A practice owner asked me a very good question on a recent Tuesday evening call. He is gradually reducing his clinical commitment by one day each year. His personal production has remained stable so far because the practice has successfully introduced more therapist-led dentistry. He is now ready to move from three clinical days a week to two. The question was simple: “How many associate days will it take to replace one of my days?” You will often hear people suggest that rep

This week’s pulse from the Extreme Business Community explores how clear ownership turns concern into action, strengthens accountability and helps teams protect their culture, numbers and patient experience through sensible, sustainable progress.

This month I celebrate 56 years of continuous full-time employment. Fifty-six years of getting up, turning up and getting on with it. That gives me plenty to reflect on. It also gives me a useful question: what would I tell the young man who started work all those years ago? Three things come to mind. First, take more risks. There will always be a reason to wait. More research to do. Another qualification to acquire. A little more money to accumulate. Somebody whose approval

Chris Barrow has spent decades advising dental practice owners on building, growing and eventually selling their businesses. In this episode of Conversations with Chris, the tables have turned. For the first time, Chris interviews not simply a client, colleague or friend, but the man whose organisation acquired his business: Colin Campbell, founder of The Campbell Academy. Their conversation begins with the story behind the acquisition of Professional Coaching Services and th

A clear business plan gives coaching a stronger foundation. Two complementary programmes offer dental practice owners different ways to undertake that planning work, helping them prepare for 2027 with defined priorities and practical next steps.

Last week’s community pulse exposed the hidden cost of delayed leadership decisions. Strong practices turn fear into action through clear standards, better data, protected capacity and systems that stop every problem becoming the owner’s problem.

Hard work is tiring. Hard worry is exhausting. The difference is that hard work eventually produces an outcome. Hard worry simply returns tomorrow morning, usually accompanied by a few new problems. I was recently asked to advise a dental practice owner facing a serious people problem. An associate’s performance and behaviour had been causing concern for some time. The owner had recognised the problem, sought professional HR advice and understood that the situation was no lon

Colin Campbell and I share a problem: neither of us needs another book, yet both of us are likely to buy one before the week is over. We are voracious readers. Not because reading is an impressive hobby, nor to create the most crowded bookshelf. We read because somebody, somewhere, has usually thought more deeply than we have about the problem in front of us. A good book can shorten a learning curve, challenge a comfortable assumption or provide the language needed for a diff

Something important has been happening at The Campbell Academy. For years, dentistry has been very good at separating clinical education from business education. You learn a clinical skill in one place, leadership somewhere else, marketing from somebody else, financial management if and when you get around to it. But that isn’t how a dental business actually works. On Monday morning, clinical delivery, patients, people, cash, marketing, technology, leadership and the owner’s

Tomorrow morning, I will press the button on the public launch of Extreme Business 2027. That sentence makes it sound as if a new programme simply appears: a newsletter goes out, a landing page goes live and the doors open. The truth is rather different. Behind Friday’s announcement is a large September mind map and an even larger amount of work taking place across The Campbell Academy. Not glamorous work. The detailed work that determines whether a promise made in marketing