Special-Purpose iPhone Accessories: Where Are They? | Gadget Lab | Wired.com – I noticed recently that these things aren't being created (hardware accessories for iPhone). This article shows that I'm not the only one noticing.
Posts Tagged ‘Apple’
Special-Purpose iPhone Accessories: Where Are They? | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
January 31st, 2010 | Popularity: 4% 1 commentWashington, DC Police: “Use good street sense” when using iPhones in public
January 29th, 2010 | Popularity: 7% 12 commentsPolice: Robbers Targeting Pedestrians with iPhones « Borderstan (Washington, DC) – Washington, DC Metro Police are now advising people not to use iPhones of an increase in robberies with a specific target, the iPhone, that device specifically, in public. This is a big deal, in a previously-thought-of-as-safe part of the city.
People like me wish Apple would sell a version of its headphones that are not white. These appear to be setting us up as targets.
I was a recent victim of an iPhone snatcher in downtown Washington, DC, and in comparison to some of the crimes detailed in the blog post above, I consider myself very lucky.
It was going to happen eventually that wearing a $600 device would increase personal crime. I can’t help thinking that there’s a way to harness the wisdom of crowds and the very technology being sought after – maybe a "findmyiphone" aggregator that could help communiites and the police zero in on where these devices are ending up.
It’s worth noting that my stolen phone localized itself to the same location on multiple days, near a large Washington, DC, shopping mall, in Pentagon City, before I remotely secured it and wiped it clean (what a great feature – thank you Apple!).
To attest to the seriousness of this issue, even our local gym is passing on the warning:
Attention Members:There has been a report of an increase in robberies over the past week in the Golden Triangle/U Street area. Although not directly related to the club we thought it would be helpful to pass along the following alert from Metro P.D.
Golden Triangle Crime Alert
The Metropolitan Police Department has asked us to pass along the following information. As of late there has been an increase in street robberies around the DC Metro area. The Second District is not immune from these incidents. There is not a specific suspect lookout but there is a very specific target – the iPhone. To help combat this problem, MPD is asking the users of all phones and PDAs to use good street sense when carrying and using your mobile device.
Always be aware of your surroundings. It is a good idea to use your phone while stationary in a spot that will enable you to talk and observe your surroundings at the same time. Keep your mobile device close to your body and make sure it is out of sight when not in use. Please pass this along to reach as many people as possible.
Thank you,
MaryKay MoeOperations Coordinator
Golden Triangle Business Improvement District
As Washington, DC is the #epicenter of many innovations (and health care transformation), it is also a leader in many social issues, some not so enjoyable. Let our experience prevent others from having the same in this case.
100 Awesome iPhone Apps for Med Students and Doctors | Online Nursing Programs.net
October 29th, 2009 | Popularity: 3% 2 commentsThe Real Truth about Apple and Google and Arrington
August 27th, 2009 | Popularity: 2% 0 comments | Leave a reply- The Real Truth about Apple and Google and Arrington – A fascinating look at the upheaval of the telephone/carrier industry brought about in a roundabout way by Apple and Google. What are the similarities in other industries, from trains, to planes, to music, and ultimately health care?
Being My Own CIO – 2008 Update
December 11th, 2008 | Popularity: 26% 9 comments
Diagram produced at MindMeister.com
Time flies. It’s been about a year since my first My Own CIO entry, and I keep meaning to do a refresh, so here it is. Now is an appropriate time, since now that I’m now working part time for a very large organization, I will also begin to experience not being my own CIO for part of my life. I’m looking forward to all of it.
To review the guidelines:
- Open source or public source (avoid proprietary standards)
- Affordable
- Web 2.0 friendly (maybe I’ll create Web 3.0) – incorporating social networking, tagging, interaction
- Easy to maintain (and maybe to tinker with)
- Compatible with Apple produced products (which typically means open standards)
The guidelines haven’t changed. I’ve tried a whole bunch of things, and one assessment I’m going to make is that a person can alter their workflow only so much, so as I found stuff that worked, I stuck with it:
- E-mail: Apple Mail. Desktop and iPhone. Since 2007 Microsoft has released Entourage 2008, which did not make the cut (see the next bullet point). Apple Data Detectors are incredible time savers.
- Documents: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and TextEdit. Still a “goodbye” to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. I remember a time when using a Macintosh meant that all the open applications on my dock were manufactured by Microsoft. Now those have been replaced by open source or Apple alternatives, and this is not based on any specific feeling about Microsoft, which I have a lot of respect for. It’s simply about what works.
