172: Innovative Products To Improve Efficiencies in Your Practice

It is about people. It's about making connections with your team. It's about making connections with customers and not forgetting that. That's really the principle. That's how this all works at the end of the day.

Hi, I'm Emmett Scott, and just like you, I've had my ups and downs in the dental industry, but times are changing. The DEO has built a map of how to succeed in one of the most challenging industries to navigate. On this show, we talk to dental industry leaders, solve problems, and get you the answers you need to face these challenging times and thrive. Welcome to DEO's Growth Secrets podcast for dental organizations. Now let's get started. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of DEO Gross Secrets. I'm your fearless host, Emmett Scott, and today I have President Chris Holden, who is president of the North America Group for Ivaclar. And Chris, thank you so much for being on. You know, this is such an unprecedented time with all this inflation. We are just all rethinking our business model. And of course, you have two, two businesses, so to speak, that you have to think about your own business side and then how are you helping dentists as well to be able to maximize their groups, especially DSOs. So thank you for being on today. I really appreciate it. I'd love to hear a little bit of your background and how you got into dentistry.

Well, do well. Thanks a lot, Emmett, for having us. I think that it's a great opportunity for us to tell our story and try to answer maybe, I think the most important question you just asked, which is how do you manage your own business and how do you then focus on your customers? I think it's all one answer to a certain degree, but a bit about me first. I guess I wanted to be a lawyer, went to law school, and then kind of realized, hey, that's not what I want to do. And recognize that when you have an undergrad in liberal arts, it's kind of hard to say you're qualified for much. And so I ended up in sales and never even knew about the dental industry, was recruited into the dental industry and I've been in the business for more than 25 years. I've been with a few different companies here at Ivaclar most recently for almost the last seven, and in a general management role for the past 20, more or less. So it's been. It's been a wonderful ride here. And I love dental. I love dental. Let me just tell you this quick story about, about my experience in dental. So I was probably six Months, maybe a little bit less than that in the field as a salesperson. Happened to have a dentist in my area who was just kind to me, and I didn't know much about anything. And he realized that, and he said, why don't you come in? I'm doing a case on Wednesday, and it's a pro bono case. We've got this woman who's coming in, her daughter's getting married on Saturday, and you can learn a little bit and sit with me. I'm sure she won't mind. So sat there for about eight hours and watched him do this. This direct composite case, which was just a really long, long case. And at the end of it, he hands her the mirror and she looks at herself and she starts to cry. And the dentist is crying and the assistant is crying. And then I realize I'm tearing up. And it was at that moment that I realized that I may sell dental products, but that's really not what I'm a part of. I'm a part of something much bigger, more important than. And it was at that time I realized I never wanted to leave the industry. And so I've been in love with it ever since. It's a beautiful combination of art and science. And so that's kind of my story. And that's what has, I think, really been the hook for me through. Through the whole experience.

Yeah, it's a good call out as we navigate all of these business principles and items to remember the impact that we're having. So I appreciate that, you know, you have navigated, you know, now being a president, executive of a company that's been around 100 years or so. Right. And I think you're celebrating 100 years of innovation this year. I'm curious, just kind of aside, what key business principles for you personally, do you find to be, you know, critical through your career? You've seen a lot. You've navigated a lot in small and big companies.

I had a. I had a person to whom I reported one of a. One of the more maybe the smartest person I ever met. And we were joking about how difficult the business was at one time, this was several years ago, and he said to me something that was rather ironic. He said, you know, business would be really easy if it weren't for people. And, you know, the irony is, is that you wouldn't have business without people. And it is about people. It's about making connections with your team. It's about making connections with customers. And not forgetting that that's really the principle that's how this all works at the end of the day. And so you have to be connected to your customers. You have to be connected to what it is they need and what they want. And likewise, it's the same thing with the team. The team is also, in a way, customers. And together the team serves the outside customers. And if you have those priorities going in the right direction, I think then that's kind of the grounding foundation for all of it. It's easier to say than it is to do, of course, but in my mind, that's really what it's all about.

As you think about it, from Ivaclar, you've been there for a few years now. This is a company that's competing in manufacturing products, et cetera. What do you think has differentiated? Because in 100 years, a lot of companies have come and gone. And, you know, I think a lot of our listeners might have started their business 10 years ago, definitely not 100 years ago. So what do you think is making a difference for them?

