First: “Life”
Our family has recently been reminded how very special “Life” is . “Life” is the most important thing we can and should be thankful for. Certainly a healthy life both mentally and physically is an opportunity we all can work and strive for. Yet it is finite; we can’t afford to waste it.

Second: “Liberty”
“Liberty”/freedom is major; Our quality friends in arms, even fight and die so that we can more securely enjoy such. Sadly, from the beginning of recorded history until now, most humans have not had the opportunity to enjoy freedom. We are a rare and fortunate minority.

Third: “Happiness”
A third tremendously important factor to be thankful for is “Happiness”. “Life” and “Liberty” are foundational to “Happiness”. Our state of mind, our commitment to living our core values, our commitment to not let others drag us down and more, enable us to relish “Happiness”. We only live once, we can’t afford to waste this very important feeling/factor/blessing.

Interesting Confirmation:
One of the most brilliant minds the world has known, Thomas Jefferson said it best over two hundred and thirty five years ago :
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We have so many “things” to be thankful for. However, the most important ones aren’t “things.”

Big hugs and,,,,,,,,

“HAPPY THANKSGIVING” to you all !

Dan

I found a city in a total chaos, with some apocalyptic vision typical of a Spielberg movie.
2 weeks after the floods, major part of Bangkok and surrounding areas are still under water, with people relocated in evacuation camps, or just staying at their place (upper floors only), as they want to protect whatever valuable good remains.

Apocalyptic vision

all stores are open to water. Imagine ATMs floating in the water, cars upside down and people on the roofs/boats, trying to survive.

The Domestic airport (Don Mueang) is still fully immersed . The water went down about 20cm since the end of the rain.

Traffic highway: Many people parked on the elevated highways so as to protect their cars from being damaged. Consequently, the traffic is reduced and several accidents are occurring on the highway.

The Support

Background

Nudent is our distributor in Thailand and this not their first humanitarian action.

Dr Thaweesak (Dr. T), has been active over the past years with – amongst others-  the “King Mom’s Charity”, helping
tribe community with primary support and dental care (Ultradent  usually contributes in products too).
During the 2004 tsunami, Dr T. and his team were first on the spot to help identifying victims and helping out several thousands of European families.

Our Regional Manager, Jay (left) had to relocate outside the city, his 2 houses are under 1.5m of water (we went close to the place but could not access).
5 of Nudent staff are also affected.
this right picture shows the main access to Nudent office (sand bags have been placed in case the water comes).
left to right: Dr Walapha niece, Dr T, Nick, Dr Walapha, Jay, and a new member of Nudent.

The Help

Nudent action comes from several aspects.
Nudent is a self sustaining organization, almost running like a small NGO; They help DIRECTLY victims. This is especially important with a highly corrupted and unreliable Thai government.
Nudent is fully equipped with:
•Equipment: truck, water pump, four wheel drive
•Infrastructure: even if not finished, our
distributor Dr Thaweesak (Dr. T) is building a huge facility in the center of Bangkok which today serves as a center for packing up food for donations.
•Supplies: they are making emergency bags for the victims. They have delivered so far 3750 bags.
•People: and this element should come first. Big hearted people, all willing to roll up their sleeves, get wet and spend their week-end to serve those in needs…

Royal Thai Army

We joined hand with Nudent to help.
Several donations were made, here on this picture is a donation of 5000$ to the Thai Royal Army.

The whole Nudent team is present. Dr T is central (wearing glasses).
On his right, General Podok Bunnag.
The general was true to the core; inspiring in his speech (translated to me by Jay) and with one single objective in mind: helping out his fellow citizens.

The army troops are brave, out in the trenches, looking out to help without any political/financial interest. After this donation was done, they offered us a road trip to the flooded area.
I was honored to hop on one of those high army trucks.
We drove about 2 hours (95% of the time with water above the wheels) until we reached what seemed to me the most isolated place in the world: one of the evacuation center.

Evacuation center

Leaving the truck to reach the evacuation center on a light “homemade boat”.
It was common to see people being transported on these boats.

Human Chain

This was probably the most emotional and rewarding part of the trip: the joy of hand-delivering the food directly to the victims.
This center holds about 200 people, and the 97 bags shall last them for about a week time (they also re-distribute supplies to others centers farther away).

A lesson for life

Here are the happy little fellows, smiling at the monumental amount of food in front of them. I wish I had brought a few toys for them to play .

