Paging Dr. Technology

 

Does your doctor use an iPad, tablet, laptop, or computer at any point during your check up? I for one have experienced several doctors utilizing technology during a doctor’s appointment, paying more attention to the technology than my medical concerns.

Information technology is being implemented across the medical industry. Paper has become a nonentity, and more doctors are straying away from the old fashioned version of record keeping. Digitalizing records, and utilizing electronic health records to supervise patients’ medical histories is becoming the new norm. However, productivity will decline if this new technology is not executed correctly.

According to the article, How Electronic Patient Records Can Slow Doctor Productivity, the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) should be advantageous to all medical institutions, but “in general, larger offices in the study that employed EHRs recorded productivity gains, but certain types of smaller practices lost productivity.”

When EHRs are applied, they can create subtle changes within the practice, thus ultimately changing the way the operation functions. The “communication patterns” of the staff become incompatible, and doctors, nurses, and clinical staff are finding themselves spending more time working on the systems than with patients. This in turn, is extending their workday, they now have to do more work, and they may lose business from disgruntled patients.

EHRs were originally put into operation to promote efficiency and make patient care safer. EHRs allow for “patient data to be shared relatively easily between providers within a given practice” and eliminate the possibility of penmanship errors. The best part about EHRs is that they can immediately detect errors that are made, which makes this type of record-keeping effective and beneficial to the medical field.

Higher levels of production in some medical institutions have seen high productivity; these institutions utilized more EHR usage and increased delegation. Larger medical facilities now hire an EHR staff and that staff becomes responsible for maintaining the data, entering the data, and also helping all other staff with EHRs.

The article hypothesizes that smaller medical institutions are more face-to-face oriented, and focus on establishing a doctor-patient relationship through communication. Additionally, some smaller medical institutions do not have the means to pay for an increase in their EHR systems or an EHR staff to promote delegation within the office.

The article concludes with this statement: “We often look at systems on the basis of their technical capability, the fact that they can store this many records or process that many requests in this period of time. But when we ask how that technology can improve productivity, we have to consider that the true capability of the system depends on the context in which it is adopted.”

Why do you think that productivity declines for some institutions? Do you feel that these new information technology systems are beneficial? Or are they creating a rift in your doctor-patient relationship?

 

Sources:

Article: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7452.html

 

Taking a leap into the future

Cash, credit card or apple pay, are you ready to ditch your wallet?

appley pay intoApple Inc. Reveals Bigger-Screen iPhones Alongside Wearables

When CEO Tim Cook announced Apple’s digital wallet method in early September he didn’t go into great detail about the security aspects of Apple Pay. Although a lot of people may be hesitate on using Apple Pay it turns out Apple Pay is safer to use than ordinary credit cards.

This is how it works, it lets you use and store your credit cards just by scanning your phone. The technology that sends the payment from your phone to the register is called NFC (near field communication) it’s basically an antenna inside your phone that delivers short encrypted radio waves with your payment data.  NFC has been around for a while it has been used in Google Wallet, PayPal, and Pay Express.

It’s a lot harder to steal data from NFC because your phone doesn’t give up your credit card number; instead it uses a one-time use code that gets approved by the bank for every transaction. Even if hackers managed to hack their way into a store and grab this payment data its useless to them because a code can only be used once, plus even if someone where to steal your phone you can actually wipe all the credit cards remotely.

apple pay

Unfortunately not all stores that once accepted mobile payments options are accepting Apple Pay. Stores like CVS and Rite Aid have stopped accepting Apple Pay for two reasons.

  1. The first being is that they developed their own payment method called CurrentC, it’s designed to one day let you pay at the register without using your credit card. Wal-Mart led the effort to CurrentC along with Target, Bed Bath& Beyond, Dunkin Donuts, Gap, Sears, Shell, Wendy’s and many more have joined it. It’s really no surprise that none of these stores are accepting Apple Pay.
  2. These stores feel that Apple Pay is giving more power to credit card companies. Every time you swipe your card, retailers have to pay the credit card companies between 1.3 to 3 percent of every transaction. Apple Pay relies on credit card networks so if Apple Pay grows, it would allow Visa and MasterCard to get stronger and the fees would stick around.

Questions:

  1. Do you think people will find it difficult to put trust in Apple, after the continuous iCloud hacks that have been going on with celebrities?
  2. Why do you think retailers are so afraid of Apple Pay?
  3. Do you think it’s okay for stores like CVS and Rite Aid to deny the use of Apple Pay even though these companies can handle the tap to pay technology?

