One component of building a successful company is awesome leadership. Whether or not you become an outstanding chief executive or senior manager is directly related to how you lead, how you work with people, and the examples you provide of preferred behavior. The good news is, that we know what the leader needs to do to go grow a successful organization.
HOW DID THAT GET THERE?!? The Dilemma of Misplaced Dental Implants
Most of us are aware of the current advancements in dental implant therapy. They have led to great improvements in the final prosthesis for the implant patient. However, one common problem persists. Too often there are compromised results from poorly positioned implants. The knee-jerk reaction is to blame the placing surgeon.
When it comes to alloy management, there are several things laboratories can do to avoid searching for the elusive pot of gold at the end of the bottom-line rainbow. I’m talking about selecting which and how many alloy choices to offer dentists for their metal-based restorations, as well as how to determine what to charge for those restorations. Other considerations are the techniques used on a daily basis for casting, along with aspects of your laboratory’s infrastructure such as extraction equipment.
Creating a Culture of Continuous Customer Service Improvement and the Powerful Secret of Screwing Up
Mistakes. I don’t know about your laboratory, but in mine the question is not if we’ll make a mistake - it’s when. So how can we benefit from our mistakes? It’s simple really. Each time a mistake occurs (specifically a mistake relating to a customer/laboratory situation) you do three things in the following order:
• Fix the mistake.
• Fix the customer.
• Fix the system.
Make Strategic Planning a Part on Your Annual Review Process
Typically, we struggle with surface symptoms rather than delving for the root. When a logjam blocks a river, thousands of logs can be removed from the middle of the jam without effecting any change. But zero in on one key log at the front, and the whole shebang gives way. What are the key logs in your lab? What are the key opportunities? It would be very meaningful if we had a system to help identify them.
According to various statistics, the majority of dental laboratories in the U.S. have one to five employees. How does the owner of this size laboratory develop and implement an effective safety program without spending a lot of time and money?
The first step is to understand the key elements of an effective safety program and then set goals to address each one. They are:
JDT Unbound's columnists want to answer your questions. To ask a question click on the e-mail link at the bottom of each columnists' article or e-mail jdt@nadl.org
Nobody likes to cold call. Okay, very few people that I know like to cold call looking for clients. For those of you that fit that description, I have some good news. Stop it. Don’t cold call ever again. Instead, let other people do it for you by systematically generating all the referrals you can handle.
Last month, we began talking about alloy management in a small and defined scope in terms of things laboratories can do to become more efficient and profitable. This month’s alloy-related topics are no different: casting methods used on a daily basis, extraction considerations and scrap alloy refining. What we do in each area affects our profitability and productivity in the alloy-based arena.
