VIEWPOINT

THE RESULTS ARE IN QUESTION(S)

THE ANSWERS NEVER COME, IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T ASK THE QUESTIONS

JIM THOMAS
Editorial Director

THIS MONTH, OPTOMETRIC MANAGEMENT debuts our “Question & Answer” issue where you, our readers, guided much of the editorial content. When we invited readers to submit questions, through an email survey, we anticipated it would take an article or two to answer all the questions. More than 400 questions later, we realized we’d underestimated the survey results. But not to worry. Our expert authors saved the day. Throughout this issue, they answer your questions in their features and columns.

History teaches that answers usually evolve and change with technology, competition, regulation, consumer demand and any number of factors that can affect an organization’s livelihood. Chances are, today’s answers will need to be scrutinized, analyzed and updated to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

What won’t change is the value of asking questions. As Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, told Time magazine a decade ago: “We run this company on questions, not answers.”

He continued, “Innovation is not something that I just wake up one day and say ‘I want to innovate.’ I think you get a better innovative culture if you ask it as a question.”

QUESTIONING THE QUESTIONS

For those who seek to learn from questions, we have assembled statistics from the questions survey in the article “That’s a Good Question,” beginning on p. 18. Spoiler alert: About 45% of the questions revolved around the topics of contact lenses, ocular disease and optical-related issues. Referencing back issues of OM and the OM “Management Tip of the Week” e-newsletter, the article also answers several questions posed in the survey.

AN ENDLESS SOURCE OF OPPORTUNITY

As a final note, you have an endless source of questions that originate from both staff and patients. Your answers have the power to make the questioners feel valuable and thus, forge loyal relationships. That’s quite an opportunity — and a weighty responsibility. OM