We way too often forget our real NEEDS, and we should APPRECIATE more the gorgeous simple things of life.
I was deeply moved by this person on the far right (in red). He was the teacher in this small village and turned himself into the leader of Rescue: he was coordinating (via phone) our trip to the center, guiding us through the village (swimming next to the truck) and organizing all logistic aspects of the transfer: He may be busy in this role for the next several weeks until water leaves and they can restore. He may also become the mayor of the city!

To Conclude:

1. Our partner in Thailand, together with the coordination of Jay, is a duplication of what Ultradent would do if it had happened in the US. I cannot be thankful enough for all they engage in.

What a lesson of humility and devotion!

2. Even though Bangkok Floods are not on CNN any more, the situation is still dramatic and many human being are still affected, needing food, survival kits, dry clothes. Re-building will come next.

Ultradent/Dr Fischer has been very generous to donate 20′000$ immediate relief support.

Besides, Ultradent is raising funds and will match on 1:1 basis: We need your help!

Ryan, Steve & Dan are based in HQ and represent US market, Peter handles Europe, Tina (missing in the picture) & Hiromi are the voices of Japan, Nicolas for Asia-Pac and Clauber for Latin America.

While International Sales are becoming more important than Domestic sales, this group was created to bring cohesion to a more Global organization.

Our mission is to:

• Enforce consistent GLOBAL Brands both in Company and in Product

• Increase the GLOBAL Voice of Customer influence on Brands

• Enforce GLOBAL Marketing Policies / Procedures / Solutions

The GMCTeam meets daily by email, weekly over the phone, and quarterly face to face.

What we have already accomplished so far:

• International Training Program (together with the Ultradent University)
• Unifying the Global Catalog
• International Websites
• Product Videos & Sales Tools
• Product Family Brochures
• Web Resource Center Improvements
• Scientific Facts Resource
• Communication/internal-external
• streamlining branding
• review global promotions
• exchange strategy
• validation process on new product development/launch
• improving Product positioning and messaging

We look forward to more successful marketing development in the future!

Local and Regional dentists joined for a ribbon cutting ceremony, company presentation and a cocktail party. The following day was a lecture at the Prince Hotel with more than 170 participants.

The  business outlook is promising in Asia and we look forward to some successful years to come. This was a pivotal step for our development to have the “Big Boss” visiting and sharing his positive energy.

Even though Dr. Fischer didn’t ask for a second piece of Durian,  he really appreciated the food, the people, and the hospitality!

The dental team going appreciates the donation of product that Ultradent makes to help us do this work. I appreciate Ultradent giving me the opportunity It’s a week of long, hard days but the most rewarding of any that I’ve ever done. It’s a very ”centering” and humbling experience as well.  I will try to blog and post pictures from there, if not, a full blog when I return.  Take a moment and check out the websites above.  It’s well worth it.

The University of Southern Nevada is a private, non-profit institution. Dr. Richard Buchanan will serve as the Dean – he earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in Philadelphia. He’ll undoubtedly play a critical role in the development of the DMD program in Utah.

Exciting news…for Utah and the dental community.

The trooper that deserves a salute is Libby. Note her center in first picture with the cute running shoes (she had changed shoes after the lecture to pitch in with Jessica and the rest to help clean up and organize all the materials for the trip back to South Jordan.) Libby is a trooper, a hard working team player who grew up on a farm in this region but who went on to finish college with a degree in acting! Libby is responsible for bringing in almost all 200 attendees to the lecture. The “one and only” Julie, a classy professional regional manager who supports and grows her team, was there (picture one again and to my left). Julie is exemplary in passing the credit onto her team as she beams with pride on their accomplishments.

Great support from other team players occurred at this meeting including from Tams of nearby states of this region. Starting at far left and moving to the right: Jessica, our very hard working seminars guru from home office, Laurie, one of our exceptional Endo specialists, then Tams Diane and Heather (standing by Libby). To my right and lower is Steve and to my right and higher, Mike (a new addition to seminars department). We missed the young and driven Doran in the picture. I felt like I was with family – good stuff and wonderful program!

This week, off for two back-to-back all day programs of eight hours each in Minneapolis Saint Paul! I’m looking forward to it complete with spending a little time with our great colleagues/Ultradent team up there.

Thank you all!

