Why Healthcare Doesn’t Need a Band-Aid

Years ago I did a research project about primary care physicians as a gateway to tertiary care. We talked to focus groups, identified problems, and developed possible solutions. The fundamental problems were…well, everything!

But the doctors didn’t really want help. They were trying to maintain the same infrastructure they’d had for years. And now no one knows for sure what kind of changes our healthcare system has in store.

But Walgreens is being proactive. Hundreds of retail clinics have been set up and are serving patients at Walgreens stores as well as numerous corporate client locations, including Disney World and Toyota.

This company is poised for the future; no matter whether healthcare changes or not, they will come out on top. Walgreens is taking market demand and an audience approach to the way they are doing business.

In fact, Walgreens is one of those “great” companies highlighted in a book I highly recommend, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins.

Read what Zachary Wilson of Fast Company has to say about Why Walgreens is Building its Own Universal Health-Care System…

The Beauty of Ugly

I just received a retail catalog in the mail. You know the kind – the one with trashy jewelry, unbecoming apparel, and nick knacks to help clutter your home in easy installment plan payments. It made me wonder who would buy this ugly stuff! And then I remembered the old adage, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This retail store has an audience that has kept them in business for decades.

There’s a lesson to be learned here: you need to stick with your audience. Whatever products you market, you need to know who you’re selling to and why they’re buying it. If it isn’t the beauty of theitem, what is it? A connection they make with the product? A usefulness that goes beyond the design?

Fastcompany.com has a great article on “Why Ugly Sells” and the author says, you need to “understand the emotional sources for taste so that you can appeal to them.” Read Article…

Lead, Don’t Hunker Down

This is a time of opportunity, but it is not for the faint of heart. Is your organization competing in the market or is it competing internally? This last year three different organizations I was working with all had growth, refocused their efforts, tweaked their budgets and grew, all when the economy was collapsing. I began my consulting career during the S&L Crisis and Oil Collapse in Texas and it was a very similar time. As we navigated those choppy times, every organization I worked with prospered and now you can too! This week I want to share an encouraging article by Naras V. Eechambadi, Ph.D., Quaer, called “Marketers, This is Your Time to Innovate and Lead, Not Hunker Down .” Read more…