Ross and Dan contemplate one of Hive’s bugbears.

Dan: Everyone knows that in life things worth having take time and effort to build. No sane person expects meaningful relationships, a stable career, rewarding hobbies and a satisfying intellectual life to happen just like that. At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, we realise that to get to these things we need the character and perspective that come with hard work, adversity and disappointment.

Ross: Yes, but when you hear people worrying about the instant gratification culture that millennials have grown up with, no doubt some of it’s down to age old intergenerational griping. Yet it’s easy to find signs that patience, hard work and self control are in retreat. Think of the kids you know, how are they different to your cohort? Can you think of a case where a policy of instant gratification has helped a child’s development in the long term?

Dan: Oh dear, best not get me started on that… Short-termism seems to have penetrated many areas of private and public life so much that it’s become the norm. It’s there in the way we nonchalantly accrue household debt, buying new cars with personal contract purchase plans we can’t really afford.

Ross: Yes, and if we’re honest it’s there in the way we chuck an iPad at our bored children. And it remains a key feature of our approach to diet and health. As you wrote, we all know how to lose weight, even if we don’t admit it. The trouble is, even though the answer is simple, it’s not easy.

Dan: Short-termism causes problems in public life too, a point raised by Kristin Forbes in her farewell speech to the Bank of England. She voted to raise interest rates, and found herself in opposition to a class of central bankers who, nine years on from the financial crisis, couldn’t bring themselves to let go of zero.

Forbes went through all the reasons given for keeping rates near zero and found that the UK was still “stronger than when past launches to higher interest rates occurred”. The thing holding us back? Central bankers don’t want the short term pain, and everyone else is happy to let that continue too. Forbes asked: “Do central bankers today put more weight on how tighter monetary policy could affect unemployment during their term and less in the costs of low interest rates in the future?”

Ross: This is a common phenomenon in corporate culture: why put your neck on the line for what’s right when it’s safer in the here and now to stick to short term objectives? You’ll be long gone when the benefits arrive anyway…

Dan: Unfortunately we see this among suppliers to the dental sector. They say things like “do this sales training course and earn an extra £50k” or “focus on this marketing activity this quarter and that one the next”. But it’s hardly worth saying that if your intention is to build a business then seeking immediate financial gain isn’t your priority.

Ross: Usually dentists are prepared to knuckle down to do advanced clinical training, with the investment of time and money that entails, and yet similar investment in their business infrastructure doesn’t come as easily to them. Hence they fall prey to these sorts of short term marketing gimmicks.

Dan: And we see principals try to hang on to high value associate work even as they try to grow their practice. They’re blocking scalability in the interests of immediate financial gain. Just as with the one off gimmick that promises a quick windfall, it’s plainly less beneficial than developing a business plan.

That takes longer, of course, but everything you put in now you get back in multiples. It’s no accident that if you look behind any successful business today you’ll find a long term strategy. Jeff Bezos had a concept for Amazon, to create the frictionless purchase, and his strategy to get there was 10 years deep and required constant reinvestment. Mike Hesketh, my fellow MBA student, wanted to create the highest value dental practice possible, and his strategy was five years deep.

Ross: In dentistry, with a lifestyle dental practice that’s been going for 10 or 20 years, you might be able to reach £750k or £1m turnover, and that’s the point at which you have options as a business. It’s the point where you’re going to have to learn the business side of it to run it well. If you’re entering the market now, access to this jumping off point costs a lot more, and so the pressure’s on to grow quickly. You simply can’t do so with a short term approach.

Dan: So practice owners need long term business discipline now more than ever.

Ross: Yes, and that starts with a diagnostic day and a business plan.

If you would like to talk to us about a diagnostic day please call 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.