So long, Mr. Weeks
By Mike Moran
Updated Sun October 31, 2010
Long-time industry consultant Wallace Weeks will call it quits at the end of this year and devote himself full time to his commercial photography business. Weeks entered the HME industry as a consultant in 1993 after a stint in commercial banking and never looked back, becoming a popular speaker and guru of activities based costing (ABC). HME News recently asked him a few parting questions.
HME News: Are you really leaving the industry for good? It's not going to be the same without you.
Wallace Weeks: I'm going to leave consulting, but I hope to do some photography within the industry. One of our clients (recently) asked, "When you retire, what if I need you to look at something for me?" It made me stop and think. You can't totally walk away and abandon the people you have worked with in the past.
HME: Do you think you'll miss consulting?
Weeks: No. I won't miss number crunching. I won't miss analysis. I probably will miss some of the strategic thinking, and that's because it draws on my creative side.
HME: What's your final piece of advice for HME providers?
Weeks: I'd characterize our industry as a high-touch industry. But no one is willing to pay us for that high touch. If no one is willing to pay for that, you can't be in business if you sell it. We're going to have to take technology and remove man-hours from our business model.
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