Creative Disruption

General practitioners are the heart and soul of veterinary medicine, so stop discounting their career choice.

Teddy Roosevelt once said that complaining and not offering a solution is whining. Fair warning: I’m about to whine. I recently spoke with a brilliant, young fourth-year veterinary clinical student. She is smart, driven, compassionate and eager to make a difference. (Come to think of it, all veterinary and veterinary technician students are determined to […]

Consolidators who push profits first leave veterinary teams feeling neglected, leading to less-than-optimal pet care and reduced profits.

Consolidation, a normal part of the economy, has come to our profession. Consolidation tends to occur in any successful, fragmented, profitable, healthy industry that will benefit from investment and continued growth. Recent human health care examples include growth investments in urgent care, hospice and medical devices. I’ve had the good fortune to work in both […]

Forced to adjust amid the pandemic, we proved we’re capable of radical change. We can do a lot more, from pushing for portable licensure to embracing asynchronous learning.

Our profession, an industry known for its aversion to change, has demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt, innovate and grow over the past few months. Historically, we’ve been the poster child for a belts and suspenders industry, one that’s exceedingly cautious, but in the face of crisis, we’ve learned much that will help us to […]

We have technology and wellness care down pat. So then, why are we so slow to empower veterinary nurses? They are capable of so much more. Doctors, it’s your move.

Meat Loaf the singer released his “Bat Out of Hell” signature album, the music of my youth, in 1977. (I know I’m old.) On the album was the power ballad “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” a great song and a sentiment I typically share. In the case of the pandemic, however, two out of […]

Under a subscription wellness plan, pets and their owners return time and again. Ongoing preventive care is great for the patient, good for compliance and a net gain for practices and their teams.

Secret formulas have been credited with the success of many well-known companies. Think Coca-Cola, KFC, Google with its algorithm and maybe Krusty Krab with its SpongeBob SquarePants Krabby Patty. What otherwise would have been pedestrian brands with limited potential instead became household names. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could mix up a secret formula […]

Successful, happy practice is more about commitment than compliance.

Consolidation, a normal occurrence in successful, fragmented, healthy, profitable industries, has come to our profession. I would argue that the positives outweigh the negatives. That said, most corporates don’t get one critical issue. The dominant consolidators in our profession come from the manufacturing sector, specifically the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. In CPG, efficient, repeatable, […]

Virtual care and reinvention of the veterinary nurse will take our profession to the next level. The taxi and recording industries were asleep at the wheel at crucial moments in history. Look where it got them.

Consumers will get what they want, when they want it and where they want it at a value they deem appropriate, and with little regard for who provides it. For example, consumers desired a taxi service that was more convenient, tech-forward, clean and at a good value. Frustration with the taxi industry was rampant. Similarly, […]

The path to enlightenment is paved with lecture halls and PowerPoint presentations. Or we can try something different. In the end, we need to be engaged, excited and current.

The continuing education myth is the fallacy that attending CE events keeps veterinary professionals current with contemporary standards of practice. Remember when your professor told you that half of everything you learn today will be obsolete in five years? Man, was she right! Lifelong learners, that’s what we all aspire to be. In fact, we […]

Make way, boomers and Gen Xers. Millennials and Generation Z are remaking how Americans view pets and veterinary care.

Every generation has its own approach to work and life. How these different groups interact with family, pets and lives are profoundly reshaping our world and professional landscape. This is particularly true of the generation I call PetGen. I define PetGen as the combination of millennials and Generation Z, or anyone under about age 38. […]

You might be tracking the wrong key performance indicators. Try a few that focus on the pet, the owner and your employees.

Did you hear about Wells Fargo? For years, the company served as a role model in the banking world for exemplary customer service. Wells Fargo set a goal, or key performance indicator (KPI), to sell eight products to every customer. To accomplish this, they created the “Eight is great” motto, which incentivized employees to cross-sell […]