Day 3

I should probably branch out and not just relate technology to healthcare, but it is interesting to me, so whatever. The topic of shared standards is particularly interesting as they relate to electronic medical records of healthcare facilities because right here in Minneapolis we have multiple silos of EMRs that are great on their own but bad for the community as a whole. I say that because these hospitals are investing literally hundreds of millions of dollars into these EMR packages to improve communication internally within a system. However, there is seemingly little or no collaboration between the systems, which leaves the patient with the short end of the stick. If you are in a car accident and are sent to HCMC, but normally you go to Fairview, the HCMC doctors will not have the immediate access to your medical records that they need-especially if you (the patient) are unable to communicate. Are you allergic to morphine derivatives? That’s a problem if the HCMC emergency room physician doesn’t know that because your health records are trapped on the Fairview Information highway.
It is just amazing to me that these organizations, which are non-profit and supposed to be serving the good of the community, refuse to collaborate on one of the most significant developments in the history of healthcare delivery. The result is excess spending after the fact to try and patch these behemoth information systems together at some point in the future, or simply resigning to the fact that you better have an emergency close to a hospital that is part of a health system that your physician is aligned with.
To me interoperability just makes since and with some joint-planning 5 years ago, these local hospital systems could have had so much more for their money, and for their patients, than what they have right now.

Day 2

It really took me by suprise that expertise such as business orientation and acumen and strategic thinking were the most valued personal competencies. School's for learning so I am pleased to be doing just that and will definitely take this lesson learned as I prepare for my post-MBA position. I will definitely strive to enhance and refine my skillset so that I can honestly put myself in those"most desirable" categories that customers/managers are looking for. Since I am going into healthcare, I think my new New Year's resolution will be to identify 2 or 3 key areas that I am deficient in but will be important for me to be knowledgeable in when I start work in July. My goal therefore will be to raise my level of competency so I will know enough to think strategically about how these 2 or 3 key challenges will affect my future employer.

I also have to admit I enjoyed the closing quote "Only a medicore person is always at his best." I have repeated this quote to a few folks and people just look at me like, huh? Of course I am always at my best. Too bad for them I guess. I appreciate the quote because I know I only work at my best when I am challenged, working on something I find interesting and meaningful, and surrounded by cohesive and capable team members/coworkers. I would like to think that I am not too unique, so I guess mychallenge as a future manager is to either hire mediocre people so they are always at their best (not preferred) or find ways to challenge and engage more capable folks and create an environment where they function well together. Not exactly sure how I would do that, but transistors will be involved.

Day 1

The discussion of the five cycles of development, and the fact that Doug mentioned that we (current MBAers) are perfectly positioned for the fifth cycle, reminded me of a similar concept from Gladwell's newest book, Outliers: The Story of Success. In this book, Gladwell links success to recent innovations and the birthdate of an individual. For example, the leaders of the computer age, Gates, Ballmer, Allen, Ellison, Schmidt, and Jobs, were all born between 1953 and 1956. The importance here is that they were all about 20 years old when in 1975 the first personal computers were available. At 20 years old, these folks were experienced programers since each had exceptional access to mainframe computers at their high schools or at local universties that allowed the students to build their programing skills. The age of 20 years old also means that neither of these folks had families or "real" responsibilities that would distract them from leveraging their skills maximize the utility of the personal computers that hit the market in 1975. After reading this book, and hearing Doug's thoughts on Day one of class, it is amazing how important demographics are in influencing one's success.

I'm excited about this course and ready to learn about the nuances of how exactly the intersection of business and technology really drive innovation. I am also looking forward to challenging my perception that so many folks look to technology as a silver bullet. I understand the reasoning, but there are so many additional opportunities to positively influence business results.