I Have a Dream... Of a Big Flat Future!

I recently had the opportunity to speak in front of 400 members, member laboratories and dental technicians and the Visions 21 meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., for the NADL. My purpose in my conversation with the audience was to help us take a look together at the opportunities that are present for us as this world flattens.

In his book from 2005, Thomas Freidman talks about how the world has flattened, become smaller, and that how the convergence of a variety of tools, technologies and communication methodologies has made it so much easier for us to collaborate and compete on so many different fronts. I referenced the dream statements of Martin Luther King Jr., in the context of our dental laboratory profession.  We took our pulse as societies, organizations and professions can with regards to whether we had more memories than dreams or more dreams than memories. A profession with more memories is on the decline and one with healthy dreams and a view to the future has more hope and promise.

Our own NADL has been preparing us for these kinds of conversations for several years. At previous Visions 21 meetings we have had Michael Gerber from the E-myth, Harvey McKay from Swim with the Sharks, David Stillman’s When Generations Collide, and at this meeting Stan Slap on business culture.

In The World is Flat, Freidman reminds us of the impact of this change in geometry.  Recall when we used our travel agent and received a paper ticket in the mail.  Then this evolved into a newer version were we are able to utilize an electronic ticket, a virtual ticket if you will, that allows us to travel about the country on airlines without actually holding anything in our hands until a boarding pass is issued. Finally, as this convergence of communication, methodologies, processes and technologies continues, we have become our own travel agents. Now we go online and look across all carriers and broaden the competitive framework and the collaborative choices we have for making our own personal decisions on air travel.  In essence we have become the travel agents.

It is a horizontal, rather than a vertical re-orientation of our world.  This convergence of collaborative tools and technologies is not the beginning of the end that some would have you think.  Rather, it is the end of the beginning.  You see, this information technology, this information at the speed of thought, this massive conversion of techno tools, are all here now.  The beginning of this transformation is over. The end indeed is here, but it is the end of the beginning.  I would like to suggest three different ways that we can prepare and cope for these rapid technological world-flattening changes.

Cope No. 1

Reach inside for strategic insight, experience, consultancy, advisory, relationship development, collaboration, trustworthiness, resource development and becoming a growth partner to our customers. Become more than a dental laboratory.  Use these changes to enhance the value added aspects of your doctor/laboratory relationships.

Cope No. 2

Act big regardless of your size and help your clients act big too. Use these tools to communicate through the Internet, i-pods and distance learning, so that we collaborate better and help us reach further, faster, and deeper into the relationship with our existing client base.  It is like having our business on steroids; build up the supply change and build down to our end users. We have the opportunity to become an invaluable resource to our doctors and help them feel that every product and service was custom made, custom tailored for their needs.  It also allows us to ask for their input in design and application.

Cope No. 3

Outsource to grow. Don’t simply cut costs, but look towards our core competencies, those facets of our business models that help us be differentiated from someone else. And then quit doing the other less essential stuff. Do more of what drives your economic engine. Do more of what you are passionate about.  Do more of what you are best at. Outsource those things that are not in your core, to strengthen your core.

When potential clients are asked why they buy, or how they make those decisions, location, convenience, being asked to buy and that they were referred by a friend are always on top. It isnít until you get to down the list that you see price actually becomes the deciding factor. When those same people are queried as to why they don’t buy it is because there is no perceived value or need, or there may not be trust in the seller or in the service provided. Eventually down the list, they may not have the money to make a purchase at this time and that  they are in no hurry.

Our clients want to trust and respect us. They want us to be in a special relationship with them. They want to understand that we know that they are in business to make money and that we help them achieve that goal. We need to position ourselves using these collaborative tools to reach inward, use outsourcing and act big so that we can help them improve their practice. We can show them that we are as concerned with their success as we are bout our own.   We can do something for them occasionally that does not involve making a profit for us. We can use this flattened world to improve our core competencies and relationships we have with our best clients. There will be more room at the top then there ever has been.

The flattened world also opens up the door for global competition and collaborations from places we could not have imagined twenty years ago. We see outsourcing offshore, competitive pricing, online comparisons and a more self-directed horizontal world. Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.  If we keep doing the same things and expect a different result, Einstein will think we are insane. Find those competencies that have made our lives great, prosperous and future facing. It is those core skills and talents that will continue to differentiate us and help us grow into this flat future world. Have more dreams than memories. I do.