What Seismic Shift In Your Industry Should You Be Aware Of?

Key Takeaways

• How to accurately identify shifts in your marketplace
• Questions to ask to help zero in on coming trends

One of the hallmarks of virtually all great companies is their ability to scan the horizon for changes that are most certainly coming. While many leaders have the innate ability to see and comprehend the changes, it seems that only a select few have the temerity to actually act on the data in a timely manner. To accurately identify a shift in behavior and/or processes is only one half of the equation of success.

The second half of the equation, and to a greater deal – the most important half of the equation, is to be the first to act and respond well ahead of the curve. Taking such action before your competitors and properly positioning your company to fully exploit the opportunities at hand will keep you and your company in the driver’s seat.

Seems simple enough, but in the maize of navigating through potential land mines, many otherwise competent executives fail to act when they should. The consequences of inaction, or even of a delayed reaction, can be devasting.

No company or industry is immune to the pitfalls of changing market conditions. So how can we best prepare ourselves for accurately identifying such seismic shifts to ensure our response is both accurate and timely?

The best answers are usually the direct result of the best questions. As you scan the horizon in your particular marketplace, what are you seeing that you haven’t noticed before? What changes, subtle though they may be, have you noticed that seems to be a bit out of character or different from the status quo? Something just doesn’t seem quite right or is out of the norm. These are telltale signs that the times they are a changing.

What is it that is different? What responses are you starting to see that signals a shift in behavior and or action? These subtle signs tell the story.

Let’s look at just one example of a change I have noticed.

In the world of diagnostic healthcare, a changing of the guard seems to be underway as the focus of medicine is shifting to a totally different perspective. The time for making this shift is long overdue and the implications are far reaching as it will impact nearly all facets of medicine.

Accurately identifying the condition with precision has been the hallmark of an effective blueprint for the clinician to then develop a roadmap for treating the condition at hand. Fairly simple: Identify what the patient has with as much precision as possible, and then use that information develop a treatment regimen that offers the greatest possibility for a cure or a remedy.

The wave that is coming is a seismic shift away from diagnostic testing and is trending towards prognostic testing. While there are many similarities, it is the approach and the focus that makes all the difference. A prognostic approach also looks to identify a condition with precision, however, (and this is a big however), it looks to precisely identify the potential for a condition before the patient acquires it. It is completely predictive in nature, as opposed to after the fact.

Shifting to a prognostic approach has the potential for preventing the patient from acquiring a disease, or at the very least mitigating the effects of a disease if and when it develops. All of us have certain and unique predispositions. The effective use of a prognostic approach to medicine allows the clinician to proactively personalize a regimen, with a precision specifically designed to meet a patient’s particular situation. The life changing component is that it does this in a predictive manner. It has the potential to identify a specific disease state that the patient is predisposed to, and it can offer a preventive roadmap to avoid the ailment.

The shift here has the very real potential to revolutionize how and when we treat patients. The potential for eliminating or significantly reducing pain, suffering, and disease is monumental. The companies that see such a change and then properly position their product offering to support or even lead the change are the ones who will maintain supremacy and dominance over that particular potion of the market.

So, what changes have you noticed that no one else is seeing? What can you do NOW to prepare your company to be that agent of change as the market further evolves into a more efficient and productive process? Ask yourself the right questions, identify the subtle nuances and changes you are seeing and then ACT ON THIS information. Do this and they will be using you and your company as a successful case study for years to come.

Good luck and have fun with it!