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/11/04/why-some-merchants-say-no-to-apple-pay/

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/27/technology/security/apple-pay-cvs-rite-aid/index.html?iid=SF_T_River

Lego-lution: The Early 2000s were a Disaster and Now

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Continue reading “Lego-lution: The Early 2000s were a Disaster and Now”

Six Sigma, gone Bad.

SixSigma

“What do weight-loss plans and process-improvement programs such as Six Sigma and “lean manufacturing” have in common?” They article starts off with this quote, referring that diet plans and six sigma plans do indeed fail at one point or another. The companies that use Six Sigma normally start of with huge goals and aspirations of putting these plans into operation, but just like a failing diet these companies tend to go back to their old ways. Many companies around the world embrace this business management such as Six Sigma; however, a recent study shows “that nearly 60% of all corporate Six Sigma initiatives fail to yield the desired results.”  This is where we begin to ask ourselves if it’s actually worth investing in a plan if 60% of the companies who do it aren’t coming up with the results that they wanted. The articles diagnosis this problem into three stages, “stretching, yielding, and failing.”

So let’s start off by talking about what they call the “stretching phase.” The process can be defined similarly to a metal spring analogy. “When a metal spring is pulled initially, the material stretches to accommodate the increase in pressure.” They compare these metal spring to people in a business process. Initially people at any process in the business will bend and stretch to make things happen. I also agree with this because when you are new to a job or trying a new process you are initially willing to do whatever it takes to try and make it work. Most teams in any business are generally excited and willing to learn the new process, such as Six Sigma. Normally at this stage in the process managers will implement a “to-do” list will let employees know what is exactly expected out of them. When the employees reached all of their goals on the “to-do” list they were rewarded and the project is normally ruled a success. I believe this is where we can see one downfall. Rewarding employees can be successful, but if you keep doing it over and over and don’t increase the expectations or continue to manage you teams, I believe failure is inevitable.

The second phase the article is called the “yielding phase.” The phase can be defined as, “If a metal spring continues to be pulled, there will come a point when the material yields as it struggles to support the increase in pressure. Though still intact, the spring becomes permanently deformed, stretched out.” They compare this to management at a company switching from one project to another. When management switches to another project more times than none the team that lost the management from the Six Sigma managers slowly begins to lose site of their goals and begin to slip back into their old ways. At this point in the phase teams begin to loose sight of the end goal and being to focus to much on their individuals efforts. The teams that lost the Six Sigma management slowly began to crack under the pressure.

The third and final phase in this article is the failing stage. Using the metal example this stage is defined as, “Over time, pulling will cause the material in one area of the metal spring to narrow, creating a neck that becomes smaller and smaller until it is unable to sustain any pressure at all. At this point breaks into pieces.” When the Six Sigma management team leaves, employees at company’s becomes discouraged and eventually begin performing poorly and than fail returning into their own ways.

After reading this article, I begin to wonder if the Six Sigma program is actually worth it? What do you think?

Should a company invest money into this program, if 60% of the companies end up returning to normal ways?

How could companies prevent this program from failing?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574457471313938130.html

http://www.isixsigma.com/new-to-six-sigma/getting-started/what-six-sigma/

Spirit Airlines: We Know You Hate It, But We Don’t Care

Spirit Airlines is an American airline company that is known for having low-cost flights. The company is more concerned about the prices they give out rather than the complaints they are receiving. Spirit has been acquring their fair share of criticism from customers and the media. A survey was made of some 16,000 customer ratings and Spirit Airlines was among the bottom of the list for flying in America. “That report did not ask the one big question of who offers the best prices. And hands down, the No. 1 thing we’re told by our customers is that the price matters,” says Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson. Let’s be honest, would you complain about a flight that is two and a half hours long and only cost 75 bucks?

Spirit AirlinesThe company strives to make the price for flights as low as possible. They have an average base price of only 79 dollars. One thing that customers hate about Spirit Airlines is the fact that they charge fees before and during the flights to passengers. These fees can add up to be 40 to 50 dollars for the majority of customers. Spirit Airlines does not even offer a free cup of water or have a video system while the passengers are in flight. There is not much leg room either so you are cramped, regardless of how short you are.

The airline company believes that is what the Spirit customers want when it comes to this airline business. Spirit believes they have travelers who would most likely be getting a bus seat if their airline service was not available. The Chief Executive Officer Ben Baldanza says, “Well, what we say is that we care about what our customers care about, which is price, and one of the things that Consumer Reports survey didn’t ask is where do you get the lowest fare? And so they asked about leg room, and they asked about check-in, and they asked about bag fees, and things like that. But the total price that customers pay on Spirit Airlines is less than they pay on anyone else, and that’s why they love us.”

