You have probably heard the saying, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”  I have always disliked this saying, because it’s not true.
Many small business people think they can create a great product, get funding, and start producing that product, and everyone in the world will flock to their business to get that product.  It’s not going to happen.  The “better mousetrap myth” ignores one concept: you have to tall people about your mousetrap so they know where to find you.  Even more, you have to convince them they want that mousetrap, need …read more

U.S. automakers are in trouble.  They…and the rest of us…have forgotten the basic principles of a master who taught them the basic principles of continual improvement:I’m talking about W. Edwards Deming.  Deming worked with the Japanese automakers after WW II and caught the eye of Ford Motor Company.  Today, it seems the automakers have forgotten these principles, which are related in his classic book with the appropriate title Out of the Crisis.  Small business owners too can benefit from a review of Deming’s principles.
Deming warned against the Seven Deadly Diseases (also known as the “Seven Wastes”):
1. Lack of constancy of …read more

Have you had a chance to check out the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) hospital quality tool, Hospital Compare?
The tool is a product of a collaboration between DHHS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA). It allows patients to search and compare hospitals based on the following four categories:

hospital process of care measures
hospital outcome of care measures
survey of patients’ hospital experiences
medicare payment and volume

Information about patients’ hospital experiences, which might be the most interesting to people trying to …read more