- Project Management: Paper. Yes, paper. I’ll post about this later.
- Firewalled opaque Intranet: I didn’t create one of those. I still use a transparent blog. Still on Wordpress.
- Content Management System: I use this blog and delicious.com for maintaining my links.
- Image Management System: iPhoto. I recently upgraded to an image stabilized Canon Powershot IS 770. A camera in 2008 is as important a business tool as pen and paper (yes, paper).
- Weekly/monthly/yearly business memos: I have discovered Twitter in the last year. 140 characters is long enough for most situations.
- Mobile e-mail/web: iPhone 3G, magic cell phone of the future. Since 2007, I’ve discovered the breakthrough that GPS is in a device like this. I know people complain about the ability to type e-mail using this device, but then again, that’s from the perspective that e-mail is still useful as a primary communication tool. In the last few months I have also been given a competitor device (named after another fruit), for my other role, and I have found that the vacation from the competitor device has caused me to type less well on it relative to the iPhone. I am also a MobileMe user and find that it works pretty well for managing contacts and calendars (using iCal and Address Book). There still isn’t (in my experience) a grand calendar application that you can delegate some access to for scheduling, and combine with different parts of your life. My vote would be for an extension of iCal that allowed delegated scheduling, because I think Apple is closest.
That’s the updated list. Here are some new arrivals since 2007:
- Meeting scheduling: Timedriver. No more back and forth about when someone is available via e-mail (there’s a theme here about the value of e-mail I am noticing). I could actually write a bit more about this tool, and disk space is cheap, so I will. I’ve been using TimeDriver since it was available to beta users, and it is a great example of how Web2.0 tools promote “listening” and by extension, respect. There is something fundamentally different about offering people a clean list of available times that they can use to connect with you, at their convenience, compared to asking them to wade through your calendar on an enterprise calendaring system, or asking them to send you an e-mail list of times. In today’s virtual world, it’s actually important to tell people what you look like with a photograph when setting up time as well. Both are accomplished here. I’ve linked Timedriver to MobileMe using BusyMac’s BusySync software so now I can manage my availability from my computer or my iPhone. I like it. People who schedule with me say they like it. Win-win, win-win-win.
- Virtual Library: Bookswim. One area where Washington is challenged relative to my former home (Seattle) is the public library system. I would gladly put forth effort to change that, as a huge fan of the libraries. In the meantime, this is a service that functions like Netflix for books.
- Voice service: Skype. The Pro Version.
- Transportation: Zipcar. A great invention. Metro, another great invention. As of 2008 I no longer own a car. Don’t miss it.
- Documents & Bibliographic References: Zotero. Free. Integrates into Firefox. No more Endnote.
- RSS Reader: I used to believe that a desktop application was required for this, but I just switched over to Google Reader. It works best on the desktop and on the iPhone. It is a great demonstration of the power of cloud computing. I’ve also begun using the iPhone application Byline, which syncs to Google Reader.
- Pedometer: Omron HJ-151
Feel free to chime in with your recommendations and reactions, as always.
Free gift with every purchase from Apple, Inc., every search from Google, Inc., and every amazing education from UC Berkeley: Equality
October 26th, 2008 | Popularity: 27% 1 commentI am a customer of the first two organizations and an alumnus of the third. I thank the faculty and especially my fellow students at the University of California for teaching me to appreciate the value of diversity where I work and where I live.
To recap the data that I linked to in this mini-photo essay:
- People in intolerant places are less happy and less fulfilled than those in tolerant and open-minded ones.
- Business organizations that embrace diversity have more customers and greater profitability (even after controlling for size and region of the U.S.).
- Health and health care is improved when we embrace the differences of the people we are serving and serving with.
All three organizations agree (here, here, and here) that their positions are based on their interest in supporting diverse communities that can compete locally and globally. The best organizations and communities in the world see diversity as an asset, which is why I work for one, and why I live in one. Respect creates the most powerful stickiness there is.
“Please upgrade your iPhone so our community’s cell tower serves us better”
August 30th, 2008 | Popularity: 18% 0 comments | Leave a replyDetails of iPhone 2.0.2 Firmware 3G Connectivity Improvements? – Mac Rumors – An attempt to harness the power of crowds to avoid a tragedy of the commons, 21st century style. I thought this was interesting because of (of course) a parallel to health care. AT&T initially didn’t tell anyone why it was so important that every user upgrade to the latest firmware – now it appears it’s because those who don’t will unnecessarily tax the cell towers serving a specific area. Imagine the behavior this might create – “Are you using iPhone 2.0.1? Would you mind upgrading to improve everyone’s service?”
