Not long ago I was clearing out and shredding a lot of material from an overflowing filing cabinet and came across a memo relating to what I’m guessing was a dental practice course I had attended many years ago. There was no specific indication what course it was, but the memo read “The Five “Cs” of Success in Conducting a Dental Practice” and listed the five of them: Comprehensive, Continuous, Competent, Compassionate and Coordinated Care. My geriatric mind is still struggling over the origin of the memo, but looking back over the many years of practice, I remember that every now and then I got to thinking, “Hey, is this following “The Five Cs”.
When looking at life in general, whatever task one is undertaking, consideration of the “The Five Cs” is certainly a positive action to move forward. Being Comprehensive, Continuous, Competent, Compassionate and Coordinated can only lead to doing the best you can to make sure the task at hand not only benefits those to whom you are responsible, but in the long run will have strong influence in achieving your own Success. As we look at this particular issue of The Professional Advisory – and all previous issues – one can’t help but feel that “The Five Cs” plays an important role in bringing success not only to one’s professional practice but to the well-being of life itself.
Take Ian Toms’ The Lease Summary: an Essential Tool for the Tenant. As it reads, leases can be quite complicated, but Ian’s attention to “The Five Cs” sorts them out so they are comprehensive to all involved. Not every decision is a winner says David Chong Yen and Louise Wong but with their “Five C” approach to capital, non-capital and allowable business investment losses it’s like Making Lemonade from Losses. Ron Weintraub’s opening sentence in his Leadership Within the Emerging Complex Entity called “The Dental Office” refers to the evolving contemporary dental facility being dramatically different from five to ten years ago, and it’s not hard to see that the application of “The Five Cs” has a great influence on the adoption of an effective leadership style.
David Rosenthal deals with Non-Competition Agreements which arise when purchasing or selling a practice, entering partnerships or cost sharing agreements, and when entering associate agreements, whether as a principal or an associate. It isn’t difficult to see that his “Five C” Care approach can make that particular important time much more successful. Mark McNulty’s article is titled The Canadian Dollar. And who do you know today that isn’t someway or another affected by our Canadian dollar’s present status. Included in the article is a graph showing the Canadian dollar value versus the US value over 45 years and it isn’t hard to imagine how much “Five C” hard work Mark and his office put in to deal with the complexities of today’s dollar value. Colin Ross’ Good, Better, Best– The Market Has Spoken deals very effectively with dental practice values and concludes that “It is certainly not impossible to move from good to better and maybe even to best, but it does take insight, planning and time”. And isn’t insight, planning and time integral to “The Five Cs” road to success.
Yes, after a fair amount of time and work the filing cabinet is much less crowded and better organized. Despite the computerization of today isn’t it interesting how all that paper just keeps coming in and piling up? But the good thing of the organizing task is the memo from the past that reminded me of The Five “Cs” of Success in Conducting a Dental Practice” – Comprehensive, Continuous, Competent, Compassionate, and Coordinated Care.