Dan

Despite of all of us having to live through the wage freeze and tightening up in other areas, you’ve opened your cabinets, wallets and hearts to help the homeless.  Ultradent employees were able to double our donations from last year bringing in 18,651 cans of food in a challenge with Swire Coca-Cola!!

A big congrats to the team at Ultradent for making the Utah Food Bank Food Drive Challenge a success!  This is particularly important in a time when charities have been struggling because of economic difficulties.

Thank you all for your heartfelt support of this very important cause.

Dan

Last week, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Sealants for Smiles Gala in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Ultradent is a sponsor of the program.  What a wonderful event – and, more importantly, what a wonderful cause! Sealants for Smiles program which is a charitable organization that providing school-based oral health education and dental sealants to underserved children.  This year, the program served 61 low-income elementary schools in Salt Lake, Davis, Tooele, and Summit counties placing 16,000 sealants.

The results? After an evaluation one year after the procedure, 97% of the teeth remained decay free. It truly hit home hearing the words of Mr. Fred Ball the evening of the gala.  I wanted to share a portion with you here:

“A smile costs nothing, but gives much.  It enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give.  It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is to poor but that he can be made rich by it.  A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business, and is the countersign of friendship.  It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature’s best antidote for trouble.  Yet, it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.  Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile as much as he who has no more to give.”

-Anonymous Author

For those of us who are blessed with comfort and pleasure, our smiles and our teeth are frequently taken for granted. Just brushing and caring for our teeth may seem to be a simple, routine process we all just “do.” But, do you realize the importance of a simple smile on our success and happiness?

A smile is inviting, calming, reassuring and positive. Those of you who are in business or are entrepreneurs work diligently toward your goals, looking for opportunities and taking risk to succeed. If you are confident and positive, your smiles will come easy and may even encourage your contacts to take a chance on you. If you have taken care of your teeth and brushing daily, you are more likely to smile and feel good about yourself. Of course, your success can’t be directly correlated to a smile, but the positive attitude that comes along with a healthy, genuine smile just might play a bigger role than you ever imagined.

Think then about a child who because of lack of tooth care won’t or can’t smile. Doesn’t it also make sense that the positive and confident attribute will be markedly absent from his or her appearance, demeanor and attitude? Will not success and happiness come slower or harder because of the lack of that pleasant, happy countenance?

I personally was not aware of the immensity of the underserved population for children right here in Utah. There are hundreds of beautiful, sweet, young people in our communities who simply never smile. Why? Because they are ashamed of their teeth and mouth. Their confidence suffers. Their school work and attendance suffers. Yes!! There is a need HERE for action. Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. We have willing professionals to attend to the work needed. There certainly is a needy population of our neighbors and friends who need the work but because of circumstances can’t provide the resources to accomplish the work.

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of man, but from doing something worthwhile. Being generous with Sealants for Smiles is worthwhile. You can attain real joy and satisfaction in knowing that you have put a great big smile on the face of a beautiful child.

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.

Ten days ago,  I completed a fabulous and productive lecture tour through India.  This was organized by our wonderful  Ultradent colleague, Girish.  Our talented and hard working territorial manager for the region, Nicolas accompanied us on this tour.  Nicolas found and hired Girish as Nicolas had appropriately come to realize that we needed talented and focused effort every day on the ground for a country as large and complex as India.  The picture above shows in one picture our closest and most “immediate” family of Ultradent stalwarts in India.  On the left is Ramish, an incredible devoted, loyal and caring professional supporter of Ultradent and for many years now, Girish and his lovely daughter and to my right, his most lovely wife with another lovely daughter  and finally, Nicolas, our beacon now for the last few years in South East Asia including India.

My first day was spent at the World Dental Show for India where I met with our distributor there Abetabh, president of Omega  (Please note picture of him with recently placed cast; he’d just fallen and broken his wrist at the beginning of the meeting as he was rushing around.)  and several sub dealers (the two in picture three are twin brothers of a third generation dental company out of a very special and small sect of India who are known for their integrity and most interesting connections to the earth, even in many ways similar  to our early American Indians).  Prior to the lecture we had a ribbon cutting event for our booth and as shared with our distributor and sub dealers.   Following this, I lectured to some 650 dentists for some 4 hours.  They were most attentive and interested.  Please note pictures 4 though 6.  And, just to keep things spicy, simultaneously and with the help of many young dentists, this group made the Guinness Book of Records by performing oral checkups on over 10,000 patients, a 24/7 effort!