With that little bit of awareness, maybe this situation might happen. How about someone tapping a colleague on shoulder to say, “Are you seeing a specialist for that condition? Would you mind going to see your primary care physician first to improve everyone’s health care experience?” Those of you in health care will quickly understand why this doesn’t happen due to the incentives out there, but it’s a nice thought.
Let’s see if Apple and AT&T’s foray into community organizing around resource use (intentional or not) provides any lessons for us.
My Own CIO: What Applications are on my iPhone 3G
August 27th, 2008 | Popularity: 30% 8 commentsFriends at a very large software company once referred to me in a category they called “influential end user.” I think that means I have no actual authority regarding purchasing decisions (or anything really), but I can convince people to do things (including change health care maybe?).
I think that’s happened recently with the iPhone, as I just received a note from Richard Baron, MD, from the great ABIM Foundation, who said he heard the words “have to” from my mouth echoing in his head about whether he should get one. The “have to” part is about using what are patients are using, and learning about it with them, rather than telling them not to use what we don’t understand.
So, he got one, and maybe a few other people I recommended the iPhone to did, as well. I thought I’d post which iPhone Applications I’m using on my iPhone to give people a head start. Try them out, see what you think. And kudos to all the health care professionals out there who say “yes” to trying new things so they can perform better for their patients.
A little info:
- DC Weather is a hyperlink to the hour-by-hour of Washington, DC. You can customize for your city.
- Tipr is also a hyperlink to a web-based Tipping application. It gives you the results in palindromes, so you can check for manipulation. Nifty.
- Remote is Apple’s iTunes and iTV controller. Very cool.
- RSS is a hyperlink to Google Reader. It’s what I use for RSS now. Well optimized for iPhone and the Web (sorry NetNewsWire, I had to switch…)
- Where is a helpful assist for my Starbucks-dar. Maybe also useful for Zipcar (when I have to drive, Metro is really my automobile)
- Loopt and Twinkle are my preferred location aware friendfinders/lifestreamers. Just testing them now.
- Twitterific is where I post to my Twitterfeed. Give it a try. Follow me.
- Urban Spoon, Restaurants, and Yelp are my food finders, except I am not much of a foodie, so I am mostly interested in these for their health promotion potential.
- Mobile News is as it says. I am really not much of a news junkie (Andrew Weil, MD recommended awhile back that too much news is unhealthy, I’d rather just make my own news)
- Cuberunner is just a game to demonstrate the accelerometer functions – for the “Isn’t this device cool” factor. Thanks to Jody Pettit, MD, fellow i-enthusiast for the tip.
- 1Password is useful for storing Web passwords securely. It has a built in web browser so will enter them for you.
- Epocrates is just a cool medical application that shows the promise of the device. Imagine using this as a tool for medication reconciliation and adherence – like how about a patient version, a pharmacist version, a nursing version, that delivers the med list graphically to the patient?
- AOL Radio and Last.fm are experiments in finding music online.
- MyLite is the electronic flashlight. I like the rock concert effect. Works really well in a power outage.
- Google is google. I should use this app more – it does really nice searches of contacts on the phone.
You can get a sense of how I do things from this list, I realized. I don’t have an electronic to-do list, task manager, etc. I’ll post separately about what I do for that. Paper is really good for a lot of things.
What apps am I missing? What do you think of these?
3 Days of Nice in San Francisco, Courtesy of Twitter
August 20th, 2008 | Popularity: 30% 0 comments | Leave a reply
This photograph is from a session using Tapulous’ Twinkle software, which is a location-aware version of Twitter. This exchange is evidence that the iPhone’s most powerful innovation is not 3G, it’s GPS, which Apple, Inc., has now seeded into the mainstream, just as it did with a host of other technologies, like Wi-Fi.
What is shown here is community being created with complete strangers based on location – this exchange happened when my tweet was broadcast to everyone within a 1 mile radius of the San Francisco airport.
Some of you out there have been expressing your reservations about Twitter, Friendfeed, and the like. Here’s a nice article about both. Don’t be reserved, these are important technologies that will have applications in healthcare. Get your Twitter accounts now. Post your ideas in the comments, as well, please!
And San Francisco, thanks for being nice. You never disappoint.
Apple, MobileME, and Ford-Talk
August 11th, 2008 | Popularity: 23% 0 comments | Leave a replyI looked online for a definition of the phrase “Ford-Talk,” so maybe it was a term that was coined internally within the last organization I worked for, or the broader Toyota Management System community.
