One of my favorite quotes has always been the one from Albert Einstein: “The definition of ‘insanity’ is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Marge Axelrad Editorial Director

We’re all a bit guilty of this in our lives and working worlds, which I guess means we’re all just a bit crazy.

But I was struck by the way some people in fact do step out of the norm and try to reinvent their businesses when we were putting together the “super practices” profiles we feature in this month’s VM.

The optical marketplace and vision care environment of 2008 is certainly unlike the one that existed 10 or even five years ago. The competitive landscape is different. Modern technology is different. The consumer is different. Vision care solutions are different. The economy is different.

To remain unchanged in one’s approach and attitude to how a practice is run, even if that’s meant past success, isn’t always healthy. It doesn’t mean that change for change’s sake is absolutely necessary but actually, it can be a good idea to be proactive about considering new ideas and implementing them.

All of the independents we feature in this month’s Cover Story are taking actions to stay ahead and in control of their positions in their local and regional markets and in the minds of their patients. They are building and rebuilding; they are planning and accommodating change; they are investing in systems that not only help them manage their business and daily time better and more profitably but are using technologies to ‘wow’ patients during the exam and dispensing process.

Finding ways to spark new perceptions of eyewear and communicate the real “value’ of eyecare, its complexity and scope, to patients is the next successful horizon for independent ECPs and all optical retailers.

And there’s nothing loony about that. ■