In the evening following this lecture, I was brought to a large football stadium where I presented to 3,500 dental students, young dentists and their professors.  Wow, what vitality!

The next morning, off to Coimbatore to present to a fabulous group of about 160 highly educated dentists.  These dentists are afforded great training and from around the world because of the dedication of the former Secretary General of the India Dental Association, Dr Veerabahu who lives in Coimbatore.  He, with the help of his wife and daughter (also a fabulous dentist and described as the “pillar “support with her 13 year old daughter to her father.  I have to say with pride of her however  that she is a classy “self thinking”  “pillar”.) have built and run a very special  CE facility and program that serves a rural but very large even population wise .  Dr Veerabahu, also known as  “the little general” has the care and passion of a saint yet the roar and command of a lion.  He is credited (and because of his very hard and self sacrificing work) to have taken dentistry in India to its “next level”.  Wow, I was really impressed with this 71 year old gentlemen.

And yes, each program on this tour, began with a most interesting lamp lighting ceremony of which this one did also.  And wow, what a day, an all day lecture plus  we traversed  three different cities that day all at least an hour and a half apart by jet flight.  Sorry, I don’t have pictures of this wonderful event and “the little General”.  It was all most meaningful and humbling to me.

The third day I lectured in the city of Bangalore.  This is probably the most modern city in India, and with a population of a few million.  It is the principle city that our US  IT companies and call center companies have outsourced to.  I spoke to another fabulous group of over one hundred dentists and yes, first the fun and respectful ceremonies (complete with the donning of the Maharajah “crown”).  This program was organized by a young dentist Dr Sibi , who with his kids and wife, make it all happen.  Furthermore this guy is the editor of a dental magazine in India that is distributed to some 40,000 dentists!  Another hard working guy who folds his family into his hard work.  They all radiated.

The fourth day and “still ticking”:   I had the opportunity to present at one of the better of the many, many dental schools in India, the KLES College.  We had an amazing and gracious welcome from the Dean of the school, who with several hundred of his students, attended my lecture (This Dean was/is pure class).

In the evening, I presented for about 45 minutes to over 100 prominent dental dealers and dentists, about 50:50 mix sharing, with them who Ultradent was and where we wanted to go in India.  This program was sponsored by our distributor Omega.

The fifth day:  Back to Mumbai/Bombay,  a ribbon  cutting ceremony and more for our new office and as shared with our distributor in India!  Wow, many highly respected gurus of dentistry in India attended!  Hey, we now have an office in India!  Following this, Girish had a nice program set for me  to present to these “gurus” and others  at a near hotel.  Please note the photo of the champagne toasting and with our Ultradent team/family accompanying me at the front.  Following, demonstrating the Valo to them and with their eyes “popping”!

Still some unfinished business:  On the way to the airport, we made a stop first at the very special practice of Ramish where he and his lovely wife treated us like kings.  He is one of the most humble, noble and loyal  souls/professionals I have ever met.  Then, still before arriving at the airport, we go to the “knight in shining armor”, Satish, who first came to Ultradent in 1994 and now  several times after and with his colleagues including groups of Indian dentists for education.  Satish is a special loyal supporter.  Note first picture with our team, Ramish and his lovely and supportive wife to his left and the rest plus finally, with Satish and his office team in his office.  Wow, such wonderful loyal and supporting humans!  We are most fortunate.

The program in India was a well orchestrated program complete with several interviews by several magazine editors and more.  Girish and Nicholas gave it their all.  Hugs to both of them.  And, it is great knowing we not only have Nicholas on our team in South East Asia but we also have the fabulous Indian, namely Girish, slugging it out for us with his great care, quality, integrity, innovative ways, and super hard work!  Add to this our fabulous International leader, Jim Wilson, our fabulous regulatory team headed by Corey and Dianne who are giving it their very best to get our products positioned in India, Ger Bastiaans, our incredible advisor and long term colleague who studied the marketplace there two weeks prior to my going even providing a most comprehensive and meaningful report on India with his special advice plus, many, many others of our team such as the very caring and hard working  Phyllis T who have all made their/your contributions in great ways.

A special thanks to those named here plus even others plus other special moments too numerous to fold into this presentation.  As it is, I already have folded A LOT more pictures etc into this report than the norm.  But hey, how does one fold the most populated country (or second, they and China debate over this) into a short or even moderately  short report and when the events are maximized by a driven caring and hard working colleague such as Girish?

Fun stuff and thank you all,
Dan