Is your supply chain stable? Are healthcare providers immune to Betteridge's Law? These and other questions answered by this blog (and your common sense).
The idea that's been around about as long as journalism but was famously codified by journalist Ian Betteridge is that, if a writer were confident that the information that they're presenting in the headline is true, they would state it as fact. "Hero Saves Baby From Burning Building" doesn't need a question mark. So is the writer who ends a headline in a question mark confident of their assertion?
The answer to this - and all similar questions - is: "No."
To be fair to the places where we gathered our news this last week, they presented their findings as fact. We only reason that we did was to give you hope momentarily, then immediately smash that hope. Because you can't maintain an effective supply chain (or any successful institution) on hope.
What a grim prospect! On to this week's Five To Save, which may or may not restore your hope.
1. You may want to see how many of these signs of an unstable supply chain your organization checks. If you find that you are having problems, it's probably because less than 10% of companies have full visibility into their supply chains. Can you have full visibility into your supply chain if your suppliers don't have full visibility into theirs*?
2. While disruption and delay of care has greatly affected healthcare providers in the last few years, this year's inflation hasn't yet affected healthcare providers. They keyword there is - you guessed it - yet. Will providers remain detached from rising costs forever*?
3. The good news: delayed care is now being addressed in most parts of the country. That means more cases, more procedures, and more dollars for providers. The bad news: employers are getting slammed by the expense of their employees' care, particularly to treat cancer. Are healthcare providers exempt from the high cost of providing healthcare to their employees*?
4. The cost of care, along with their recent acquisitions, must all be playing into Amazon's decision to shut down its Amazon Care offering for employees. Will doing less medical outsourcing and/or shuttering its provider-esque verticals help Amazon succeed in the healthcare space*?
5. If you're looking to headhunt someone away from a company that just cut their benefits (or if you're looking for a new position yourself), keep in mind that the lowest acceptable salary is over $73K on average now. If we are indeed headed toward a prolonged economic downturn, one upside at least is that recruiting is far easier during a recession. Is that reassuring to professionals in an industry that already has single-digit operating margins*?
*Are these all Betteridge's Law questions? The answer to that question alone is: "Yes." Oof.
But around here we follow Carl's Law, which is that, no matter how you're trying to avoid costs in your surgical supply, med device, or pharmacy inventory management, Z5 Inventory has a way to help you.
And the Five To Save Law says that, if you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get even more news delivered to your inbox completely free. Doesn't that sound good?
(You don't have to answer "No" to every single question now. C'mon.)