same, even if it's your only deal, the one that you need to survive as a business.
True power in any negotiation is the ability to project that you do not need the deal, even if that "not needing" is not true.
That power can be developed multiple ways. It can be developed in the sense of "F.U. money," by the size of your bank account. It can be developed even if you don't have enough money to make the initial deposit into a bank account by having a high enough "deposit" of confidence that you can project the same power to the opposite party.
You want a concrete example? OK.
I've guided clients through a strategic process whereby start-up physician groups have adopted and implemented a position against large healthcare systems that we would negotiate from our documents, from our position, and have achieved tremendous results.
The secret? Besides the proprietary strategy, those clients were coached on having supreme confidence in themselves and on the strategy, and on how to project their power through their demonstrated willingness to walk away.
They had the willingness to invest in themselves by controlling the drafting of the documents - they knew that sitting back, pinching pennies, and waiting for the opposite party's documents was a fool's position, one that would have put them at a disadvantage before the first shot was fired.
Develop and project power. |
| | Thursday - More on Making Your Business Antifragile
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| Listen to the podcast here, or just keep reading for the transcript.
In the book Antifragile, author Nassim Taleb points out that there’s no word that describes the opposite of fragile. “Fragile” describes something that is injured when shaken. Something that is resilient isn’t the actual opposite of fragile — it isn’t made better when shaken — it’s just able to withstand being shaken. But antifragile, in Taleb-speak, describes something that is actually improved when subjected to stress. We’re at a point in time where there is increasing complexity and change in healthcare and its regulation. We're also at a point in time in which a virus, coronavirus or COVID-19, is wreaking havoc not only on society, but on medical groups. Depending on the specialty, the havoc is a flood of demand, more than can be handled, or a dearth of work, a time to batten down the hatches and wait out the storm. Is it possible to apply the concept of antifragility to a medical group or a healthcare business? I’m not sure. But, certainly, there are things that you can do now to put your group or other healthcare venture into a better position moving forward, even if that position is merely a hardening against injury and not true antifragility. You can use my concept of the Scenario Survey Process™ (read about it here) to develop potential future scenarios and then to devise a strategy that will help you not only survive, but even potentially thrive, in as many of those futures as possible. For example, consider a group or a practice that is currently dependent upon a single hospital or a single location or a single referral source. Those relationships are certain to become far more stressed in coming months. They are fragile. Or for example, consider a group whose work load is cut back drastically, yet which has promised, contractually promised, all of its 43 physicians "an equitable share of the schedule." The group is fragile. Through the use of the Scenario Survey Process™ the group or practice can examine potential scenarios and then strategize as to them: How could you best hedge against any such scenario? What relationships can you create and to which facilities might you expand and what changes within your group might you make to not only devise a softer landing, but perhaps build a better launching pad no matter what happens? I don’t have the one, single, simple solution to this. Nobody does. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start thinking about it today. |
| | | Calibrate Your Compass
Read our exclusive RedPaper to guide you through this evolving situation.
The coronavirus crisis caused a short term economic crisis for many medical groups. Our RedPaper shows you the way out. Plus, many of the concepts discussed are applicable during both good times and bad.
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| | Help Us Help You With Helpful Content
What tailored content would you most like to see during this time? How can we focus on solutions to your most pressing strategic concerns?
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| | | | We all hear, and most of us say, that the pace of change in healthcare is quickening. That means that the pace of required decision-making is increasing, too. Unless, that is, you want to take the “default” route. That’s the one is which you let someone else make the decisions that impact you; you’re just along for the ride. Of course, playing a bit part in scripting your own future isn’t the smart route to stardom. But despite your own best intentions, perhaps it’s your medical group’s governance structure that’s holding you back
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| In fact, it’s very likely that the problem is systemic. The Medical Group Governance Matrix introduces a simple four-quadrant diagnostic tool to help you find out. It then shows you how to use that tool to build your better, more profitable future. Get your free copy here.
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| | | | | | Whenever you're ready, here are 4 ways I can help you and your business:
1. Download a copy of The Success Prescription. My book, The Success Prescription provides you with a framework for thinking about your success. Download a copy of The Success Prescription here.
2. Be a guest on “Wisdom. Applied. Podcast.” Although most of my podcasts involve me addressing an important point for your success, I’m always looking for guests who’d like to be interviewed about their personal and professional achievements and the lessons learned. Email me if you’re interested in participating.
3. Book me to speak to your group or organization. I’ve spoken at dozens of medical group, healthcare organization, university-sponsored, and private events on many topics such as The Impending Death of Hospitals, the strategic use of OIG Advisory Opinions, medical group governance, and succeeding at negotiations. For more information about a custom presentation for you, drop us a line.
4. If You’re Not Yet a Client, Engage Me to Represent You. If you’re interested in increasing your profit and managing your risk of loss, email me to connect directly. |
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