Dental Operating System
Built for Dental Leaders — The Dental Operating System Building a business is hard work. From the moment you decide what industry you want to work in to developing the first seedlings of a business idea, it’s a long, hard journey for everyone. Business leaders require a certain amount of fearlessness to stake out a claim for their business idea. It might even be harder for dentists because dental schools cannot provide the level of business education and acumen required to successfully own and operate your own dental practice. There’s a huge divide between the operational and the clinical, and it can be challenging to manage all of that on your own. We believe dental companies are best served by implementing a dental specific operating system because they face unique challenges that generic operating systems and coaches cannot adequately address.
will come to a point when the coach and the operating system can no longer serve you because they lack industry knowledge and processes. It will still feel like you have to “reinvent the wheel” if you use a generic operating system. The Dental Operating System (DOS) is the operating system capable of growing with you from one location to hundreds and exponentially magnifies your team and your vision. It is the system we wish we had when we were building a dental group. Let’s dive into some of the key components of the Dental Operating System.
Vision A clear and compelling vision is the driving force that shapes purpose, direction and long-term goals. Each operating system defines vision a little bit differently. We believe the components of a company vision include:
While other operating systems utilize similar annual and quarterly planning processes, we have education and tools to teach leaders how to effectively scope and manage projects. For example, when building an org chart, how do you account for Associate dentists who may have a local leader they are accountable to (office manager) but need a clear clinical leader for the dentist to dentist relationship? When determining your scoreboard, a generic coach will not have the experience to ensure you are tracking the right numbers, or have any idea what appropriate goals and benchmarks should be. As your company grows and your team expands, a general business coach will lack the industry knowledge to help you determine if revenue cycle management belongs in operations or finance. A general operating system will encourage the use of systems, but the dental operating system will ensure you have mission critical systems created AND have a framework and an example for you to work from. Any operating system will absolutely help get you and your team organized, provide a set of rules to live by and give you power to grow; however, you
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MAY/JUNE 2023 • DENTIST ENTREPRENEUR ORGANIZATION
> Who you are as determined by your core values. These values should be the behaviors you hire, fire, review, reward and recognize around. > Why you exist. Your mission statement gives you and your team purpose. > Where you are headed. We refer to this as your longterm destination, it has gone by several other names in the history of business like a BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) or even a Wildly Important Goals or long-term target. This represents a goal we can track to in the distant future (5-15 years out) and something to continually reverse engineer and work against. The purpose of your organization is much more than a certain revenue goal or number of locations, however, we find it helpful to put some initial numbers to work against in determining appropriate resources, team, strategy, funding mechanisms etc. > Speed or pace of growth provides clarity to the team and allows for appropriate prioritization. A group
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