The Best Way to Beat the Competition

Innovation is the best way to beat the competition.

Throughout our entire careers, competition has never really been an issue that concerned us. We never worried about what other medical practices were doing because it was irrelevant relative to what we were doing. We knew what we were doing was different, and we were not fishing in the same pond. Doing things differently neutralizes competition and creates a monopoly. Suddenly, you are the only one doing what you’re doing, so therefore, you have no competition. You have a monopoly.

This creates vertical growth versus horizontal growth

When we started the medical practice, I knew a few things:

I did not want to set it up as a traditional medical practice for somewhat selfish reasons. I didn’t want to be put in a situation where, if Steven did not want to practice, I could no longer own the practice. Due to the “Corporate Practice of Medicine Act,” a non-physician cannot own a Medical Practice because an MD can’t be an employee of someone who is not an MD. They must be able to operate independently and make decisions unrestrained for obvious reasons. They have to be free to make decisions in the very best interest of the patients. So I set the practice up as a management company. Anyone can own a management company (as long as the doctors are not employees; they are contractors). This was an innovative way for me to have a medical practice but not be a doctor.

I also knew that I wanted the practice to be vertically integrated, and we have stayed true to that concept even 25 years later by incorporating wellness products and even OrthoSculpt/cosmetic surgery into the practice. Always integrating other lines of business and revenue sources.

I also marketed the practice in unconventional ways. We never depended on referrals from other doctors. Most of our patients came from direct marketing, which was, at the time, very unconventional for doctors. It was considered passé for doctors to put up billboards and be featured in print magazines, but I knew that I did not want to pander to Family Practice or other doctors for referrals. I felt that it was self-defeating to an extent, considering how much training Steve had been through to now go door-to-door. I went on one call with him and waited in the family practice waiting room for over an hour. I looked at Steve and said, never again is that happening.

Steven himself, as a surgeon, has always been very innovative. He did spine surgery very differently, which is probably why his success rates are well above the national average. Even before entering cosmetic surgery, he invented his own technique, OrthoSculpt, which is a fusion of his orthopedic knowledge and cosmetic surgery knowledge combined. I trademarked the procedure, so now we have a monopoly on it.

In setting up Le CYR Consulting, I knew that I wanted to teach kids the pathway to college and their career in a different way, as a roadmap, I wanted to teach them more from a practical standpoint that made sense and was consistent with the underlying self-affirming beliefs that everyone has natural talents that they are born with. These ideas were predicated on education and psychological theories such as those of Howard Gardner and Carl Rogers. A practical approach to college and career planning that sprung from the belief that a talent-focused workforce where kids are taught purpose and passion is the only way to create innovators and leaders who truly are passionate about what they do every day, which will allow them to be more vested in getting good grades because it actually benefits them, not the adults in their lives.

I just finished reading a fantastic book. I try to always have one or two books going at a time, and this one was absolutely unbelievable. It is called Zero to One; when I read it, I realized why I had this mentality that I do. Steve and I are both creators; we like to create things. I guess the modern buzzard is now innovators, but we’ve always been this way, and we are both independent like that.

We have absolutely no interest in re-creating something that someone else has already done. Or opening a business that someone has created and then duplicating it. There’s nothing wrong with that; that’s just not what we’re interested in doing.

In the book “Zero to One,” Peter Thiel argues that competition is not always beneficial for businesses. He suggests that instead of focusing on competing within an existing market, companies should strive to create new markets or innovate within existing markets. Thiel refers to this as “vertical growth” or “doing something new.”

Horizontal growth, on the other hand, refers to the act of competing within an established market by offering similar products or services. Thiel believes that horizontal growth is limited in its potential because it often leads to a race to the bottom, where companies are constantly trying to undercut each other and gain a larger market share.

Thiel’s point is that true innovation and substantial growth come from creating something new or significantly improving upon existing products or services. By pursuing vertical growth, companies have the opportunity to differentiate themselves and capture a larger share of the market, rather than getting caught in the cycle of intense competition.

Innovation makes competition irrelevant.