Spirit Airline company should not be upset by all the criticism coming their way. Spirit is a very solid business as their sales rose 23 percent in just the past quarter. The planes are fuller than the rest of the other airline companies. The company has a rate of 85.1 percent in the first quarter  of 2013 when it comes to flights being full. That makes the company really profitable as they move forward.

The airline company still gets a lot of negative feedback from the press even when they are succeeding. So, is it fair that Spirit Airlines is getting this terrible assessment from the media when they are making profits and almost all of their flights are full? Does the base price really trump all the niceties that other airlines offer?Or should management try to improve their baggage fees and legroom in the flights in order to please the customers more?

Links:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-23/spirit-airlines-doesnt-care-if-you-hate-it

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/03/news/companies/spirit-airlines-fees/index.htm

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/spirit-airlines-ceo-we-have-the-lowest-prices-and-thats-what-customers-care-about.html/

I’m Tired of Being In Charge

Many times we, as business students, have thought about the related stress and demands that we could face if we ever had to lead our own organization. Managing the various divisions across the organization to make sure we are reaching the expected results, that the company culture is positive and that employees are actually performing what we want from them.  Let’s face it, the very thought of it may be exhilarating, but it can also be exhausting and may give us an unexpected set of grey hairs.

The article entitled, “When the CEO Burns Out” from the Wall Street Journal discusses the particular case of James Green, CEO of Giant Realm, an online advertising network.  While the article not only makes mention of the high amounts of stress and mounted expectations that this CEO faces, it goes further by stating how this trend is on the rise in the US corporate environment in general.

The article mentions a study carried out by the Harvard Medical School, which clearly illustrates the new trend among CEOs, the study showed that 96% of senior leaders reported feeling burnt out. This new trend is something that needs to be addressed and solved as soon as possible. It will not only damage the long-term goals of the company but will also decrease the CEO’s management quality, as they strive to reach the numerous objectives set for them.

This article does a good job of describing this recent trend, as well as the medical reasons and preventions that executives can take, yet it fails to mention non-health related actions that companies should inspire their CEOs to do. These actions include an effective and fair delegation system, which many times is a hard decision for executives to make, since they feel they will not be needed in the future, or because they are decreasing their workload. Executives should also be compensated and treated fairly even if they sometimes do not achieve the desired results. As long as these CEOs have the input of the shareholders and receive positive criticism, their performance can still improve in the future and without taking a toll on their mental and physical health.

Companies need to realize of this new and more recurring trend and take preemptive measures to help CEOs not only perform their job successfully but also keep them motivated and enthusiastic about their job and the company itself. Often, when CEOs experience burnout they are later instructed to take a leave of absence to recover from stress. During these absences companies have seen not only their operations lag and/or become less effective, but also a decrease in stock value. This last issue may sometimes make the pressures that were put on the CEO previously inconsequential since the company’s value took a step back during the CEO’s absence. In conclusion, companies should look for results but they should do so responsibly while also making sure that their leader is healthy and motivated to improve on previous performances and improve their managing quality.

What do you think companies should do to avoid these burnouts?

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323687604578469124008524696.html

Does Apple Have A Supply Chain Flaw?

Apple, a company that holds power, and diligence in the business world, is considered to have a top line supply chain management system. The success of this powerhouse company is mainly due to the innovative thinking and approach when it comes to supply chain management. However, why is their stock falling like a sack of bricks, and how come sales have slowed down?

Apple has created a “closed ecosystem” where they control every aspect of the supply chain, and in turn this enables Apple to launch large product lines avoiding high costs. For example, when designing the green light that lets you know the camera is on in all their laptops, they designed special tools to create this “at the time impossible idea.” They concluded that they needed to create lazar beams to cut a perfect whole in to the aluminum, which saved money and shows how they have total control over their product supply. Another example of innovative thinking that complements Apple’s productivity in their supply chain is when they bought 50 million dollars worth of holiday airfreight space. This in turn limited competitors to get their product to retailers, and also gave a huge supply of Apple products in stores limiting consumer options. “They have a very unified strategy, and every part of their business is aligned around that strategy,” says Matthew Davis, a supply-chain analyst with Gartner. He has ranked Apple as the world’s best supply chain for the last four years.

