It’s a Wrap

As in photography speak for the end of a production, this column is a wrap for the very high privilege I have been given to write a monthly column for HomeCare. I have been contributing to the magazine since 1998.

Earlier this year, my wife Lou Ann and I announced that we would move on to newer businesses that we have been building for several years. Lou Ann is a mosaic artist specializing in large architectural installations, and I am a photographer producing images for advertising and editorial use in health care and tourism.

I have also been honored to be a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for HomeCare, but most of all to become friends with some of the greatest people in the world.

Since I am not generally taken to looking back on life, I don’t want to write about the past in this column. It has been filled with triumphs and trials and all worth the time spent. But I like looking forward. Forward is exciting, even if not always positive.

As we look forward, we know that we have challenges but should also remember that without challenge there is no triumph and no joy for the accomplishment. Also as we look forward, there are six principles on which every home medical equipment company should build its future.

1. Get the best customer, not the next customer One of the flaws of the human condition is to avoid the difficult, so if getting the best customer is more difficult than getting the next customer, we tend to settle or “next.” Moreover, identifying the best customer is a challenge all its own. We know, almost intuitively, that different customers have different value, but quantifying and characterizing those differences is where the strongest home care companies will begin their journey to the top. Along the way they will acquire the discipline to focus on the best customer for their business.
2. Manage by looking forward, learn by looking back Sometimes we get caught up in a missed budget or sales number, or an experience that we label “failure.” It is OK to devote a little time to learning why, so long as the learning can be applied to the future. If it can’t, the why has no value. When looking back, focus only on the 20 percent of causes that are responsible for 80 percent of the effects. For example, if a budget has 50 general ledger accounts, the largest 10 are all that really matter. So glean the lessons, look forward and be proactive.
3. All processes must have two metrics: throughput and quality Productivity improvement is the order that all managers have. Managing to it requires the measurement of business processes. However, the use of a single metric leaves open the best possibility of overlooked potential and the worst possibility of fraud.
4. The profitability of every business is driven by the solution offered and the customer it is offered to For HME companies, the solution offered is the product and the customer is one with the payer. So think in terms of product-payer combinations. Offering an inappropriate product to the right customer will produce inefficiency, as will offering the right product to an inappropriate customer.
5. A business cannot succeed while violating its vision or values The problem is that there is at best halfheartedness when we are not pursuing our vision or values, and at worst, emotional battles. In either case, the home care company will be less efficient and its customers may even feel underserved.
6. The human imagination is the most powerful force on earth Imagination is envisioning what can be from what is not. It is different from creativity, which is the ability to turn a vision into a reality. Every business needs both, but most important, companies need imagination.

The future of our industry will be so radically different than its past that the reference points we have used will be irrelevant and leave a nearly blank canvas. With imagination, we can envision the new way that processes will be ordered and the new ways that diseases will be managed.

Looking forward is exciting. That’s a wrap.

Editor’s Note: To check out Wallace Weeks’ new future, see www.wallaceweeks.com. Wallace, we wish for you a future as successful as you have helped HomeCare’s readers become.

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Wallace Weeks is founder and president of Weeks Group Inc., a Melbourne, Fla.-based strategy consulting firm. You can reach him at 321/752-4514 or [email protected].