Having a vision helps you navigate change

Practice Pointers. By Karen S. Schechter, AMNews contributor. Aug. 27, 2001.

PRACTICE POINTERS

Answers to questions about the business side of your practice

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Question I am a partner in a three-physician internal medicine practice. My partners and I feel that it is time to consider including another physician, to increase the size of our office and/or open a second office in an underserved area. These ideas will cost us a lot of money.

My consultant has suggested that we develop a business plan. However, to do that, you have to know where you want to be in the future. How can we know this when the industry continues to change on a regular basis?

Answer Your consultant is correct with his suggestion to create a business plan. However, before you can begin making projections and running the numbers you must be able to convey your vision for the practice.

A vision serves as a guidepost for every business decision you and your partners make over the next several years. Once you commit to a vision for your practice, the rest of the business plan falls into place.

So how do you create a vision? It is not something you can necessarily think of overnight. It is more than a mission statement. It takes a lot of thoughtful work and energy to define a vision that reflects what you and your partners stand for and where you want the practice to be in the future.

There are many methods and schools of thought devoted to this topic. One that we use as a model for our clients is based on a book called Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras.

The authors identify four components of a vision: core values, core purpose/mission, an organizational goal that extends into the future, and a description of what the organization would look like once the goal is achieved. [...]