It refers to a culture where managers who are called into a room by their boss give positive assessments of how their areas are doing. This was ascribed to an American carmaker, but I think it could apply to many American companies, relative to their Japanese analogues, where it is expected that failures are pointed out, so they can be fixed. As it is said, an assembly line that is reported as being 100% functional is one that is not functional because it is not finding mistakes and fixing them.
I thought of Ford-Talk when I read This article, which talks about the failure of managers to tell the CEO that things weren't ready. and this article, which dissects the CEO’s memo about the failures to staff and does a nice job of bringing Steve Jobs’ talents in working with the public to light.
However, if articles like this one alluding to the inner workings of the company (“The Economist: Jobs’s Job”) are to be believed I think there may be a different perspective than, “the managers did not report that there were problems and luckily Steve owned the problem publicly so the company could regroup and succeed.”
What I have learned is even the most innovative environments may operate with a command-and-control approach, not by purpose, but by neglect. When that happens, the failure may be not to listen, rather than not to speak.
Did that happen here? I don’t know. The comment about managers failing to tell the boss something caught my eye as a Toyota Management System/LEAN aficionado and made me wonder if there was more to learn.
I am interested in stories like this because I’ve been working in healthcare to improve the listening. When we go from telling people, “You won’t hear anything from us if everything is normal (the ultimate Ford-Talk),” to listening to the question, “I just got my lab report and I have a question about this specific number” we’re more likely to pick up mistakes. It’s better to be embarrassed and change course quickly than wait in these individual cases, and when there is a bigger problem to ask “why?” the problem happened, five times. There may be more than a simple answer…..
More on iPhone 3G availability at sharding/blog
July 22nd, 2008 | Popularity: 22% 0 comments | Leave a reply- More on iPhone 3G availability at sharding/blog – For those of us intently interested in this right now. It's interesting that Apple has decided to centralize distribution to just its stores and not take advantage of a more dispersed AT&T retail presence. I think they will look back at this as a mistake.
Photo: Starstruck in SF
June 11th, 2008 | Popularity: 21% 4 commentsCouldn’t wait until Friday for this one. Happen to be in San Francisco while the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference is going on.
Breakthrough
April 2nd, 2008 | Popularity: 25% 0 comments | Leave a replyApple’s newest advertisement. It’s sort of a metaphor for health care, if you watch closely….
Efficiency Improvers for Mac users; Aetna’s Smartsource Demo; Wordpress upgrade on the way
April 1st, 2008 | Popularity: 79% 0 comments | Leave a reply- Safari 3.1 includes hidden one-window preference – This is the holy grail of Safari as the browser of choice. That plus compatibility with blog authoring tools.
- Mac BU promises bibliography improvements to Office 2008 – Interesting discussion somewhat unrelated to the article’s title about the state of bibliographic software. I would look forward to further refinements of Zotero, and maybe a server version.
- QLPlugins – Quick Look Plugins – Great efficiency improver of one of my favorite Leopard features.
- Aetna Smartsource Demo – Aetna’s latest information tailoring system for patients. Getting closer to supporting the patient-provider relationship?
- Apple – Support – Discussions – Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad … – This is a real issue for MacBookPro owners – prepare yourself just in case this happens to you.
- A new snapshot of health consumerism from EBRI and The Commonwealth Fund – Nice overview from Jane Sarsohn-Kahn
- Roblog » Batch Categories – Another category management plugin, for Wordpress 2.3 and 2.5
- uwMike » WP-Cats – More preparation to migration to WP 2.5
- Disk Inventory X – Map your hard drive to avoid wasting space
- How to Fly Without ID and Skip Lines | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss – Just in case this happens to you, here is how you can fly and recover.
Challenging Peer Review (on several fronts); Consumerism in Health Survey 2007; Accepting suggestions from Customers using Web 2.0 at Starbucks
March 30th, 2008 | Popularity: 77% 10 commentsMarch 28th through March 29th:
- WordPress ? Search and Replace « WordPress Plugins – Wordpress 2.5 is out. I have a feeling this plugin will be useful to have handy
- JAMA — Preserving Confidentiality in the Peer Review Process, March 24, 2008, DeAngelis and Thornton 0 (2008): 299.16.jed80000 – With tremendous respect for Catherine DeAngelis’ leadership during a tough situation. I am left wondering if the best place to hide is out in the open – if peer review became more Web2.0 like. What would happen in a situation like this?
