The CEO within

Cosmetic surgery is big business. But we who provide it have a background in medicine, which makes for challenges as we face increasingly competitive markets. I have some business experience. I took time out from medical school to get an MBA and consult for venture capital groups. Two lessons from business school proved most useful as I developed my practice: Business school taught me the importance of having a vision for my practice; it also engrained an understanding of timelines as my venture develops. The two concepts are interrelated.

I wanted a practice that provided excellent clinical care, delivered in the manner of the finest service industries. In medical school and residency, I noticed almost exclusive emphasis on the clinical side. However, my vision was to combine the two in all respects: Mayo Clinic meets the Four Seasons. This meant constantly thinking about how to make all of my organization's processes work together to meet both imperatives. On a practical level, my obsession with this vision provides discipline for everything I do. For example, I wanted to create a cosmetic surgery experience akin to using a luxury boutique's personal shopper. So I built my facility on Rodeo Drive, a capital of retail and style. I wanted a look and feel of elegance. So I understood the effect I needed to create from the architecture, furnishings, and artwork of my space. I wanted my patients to feel well cared for in all respects. So I had clarity as I trained my staff.

My defined vision provided a scaffold on which to build all aspects of the practice: from the office's location and layout, to the way patients are greeted by receptionists at their first visit, through the way the nurses help them get dressed following surgery. Knowing that I had a winning vision made the second business school lesson easier to tolerate. Namely, my time horizon would have to be long. As physicians, it is difficult to be patient as we build a practice. Years of medical school and postgraduate training make us anxious to go out and get busy and wealthy instantaneously. Looking at how successful businesses grow, however, showed me that winning ventures do not emerge fully formed.

In my case, when I first started looking, there was not the sort of space available in the location I wanted. I had to keep hunting for the setting that would allow me to meet my goals. My staff did not learn to create the atmosphere of welcoming luxury I wanted without a lot of training and mistakes and feedback. But because I understood the value of my vision, I could be patient as each of its necessary elements was found, created and improved.

Business school taught me many practical lessons, including that accounting is too boring for me to do myself and that the price I set for a procedure has nothing to do with my costs to provide it and everything to do with what people are willing to pay for it. But seeing how my colleagues from other industries developed a vision for their businesses and realistic timelines for execution helped me most as I worked to carve an interesting niche in the competitive world of Beverly Hills cosmetic surgery.

Dr. Krieger is the founder and Medical Director of Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills, California.

For more information
Lloyd M. Krieger, M.D., M.B.A.
[email protected]