We are proud to have completed our Marketing and Operational Management Training for the year 2012! Training was a success as all of the Atlantic marketing representatives and operations personnel traveled to Tampa for the event on July 16th and 17th. Although Florida may have welcomed the teams with scattered thunderstorms, everyone was in high spirits to dig deep into the wealth of information, creativity and ideas that were presented.
Training opened with a variety of discussions on the state of the current market and Atlantic’s place in it. The presentations began with a welcoming message from our fearless leader, Chris Christenberry, discussing the importance of his concept; “Adhere, Nurture, Proliferate” which used the metaphor of a tree to describe Atlantic Health Solution’s role as a company. The roots act to adhere and stabilize the tree and thus symbolize Atlantic’s company culture of maintaining positive attitudes, integrity, tenacity and hard work. The bark of the tree functions to develop and nourish, just as our corporate staff and marketing representatives work to develop relationships with physicians and patients. Lastly, Atlantic’s staff works to proliferate, or affect others in our mission through our dedication to service and community outreach.
Next we participated in a general session of training which focused on strategizing ways to improve performance within the market by fostering creativity. The team felt that this way a great way to kick off the training, as creativity innovation is crucial to maintaining an edge within the market. The teams were then able to split into breakaway sessions to concentrate on leadership and sales-centered topics.
“Who Moved My Cheese?” discussed Spencer Johnson’s short yet educational book discussing the importance of adapting to new environments. This presentation was the ideal session to discuss the changes taking place within the radiology industry and how marketing representatives must adapt and create new strategies to overcome them. Although the “cheese” may be different than it was in yesterday’s market, the team was able to be creative and share strategies that they have experimented with.
“Daring to Be Disruptively Different” discussed avoiding traditional marketing methods and adopting more noticeable marketing campaigns. This became a team favorite, as this session once again highlighted the importance of standing out among competitors with efforts in guerrilla marketing, allowing them to really stretch their creative muscles. Though being disruptively different is the road less traveled, the team learned that it can provide major payoffs. Thinking like a patient and understanding their needs, getting thrifty and being memorable, and knowing how to position yourself to reach your target population are all important in being “disruptively different.”
Presentations weren’t left solely to those heading the general sessions. Each marketing representative and operation’s manager was responsible for presenting an abstract on hot topics in their industry. This project con sited of creating a board discussing their findings and presenting their conclusions to the rest of the team after becoming experts on their subjects. The abstracts touched on varied topics, giving the opportunity to learn about topics such as PET/CT and Alzheimer’s, Obamacare’s Effect on the Baby Boomer Population, Marketing to Patients and Staffing Changes Within Radiology. A friendly competition ensued to determine who had the most creative and most informative presentations. The title was awarded to Alex Dewey on his presentation regarding Accountable Care Organizations and their effect on Radiology, and Mike Ellis for his presentation about HPV and Head and Neck Cancer. White papers on all of the presentations, including Alex and Mike’s, will be included in our next blog post.
Our training ended with a wonderful trip to Metropolitan Ministries, Tampa’s program designed to provide life-changing answers to local families and individuals suffering hunger, poverty and homelessness. Metropolitan Ministries aims to instill self-sufficiency, alleviate suffering and promote dignity through a number of programs to help prevent homelessness, ease hunger, offer life-changing opportunities and support transition back into the Tampa Bay community. This amazing opportunity allowed the Atlantic team to really put in place the things they preached throughout the week, allowing hard work to lead to proliferation within our community.
Overall, the staff thoroughly enjoyed traveling from all different stretches of the country to share their ideas, improve strategies for adapting to a changing market, getting to know one another better and having an overall good time. Photos from training can be viewed at out Facebook page here and white papers from each representative will be available next week on our blog!
