The talent war of the pandemic years has given way to something new: a data war. In this bonus episode of Transcending Home Care, host Tony Kudner is joined by Courtney Penn, COO of Transcend Strategy Group, and Stephanie Johnston, president and CEO of Transcend, to talk through what the firm is seeing across a growing number of GRO™ Assessments conducted with hospice and home-based care organizations nationwide.
The conversation moves through the four pillars of the GRO Assessment. Courtney unpacks how competitive readiness has shifted from relationship-driven growth to intelligence-driven growth, with referral sources moving faster and expecting more. Stephanie explains why financial readiness remains the foundational bucket, and why more organizations are coming to Transcend from a place of acute business pain rather than simple repositioning. Tony makes the case for meaningful differentiation, arguing that quality scores and nonprofit status are not differentiators, and shares a striking example of a provider whose 30-minute bedside guarantee had never made it into their own marketing materials.
The group also digs into the training gap facing business development liaisons and admissions teams, and what it takes to get honest, detailed answers from staff in just 48 to 72 hours on-site. As Stephanie puts it, the goal is never to be the two Bobs from Office Space, asking people what it is they would say they do here. It is to understand the world a team lives in well enough that people want to talk.
