What's change got you doing?

There has been a rash of companies buying other companies, as well as public companies reporting their latest financial results, in the past week, and reacting to change is a recurring theme behind all of their activity.

When I was writing up an item on Cape Medical Supply buying New England Medical Homecare, this quote from Cape Medical President and CEO Gary Sheehan jumped out at me: “As we continue to explore our strategic options for succeeding in a changing and crowded healthcare market, bringing our industry-leading sleep therapy program to one of the most populous regions of Massachusetts made a lot of sense.”

Note my emphasis on “changing and crowded healthcare market.”

When I was writing up an item on Cardinal Health's latest financial results, this line jumped out at me: “The Cardinal Health team is well-positioned to adapt, innovate and lead during a time of great change in the healthcare industry.”

Again, my emphasis.

From Mick Farrell, CEO of ResMed, during the company's recent conference call to discuss its latest financial results: “Well, the whole sleep industry landscape has changed fundamentally, I would say in the last 18 months, approaching 24 months, since we launched Air Solutions. And the basis of competition in the space is now changed to not be only, do the devices have to be quieter, smaller and more comfortable, but they also have to be more connected. And we think that connectivity has really changed the space.”

This from a company who has not only connected CPAP devices, but also connected vents and soon-to-be connected POCs.

From Matt Monaghan, chairman, president and CEO of Invacare, during the company's recent conference call to discuss its latest financial results: “With the North America/HME transformation underway, we have initiated the second phase of the change, which is the enhancement of our post-acute care business affecting principally the IPG segment. Over the past quarter, we've begun developing our specialized post-acute care sales force with investments in clinical sales training of certain customer call points and recruitment.”

This from a company that's taking advantage of its position as a maker of devices for the growing post-acute care market.

Seth Godin says, “The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.”

So, what's change got you doing?