ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular leaders—physician, clinician, or administrator—are challenged by today’s rapidly changing environment. Success in the cardiovascular world is achieved through creating the future by understanding the needs of the market as well as rapidly developing products and services that meet or (ideally) exceed market expectations. This approach, succinctly described as “internal service integration for the purpose of external market leverage,” is the clarion call of service-line management. It is intellectually and academically unfailing, anchored in logic, and conceptually sound. Ironically, however, the approach is often thwarted—not because car-diovascular (CV) leaders lack either vision or market sensitivity, but as the result of attempted internal operational adjustments becoming mired in office politics, bureaucratic warfare, and status quo tenure systems. The result is an inability to meet market challenges; hence, an inability to deliver the desired products/services.
