{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Dental Economist Show","title":"Bob Fontana on Why Getting Bigger is Easy, Getting Better is Hard","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2767,"description":"What does it take to build a dental organization that expands access for millions of patients while creating lasting opportunity for providers and teams?\n\nIn this episode of The Dental Economist Show, host Mike Huffaker speaks with Bob Fontana, Founder, Chairman and CEO of The Aspen Group, about the principles that have shaped Aspen Dental from a single practice in East Syracuse into a multi-brand consumer healthcare platform.\n\nBob shares the founding idea behind Aspen Dental: becoming a “yes” organization in a market where patients too often encounter barriers around cost, access, convenience, insurance, scheduling and financing. He explains why a deep understanding of the consumer—particularly working-class and middle-America patients—must inform everything from location strategy and affordability to the patient journey and on-site capabilities.\n\nThe conversation also explores the operating model behind long-term scale. Bob discusses why a national brand creates both patient demand and accountability, why provider alignment and practice ownership have been fundamental to Aspen’s success, and why learning and development cannot be treated as an HR add-on. He also reflects on the evolution of his own leadership, the role of culture in helping thousands of people make good decisions at scale, the synergies across TAG’s healthcare brands, and why the next generation of DSOs must add real value for patients and providers.\n\nEpisode chapters\n\n00:00 Building a “yes” organization\n04:17 The barriers to dental care: cost, access and convenience\n08:32 Why a national dental brand matters\n12:36 Provider alignment and the practice ownership model\n18:21 TAG University and investing in people\n27:18 Evolving as a leader while the organization scales\n31:15 Culture as a distributed decision-making system\n32:11 The multi-brand consumer healthcare platform\n37:57 The founder-led advantage and passionate discontent\n43:13 Building better DSOs and giving back to dentistry\n\nConnect with...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/pXIUMbOEuiksPUbVXasFztN2AhF8jLC1sdhC31mYG5Y/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85MjE0/ZTlmZjRhZjkwYTM5/ZTFkMzcxOWJjMDU3/ZTc2Yi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}