You Will Never Become A Successful Optometry Practice CEO Unless You Are a Good CSO

Many Optometrists go to business school to improve their business skills. They pursue and earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and end up learning tons of business theories that they rarely or never use. Some complain that their MBA degree was a waste of money and time and many become happy with the MBA acronyms that they add after their name following OD or other fellowships and affiliations. Even though many refer to an MBA as “Mediocre But Arrogant”, there is nothing wrong with getting one! It’s interesting and you meet a lot of people with whom you constitute an amazing cohort. I personally encourage every Optometrist to pursue an MBA, however more than that I recommend starting studying business and developing entrepreneurship knowledge as early as possible starting the first year in college. Every Optometry student should be able to make a business plan by the end of his first year in college so that by the time he finishes his optometry degree he enters the market with enough knowledge and experience to make his impact in the market and later when he decides on an MBA he will contribute both personal experience and knowledge to the cohort he makes part of. In four words every optometrist is required to “do the right thing”.

Doing the right thing is not only being a forward thinker towards becoming the CEO of your own practice. Doing the right thing is becoming your own strategist from day one. More than that: it is being your own Chief Strategy Officer or CSO. In big corporations, a CSO is an executive who reports to the CEO and his primary duty is to formulate, implement, and evaluate the strategy. He is the foremost deal maker and breaker. In the top strategist role, his responsibility includes developing his personal and the practice vision, strategic planning, and leading strategic initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), transformation, partnerships, and cost reduction. A CSO is referred to as “The CSO needs to challenge longheld views and also get our fellow executives to think about a market environment that is different from the existing one.” Every Optometrist, practice owner, and manager needs to be an executive with a strong strategy orientation who has worn many operations hats before becoming a CEO. Therefore there are six faces of the CSO:
1- The advisor—helping shape the strategy;
2- The sentinel—sensing and interpreting market shifts;
3- The banker—driving deals and partnerships;
4- The engineer—designing and running the strategic planning process;
5- The aide de camp—the CEO’s unofficial chief of staff;
6- The special projects leader—tackling miscellaneous high-impact initiatives.

In answering why Optometrists should aim at becoming CSO before becoming CEO: a CSO is great at developing and increasing commitment to strategic plans, drives immediate change, drives decision-making that sustains organizational change, and balances strategy formulation, execution, and evaluation.