If your plan relies on how things worked from 1980 to 2020, Brian Colao says, you are likely to make serious errors. The old rules, he argues, have broken.
In this episode of The DrBicuspid.com Podcast, sponsored by Overjet and recorded in Arizona ahead of the Dental Trade Alliance (DTA) annual meeting, host Kevin Henry talks with Colao, director of Dykema’s dental service organization (DSO) group, about his opening session talk on adding value to the dental industry in the “age of disorder.”
The phrase comes from a 2021 Deutsche Bank report describing the end of about 40 years of globalization-driven growth. Colao says patterns dentistry once counted on -- including low inflation, cheap money, smooth supply chains, few tariffs, and eager job candidates -- no longer hold.
If your plan relies on how things worked from 1980 to 2020, Brian Colao says, you are likely to make serious errors. The old rules, he argues, have broken.
In this episode of The DrBicuspid.com Podcast, sponsored by Overjet and recorded in Arizona ahead of the Dental Trade Alliance (DTA) annual meeting, host Kevin Henry talks with Colao, director of Dykema’s dental service organization (DSO) group, about his opening session talk on adding value to the dental industry in the “age of disorder.”
The phrase comes from a 2021 Deutsche Bank report describing the end of about 40 years of globalization-driven growth. Colao says patterns dentistry once counted on -- including low inflation, cheap money, smooth supply chains, few tariffs, and eager job candidates -- no longer hold.
Brian Colao.
Asked whether dentistry has been slow to pivot, Colao says it depends. The best organizations pivoted a couple of years ago, while many others have been slower, sometimes because they lack the infrastructure for technology, procurement, or revenue cycle changes. Most of the industry, he says, is not where it needs to be.
On who has been hit hardest, Colao says DSOs, which he says scaled up on cheap money and over-leveraged when interest rates nearly tripled around June 2022.
He sees a second mistake as well: acquiring practices without a solid understanding of the business of dentistry. Colao's advice is not to confuse the fundamentals of dentistry, which he says are as strong as ever, with the mergers and acquisitions market layered on top. Solo practices, he adds, need to understand economies of scale as the industry consolidates, though many haven’t been hit hard.
Colao says dentistry needed the influx of private equity, because dentists are rarely trained to negotiate leases, run procurement, or manage human resources. He expects “PE 2.0” to be more selective, more disciplined, and, in his words, extremely powerful.
His advice for the new year differs by audience. DSOs and practices should implement technology to drive same-store growth. DTA members selling to DSOs, he says, should do their homework, show specific value, and bring thought leadership and an implementation plan, because “if you’ve seen one DSO, you’ve seen one DSO.”
Colao also mentions Dykema’s DSO conference, July 7-9, 2027, in Denver.
