Tag Archives: deadly diseases

Decades Later The USA Health Care System is Still a Deadly Disease for Our Economy

Posted on March 30, 2016 by John Hunter

Decades ago W. Edwards Deming named 7 deadly diseases of western management. One of those was excessive health care costs. Sadly that deadly disease has become much worse in the last several decades. Americans pay 300% more for this prostate cancer drug than much of the rest of the world Xtandi, a prostate cancer drug co-licenced by Japan’s Astellas Pharma and Medivation Inc. was developed at a U.S. university with grants funded by taxpayer dollars. That gives the federal government … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Economics, Health care | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Compensation at Whole Foods

Posted on February 6, 2007 by John Hunter

Compensation at Whole Foods Market [the link that Whole Foods broke was removed] Most large companies also pay their executives large amounts of stock options in addition to large salaries and cash bonuses. However, this is not the case at Whole Foods Market. As the chart below indicates, the average large corporation in the United States distributes 75% of their total stock options to only 5 top executives with the remaining 25% going to everyone else in the company (actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

More on Overpaid CEO’s

Posted on October 4, 2006 by John Hunter

CEO pay up big – but not performance: The Corporate Library analyzed the compensation of nearly 1,400 chiefs for its annual report on CEO pay. The group’s median total compensation rose 16 percent between 2004 and 2005. A year earlier, CEOs got a bump of 30 percent in total compensation, which includes salary, bonus, perks, exercised stock options and other long-term incentive pay. This is more bad news. As Drucker, Buffet and many others have said CEO overpayment is bad … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Excessive CEO Pay

Posted on September 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Overpaid CEOs and Underpaid Managers: Fairness and Executive Compensation by James B. Wade, Charles A. O’Reilly, III and Timothy G. Pollock: We also find evidence suggesting that CEOs serve as a key referent for employees in determining whether their own situation is “fair,” and this influences their reactions to their own compensation. More specifically, we find that when lower-level managers are underpaid relative to the CEO, that is, underpaid more than the CEO or overpaid less, they are more likely … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , ,

Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation

Posted on August 26, 2006 by John Hunter

How intellectual property influences innovation and growth in the economy depends on the application of intellectual property law. No intellectual property (IP) rights would hinder innovation. Complicated application of confusing and overreaching IP rights also hinders innovation. Now I see the USA systems as having overreaching claims of IP rights, IP rights granted for obvious ideas which then are used to extort those actually producing value and overall a system much in need of improvement. Lawrence Lessig does the best … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Innovation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

PBS Documentary: Improving Hospitals

Posted on April 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Clare Crawford-Mason and Llyod Dobyns have teamed up on a new documentary. Previously they created If Japan Can-Why Can’t We? and the Deming Library Tapes. Good News – How Hospitals Heal Themselves (broken link was removed) A One-Hour Documentary Airing on Public Television Spring/Summer 2006 Reported by Former NBC Anchor Lloyd Dobyns This rare good news documentary reports on a surprising solution to escalating costs, unnecessary deaths and waste in America’s hospitals. Doctors and nurses tell how they did their … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Excessive Executive Pay

Posted on December 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement Via Christian Sarkar [the broken link was removed], Too Many Turkeys, The Economist: Executive compensation in America – already far ahead of the rest of the world, despite the best efforts of overseas managers to catch up – is now rising inexorably again. In fiscal year 2004 the total compensation of the median American company boss rose in every industry… according to a new report by the Conference Board, a research organisation. In the big companies that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Innovation and Creative Commons

Posted on October 2, 2005 by John Hunter

Creative Commons is a license that lets the creators of intellectual property clearly define how that property may be used by others. Partially this license is a reaction to the poor way copyright law is being viewed today (see links below). Partially it is tool that gives creators a way to provide for more interaction with their ideas. And this interaction is a great way to market, in the right circumstances. More managers should be thinking about how their organizations … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Innovation | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments