Do What You Do Best

Recently I presented a program at a meeting of the Home Care Alliance of Virginia. We spent some time discussing high-performance companies in order to get ideas about what drives their higher-than-average profitability. One of the audience members astutely noted that all of the subject companies had eliminated some activities, and he went on to cite the actions of a provider in his market. His comments:

“A provider in my market has stopped delivering hospital beds. Eliminating these activities helps make them be more profitable, and I could do the same, but I am in this business to help people.”

Another attendee said, “You know, just about everyone in this room is in this business for the same reason: They want to help people.” Many of the heads in the room were nodding in agreement. The first man asked, “What happens when we all stop delivering hospital beds?” A third person responded, “It will be like when we quit delivering diabetic test strips. Someone else will come along and do it.”

The third person to comment was correct. Someone would come along and do it. Further, they would have figured out how to do it profitably.

The second person was also right. As he spoke of “just about everyone in this room,” I believe that just about everyone in this industry participates because they want to help others, even the provider who has stopped delivering the hospital beds.

My response to the first man encapsulates what I think can make every company in this industry a better company:

Figure out who you do the best job of helping, and focus on helping as many of them as you can. Let someone who can do a better job help the others. For example, a respiratory therapist can help someone with a respiratory problem better than a rehab technologist, and a rehab technologist can be expected to design a better assistive technology solution than a respiratory therapist. Maybe, the companies that eliminated products from their offering realized they can do a better job for some people than others and decided to focus on what they do best.

There are several reasons why we all should do this.

• It makes us get a better result for those we can help When we focus on doing the things we, or our companies, are best at, we are getting the highest and best use of ourselves. Conversely, when we give effort to doing things we are less capable of doing, we are diluting our strength. A couple of years ago, a pharmacist got into deep legal troubles for diluting drugs that were expected to help people. Why should we allow ourselves and our personal performance to be held to a lower standard?
• It makes us more desirable in the marketplace The foundation of all businesses in all industries is to provide a solution to another’s problem. Getting better results means we are delivering a better solution, and that makes us more desirable in the marketplace.
• It makes us more efficient with our time Remember that we have a limited amount of time. Moreover, the time our companies get has a price tag attached. If the time is used more efficiently, the company derives a better profit. On average, the industry has been spending about 27 cents of every revenue dollar to buy the time of people. Since reimbursement is declining, we must find ways to reduce the percentage of revenue that is consumed by the purchase of employees’ time. This means that our companies must process more sales with the same number of employees. Focusing on what we do best can help us be more efficient. An examination of specialized companies generally shows that salaries as a percent of sales is lower than that for the industry as a whole.
• It will produce greater personal satisfaction with our work It is the great results that we cherish. The mediocre results only keep us from being disappointed. Personal satisfaction with a job is regularly rated as more important to employees than the wages they receive. Personal satisfaction makes owners decide not to sell companies, and it makes employees decide not to leave for more pay.

So, my advice is: Consider who you can best help, and focus your efforts on helping as many of them as you can.

Wallace Weeks is founder and president of Weeks Group Inc., a Melbourne, Fla.-based strategy consulting firm. He can be reached at 321/752-4514 or by e-mail at [email protected].