Producer Group 5

Barbara Naisby of Black Isle Dental Studio, Ross-shire, Scotland facilitates a feedback session on “marketing” during Saturday’s meeting. I’m completing this post on a very tired Sunday after a 3-hour drive back from Bristol last night. During Saturday we established the “shopping list” of support services that members of a dental producer group would require. We also discussed the pricing strategy for those services, a likely corporate structure and sources of seed capital to move the project forward. Team CB has emerged with a host of ideas and some deeper friendships with those we invited. Perhaps my favourite moment was at the end of the second day when I asked who would want to be a member of this producer group and who would want to be an investor. A near unanimous show of hands demonstrated a level of trust that I found humbling. The next step is to move towards a formal business plan and strategy – and also those inevitable spreadsheets to figure out exactly how much this is going to cost. It dawned on me this morning that I may soon be an owner and leader in a £10 million business – and that I had better look at my current performance and behaviour and see whether it matches up. It is quite astounding when you reach that conclusion all by yourself, rather than at the behest of other people. A heartfelt thanks, in conclusion, to all the clients who showed up and participated so fully, to the Aztec Hotel who excelled in customer service – and to Team CB who organised and handled the event with such professionalism.