Is it time to expand into a field related to your expertise –and conquer it with your business model and with knowledge, processes, and systems?
That is exactly the dilemma that Travis Timmons and colleagues at Fitness Matters are facing. And they want your help.
Travis has been kind enough to share the joys and painshe has experienced with the readers of this blog. Today, in addition to sharing his situation as an example of how to decide about expansion, Travis has asked me to reach out to you with the direct question: Should he and his colleagues expand their business into an adjacent market of home health care Physical Therapy?
Key point: You don’t have to be an expert in home health care Physical Therapy to provide a useful answer to Travis.
The point of this post, in fact, is to share a simple means to answer questions about expansion –not just in regard to Travis’ situation, but in regard to your own business, too.
To be helpful to Travis [and to yourself] you might:
- Provide comments and general business advice from your experience with expanding your service offerings.
- Respond with comments about the “Profound Way To Decide” that is included in this post.
Let’s keep it simple: I’m going to suggest that to get your arms around this issue you need only start with the Big Picture and 4 key categories of questions that are a part of the “Profound Way” to reach a decision about expansion.
The “Profound Way” to decide comes directly from the work of scholar and management guru Dr. W. Edwards Deming. So, let’s call it what he called it: The System of Profound Knowledge®. It is also known as by the acronym SoPK [ES oh Pea Kay].
W. Edwards Deming was a proponent of using the 4 lenses of the System of Profound Knowledge to gain insight and to make better decisions. Courtesy of the W. Edwards Deming Institute.
Deming didn’t call the System “profound” because he thought it was profound per se, but because applyingthe 4 elements of the System of Profound Knowledge®results in providing you with profound knowledge, profound insight, into virtually any given situation in work and in life.
Let’s start with a little background to lay out the Big Picture about what an expansion could mean to Fitness Matters. The organization provides Physical Therapy, personal training, Pilates, Women’s Health Physical Therapy, Muscle Activation Technique services, and kinesthetic awareness training. Large hospital conglomerates, local municipalities, and national fitness chains have gotten into some or all of the services Fitness Matters provides–and the competitors are using their large size and resources to gain more market share.
Thus, opportunities for expansion are a central focus for Fitness Matters. Providing Physical Therapy in home health care settings is one possibility for growth. After all, whether the Physical Therapist is in a patient’s home or at Fitness Matters, Physical Therapy will be accomplished.
According to Travis, here is the opportunity, “Home health physical therapy is usually a short-term need, such as right after a total knee replacement. Physical Therapy in the patient’s home allows for a good and immediate start on rehabilitation. In fact it could start right after the patient is discharged from the hospital –and is not yet able to get to Fitness Matters for therapy.
“Then, once the patient is able travel, the next step would be an easy transition to Fitness Matters’ outpatient facility. For example there wouldn’t be a need for a duplication of forms, medical history, and paperwork –and the transition might allow the patient to work with the same therapist [in the outpatient setting] who provided therapy at the patient’s home.
Travis Timmons is confronted with a decision about expanding into home health care Physical Therapy. He would appreciate guidance from Forbes’ readers.
“Yet, there are some large differences between home health Physical Therapy and outpatient Physical Therapy. One of the biggest differences is that the Physical Therapist will go into a stranger’s home. Frankly, there is no way to screen for who else may be in the home. Thus, there is increased liability. Another consideration is the increased travel needed by the Physical Therapist who is making home visits throughout the day. Not only is that more costly, but it presents a safety risk: when you have travel you have a safety risk.”
Should Fitness Matters expand into home health care Physical Therapy?
To get closer to an answer, let’s use Deming’s 4 elements of the System of Profound Knowledge® to analyze the situation. I’ve oversimplified the 4 elements here, but I think you’ll get the idea about how powerful the 4 elements can be –even if we just ask questions related to each of them:
- Understanding Variation: How much variation/difference is there between the new, although related, business and the existing business?
- Appreciation for a System: Would going into the new, although related business, affect the system of how Fitness Matters operates?
- Human Psychology: Is there a significant difference in the psychology required to work as a Physical Therapist in someone’s home vs. at Fitness Matters? Would the staff at Fitness Matters feel comfortable providing Physical Therapy in people’s homes?
- Theory of Knowledge: Is there a simple way to gain knowledge by testing such an expansion via a PLAN – DO – STUDY – ACT experiment –that has low risk, low cost, and that can be done in a timely way?
The answers to the above questions will be provided in the next post.
In the meantime, you might want to apply those questions to your own situation –and determine if they provide some insight to your business. And, please be sure to post comments if you care to do so.
To sum up: Deming was a strong proponent of looking at the big picture while also asking good questions via the System of Profound Knowledge® –ALL while looking at data.
Powerful stuff, and I find there is one more approach, which is a great fit with Deming’s approach, and that approach comes from the work of Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt and his “Theory of Constraints.” Dr. Goldratt advised us to identify the key constraint –the key barrier to accomplishing whatever it is you want to accomplish. Then, figure out how you can overcome it –or better yet, figure out how to turn it into an opportunity, and then go to the next constraint.
In Travis’ case, the key constraint related to home health care Physical Therapy could be an expansion stopper.
Do you have any thoughts as to what might be the key constraint that Travis would have to solve if he and his colleagues are to expand into home health care Physical Therapy?
The constraint will be revealed in the next post.
沒有留言:
張貼留言