Think the time you spend answering e-mail, composing IMs, and trolling Twitter doesn't have an impact? Think again. A recent study by research firm Basex puts the "cost of unnecessary interruptions" in terms of lost productivity and innovation at a shocking $650 billion. Merlin Mann blogged about the cost of...
Healthcare is in crisis. While this is not news for many countries, we believe what is now different is that the current paths of many healthcare systems around the world will become unsustainable by 2015. Healthcare systems that fail to transform will likely require immediate and major forced restructuring -...
A career as a Dental Assistant will open many doors of opportunity. Dental Assistants will be among the highest growing occupations from now until next few years. This is because people are starting to take a better interest in their oral health. Technological advances have led many individuals to the...
Last Friday was Bike-to-Work Day. But why just one day? Why not make it a regular thing? Biking to work offers countless benefits: It's free, it doesn't produce CO2, it improves your health, it guarantees a parking spot near the door, and so on. Wired suggests five ways...
Feel like you're running on an economic hamster wheel, powering an economy that benefits only a relative few? Jared Bernstein's "Crunch" is for you. So says reviewer Harry Hurt III in A Rock, A Hard Place and an Exit Strategy. Hurt walks through Bernstein's discussion...
I think markets have blind spots, along with a certain caustic wit. But the Templeton Foundation has been funding research into what you might call the two sides of Adam Smith, melding the free-market capitalism of "The Wealth of Nations" with the moral philosophy of its predecessor, "The Theory...
The Find: Flextime has been shown to improve productivity and aid retention; now researchers have found it improves health and reduces absenteeism as well. The Source: Recent research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine published in the Psychologist-Manager Journal. ...
Automotive OEMs face many challenges: Constraining legacy IT systems. Increasingly demanding customers. Fierce competition. Legislative pressures. An explosion of product variety and complexity. Spare parts sales offer a sizeable opportunity for automotive OEMs that can understand their customers, optimize supply chains, improve collaboration and strengthen competitiveness....
What is performance management and why is it so important for the business world? The first thing you will need to consider is what we mean by performance in business. The term is primarily used to evaluate and assess the results of all the hard work put into a project...
Next time you're wandering through the airport looking to grab a bite to eat before you cram yourself into coach, look to see if there are any Chipotles before you head over to Burger King. Health Magazine ranked the best fast food chains out there and found that the burrito...
Most people don't know it, but hard evidence as to which medical treatments actually work best is in awfully short supply here in the U.S. The growing scandal over the expensive cholesterol drug Vytorin, which appears to be no more effective than older, cheaper statin drugs, is just the latest...
The notion advanced by enthusiasts of "Health 2.0" is both simple and appealing. A new generation of interactive Web services, they say, will arm individuals with data, tools and supportive online communities so they can take charge of their own medical care -- and in turn transform the broken U.S....
Walgreens Co. will launch a casual clothing line April 1, selling T-shirts and cotton capris near the Marshmallow Peeps and nail polish in most of its 6,000-plus stores. The Chicago Tribune reports the "Casual Gear" line is part of the Deerfield, Ill., drugstore chain's efforts to boost front-end sales of...
For those of us who write about business, every once in a while, a book or an article comes along that seems so simple on some levels yet communicates great wisdom. "The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage" is one such work. Here's a link to the download. The author is Michael Lee...
Was N.Y. governor Eliot Spitzer "caught in a prostitution ring?" Or did he simply hire a prostitute and get caught? The power of message control was on full display yesterday, with the national media playing along in all its glory. The first word I...
Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced Google Health, a new health information service at a press conference at the HIMSS health care information trade show. Afterward, he granted a one-on-one interview to CNET's Elinor Mills, who, you may remember, pissed off Google and Schmidt a couple of years ago...
Deloitte's 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers, an online poll of more than 3,000 Americans ages 18-75, provides an important and timely perspective on health care consumerism. The survey assesses consumers' behaviors, attitudes, and unmet needs related to health, health care and health insurance. It also points to six discrete...
Good enough innovations may be the best drivers of social change. The Idea in Brief The U.S. spends more money on health care than any other nation. Yet many less...
The Idea in Brief In many industries--automotive, consumer electronics, home appliances--the after-sales service market has ballooned to four to five times the size of the original equipment business. And the aftermarket is a high-margin cash cow: in...
Three partners from McKinsey based in San Francisco and Silicon Valley have written a very provocative article on future technology trends. It's well worth a look. They examine eight trends, but the one that rings home with me is called "distributing cocreation." Basically, they are predicting that...
