Control Charting

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Growth, diversity and increasing competitiveness of the service sector go on to prove the fact that opportunities abound in services to use quality controls and control chart tools. Today sophisticated operational tools are not just used in manufacturing but also used in the services sector. What do control charts do?
They measure what a process produces over time by choosing a sample size and periodically collecting data in samples of that size. There is a sampling plan chosen, range is calculated and upper and lower control limits determine the control chart. The control charts can show if a process is in statistical control or not . With the ease and availability of spreadsheet software it is often convenient to construct them using spreadsheet program.

Which are the service sectors that use such measurements?
Quality measures for mass service organizations such as restaurants and banks lend themselves to charting. Both front-room operations and back-room operations can be charted. Other examples include lockbox operation for banks,handling telephone orders and data-entry operations in large information processing company. The maintenance function of airlines is subject to sophisticated statistical process control.

Just imagine if latedepartures, lost baggage, overbooking and underbooking and other measures of customer service can be charted there could be a different light in which one could view the operational glitches and help correct them. Personalized services cannot be control charted.
For managing quality its good to have recurrent operations that could be easily analyzed and plotted.
An average marketer could work on building strategies based on the insights that are available not just from a customer but also quality control charts that help predict the breakdown in the operational system for a service . Any service related go to market strategy can be built on the historical data or pattern of the operations. Control charts can be a helpful tool used to predict this.

Healthcare Reforms

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I attended the HSM Bootcamp. It was interesting to think about the amount of money that United States alone spends on HealthSector to give way to the unmet needs of millions of Americans that suffer from chronic diseases everyday. 16% of America's GDP alone contributes to healthcare spending. In terms of healthcare spending growth it is as high as 6%. This is higher than the growth of the economy.

WHY is healthcare a topic of hot discussion at the government?
- Healthcare is a topic of fierce discussion as it grows at a level higher than the overall economic growth of 4%. The healthcare growth is higher than the inflation of 1.5%. It is 6% growth of the sector that justifies such a great deal of attention.

What are the healthcare reforms?
- improve access to healthcare services - defined as healthcare insurance
There are 45 million Uninsured americans in United States alone
-improve the quality of health care services - through quality system, payment reinforcement and introducing Healthcare IT
HIT and Evidence Based Management are reforms that will help in the long run.
- reduce the cost of healthcare to make it more affordable to the growing population.

What is one of the largest public programs and how much is the spend on that?
CMS - Centre for Medicaid spends 466 million $ on Medicare. Medicare is a program for those who are 65 and above and cannot afford medical benefits.19% of health expenditures is spent on Medicare alone. 14% of proposed Federal Budget is spent on Medicare.

What do different types of services spend on Medicare?
- Hospital- Hospital alone spends 29%
- Physician and Clinical Services spend 21%
-Prescription Drugs spend 24%
- Home Health Care spend 39%

There is going to be an interesting debate on how the market reforms in healthcare will shape up the growth %age for the industry. We will have yet to see the effect of reforms on payers, providers, beneficiaries and state. The entire reform ultimately needs to get reached to the end beneficiary.

What do airports mean to me?

Its amazing how airports remain similar in their construction, form, appeal as we travel from one city to the other. The bigger airports seem similar; I got back from a whirlwind tour India-Us and back to India; Airports traveled to were: Doha, Delhi and JFK. In the US of course as I was heading to North Carolina i did visit RDU- Raleigh Durham. Four Airports have their own flavor.
JFK airport is always about passengers traveling to and fro. Its a busy airport and getting to sit is a challenge. The airport is less about traveling to New York and more about traveling to meet sisters as it is with sisters that I lounged on the airport. Qatar Airlines took us to Doha. Doha is just like any other city with sand, and long winding endless roads. The look of Doha was a wee bit surprising. Its a bustling city as can be figured out from the airport. The city that I saw while landing to Doha seemed like a little lacklustre as the roads and the sand did not indicate any construction whatsoever; it seemed like we were landing on a sanddune. RDU airport has been one of the nice airports that luckily connects traveler to the end destination. I could clean up my crackberry on the airport. the place stands for Durham and Duke, which is my address for the next year. Delhi is where home is. Delhi Airport is alright. Its not as jazzy as the one in Hong Kong but for now it has its charm.

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Bing = But Its not Google...

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Hats off to Bing for getting the respect in the search market. Though Bing is not google, but Bing has got on to a great start. the reviews suggest that the search process is more organized. It is kind of cool to get down with the organized search process. the hits are many. 1) the airfares are connected to a travel website that Microsoft bought. 2) the cuisine, restaurants and other such directory throw up well-researched names. 3) it still lacks on things like google news, google maps that can throw open the roads to tracking locations etc. 4) Misses- the layout and format of bing is not as user friendly as Google. The interface is not the best.
It is still going to be a war of titans. advertising wise, and otherwise.

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Living Essentials

ENergy shots and drinks are giving the beverage companies a run for the money. The 5 hour and 6 hour shots that is flooding the markets gives everyone a huge hope. The hope is that students will be able to deal with attention deficit disorder and will be able to make it up for any lack of energy. These are sophisticated ways of giving caffeine shots without any sugar. The word on the street is that Living Essentials alone spent a lot of advertising dollars to claim the reach of a hit product. Now it is in a legal battle with Custom Nutrition for having entered into a zone of infringing on the secret recipe for the drink. One one end it is going to be advertising dollars spent on creating a category for this energy drink. On the other end it will be working on the fight over the legal rights for the drink. As NY Times reads'' But Living Essentials and many of its competitors will not reveal exactly how much of it is in the products, saying only that it is about as much caffeine as in a cup of coffee. The caffeine in coffee can vary widely, from about 80 to 175 milligrams in an eight-ounce cup''. Isnt it scary to not know the caffeine content of a 5 hour energy drink. What if the 5 hour energy is a way to create a sinister drug for students who cannot remember what sleeping and dreaming is all about. I shall not imagine what will be the future of the me-too red bull drinks.

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Next Generation of Tech Devices

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So the world is getting bigger day by day, and the big bang theory says that there is more to come in the days ahead. the next generation of gadgets and operating devices will make the phone smarter and the computer more efficient. Most of the notebook makers are getting into making mini notebooks for better road to recovery for the uninitiated kid who can use the mini-notebook well. Nokia, Dell, Acer, HP all are planning to make mini-notebooks. Google is entering into new operating software and system. Gooogle Chrome will give competition to Microsoft, and Microsoft will need to keep up with its innovative streak. It is convergence of smart phones, pc and television which will dicate the next generation of devices for the innovative mind. Chipmakers like Intel have big plans of making chips for the mini computers.

jim cramer's companies with best corporate governance

So US companies do hold a majority in the Fortune 100 lists and so on. However inspite of so many companies that make into the prestigious ranks and lists of corporate hall of fame, there are only few companies that make it into the hall of best corporate governance. The reforms reach every employee and fair pay is practiced across the board.
The three favorite companies are:
1. Berkeshire Hathaway
2. Johnson&Johnson
3. AMazon....
The favorites among favorites as per the street's latest survey.