Most people who work in business of any kind don't consider business quite so deeply as they might and therefore miss the opportunities that come along when they have considered their business deeply and understand the opportunities and threats.
Back in 2010 or 2011, The Campbell Clinic (at that time, Campbell and Peace) was one of the first dental practices in the United Kingdom to have an iTero scanner.
At that stage, the iTero scanner was being distributed by Straumann, which is why we came to have it, and we were seen as being an innovative practice that would try things that were different.
It turned out that the iTero scanner at that stage was absolutely terrible and not fit for purpose and we did in fact leave it in the car park, ready for Straumann to collect because we hadn't paid for it and it was just taking up space in the clinic.
If I had a bit more foresight and a bit more understanding, I would have kept the machine and persevered with it until we became better and better and watched the opportunities open up in front of it.
It's safe to say now that the iTero scanner is a somewhat popular piece of equipment in dentistry based around an aligner orthodontic method.
The point, though, is that at that stage, IOS scanners we're not a market in dentistry. They were a developing market.
It was possible that you could look at them and say, “they're not ready yet and it's not time for us to have one yet”, but it looked pretty clear that they were moving to a position where within a reasonably short period of time, they would be a really accessible and vital bit of kit in dental practice.
And so, a few years later, scanners started to emerge onto the market, which allowed us to do more and more and be extra efficient and effective and produce a wow factor for patients beyond that which they’d ever known.
Sirona released their OmniCam and TRIOS released their first 3Shape scanner etc, etc etc.
At that stage, all these scanners were priced round about the same place, and then the developing market developed.
It's now possible to put an IOS scanner into your practice for just over £10,000.
But it's also possible to buy one at the top of the financial pyramid for £35,000.
Developing markets develop.
It's like televisions. In the early days a television was a television, and in the early days a car was a Ford and then the market develops and fractures into strata of cost and complexity and product acceptability.
Understanding that as new opportunities come along, first, they sit in a very small little circle of their own opportunity, before which expanding into a market with the highest priced, most complex and most advantageous at the top and the cheapest, most accessible at the bottom.
This applies to your business to and deciding where you sit in a developing market does define the pathway for your business, probably for the rest of your and its life.
Blog Post Number - 3289
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