Ep. 250 Why Revenue Growth Isn't Enough: The Business Metrics That Really Matter with Don McDaniel

What if increasing revenue isn't actually the best measure of whether your business is growing well?In this episode of Business Growth Spotlight, Heidi Schalk sits down with Don McDaniel, serial entrepreneur, healthcare industry veteran, educator, and founder of Canton Growth Partners, for a conversation about what it really takes to build sustainable growth and long-term business value.With more than 30 years of experience across healthcare, technology, insurance, consulting, venture capital, and entrepreneurship, Don has seen businesses grow from multiple perspectives. His central argument is simple but often overlooked:Growth matters. But the quality of that growth matters more.Don explains why companies can generate impressive revenue numbers while still struggling with customer retention, product-market fit, recurring revenue, and sustainable economics.Don's final message:Don't give up. Keep going. Keep plowing. There's always a new day.Bio:Healthcare is grossly imperfect, opaque, and highly frustrating to most involved. Consumers are an afterthought, mostly pawns in a morass of cronyism and protectionism among an entrenched status quo. There are pockets of excellence, but also high variability; not the requisite consistency, reliability, and transparency we would expect from such a critical industry. It is this paradox, “the best of times, the worst of times” that captured Don McDaniel’s imagination over 30 years ago and drives him (crazy) today.An industry leader and serial entrepreneur with broad-based experience, Don has experienced the industry’s dysfunction from many seats. He has served as a health system, physician enterprise, technology, and insurance industry executive, an operating partner for a healthcare venture capital firm and a formal and informal advisor to many entrepreneurs and leaders. He founded several new ventures, including Canton. Consistent across his diverse background is helping disruptive healthcare companies of all sizes and at various stages succeed. He is an active and seasoned board member, executive coach, investor and leadership sherpa.Parallel to his work in industry, Don is committed to educating and mentoring next generation leaders. A founding faculty member of Johns Hopkins University’s “business of medicine” MBA program, Don has been teaching health economics, and a variety of strategy, business and public policy course for more than 25 years, including a long stint at his alma mater, The Johns Hopkins University, with teaching appointments at Carey Business School and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2018, he became the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Population Health, where he continues as a faculty member. In 2023, Don joined UCL’s (London) new Global Business School for Health, as an inaugural Health Executive in Residence.Don brings this world of experience and the lessons of “many failures, some successes to his role as an innovative thought leader, and a dynamic, entertaining, sought-after speaker, writer, and facilitator. He has delivered hundreds of speeches across the globe, including delivering keynote addresses at prominent industry events.An unabashed acolyte of Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell and Clayton Christensen, Don is a convicted believer in the power of markets and committed to disrupting the old order to reshape the healthcare industry. To connect with our guest, click on the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdmcdaniel; don_mcdaniel (X) Website:  www.cantongrowthpartners.com Cell phone: 443-904-2882Connect with me:LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidischalkcoaching/Website:  https://hlhgrowthsolutions.com/ 🎁Spotlight to Scale Blueprint:  https://spotlighttoscale.com/blueprint 🎁Join us for a free 60 Minute Webinar on Visibility and Getting Recommended by AI:  https://becomeairecommended.com/grow