I think if you go back and you look at the things that have happened throughout the history of the company, it's been about innovation. You know, we're celebrating 100 years of innovation. And it's not a slogan. It's really something that is a driver for the company. And, you know, I was. Let me just go sideways for a second. I remember my youngest son was born in 2007. I picked up this iPhone. It's kind of funny because this launched in 2007, and not long ago, he was looking at a photograph and he. He did this with it, right? The pinch with a photograph. And he wanted to show me something. And I said, you know, when that first launched and that was shown, the audience was just wowed by that. And he looked at me and he said, why? What's the big deal about that? And I think that it's really easy to forget about innovation if you've not had, let's say, the history of that, if you've not been able to appreciate it. And when you look at our company, you know, if you go back several, several years, we've had two foundational products in the aesthetic range that have not only allowed dentists and customers to enjoy a completely different type of dentistry, but it is. It's impacted millions upon millions of lives and change the way dentistry is performed. But even more importantly, it raised the bar for the way dentistry is performed. And today, it's just a part of the norm. But aesthetics and glass, ceramics are what they are today because of ivoclar. And a lot of people don't know that or don't remember it. It's just like the pinch. What's the big deal about the pinch? Yeah, it's the same thing. Yeah.

I mean, our, our innovations soon turn into expectations and entitlements. Right? And I think all of us feel that pressure from Amazon creating more and more convenience for everyone. And we as dental practices have to continue to think through how do I create more convenience, how do I offer more capability? You know, as a dso, one of the challenges we have is we have two customers, right? We've got the dentist who's our really core customer, and then we've got the patient who's the customer of our customer. So when I think about the DSO supporting dentists more, being customer centric there, how would I, you know, if I'm a dentist owner, how should I think about leveraging Ivaclar to take care of my customer, to help my dentist be able to take care of the patient?

You know, I think if you look at, let's say the largest DSOs, the largest DSOs have a great deal of infrastructure to address the needs that you're talking about. And manufacturers play a smaller role in part of that, generally speaking. Then you get into this broader category of these mid size and smaller DSOs that are, I think they have a lot of the same goals. They want to do better dentistry, they want to be able to make it more affordable, they want to make sure that they make money doing it. And they've got personnel challenges, they have deliverable challenges. There's all types of business issues related to it that go just beyond the mere, let's say, delivery of dentistry. And we recognize that. So what we've been working toward and have actually launched is this integration of not only products that are end to end in terms of their workflows, but teaching mechanisms, educational platforms that address key areas and key topics. For example, if a DSO wants to grow, and I don't know of any that don't, they have to look at what they are today, what is it that they need to be? Or maybe that's already consistent, maybe they haven't defined it. But once that's defined, the question is, how do they get there? I was talking to somebody not long ago that owns 30 units and he has around six that really produce and he's got 24 that don't. And he was very successful with training those six offices because he had a personal hand in it. But now it's gotten too large for him to manage. And there's no infrastructure for that. So the question is, how does that happen? How does he actually recognize that? And so we can I say one

thing on this that just aligns so beautifully with what you're saying. When I go to events now, you know, and this is kind of the offset of innovation here. As I'm walking up to a booth and they're telling me this amazing innovation, you know, hey, now you can do this in your dental practices, whatever. I just have one question. How do you help me with the change management? Right? How do you help me with. Because there's so much innovation now, so much potential, and not all of it's good, some of it's fabulous. But even the fabulous stuff, all I'm thinking about is 1,000 people or 100 people or whatever it might be that I have to now get to use that system. So I think what you're talking about is the innovation that you guys are working towards is not just, hey, here's this new cool tool, but here's actually how we'll help you, mid size group, you know, small group, to actually implement it so you can get the return on investment, right? Because if I go buy it, I get all hurrah. I tell everyone it's great. And my office manager's like, it sucks and I don't know what to do. No implementation happens.

Right? That's exactly the issue. Right? So we have this solution. I'll give you the example that, that came up in this specific conversation. Doctor wants to do more implant over denture and sees that as a tremendous way to grow the practice. Now he's got a few that do this really well. And then he said, look, I've got these 20 something that don't do it at all. And he said, all of my doctors say I don't have patients that present that way. And you know, his, his point was they, they won't diagnose the work because they're not comfortable doing the work 100%. And I said, well, we can help with that. And there's, it's really a two part, I would say challenge, which is one, helping that practitioner become competent and feeling confident that they can actually do the work. And what happens when they do that is they diagnose more of the work. We know that. But more importantly than that, or just as importantly, is how do you sell it? That's also another piece of this. And so when we look at the, the challenge and what you asked me, how do we help, we address this kind of in a 360 degree view, which is, it's not just the clinical part, it's also the selling part. How does that happen? And so what we found is that we have to have education and consultation built around practice management to some degree in order to help these practices implement really the solution that they're looking for. It's not just a product, it's not just a service, it's the full implementation. As you said, you have to be able to roll it out in a complete way and it is change management. And there's a process for that that we recommend. And it's up to the practice to let us know if that's the way they want to proceed. But we work with trying to create and fit the education into the way the practice wants to move forward. It's not about a one way, here's a, you know, here's a process, take it or leave it. It's about trying to meet the needs. Because everybody has a different goal clinically, everybody has a different goal financially. And it's the challenge is shaping all of that into a program that works for the practice, that works for the customer. Because the technology is the technology, but what goes around it is what really makes it work.

