Know Thy Self

It seems like the health care space gets more and more crowded every day. The reality is that new medical retail centers are popping up on every corner and providers are expanding their portfolio of services at a rapid pace. The good news is that consumers have more options than ever for quality, non-emergency care that’s also convenient and affordable.

Additionally, this means that providers have to up their game in order to continue to grow and thrive in this new landscape. The question then becomes, how do you break through the noise in order to differentiate yourself and ultimately attract consumers?

I often refer to back to the groundbreaking book, Blue Ocean Strategy. In this book, authors Kim and Mauborgne look at how organizations tend to remain in the crowded, bloody red waters of competition, when they should be swimming in the oceans of uncontested market space. In other words, ignore the competition and focus on your own organization to create new and innovative programs and service lines.

Building on the Blue Ocean Strategy model, these are the steps that I and the team at Jupiter Medical Center have taken to create a truly unique and innovative system of care over the last several years:

• Don’t worry about others. Focus on yourself. Don’t spend your time obsessing about the competition. While you should have a clear understanding of the landscape in which you operate, don’t get bogged down in tracking the movements of others. Instead, find the open lane and take off running.

• Act don’t react. Position yourself to take on new challenges, setting the pace for your own development and growth as opposed to catching up to others and reacting to their successes.

• Be willing to operate in the unknown. True innovation comes with risk. If you have developed a trusting team and built a solid foundation, taking a chance on the unknown is not only possible, it is necessary.

Whether it is health care, technology or any other growing sector, in order to stay at the forefront of your field, you must stand out from the crowd. The best way to do that is understand who you are and where you are going. If you can do this, you’re ahead of the game.

What steps have you taken to ensure continued innovation? I invite you to share in the comments below as well as on my blog, Inventing Health.