Our team here at Vision Monday reports news, identifies trends and tries to work within and outside the optical world to sense what’s coming down the road. For this year’s VM Global Leadership Summit, we worked up from our ‘Innovation Everywhere’ message of 2012 (your new competition can come from unexpected places). And we focused on ‘creativity’ as the definitive message for 2013 and titled our program ‘Imagination + Invention: Succeeding in a Culture of Change.’

It’s understandable that many business people run in the other direction from ‘creativity.’ It’s hard to define, tough to ‘measure’ and seems counter to the dollars and cents world of business or the living and breathing world of patient care. But as our diverse program of speakers revealed, finding ways to take apart and put back together conventional or existing business ideas, companies, programs and products is paramount in today’s new business world.

This does not mean that heritage and history are unimportant. But there needs to be a way of modernizing how those assets are presented. In recognizing that not everyone perceives the status quo or old and serviceable ways of doing things as exciting or great. That consumers and culture are speeding, often careening around, to keep up with change.

Just because a company is ‘new’ doesn’t make it better, either. But businesses of all types are looking at doing unconventional things. Some are being forced to do so because the legal and regulatory rules are changing— take the Affordable Health Care Act as one example. What will it mean? Absolutely no one knows for 100 percent sure— but count on it meaning that insurance companies will have to find ways to work more efficiently and they are examining all aspects of their provider/delivery systems.

Some are having to reorient how they work because companies are embracing ‘digital’ as the game-changer. Big e-commerce companies are searching out new revenue streams. Many are ‘discovering’ optical. The social recommendation of the ‘fan base’ is not something to be taken lightly by any company. Who are leaders now and who might the new influencers be two or three years from now?

We present some of the noteworthy, provocative comments from the 2013 VM Summit in our Cover Story in this edition. Be sure to also grab a cup of coffee (or something stronger) and spend some time at VisionMondaySummit.com this month and hear what our Summit attendees heard by reviewing the presentations and watching our speakers on video.

The VM Summit specifically reaches for the Big Ideas, but we encourage everyone to translate those to their business. Embrace the ideas, big and small.  ■


maxelrad@jobson.com