I hope every vendor support person, sponsor is listening to what you just said, Chris, because they're over there continuing to innovate, wondering why no one's implementing. And you guys are really bridging that gap and that's the gap that has to be solved. Right now we're so emotionally overwhelmed, both at the team level and frankly, even as leaders, that if we're not helping each other in some of this change management, the innovation's just going to stop. Right? So I think what you're saying and how you all provide support is just, it's awesome and it makes sense why, you know, people who can see that way, that's why they're around 100 years, they go, okay, the market needs this part. Now. This is the constraint for implementation. Let's go solve that.

I'll tell you how strange this sounds to a lot of people who listen to this maybe, but you know, we have a group within the company that's dedicated to making the operational component of the company more efficient. So that all started with manufacturing and then it went into logistics. And over a period of time that started to creep into other disciplines in the organization. At some point somebody had the idea, well, would this work with customers? Right. And so this idea that started as just a small seed is beginning to blossom a bit we're focused today more in the lab space where we walk in. And the goal is to try to get customers to think about the cost of delivery. How much does it cost to create this piece of where is it that I want to get to so that I can achieve the profit goals that I have? And so we work with them to do that. We haven't business modeled this at all. This is really just an effort that we've made internally for ourselves. But this has application not only, of course, with labs, but it has application with dental practices. And so this will be something that we also focus on and work with those who are interested to work with us to. To prove the model out. Because we believe that efficiency isn't. Efficiency isn't about the consultant coming in and being the expert. The consultant really drives a process. And the experts are the people who work within the business. They are the subject matter experts. And in the end, they create the solutions and solutions they can live with and apply and really move forward consistently with and see results. So this is another part of it. Now. It has nothing to do with dental materials, but it really is about. Because when we talk about what's happening in the US in particular, if you look at medical or you look at eye care, look at dentistry, it's happening in the same way we're seeing this aggregation occur. And it does become a discussion about how do we deliver more efficiently, how do we get a stronger return for our investors. And ultimately, if we're successful, you know, we will have the opportunity to broaden the scope of those who we treat because we can deliver. Hopefully we can deliver at a lower cost and make this more accessible for us. That's the goal. So just to give you some insight into where we are, we're headed in that direction.

Well, you know, my friend who's at FedEx, and this is just my own ignorance, I didn't realize how much, you know, I think of FedEx is like shipping my returns, right, or getting my packages from Amazon or whatnot. But they have a whole department that's dropping into businesses, helping them set up their conveyor belts for shipping, et cetera. And I thought, oh, that would be nice if vendors came in and suppliers helped us get more efficient. That's exactly what you all are doing, is that's really the next level up is all right, if you're going to utilize this, let's help you be as efficient as possible. You know, as you're looking forward at the adaption, the, the adaptation and changes that we're Going to have to make around the patient needs. You know, I. Dentistry is just tough because it's not an iPhone. You know, it's the industry where you have idioms like it's like a root canal or it's like pulling teeth. Like, we're kind of known as a negative experience. But what patients really want is they want convenience, they want comfort, they want to feel trust. You know, how do you think about that and how does that integrate into the products you guys are creating? Because I just feel it's critical.

Well, I mean, I think that the products are. First of all, we build products to try to meet a clinical standard, and the compromise should never be around what is delivered. So that's first and foremost. The convenience components and the workflow elements that we think through are always around trying to create efficiencies for those who use the products. It's just a given. And I think you have to be. You have to be in that mode today. Otherwise, why should somebody spend more time, more effort using something that's not easy or not better and certainly doesn't give you the clinical efficiency that you're looking for.

No doctor or patient said, man, I wish this would have taken longer.

Right, right. But, you know, there are. There are things that we're focused on specifically. So to answer your question, the products that we try to build that so that they're better in the end result, easier to use. That's maybe the, the. The best way to put it. But we're also focused on hardware and software that integrates with chemistry. And, you know, I mean, on the iPad, you can download an application that we have, which is a tool that allows you to. While we don't. Let's say this, this is the way I like to say it. We don't change the top end of your funnel, but we can help you with the middle. And I like to say it this way, if a patient is going to spend money with you, and if you think about buying a car, buying clothes, you test drive a car before you buy it, you try on clothing before you buy it, how many patients are really trialing a smile before they buy it? And if we're not doing that for patients, what are we doing? And do we have a methodology built around that to get to an outcome that's consistent? If we're operating that way, if our clients are operating that way, I can tell you that there are those who do, but the vast majority do not. And I recognize that's a philosophical choice on some level, and in some cases, it's not considered. So which is it? As you reflect on your own business and look at these kinds of things,

There's a reason, let's be honest, there's a reason that we only have 50% market penetration.