- Findings From the 2007 EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Survey – EBRI – About 2 percent of the population is enrolled in a consumer directed health plans. Significant points for me: (1) almost half of the population with a chronic condition reports not filling medications or skipping doses or delaying care due to cost. Sobering reminder that patients can and do choose to do what we doctors prescribe. (2) “There have been no significant gains int he provision of information on provider cost and quality by any health plan type over the three years of the survey. There has been no increase in the share of CDHP or HDHP enrollees who say their health plans provide them with quality and cost information about their providers, and they remain no more likely to receive such information than enrollees in more comprehensive plans.” Okay, one more point – they did not ask about the impact of involvement in care in choosing a health plan – no mention of medical records access or involvement in information sharing at the level of the encounter.
- My Starbucks Idea – How about doing this for a health care org?
- Bronson Beta – Mail.appetizer – Nice Mail notification tool, Leopard
More Health2.0 = iPhone2.0 – Apple Digital Fitness System; Larry Weed; EMC’s Hypertension Management Program; GHI+HIP = Medical Home
March 28th, 2008 | Popularity: 69% 0 comments | Leave a replyA lot of stuff going on this week…
- Apple Digital Fitness Companion System? – Mac Rumors – It was/is only a matter of time. Hello Health2.0, courtesy of iPhone
- The computer will see you now | Economist.com – A nice biographical piece about Larry Weed, father of the problem oriented medical record.
- EMC, Partners collaborate on hypertension program – Daily Business Update – The Boston Globe – An employer that thinks about population health and sets up a PHR in concert with a health system. Interesting…..
- Subscribe to ringtones via iTunes – Easy way to get ringtones – a ringcast?
- Mashable?s Guide to Upcoming Web 2.0 Conferences – A plethora of get togethers to get up to speed on the latest in Web 2.0.
- leanblog.org | Lean Blog: The Waste of Handwritten Notes | Lean Manufacturing | Lean Healthcare | Toyota Production System – Yes, Leadership. From patients and their families too. The kind of leadership that brings the patient perspective into every conversation.
- Apple – Support – Downloads – MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1 – Help with keyboard freezing issues caused by Leopard
- Healthcare 360 -
- GHI – GHI Medical Home Pilot – I think this is very promising for supporting EHR adoption and patient access to their own clinical information. Ties in very nicely with NYC’s PCIP project.
- Public health system struggles to reach gay ?hidden population? – Washington Blade – Another vulnerable population that could benefit from outreach – many are underserved even when well insured.
- Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X – The resource for programming on MacOSX, and iPhone as well
Thoughts from the iPhone Developers Summit
March 22nd, 2008 | Popularity: 34% 9 commentsWhile in New York City this week, I happened to attend the (first?) iPhone Developer Summit, thanks to a free pass and a little wiggle room in my schedule.
I didn’t go because I am planning to learn Objective C and develop for the iPhone. I went because I wanted to see what the developer community is thinking, and I have to say I was impressed with what I saw. I sat in on a session about the new iPhone SDK and the audience looked almost to me like a group of doctors that are sitting in a room to learn about electronic health records and realizing that their lives are going to change.
There was discussion of the iPhone platform, which has far more computing power and graphics capability than any other handheld that has preceded it, coupled with the fact that Apple, Inc., has made it easier than ever for developers to distribute their applications quickly and efficiently through iTunes. Nothing like this has ever existed on other mobile platforms.
I sensed a tone of quiet resignation coupled with excitement that this will be the next revolution in computing. At the same time, the teaching was about the very basics of developing for the iPhone so it’s very early in the journey. I learned a few things, like the fact that the iPhone you use to develop on will need to be disconnected from the AT&T cellular network, so basically you will need to purchase a phone specifically for development. The SDK requires that you have a Mac running Leopard – you cannot develop on a Windows box. And an interesting revelation that was not well covered previously – the iPod Touch is also a platform for this SDK. This means that an enterprise developer could create internal applications that run off of Wi-Fi, decoupled from phone service. That’s a big deal.
After taking in this scene, I wandered with a colleague over to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, which provided more evidence of a transformation coming. The store was packed beyond all recognition. There was a long feeder line of customers waiting to buy things. And yet the store made all of the products available to customers and potential customers to enjoy at their leisure.
There’s something going on here. Click on any of the pictures to see them full size, and the video below to get a sense yourself.
iPhone 2.0 = Health 2.0?
March 10th, 2008 | Popularity: 37% 7 commentsQuite possibly.
