No Time to Be Stuck in Neutral

By Dennis Sullivan
Chief Executive Officer

What a wonderful mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. The financial services industry is scrambling to get back into the mainstream. Health care is facing its greatest financial and policy challenges in two decades. Yes, we did some things that contributed to our current business environment—some want to blame it on greed, and others want to blame Wall Street. Both are probably valid points of view, but the fact is that we are here now and it’s no time to sit back and wait for the dust to settle.

You can’t be “stuck in neutral,” afraid to make a move. We all have businesses to run, and those fundamentals are still the same. Yes, we have to be aware of the cost of capital imposed by the external environment, investment income, and customers’ new buying patterns. But that is no different from any other time. Listen to your customers, adjust your business model for service delivery, tighten your belt where it needs to be tightened, and get on with running the business.

The health care and financial services industries are looking for innovation and executives who are listening to their employees and finding new ways to implement in this environment. For companies that see this time as an opportunity for growth and renewed profitability, the path is open. During economic slowdowns, caution sets in, decisions are delayed, and risk-taking gets put on the back burner. But why? Now is the time to critically evaluate your old business model, to find out what your customers consider most valuable in your relationship, and to look to your employees for new, creative ways to give better, more accurate, cost-effective service.