Right, Right.

Like we as an industry have to step up to provide more convenience, more visualization, more value creation, clarity. Right. Because people are saying, am I going to the dentist or am I going to the water park? Am I going to the dentist or I'm going to watch this Netflix. And if we're not creating more comfort, convenience, if we're not able to kind of let them test drive things and see like, oh, well, I want this. Right. Because what we want to do is create that vision for them that they're like, man, I could have that if only if I was willing. Well, now you got some momentum, you know, towards it. So anyway, I think that's, that's fabulous. You're saying that you guys have an app that helps with this?

Oh, yeah, it's a, it was, it's an app that was that the technology we purchased from Disney. And it's really cool technology, but allows the customer, the patient, to visualize their smile in real time as they move, as opposed to a static view. And it can be recorded, it can be, you can take pictures. But the purpose of it is really to help them understand what it can look like and what it is that they're buying or what they could buy. Why not? I mean, these are the kinds of things that are not chemistry related, but they are enhancements to the whole process.

So with where you're sitting, you're in a unique spot because, you know, we're in our groups and we're interacting with you, but you have a broad perspective with all the different customers that, that you're in. I'm curious, where do you see the industry heading and, you know, what kind of advice would you give to DSOs, like as far as where they should be prioritizing?

I, I, far be it from us to give advice. I would say that this is what I would seen over time. It's gone from a cottage industry, a mom and pop kind of owned business, to something that's much different, where productivity is managed in a very strict way in some DSOs, and let's say less so in others. But for sure, standardization is one of the key elements to success as we look across the spectrum. Number one, there's this intense focus to push costs down and out of the business, which is natural. And that's always going to Be part of what you see, especially in a more sophisticated business. But I always come back to this, which is the businesses that are focused on how to create enhancements for their patients, how to grow their practice, and they stay focused on that through consistency, are the ones that we see are most successful. And our approach and what we believe is our point of participation is to help enhance that, help strengthen that. And we know that if we can do that and we are reliable in that regard, we become a fundamental part of these businesses, and that's what we aim to do. You know, I like to say it this way. If the copier guy came in who also sells his paper, if he said to me, you know, Chris, we can get your business to grow. We can help you to grow if you switch to my paper, I would probably not believe him initially, but I sure as heck would listen to him. And I think, you know, when I use that analogy, I think of it this way, because I think a lot of practices think of us as a supplier of goo and powder, and that's really not what we're about. So I think more broadly speaking, the question is, how do you leverage us in a way that meets your needs to grow your business? Because that's what we're about without compromising patient outcomes.

Chris, I've said, when people say, what executive should I hire next? Or what should I do here? I always say, first you need to go to your team, I. E. Your vendor team, and you need to leverage the heck out of them. But half the time, there's not a lot of resources in this situation. Just huge resource opportunity here. And then I say, after you've done that, then you go to deo, you have this peer to peer network, then you can leverage off of that and say, all right, here's what I'm learning from Ivaclar. What are you learning? What's going on here? Right? And that's how you start saying, then you can look at a fractional COO or CFO or consultant coming in, et cetera, and move up from there. But these kind of resources in the industry are just so amazing. I love what you all are doing. I really appreciate it. We'll be seeing you at the summit event out in San Diego, which I'm thrilled with. That's June 8th and 9th. So if you haven't signed up for that, this is the type of individuals that we're bringing to that. It's next level. And I'll just be honest, Chris, like, we need each other right now. You know, I mean, this is a time where everyone is trying to figure out how to leverage their costs. And these innovations can't be left on the table. They have to. They have to be utilized. Our labor costs and inside of dental practices, inside of DSOs are higher than ever. Our margins are getting squeezed. And if we have resources like this ready to help us, I don't care if it is the printer guy with paper, you know, I need that help, right? So I really appreciate you being on. I appreciate you letting us know that this is available. If people are like, yeah, I want to have this conversation right now. Where should they go? I have the website here. It's I V O C L A r dot com. Is there any other post?

We'll post a link to a direct contact and they can contact me directly. And so I'll give you my email to post and that's what we'll do.

Okay, awesome. We'll put that over in the DEO Grow Secrets as well. And thank you again for being on. For those who want to have more conversations around this, like I said, come out to DEO Grow Summit or come over to the Facebook page at DEO Secrets. And until next time, keep smiling. Thank you for listening to deo's Growth Secrets podcast for dental organizations. Continue the conversation on our Facebook group and meet other dental leaders. Get great questions answered and the strategies you need to succeed. Plus, we have some free resources for you right there on the Facebook page. Remember, you're not alone. Let's do this together. Join DEO's Growth Secrets Group on Facebook. And until next time, keep smiling.