Over the last few months, Laura Horton has taken her workshop tour with Extreme Business to Belfast, London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh. The feedback from delegates has been outstanding. That is no surprise. Laura has a rare ability to take subjects that can feel uncomfortable, awkward or overly complex and turn them into practical, usable leadership tools for real dental businesses. What she has covered on this tour has been both broad and deep. Her

Every now and then, an idea arrives from outside dentistry and lands with surprising force. That was exactly my experience when I first encountered Gareth Southgate’s Dear England. What struck me was not football. It was leadership. It was the power of a public statement of standards, values, identity, responsibility and belief. It said, in effect: this is who we are, this is what we stand for, and this is how we intend to represent ourselves. And I found myself wondering wha

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with Gary, a dental technician at the Scottish Centre for Excellence in Dentistry. Gary asked a very good question. In fact, it’s a question that many clinicians, technicians and practice owners should be asking themselves more often. "How do I promote myself to the people I most want to work with?" In Gary’s case, the target audience is dentists across the central belt of Scotland. But let me tell you something important at the out

During our weekly client webinar last night, there was a vigorous conversation about observations made by Laura Horton, during her current Extreme Business workshop tour, on the need to stop tolerating Owners, Managers and team members who send WhatsApp and other instant messages out of hours. That includes ealy and late during the week, and also weekends. It reactivates the debate about "synchronous" versus "asynchronous" communication, the former demands instant response, t

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking to Durham LDC on a subject that sits at the very heart of every successful independent dental business, building a championship support team. Not a team that simply keeps the doors open. Not a team that waits to be told what to do. Not a team that survives only because the principal is forever rescuing, reminding and refereeing. A championship support team is something very different. It is a group of people who can enthusiastically r

Last night we took the dog for his final walk around the block at around 21:30, and as we turned the corner of our cul-de-sac, I spotted a young man crossing the road around 100 metres in front of us. Close enough to be spotted but too far away to make out individual features. Clearly late teens, early twenties, carrying a small rucksack, looking around as he walked in what appeared to be a very shifty way. We both walked and watched as he crossed the road and disappeared aro

In the last 24 hours, we have been reminded just how much money is now flooding into artificial intelligence. Anthropic has been reported at a $965bn post-money valuation after a $65bn funding round, putting it ahead of OpenAI, whose last reported valuation was $852bn in March. In other words, these two businesses alone are now brushing up against a combined value of $1.8tn. That is not just a technology story. It is a patronage story. Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance:

Anxieties Cash flow; Workforce resilience; Recruitment; Pay demands; White space; New patient enquiries; Conversion rates; Plan numbers; Multiples; WhatsApp; To do list; Insomnia; Stuff. Opportunities Cloud-based financial monitoring; A culture of excellence; Career pathways with a preferred employer; Structured pay scales and reviews; 90%+ chair utilisation; Internal and Inbound Marketing; Digital TCOs and a digital patient journey; Membership only; Strong adjusted EBITDA; S

My work is changing faster than ever, and artificial intelligence plays a huge role in this transformation. Just one year ago, AI-driven systems handled a smaller slice of my daily tasks. Today, they take on a significant portion of work, from researching the answers to complex questions to assisting in a regular and thorough analysis of my clients' monthly management accounts. Looking ahead, AI will no doubt take on even more of my responsibilities, reshaping how I show up a

It's not very often that I use this blog to write a review or recommendation - but here's a shout out for Center Parcs, Whinfell Forest, Penrith, Cumbria. I've just been there for the Bank Holiday weekend with my eldest son Jon and his family. Accommodation - 10/10; Location - 10/10; Facilities - 10/10; Hospitality - 10/10; Neighbours - 10:10. Ok - made even better by the weather - but from the arrival to the departure every single member of the Center Parcs team made us feel