If you run an optical practice or company I am sure you will acknowledge that the key to success is to bring together a strong team of people around you whose complementary skills enable your organisation to flourish and to offer the quality and service your customers expect.
A good leader recognises the value of teamwork and assembles a group of people with the correct expertise. He or she is aware that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The art is to make sure that the square pegs are in the square holes and the round pegs are in the round holes.
This principle also applies outside your immediate organisation and should be extended to building up a group of suppliers, both for products and services, that you trust and who can deliver the best support to enable you to create the strongest opportunities to grow your business.
Common interests
In the contact lens sector this structure consists of several teams that cannot succeed or exist independently of each other. Educators, researchers, practitioners and suppliers all form part of the larger team that delivers the most suitable contact lenses to the patient.
I have been involved in the suppliers' team for well over 30 years and have seen countless innovations from many of the manufacturing companies. The amount of resources that are devoted to delivering tomorrow's successful products is phenomenal. This investment results in constant improvements to the range of lenses the contact lens practitioner is able to offer, thus increasing the likelihood of very satisfied and happy patients.
It is not only the products that have changed dramatically. The practitioner's consulting room is almost unrecognisable from a few years ago. Advances in equipment and diagnostic tools enable the most suitable product to be selected for the patient.
Equipment and contact lens manufacturers can be justifiably proud of the contribution they have made and continue to make to the successful optical team. No doubt practitioners and patients alike can look forward to innovative new products being introduced by the manufacturing companies over the coming years.
Research and development teams are particularly important in the contact lens sector but the quality control team is another whose work is essential but often taken for granted. They ensure that practitioners and patients can have confidence in the quality of products being supplied and that reproducibility is guaranteed so that patients receive exactly the same lens time after time. Every manufacturer will have a dedicated quality team constantly monitoring production.
Ultimately the medical device regulations, with which all contact lens manufacturers must comply, work to protect the patient and practitioner. These controls guarantee quality of product and ensure a sound manufacturing system is in place. All areas of production are subject to vigorous auditing procedures both internally and externally by a team of highly trained personnel. The emphasis is on achieving customer satisfaction and continual improvement.
Ideal forum
The British Contact Lens Association's Clinical Conference is one place where all those involved in contact lenses can come together. The conference and accompanying exhibition provide an ideal forum for manufacturing teams to inform practitioners from both the UK and abroad about their achievements and new product developments.
The contact lens practitioner is, of course, an essential member of the optical team and the BCLA conference is a fantastic venue to meet with colleagues and discuss the latest advances in contact lenses that will benefit patients.
The BCLA Conference team has made a big effort this year to introduce new and innovative elements into the programme as well as maintaining many aspects that have made the conference the most successful international contact lens event. Some of the new features include sessions for those new to or returning to contact lenses, a hot topics discussion, a Sunday debate on a contentious issue in practice and new faces on the lecture programme alongside more familiar presenters. There will also be ample time in the events schedule to visit the exhibition.
The BCLA is an organisation of individuals drawn from a wide range of specialities in the optical profession, including educators, researchers and manufacturers as well as contact lens practitioners of all disciplines. The BCLA, like its annual conference, enables all these experts to come together to form a great team. Membership offers many advantages to contact lens professionals, wherever you work and whatever your role.
Why not join us in Birmingham in May, or, better still, become a BCLA member too and enjoy all the advantages of being part of our broad-based optical team throughout the year? I look forward to seeing you at this year's conference. ?