Uninfluential - Yet Collectively enormously Influential
Dr T.Senthil
Founder Ophthall Practice Development www.ophthall.in
Imagine you are a single Ophthalmic Practitioner in a remote part of India, you feel you are small , uninfluential and helpless. Its nothing wrong- its natural to have such a feeling, and all of us have had this feeling once in a while. The idea of this blog is to explain how aggregate actions of uninfluential people can create enormous influence.
I am sure you are all aware of the 2017 Jallikattu Porattam or Marina Revolution to support the sport of Jallikattu which was banned by the Court . Small groups of uninfluential people started assembling in Marina Beach of Chennai in support of the traditional sport and started protesting that Jallikattu should be permitted since it represents the Tamil culture. Slowly it grew into a revolution with every one from Tamilnadu joining in support of it. What started as a whats app discussion by a group of so called Uninfluential people when joined by lakhs of others created enormous influence and led to victory.
This is the same with all revolutions, right from French Revolution to the latest Egyptian Revolution. All we have to do is find out ways to aggregate many small players.
So why am I talking about this here, what relation does it have with Indian Ophthalmology? We see commonly these kind of discussions on social media
1) Not able to get Insurance Empanelment hence I am loosing patients and revenues
2) Investment to start a practice is high.
3) Hospitals being attacked by violent MOBs
4) Corporates taking over Small Hospitals.
5) Competition from Charitable Hospitals.
6) Survival of Independent practices is becoming tough,
7) Cost of Equipment's getting higher and higher
7) Professional Associations being dominated by groups of people.
The list goes on and on.. and most of the time we think we cannot do anything about this and just resign to our fate. The reason is we underestimate the collective influence of tons of otherwise uninfluential people.
So how can we collectively wield influence
1) Coming together as a group to help each other - guide each other
2) Purchasing Equipment's /Consumables through collective action- Bulk Purchase.
3) Forming our own Organization for Insurance Empanelment's, NABH, Trainings etc.
4) Collectively Investing in Practices of Other Ophthalmologists ( Crowd Funding Model)
5) Joining as a group and negotiation for sale to a corporate.
6) Joining as a group and setting up Charitable Institutions.
7) Group Practice
8) Forming a Group and supporting candidates with vision to help the common Ophthalmologists who will contest Postings in Professional Association's
The power of Collective Action is very Obvious but easily escapes attention
If you would like to share your feedback on this blog message me in what's app Dr Senthil 9840324333
