Kick Start Your Ophthalmic Practice (or Re-Build It!)

Moorfields Education is excited to be delivering this unique business course for independent opticians and the optometry community. This course combines the strengths of world-leading experts in eye care from Moorfields and business professionals from the UCL School of Management along with seasoned professionals from successful high street practices.

Commercial pressures have increased over the last several months and this trend will continue. Many optometrists and opticians have the dream of growing their businesses but need entrepreneurial and managerial skills to continue to succeed in this changing landscape. This short course is designed to address that need and give delegates insights on how to create a distinctive proposition in a tight market where differentiation is not always easy and the goal post continues to shift.


Course Overview

This course is designed to ensure that participants have proven techniques and the knowledge that can instantly be applied in an optical practice to make a difference.

Some Key topics that will be covered:

  • Understanding your customer in the new normal.
  • Managing your finances and cash flows so that you can grow your business in times of uncertainty.
  • Leveraging collaborations, referrals and networks that give you an advantage.
  • Creating your personal and business brand for a distinctive proposition.
  • Creating a sustainable strategy for managing in a downturn.
  • Ensuring your practice is relevant in the digital space.
  • Using effective marketing techniques to increase and recover business in these times.
  • How to use educational marketing to connect with patients who are reluctant to seek care for what they may falsely perceive as non-essential.

Course Structure

This course is made of self-paced materials, 4 days of virtual face to face workshops, and 5 hours of individual coaching. 

This course will commence on Monday, 19 April 2021 with full access to self-paced learning materials. This will then be followed by 18 hours of virtual sessions over a 3 day block (Friday 23 - Sunday 25 April) which includes lectures, workshops and guest speakers covering the following topics:

Day 1: Friday, 23 April 2021

  • 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Introduction to business strategy, business modeling and business planning (Paolo Taticchi)
  • 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch Break
  • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Driving, measuring and managing customer satisfaction (Ian Davies)

Day 2: Saturday, 24 April 2021

  • 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Brands and competing on the high street (Richard Holmes on Marketing (formerly Specsavers marketing director and Moorfields Board)
  • 12:00 PM - 1:00PM Lunch Break
  • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Differentiating your business through quality services and technology (Louisa Wickham)

Day 3: Sunday, 25 April 2021

  • 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Building your corporate and personal brand (Joseph Liu)
  • 12:00 PM - 1:00PM Lunch Break
  • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Leveraging social media to promote your practice (Amanda O’Brien)

Participants will then start working on a strategic plan to kick start / grow / re-build their practice and receive individual coaching from the Faculty.

On Friday, 18 June 2021, delegates will present their strategic plans and receive feedback and personalised advice tailored to their business from the Faculty.

During the programme, a number of guest speakers will share their experience via videos and virtual face to face interaction providing insights and TIPs to participants. Possible guest speakers include:

  • Pearse Keane on the use of artificial intelligence (Moorfields)
  • Dawn Sim on telemedicine (Moorfields)
  • David Probert, CEO of Moorfields on the future of Ophthalmic Services in a Changing NHS (Moorfields)
  • Alan Parkinson on financial planning for small businesses in times of uncertainty (UCL School of Management)
Who should apply?

This programme has been designed for independent opticians and optometrists.

Accreditation

This course has been awarded 24 CPD points by The Royal College of Ophthalmologists. A certificate of attendance will be awarded at the end of the course.

Requirement

In order to access the programme online, you will need access to a computer (laptop or desktop) with a webcam and microphone.

Book Now

Date Location Time Seats Price
19/04/2021 Online Available to access from 9:00 AM (GMT) 20 £1,500.00
 

Course fees

 

Taught by

 

Ian Davies

Is a keynote speaker, business coach and consultant with 30 years of multinational executive experience. His personal mission is to inspire people to be at their best, every day, in all that they do. He drives business results by helping individuals and organisations develop holistic personal efficiency and effectiveness as a core strategy, to drive retention and employee satisfaction. He blends this with a focus on developing the correct business and personal analytics to diagnose issues and monitor success. He qualified as an Optometrist before moving into sales and eduction at Johnson & Johnson where he was Vice President of Global Professional affairs for 22 years. He has worked in technical and medical support, sales and sales training, marketing, new business development, professional relations and professional education. He has led business process re-engineering and organisational development initiatives operating at Board level positions.

Paolo Taticchi

Paolo is Professorial Teaching Fellow of Strategy and Sustainability, Professorial Teaching Fellow in Strategy and Sustainability, Deputy Director (MBA & International) at UCL School of Management. Paolo has received numerous awards for the impact of his projects and in 2018 was featured in the top 40under 40 of business school professors in the world by American magazines Poets & Quants and Forbes. Paolo advices firms in different countries and sectors, started three business and has trained business students and executives in 15 countries.

 
 

Dr Louisa Wickham

Louisa Wickham is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital and was appointed Chief Surgeon and Deputy Medical Director in 2019. Louisa developed an interest in clinical leadership and management as a trainee leading her to complete an MSc in Health Services Management at London University. She went on to develop her skills further as a Leadership Fellow for the Health Foundation and as a European Leadership Fellow at INSEAD. She has held a number of leadership roles in the NHS and works with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and Royal Society of Medicine to promote clinical leadership for doctors at all stages of their training. Louisa has previously been nominated for a Patient Choice award at Moorfields, in addition her managed practice won “Best Ophthalmology Consultant 2016- London” in Corporate Vision Magazine.

Mr Joseph Liu

As a keynote speaker, career consultant, podcast host, and certified coach, Joseph helps professionals define and market their personal brands more effectively during times of career transition, applying branding and marketing principles from his 10 years of international brand management experiences at companies in the US & UK including Clorox, Gü Puds, and General Mills.

 
 

Amanda O'Brien

Amanda O'Brien is a leading UK digital marketer with extensive experience driving businesses both small and large. She spent the first 20 years of her career learning best practices working in large organisations across Australia and the UK. These include: Mattel Toys, Kraft Foods, Heinz, Direct Line Group and B&Q. In 2016, she started her own business focused on Digital Marketing. She runs two successful blogs: The Boutique Adventurer (https://theboutiqueadventurer.com) and The Discerning Cat (https://thediscerningcat.com). Additionally she has provided digital marketing consultancy to organisations such as Unilever and UCL.

Richard Holmes

Richard Holmes has a strong entrepreneurship background with a Master’s degree in Economics from University of Warwick and BSc Economics from London School of Economics. Richard was Specsavers’ global marketing director and joint chief executive officer (UK), as well as working in similar marketing roles at Boots and Unilever. He is an experienced group-marketing director with a demonstrated history of working in the retail industry. He is skilled in Marketing Management, Fast-Moving Consumer goods, Management, Brand Management, and Retail. Richard is a long-standing Non-Executive Director at Lok’n Store PLC and vice chair of his local Citizens Advice organisation.

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