Page 8 - HME Business, October 2018

Editor’s Note
Say ‘Hello’ to Your Future
How in touch are you with the future of your business? If you say ‘not very,’ you’re not alone.
Volume 25 Number 9 October 2018
Here are some seemingly weird ques- tions for the owners, operators and management of HME provider businesses: How in touch with the future of your business are you? Does that future version of your business feel as tangible as your current business? Or, does it feel far off and remote, perhaps as though it was an entirely different busi- ness ran and staffed by entirely different people?
I started thinking about these questions after reading an article by Tim Herrera, the founding editor of the New York Times’ Smarter Living news- letter. He was talking about the various mental tricks we play on ourselves when we think about the future. Chief among them is a strange behavior: we see our future selves as entirely different people.
No kidding. Thanks to a mental trick we play on ourselves called the “present bias,” we focus
on our immediate present needs to the point where we become mentally disconnected from our future selves. Herrera cites a paper on “hyperbolic discounting” by the University of Minnesota’s Behavior Lab, which conducts academic studies related to psychology and marketing. In the paper, the lab finds that many people will take $100 immediately, rather than $110 a day later, while at the same time, they would wait to take $110 in 31 days, rather than $100 in 30 days.
In other words, you and I will take an immediate monetary gain over a larger gain delayed by a mere 24 hours, but we’re more than happy to defer our gratification if it’s happening a month from now. We are hard-wired to take that bird in the hand right now, but are fine with making our future selves wait just a little longer.
Furthermore, we have a tough time identifying with that future self at all. Herrera cites a couple of studies that demonstrated that: In one, test subjects were far more likely to indentify with the idea that their lives would be better if they immediately won the lottery, but had a much harder time conceptu- alizing enjoying a stable retirement made possible by steady, incremental savings. In another study, subjects looked at images representing themselves exercising, someone else working out, and them- selves doing nothing. Only those that picked the first image reported that they had then worked out in follow-up interviews conducted a day later.
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Executive Editor Associate Editor
Art Director Production Coordinator
Director of Online Product Development
Group Publisher
Integrated Media Consultant
David Kopf
(949) 265-1561 Leila McNeill
Laurie Layman Charles Johnson
Marlin Mowatt Karen Cavallo
(760) 610-0800 Caroline Stover (323) 605-4398
I believe the same holds true when it comes
to strategic business planning. While there are plenty of businesses out there that can set revenue targets or profit goals, how well do the managers of those businesses envision exactly where they want that business to be in five years? If we are just as mentally disconnected from the future of our busi- nesses as we are from our personal futures, then the answer is “not very.”
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Researchers say that if we can better visualize our futures, we can start to identify with it, and thus not succumb to present bias and hyperbolic discounting. For example, if we can better conceptualize our retirement — activities, health, location, lifestyle, financial situation — then we can start to identify with that future and see our future selves less like strangers and more like, well, us.
Can’t we extrapolate that idea to business plan- ning? Sure, we might have a revenue target or a new location in mind, but we can get deeper and more strategic by asking some open-ended ques- tions about our future: What post-acute markets should the business to be in? What will be its chief revenue sources and business partners? Can the business carve out niches safe from the capricious nature of Medicare policies? What are those niches? Do we know what milestones will get the business where it needs to be?
The more questions management asks, the more a picture of the future comes into focus. From there, the business can set goals and regularly track its performance against them. Moreover, manage- ment can regularly review its vision of the future and adjust it based on changes in the market, policy or healthcare.
To help you in that endeavor, members from our Editorial Advisory Board have listed key trends that could impact your business in coming months (see “A Look Ahead for HME,” page 18). It’s not easy to identify with the future, but it is possible.
David Kopf Editor
HME Business
Steve Ackerman
President Spectrum Medical
Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq.
Chairman of the Health Care Group of Brown & Fortunato, P.C.
Rob Baumhover
Director of Retail Services for VGM Retail Services
Ty Bello, RCC
President and Founder Team@Work
Georgie Blackburn
Vice President, Government Relations and Legislative Affairs BLACKBURN’S
Todd Blockinger
Senior Director of Sales The MED Group
Rob Boyeye
Executive Vice President of HME Brightree LLC
Sandra Canally
President
The Compliance Team Inc.
George Coppola
Director of Marketing CAIRE Medical
John C Eberhart
President Eberhart Home Health Inc.
John Letizia
President of Laurel Medical Supplies Inc.
Joe Lewarski
Vice President of Global Respiratory and Sleep Drive Devilbiss
Ron Resnick
President Blue Chip Medical Products Inc.
Tom Ryan
President and CEO AAHomecare
Wayne Slavitt
Founder and CEO Mobül: The Mobility Store
Wayne van Halem
President and Founder The van Halem Group LLC
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REACHING THE STAFF
Kevin O’Grady Karen Cavallo Irene Fincher Susan May Sydny Shephard
Rajeev Kapur Craig Rucker Erik A. Lindgren
Michael J. Valenti Jeffrey S. Klein
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