This FNP's getting an MBA

 This week's learning was about operational management. I read numerous articles about Amazon and their amazing logistics and state of the art supply chain. I discovered the obscene amounts of vehicles of transportation they have in their employ. One variety is shipping containers. 10,000 of them. They are very useful as they are able to be filled by suppliers overseas, loaded onto trains at docks and then lastly put on semi-trailers. It was September 2023 when my husband and I were on an overlanding trip through Arizona, Utah and Colorado. We were in Utah when we first saw the long train carrying shipping containers bearing the familiar Amazon Prime logo. It was an astounding amount of containers. We counted 85 rail cars, each carrying 2 containers, all Amazon. We pondered what was in them and where were they headed. Then in Southern Colorado, we saw another one. That time we lost count. Once again, we discussed the possible contents. We couldn't decide if it was just an obsce

 Little did I know that when I started reading the powerpoint on Capital Investments, my mind would keep wandering to thoughts of the doomed Donner party of 1846. While workings of capital investments are fascinating, so is cannibalism. I have to admit, I am an absolute history geek. So, when seeing the word cannibalism in an economics lecture, my history geek ears perked up. What could cannibalism have to do with economics? Turns out it's super interesting. In economics, cannibalism is basically a reduction of sales of a current product when a new product is introduced. It could also be decrease in sales at a store when a new one of the same brand is opened close-by. An example of market cannibalism would be Apple coming out with a new version of the iPhone. Consumers want the new version and sales for the previous versions decrease. I remember hearing someone say that there should be a garbage can next to the cash register when you buy a new laptop because it's outdated the m

My son and his wife are 8th grade sweethearts. They waited until after college to get married. In college they said they wanted kids right away because they wanted to be young parents and take their kids on adventures and travel while they still had lots of energy. That's how my kids were raised. We took them everywhere. By the age of 13 they had multiple passport stamps, could navigate an airport, read a map on road trips, ski, climb, bike and camp. But then they started their adult lives, got careers, and traveled. Without kids. And they liked it. Too much. Now at 30, the oldest son who is a financial analyst did what he does best. He did a cost-benefit analysis on having children. and of course it was a big negative financially. They are a double-income-no-kids couple and enjoying a happy metropolitan lifestyle living in Washington DC. They have 2 giant bunnies (Hershal and Ishtar,) and love their lives.  Research shows that in 2022 it cost over $300,000 to raise a child from bi

 Until January 2023, I worked in the emergency department for 22 years. I spent most of that time in Chicago at a major trauma center and at a small hospital that served the predominately poor and unhoused. I remember when I started, being told "don't feed them too much because then they come back during too often." Then just a short time later handing people menus for them to order their food because we were competing with other hospitals for patients (customers.) I've always treated everyone equally, with compassion and care. I don't even look at what (if any) insurance you have, don't care.  The problem is though, the care I provide is being questioned and evaluated more and more. When you get those surveys in the mail or email after a medical visit, my reimbursement is partly dependent on your answers. But read the questions carefully. Not one of them asks if you were healed, helped, made to feel better. They ask if we were kind. Did we spend enough time,

When a woman's car caught on fire, her Stanley cup didn't burn and actually still had ice in it when the fire was finally extinguished.  So, the Stanley company not only gave her a new cup, they gave her a new car! After the fire, the woman whose car was destroyed, took to social media about the cup. It went absolutely viral. This my friends, is the greatest marketing gift the Stanley company could have ever dreamed of.   The viral social media post was the best free advertising they could have ever asked for. This woman did the positioning and differentiation for them. She positioned the Stanley cup by knocking out all other products in her mind when it was still there, untouched after the fire. She differentiated the cup by promoting the fact that it still had ice in it.  I'm sure the cost of the car was only a slight blip in Stanley's budget but it that kind of free promotion is hard to monetize. I say good for them and good for her.  (I promise next blog won't b

I grew up in Chicago. One of those kids that played outside all day, came in when the street lights came on and drank water from the hose. There were no water bottles when we went to the store, went to the park and not at school. There were water fountains. Was that a good thing? Who knows. Now I'm almost never without a water bottle. I started out with nalgenes. I have lots of them, some with stickers all over them, most all scratched up, wide mouth small mouth, 1 litre, 32 once and on and on. Stuck with those for years. Now, it's a Yeti. She goes everywhere with me. I still love my nalgenes for any hiking or kayaking. What I don't own is a Stanley. I think I'm the only one.  When I think of Stanley, I think of my dad taking his thermos and lunch box to work. I think they are cool looking but I can't see the extreme appeal. I'd say 90% of the people I work with have them. They have multiples, one to match each color of their scrubs. Marketing is extraordinary.