Clearly they are doing something right, right? Well with the decline of the stock a lot of question has been raised. For example, if Tim Cook is such a supply chain specialist, then why does he only have one supplier for all it displays? Even worse, why is that sole supplier Samsung, one of Apple’s biggest competitors? Because of business related tension between the two, and lawsuits, Samsung is not supplying displays to Apple for the new iPad Mini which is a problem. Tim Cook is clearly forced with a rough decision, and now basically has to choose between two Suppliers, LGD, and AUO, who is a very new inexperienced supplier. AUO cannot meet the volume demands for Apple so that really only leaves one supplier, LGD.

Overall, if there is such a fantastic supply chain in the company, and Tim Cook, who was COO under Steve Jobs, is considered to be the specialist in that, why would he but sole supplying responsibility on Samsung, one of their biggest competitor? It seems to be a huge gamble, and almost idiotic. Do you think that this sole supplier Apple uses is their flaw? Do you think this is going to hurt them in the long run? Could Apple be giving away their “closed eco system” by doing this? Could it be the small size of the supplier market that is hurting Apple? How can they avoid this problem?

Sources:   http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/apples-supplychain-secret-hoard-lasers-11032011.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/10/26/apple-cant-innovate-or-manage-supply-chain/

The End of A Dynasty?: Clash Between Industry Titans

 

The battle for technological dominance is beginning to heat up. Apple and Samsung have been at each other’s throats competing over market share and cultural relevance for years now, with Apple seeming to come away the victor year after year. However, the momentum has seemed to shift in Samsung’s favor recently. So why the sudden change? In 2013, Samsung took a huge leap forward against their arch rival by enjoying a monumental 56% surge in sales pertaining to smart-phones. Whereas Apple only saw a disappointing 6.6% increase in sales within the smart-phone sector. Samsung now has a stranglehold on the market share, controlling 33% of the smart-phone division compared to Apple’s mere 18%. With this sudden charge in 2013, Samsung experienced soaring profits and revenue sales of $47.6 billion, a 17% increase compared to Apple’s 11% increase.

People are beginning to wonder why Apple has become so stagnant with their products, while Samsung continues to innovate, push the limits, and surpass new boundaries as a organization. As we all know, Apple as a company has gone through major changes when it comes to management ever since the passing of their charismatic and brilliant leader Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011. However, they are not helping themselves with their lack of new products entering the market, along with their rather “elementary” tweaks to the iPhone 5 that have left many longtime customers of Apple disappointed and looking elsewhere for new and innovative mobile devices. For example, Apple upset a good portion of their customer base by changing the adapter that charges the battery life for a majority of Apple products. One of the major draws for Apple’s iPhone line was the fact that their mobile devices had become standardized with the ability for users to charge their phones just about anywhere, even if they forgot their phone charger because they could just use someone else’s. All the while Samsung continues to focus on the quality of their products by offering a wider range of specifications regarding smart-phones that have consumers clamoring for more. Also, Samsung’s new handset, the Galaxy S4, has premiered to critical acclaim among customers and could potentially threaten Apple’s iPhone as the gold standard among smart-phones in the industry.

Samsung has been able to achieve this triumphant comeback through intense quality focus and strong leadership throughout the organization. Especially at the top with former Chairman Kun-Hee Lee who strove for product quality so much that he took a trip to one of the company’s plants that had developed a batch of defected products and required all 2,000 employees to wear headbands that read, “Quality First”. Through this philosophy, Samsung has been able to efficiently produce quality products at a cheaper price compared to industry standards, which in turn allows them to charge a higher price that consumers are willing to spend. The end result, an incredible first quarter of 2013 for Samsung and a devastating blow to Apple. Will Apple recover from this disappointing 2013 start? Possibly with  the iPhone-5S. Or will Samsung continue jabbing away at heavyweight champ?

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/04/26/samsung-trouncing-apple-gangnam-style/

 

Infer: Better Math Can Produce More Sales

Infer is a company that develops technology that allows company’s sales-tracking system to rank customer leads based on how likely they are going to purchase something. The company has raised 10 million over the last two years while working on this technology. Infer is rather simple as its software starts with basic information. For example, if a customer decides to enter their name, address and company when signing up for a product. The Infer system will then start doing research behind the person that signed up for the product.

The CEO, Vik Singh is young as he is only 28 years old, but he believes that his mathematical formulas will increase sales. Vik Singh and his 10-employee team are in the midst of improving sales by using better math.

Vik doesn’t seem to be short on confidence as he feels that this new  innovation is sure to help increase sales. The problem is the fact that he is  very young and there may not be that many people that believe in his new ideas. He may not be the best person to trust for sales, but he certainly has the right engineering track record. He worked with Google fine tuning search systems before moving to Microsoft. At Microsoft, he developed technology with Jim Gray, who of the greatest computer scientists of the last half century. He finished working with Microsoft and built a new Yahoo search system.

Vik Singh has worked with some of the biggest technology gurus in the world. Vik Singh says, ” The way the typical company manages data is piss-poor in comparison and there is more science at Facebook (FB) behind seeing which of your friends are getting drunk across the street from you.” This seems to be a common theme with all the new web-savvy engineers that are trying to make new rules for business applications. Vik Singh wants to treat sales deals like a puzzle. If Infer can makes their sales deal like a puzzle then it can be solved with an algorithm rather than a dinner between people who have ideas.

Infer has worked with Box and other customers to verify their research. It works with historic sales and compares outcomes with their own predictions. Singh continues to tell everyone that the experiments come out nearly perfect, but he has not released any proof of this for businesses to see. In my opinion, there are a lot of other things that factor in when dealing with sales. There needs to be more facts when trying to rely on just math to increase sales. From a management point of view, I don’t know if Vik is taking things a little too far with all these math equations, but he does have the technology background to speak for him. Then again who has time for someone that is only 28 years old and is trying to change the way selling works?

Links:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-24/infer-promises-more-sales-through-better-math

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/23/infer/

http://blog.studentrnd.org/post/37455656817/why-asians-are-better-than-americans-at-math

The Science of Relationships in Business

I was going through my normal browsing routine of the Financial Times today and found an interesting article in the management section entitled “The psychiatrist of finance” which was a small story on a man named Peter Solomon. The piece talked about how Mr. Solomon’s career evolved during his career and how he has preferred a way of doing business that involves close relationships and empathy with potential and current customers. I actually felt that the piece was extremely good for any MBA student to read because it reminds us that even in today’s environment of ever more automated relationships that a human connection can be the difference between success and failure as well as necessary to ensure a long relationship with clients.

Balance: a career in banking has enabled Peter J. Solomon to pursue his interest in art

 

As I sat here pondering the deeper meaning of the moral of this story, I realized that the subject of the article has a point that should be heard. In fact, it can even be seen as a strong strategy that provides a competitive edge. More and more services such as investment banking are becoming a commodity. This causes firms to essentially race each other to the bottom of the profitability ladder. Firms continue to find ways to cut expenses which usually means cutting out the human factor in exchange for higher levels of automation. But the question to ask is, why? Why do firms automatically start assuming that these short term moves will help in the long term? As a product becomes a commodity, it no longer brings about a sense of product loyalty to it. A perfect example of this is how investment banking is becoming cheaper and cheaper for firms and no longer draws the same loyalty that it once did. The relationships that Mr. Solomon has built over the ages are essentially what cause consumers to stay with a company in the long term. Just look at how when a financial advisor moves to another firm, many of this clients will go with him or her.

In the article, Peter Solomon recalls an incident when one of the employees of his firm was so involved on her smartphone that she walked directly between the President and Chairman of her firm without even realizing it. After getting her attention, he says to her “You just walked between the chairman and the president of your company. Are you going to observe the world around you, or ignore it?” This small story really gets to the heart of a disease of mass automation within the entire business community. Firms are so involved in automating out the human capital that they are losing their edge in being able to find hidden gems of opportunity that a computer cannot discover. This really goes beyond the usage of customer loyalty programs that attempt to entice consumers with financial rewards, this goes to the heart of the interaction between two people, regardless of their social positions or status. While CRM systems can only attempt to use algorithms to attempt to discover patterns leading towards better sales and client management, the ultimate tool to that better relationship is the salesperson or service rep themselves and their ability to empathize with clients and their concerns.

Just looking in my industry, I can easily pick out a perfect example of this. If say an asset manager is offering service to their client but they simply are offering a commodity, they may continue to retain that line of business but no growth will be established. If that same asset manager ensured they kept a working relationship with that same firm, they might find other opportunities such as asset based lending, underwriting, etc. All of these further deepen the client’s loyalty to the firm and almost build a feeling of guilt to go elsewhere. Going even closer to home, I easily recall how my Father will go to the same mechanic faithfully for years and years because of the relationship that was established of trust. Loyalty like that is simply unquantifiable to any firm and can be the savior in the worst economic times.

What do you think? Can you name a few examples in your own industries of how such loyalty and relationship building are either being forgotten or used to build stronger ties to the client?

 

 

Sources:

Financial Times: The psychiatrist of finance by David Gelles

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c003d782-447d-11e2-8fd7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2FLyAGX4q

Entrepreneur.com: 5 Ways to Take Customer Loyalty to the Next Level by Jonanna Lord

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224117