Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail
During my college football playing days I had a coach who would repeatedly say during the week of practice, "Men, failing to prepare is preparing to fail." This short pithy statement gets to the heart of doing what is necessary to win against your competition.
I recently attended the HCAA Executive Forum and was impressed with the speakers and emphasis on how to prepare for the ever-changing environment of healthcare. Today's market is requiring payers and their vendors to be flexible and more strategic in their approach.
One particular speaker I enjoyed hearing was Rich Horwath, who is president of Strategic Thinking Institute. The title of his presentation was "Deep Dive: Strategic Thinking for Competitive Advantage." In his presentation he shared how most organizations today have no strategy to effectively compete. Failing to prepare for the oncoming competition is preparing to fail.
Mr. Horwath is also the author of the book "Deep Dive" and I had a chance to read the book on my flight back to Dallas. In one of his chapters he has a quote that jumped out at me by former Coca-Cola CEO, Roberto Goizueta. "If you take risks, you may still fail. If you do not take risks, you will surely fail. The greatest risk of all is to do nothing."
If we in this industry are to effectively "prepare" for the future we must take risks. We are at a tipping point in healthcare. Employers are near breaking point in having access to affordable health coverage for their employees. Employees are near breaking point in being able to afford the insurance their employer provides. New programs will need to be implemented where costs are brought under control. To do this, new and innovative approaches will need to be tried. Some will be successful and some may fail. We can no longer wait. Just talking about giving everyone access to healthcare without dealing with the cost and affordability of healthcare is leading us down the path of failure. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.