I didn’t catch the iPhone SDK launch right on March 6, but I did watch it a few days later, and it’s very impressive. It is worth a watch, especially with regard to the possibilities in verticals such as health care. I have met many physicians in the past 6 months who have told me, “I will get an iPhone when…” I think the “when” has been answered. Possibilities such as secure physician-patient communication and patient activity monitoring with direct connect to electronic health records are now possible.
It was interesting to see this right after the Health2.0 Conference, to be sure.
Not to mention that the iPhone is now enterprise-worthy….
Apple Developer Connection – iPhone Dev Center – iPhone Developer Program
Steve Jobs and Leadership Philosophy; Health Plans and AMA less EHR supportive?; Two Health2.0 Services
March 10th, 2008 | Popularity: 63% 0 comments | Leave a replyMarch 4th through March 6th:
- Steve Jobs speaks out – On his marathon Monday meetings (9) – FORTUNE – a weekly check and adjust at Apple
- S.F. equity firm launches health initiative with CalPERS, GE, others – San Francisco Business Times: – Maybe this will help California lead in Health IT.
- AMNews: March 10, 2008. Insurer finds EMRs won’t pay off for its doctors … American Medical News – Less health plans are requiring EHR adoption for P4P, and the AMA doesn’t have a policy requiring physicians to adopt them either.
- Virgin HealthMiles – As demonstrated at Health 2.0 – a pedometer program that includes a pedometer that uploads data to the Virgin HealthMiles website
- i2y – As featured at the Health 2.0 Conference. For the 68,000 GenX and GenY individuals who are diagnosed with cancer every year.
Promising Reimbursement Methodology; More on Music and Real Estate Industries; Another Blog Post Goodbye to an Employer
January 15th, 2008 | Popularity: 45% 1 commentJanuary 12th through January 13th:
- Prometheus Payment, Inc. – A new payment model that supports outcomes, evidence-based care, and transparency
- The music industry | From major to minor | Economist.com – “Then they had the money and could have built the competence by buying concert agencies and merchandise companies,”…Now it may be too late.
- Coverity Incorporated Scan – Company working with the US Govt to harden open source code for use by agencies including Homeland Security. They are finding bugs and the bugs are being fixed.
- Online Real Estate Sites Work To Get A Listing Standard – Another industry that is seeing the benefits of standards, and the challenges of disruption
- Gone Indie ? Thought Palace – Interesting insight on the work environment at Apple. LEAN production? You decide. I will say, though, that even though Apple is not embracing Web 2.0 like other companies are, I have solved many problems using their hosted discussions. These actually work well on Apple’s site I think because they do a great job of leveraging their loyal customer base. Yet another blog “goodbye” to an employer.
- Lean Manufacturing Blog: 1 Hour Kaizen – Excellent template and approach to small improvements. Just takes an hour. Can we have physicians shadowing nurses and vice versa?
Now Reading: Punching-In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee, by Alex Frankel
December 26th, 2007 | Popularity: 25% 0 comments | Leave a reply
This book was tailor made for the experience I am having now. It’s the travelogue of a man who goes undercover as an employee in some of our most iconic organizations: UPS, The Container Store (not quite, he didn’t pass the interview), Enterprise Rent a Car, Gap, Starbucks, and The Apple Store. This is a true trip to the Gemba, in that Mr. Frankel actually goes to work for the companies discussed as an employee. I am doing a similar thing, but I am not undercover, and I am not actually practicing medicine in the organizations I am spending time with (I suppose I could do something similar as a health professional, but at a huge cost to the organizations and patients they serve). I am, however, putting myself at the interface between the customer and the organization, and I, too, am thinking a lot about culture and about how people and organizations work. It’s an awesome experience, as I’m sure Alex’s was.
Throughout my journey, I have resisted using the term “front line” because the war analogy doesn’t make sense to me in health care. However, I liked the way that Alex described the “front line”:
In the military, the front line is the border between two opposing armies; in retail and service companies it is the invisible divide between customers and employees
This definition frames the experience well in terms of how organizations fixated on “brand” see themselves, and the author stimulates thinking on this, in my opinion.
No one is selling what we think they are selling
The thing we think these companies are here to do doesn’t seem to be the thing they are actually doing. An Enterprise employee is really selling insurance in the form of collision damage waivers. A Gap employee is selling lines of credit. An Apple Store employee is selling add ons (warrantees, etc) onto the main products. Starbucks is selling the “third space” that is not our homes or our work.
