Economic Prosperity Driven By Innovation

The verdict is out for the most innovative companies of 2007. Apple tops the BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for the third year in a row. Google is on second place like the previous year.While Toyota (from 4th last year) has gone up to 3rd position.
Apple’ results for second quarter ended March 29,2008 shows a 43 percent growth in revenue on a year-over-year basis. The Company posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. Internet search giant (Google) also defies the economy and shows a profit higher than what the analysts expected.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt gave all credit to the ongoing innovation in search, ads and apps , which helped in healthy growth globally across different product lines. "We are obviously very pleased with another strong quarter for Google,” Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “It is clear to us that we are well positioned for 2008 and beyond, regardless of the business environment that we find ourselves surrounded by."
As Michal Porter says “ Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity”
I’ll say that the big innogiants (innovative giants) have proved this even in situation of economic slowdown or recession.

Going to doctor for cure, think twice if your doctor’s hand-writing needs cure first

There is a popular joke about doctors is that their hand-writing can only be understand by their spouse or a chemist. If the chemist find it difficult to decipher medicines listed on a prescription, who’ll bear the joke. Will you ? Surely not.

According to a report by Institute of medicine (IOM) in July 2006, medication errors affect more than 1.5 million Americans each year in hospitals alone. Nearly 7000 deaths attributed to medication errors, including prescribing or giving wrong drugs. Here we’re talking about US where drugs are only dispensed by pharmacists, if converted in Indian figures, I am sure count could go much higher.
Some drugs can get substituted for each-other because their names are read/sound similar. Some of them are:

• Arkamine (for blood pressure) and Artamine (for rheumatoid arthritis)
• Isoprine (an intravenous given to increase blood pressure) and Isoptine
• Digene (antacid) and Digoxin (for congestive heart failure
• Fludac (for depression) and Flunac (for anti-fungal)
• Magna (for respiratory tract infection) and Magfa(for depression and anxiety)
• Anxit (for anxiety) and Axhit (for malaria)

Errors can happen due to wrongly spelt names , decimal errors, writing style and abbreviations (hoping list doesn’t go on length). In 2006, in Olympia (US) ,a law had banned doctors from writing prescription in cursive hand- writing. Wheresoever there is no such law, there is a need to take Precautions .

A matter of thinking twice……………

The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer

Most newly launched business ventures never get off the ground because entrepreneurs often neglect to clarify their strategy. To chart a successful course for your new venture, start by articulating your goals for the enterprise. Do you want the rush that rapid growth delivers? Capital gains from selling a successful company? Define the kind of enterprise required to achieve your goals. For example, if you want to sell the business eventually, you’ll need to build a sustainable organization that can renew itself through changing generations of technology, employees, and customers. And you’ll need a company big enough to support an infrastructure that won’t require your daily intervention.

How Your Management Team Can Have A Good Fight

Think "conflict" is a dirty word for top-management teams? It's actuallyvaluable for team members to spar (figuratively, of course!). Handledconstructively, conflict helps teams make high-stakes decisions underuncertainty and move quickly despite intense pressure.
But the key to managing conflict is preventing it from taking a personal turn.Tactics for doing this include multiplying the alternatives under discussion. Asyour team weighs a decision, consider four or five options simultaneously --even some you don't support. This diffuses conflict by preventing teams frompolarizing around just two possibilities. For example, executives at onestruggling company brainstormed alternative solutions that included entering anew market
and even selling the company.