Thriving Under Attack

When we read the fascinating accounts of the earliest settlements in America, we learn how the inhabitants were able to thrive in their new and fiercely inhospitable land. In spite of their independent spirits, they kept their businesses and homes near a fort. In spite of the fact they had their own self-interests, they were steadfastly supportive of their community.

The balance between their independence and collaborative action is part of why we are able to live and work in America today.

By many accounts, the environment DME providers work in today is also characterized as inhospitable. Yet this industry's participants have not yielded their strong independent spirits to collaborative actions that will allow the industry to thrive. As a result, providers are facing the current assaults on their company alone, without a refuge, and can be picked off one-by-one.

As Ben Franklin warned his fellow revolutionaries, they would “all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

The reason providers commonly cite for not hanging together is that the risk of sharing proprietary information is too great. As a result, providers have insufficient understanding of the issues that challenge them; there is little to no information available about financial and operational performance on which to build stronger businesses; and, providers' lobbying effort is not as strong as it could be.

What the earliest settlers were not afraid of could be called “transparency.” If the participants in this industry could become more transparent, there will be great benefits. Among them:

Managers could better measure company performance. So far this week, I have received two requests for benchmarking data from managers in the industry. My response always has to begin with the disclaimer that it is based on information from my company's clients, not the industry as a whole. Does it help or hurt the industry if all providers have access to performance data?

• Managers can offer less-defensive bids if they understand the potential of rivals better. It is not necessary to know everything about your competitor, but more general information would enable better bidding, which, in turn, could preserve profitability.

• Managers would learn of “best practices,” those that create the greatest measurable impact. Today the industry has to benchmark to norms, which is another way to say “average” or “mediocre.”