April 19th, 2008 | Insurance |
There are several options for health insurance in the state of Illinois. There are public as well as private plans that are designed to suit all kinds of people. There are many insurance agents and brokerage firms that deal exclusively with Illinois health insurance plans.
These have access to several insurance companies and plans, such as Assurant, BCBS Illinois, UniCare, Blue Cross/ Blue Shield of Illinois, Humana One, Fortis Short-Term Medical, Celtic, American Medical Security, MedPlan Access, Genesis Health System, GE Long Term Care Insurance, and Fortis Student Select Health Insurance. These companies can generate insurance quotes for different kinds of insurance plans, such as individual and family, short term health insurance, dental plans, Illinois HSA Qualified High Deductible Insurance Quotes Individual and Family, small group health insurance plans, senior health insurance, employer-based group health insurance plans, international travel health insurance plans, student health insurance plans, disability insurance, kids’ health insurance, and even CHIP (comprehensive health insurance program) quotes.
Most companies now have online forms for quotes. Basic information such as contact information; personal statistics such as age, sex, height, weight and smoker/non smoker status; details about current health insurance plans; medical condition information and any other additional information has to be filled in. The company would process the data and determine the most suitable plan. There would be rates from different kinds of plans, and different companies to choose from.
Some insurance companies and agents provide different kinds of quote options, such as the instant quote and the custom quote. The instant quote is the fastest kind of application, that provides general information about the eligible plans and their benefits. However, it does not consider the detailed medical history of the applicant, or other insurance underwriting issues. It does not include maternity benefits, or other benefit options. The custom quote, on the other hand, is a more detailed application that considers specific queries and preferences of customers. It covers more insurance plans. Both these quotes can be generated online over the Internet.
April 13th, 2008 | Finance Planning |
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” — E. F. Schumacher, 20th century German economist and conservationist
The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Centralized, hierarchical organizations work about as well as the old Soviet Union. Despite all the evidence, we keep smacking into many variations on the centralization themes. What makes things even worse is how senior managers in these dysfunctional organizations proclaim empowerment, participation, teams, leadership, trust, and the like. They often take partial measures while expecting total success. They liberate parts of their organizations while limiting other parts. They push hard with one foot on the accelerator while also pushing hard with their other one on the brake. Their words say, “you are empowered”. Their actions say, “you are empowered as long as you get approval first.”
These dysfunctional organizations end up trying to go in two opposing directions at once. We once halted an executive retreat and everybody went home after the group of seven division presidents and corporate staff vice presidents couldn’t agree on whether their values were centralization or decentralization. Trying to do both at once was ripping the organization apart. The CEO never could decide which direction he wanted to commit to. He was eventually fired as frustrations and infighting rose while organization performance fell.
Most centralists don’t set out to deceive anybody. In their heads they know that high degrees of involvement, participation, and autonomy are key elements in high organization performance. But in their hearts, they still crave orderliness, predictability, and control. That’s one of the reasons strategic planning causes so many performance shortfalls in their organizations. It’s part of their futile search for a master plan that can regulate and bring a sense of order to our haphazard, unpredictable, and rapidly changing world.
Our narrow accounting systems give centralists plenty of reinforcement. For example, hard financial measures can clearly show that consolidating and centralizing support services and functions saves money and increases efficiency — at least on paper. What doesn’t show up is the alienation, helplessness, and lack of connections to customers or organizational purpose that centralized bureaucracy often brings. The energy-sapping and passion-destroying effects of efficiencies may save hundreds of thousands of dollars. But traditional accounting systems can’t show the hundreds of millions of dollars lost because of lackluster innovation, mediocre customer service, uninspired internal partners, and unformed external partnerships.
I am an extreme (some might argue dangerous) decentralist. Since I began my management career, I’ve given people high degrees of autonomy. I’ve run even small organizations to the point of such inefficient decentralization that people are running their own show. It works. Here are some of the reasons:
o Everyone can see and manage their work as part of a whole, interconnected system, not a bunch of parts and pieces.
o People are trusted and treated as responsible, caring, and committed adults — which is how they then behave.
o A collection of small self-contained teams or business units are many times more flexible and responsive at meeting threats and capitalizing on opportunities.
o Ownership, commitment, energy, and passion levels are much higher.
o Everyone focuses on meeting customer/partner — not the internal bureaucracy’s — needs.
o People have more control over their work. This replaces the vicious cycle of learned helplessness with a virtuous cycle of hopefulness and leadership.
o Bureaucratic committees become entrepreneurial teams.
o Feedback loops are much clearer, shorter and closer to the customer and markets.
High performing organizations that are thriving in today’s chaotic world are adapting and pioneering a wide variety of highly decentralized structures. They are giving up control of people so that people can control their own and the organization’s destiny.
April 12th, 2008 | Finance Planning |
Better Than TQM
Six Sigma is important because it scores much higher over other quality improvement techniques such as TQM. Business organizations employing TQM just focus on achieving predetermined quality levels, which certainly improves efficiencies but does not allow the organization to realize the full potential. Six Sigma is different as the focus here is to make consistent quality improvements until business processes are fully optimized. As soon a certain quality level is achieved, the organization shifts gears and starts concentrating on achieving other levels of quality. The whole process continues until all the business processes are fully optimized.
Data Driven Approach
Six Sigma concepts and methodologies stress the use of statistical tools and techniques for improving quality and reducing defects. The dependence on hard facts and figures automatically ensures that whatever decisions are taken will have the desired affect on the quality of goods or services and the efficiency of business processes.
An experienced production manager may be the right person to make quality-improvement decisions but if the decisions are based solely on gut feelings and preconceived notions, the decisions may not have the desired effect, especially if the task is to make adjustments in a complex business process. The inherent ability of Six Sigma to produce the desired results has thus increased its importance in today’s business world.
Helps Increase Customer Satisfaction And Build Loyalties
Another reason for the ever-increasing popularity and importance of Six Sigma is that it really helps when it comes to handling competition, which has increased considerably in today’s business world. Business organizations worldwide have realized that in order to beat the competition, they will have to offer better quality products or services to their customers and that too at competitive rates.
Six Sigma helps because it enables business organizations to achieve the above stated objective, which ultimately results in greater customer satisfaction and helps in building customer loyalty. Having a loyal group of customers is always important for any business because it ensures a constant flow of revenues even when there is a cyclical downturn in the industry.
The importance of Six Sigma has increased manifold in the last two decades and is set to increase even more in the coming years as more and more businesses realize its benefits. Six Sigma is anticipated to maintain its dominance over all other existing quality improvement techniques because it is flexible and can be altered to suit the requirements of new businesses that might come up in the near future. We can never be too sure about the future but as far as the present is concerned, Six Sigma is certainly calling the shots across all types of industries worldwide.
