Review of “DreamMakers: Innovating for the Greater Good” by Michele Hunt, DreamMakers (dreammakers.org)

This is an inspiring book about DreamMakers, those individuals and organizations that have the audacity to rethink, redesign, and co-create a new world view of doing well by doing good. These dream makers aspire to reset the workings of the world to alleviate major ills and problems that societies face today. To understand and appreciate this book fully, we need to know about the author. Michele Hunt is an extraordinarily successful lady with colorful professional background. Upon graduation from college (BA in Sociology from Eastern Michigan University and MA in Sociology from University of Detroit), she worked for 9 years at a male prison of the Michigan Department of Corrections as the state’s first female Deputy Warden of Rehabilitation Programs. Then, she moved on to Herman Miller, a Fortune 500 global office furniture company known for its people growing corporate culture through shared visions and values. She worked there for 13 years and rose to the position of Senior Vice President for People and reported directly to the wellknown CEO Max De Pree (author of Leadership is an Art). Then, Ms. Hunt was appointed as Director of the Federal Quality Institute by President Bill Clinton. Since 1995, Ms. Hunt has been running her own consulting firm for leadership development, organizational culture transformation, and of course DreamMakers projects. She has been a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and a popular consultant for major global corporations in the USA and abroad

The age of quality innovation

In this inaugural issue of International Journal of Quality Innovation, the Editor-in-Chief reports the evolution of quality management and the need for innovative research for creating new quality values

Daylighting Strategies for U.S. Air Force Office Facilities: Economic Analysis of Building Energy Performance and Life-Cycle Cost Modeling with Monte Carlo Method

The U.S. federal government maintains more than 500,000 facilities in the United States and around the world, most of which are heavily dependent on fossil fuels to produce electricity. Within the federal government, the Department of Defense (DOD) spends over $2.5 billion per year on facility energy consumption which makes them the largest single energy consumer in the United States. Therefore, federal energy conservation goals focus on aggressively reducing energy consumption by reducing the energy demand at the facility level within the next 20 years. Daylighting is a passive solar energy strategy at the facility level that leverages load avoidance by relying on windows and skylights to reduce building electrical lighting load; which accounts for approximately$15-23 billion annually in energy consumption. Our research findings show that electrochromic windows have the lowest energy consumption compared with other daylighting strategies appropriate for building retrofit. However, the prohibitive initial investment cost of electrochromic windows do not make them economically viable; therefore, the only daylighting strategy currently viable for Air Force facilities, based on our simulations, is the advanced daylighting control system. We found that economic incentive policies currently available for other passive solar technology could make emerging daylighitng technology, such as electrochromic windows, viable. Finally, we demonstrate the robustness of probabilistic life-cycle cost model using Monte Carlo simulation that could provide significantly more information compared to the current deterministic tool, BLCC 5, used for federal energy projects

Human Capital Spending, Inequality, and Growth in Middle-Income Asia

Asia’s rapid population aging fortifies the case for strengthening human capital investments. Further, the experience of the newly industrialized economies suggests that human capital investments will be a vital ingredient of the transition from middle income to high income. Those investments can also affect equity and public finances. In this paper, we use data from the National Transfer Accounts to empirically analyze the effect of human capital investment in Asian countries on economic growth, inequality, and fiscal balance. Our empirical evidence suggests that human capital investments have a positive effect on labor productivity and, hence, output. The positive effect is stronger for poorer households and, hence, beneficial for equity. We also find that such investments can generate sufficient tax revenues to improve the fiscal balance. Overall, our evidence points to a positive effect of human capital on growth, equity, and fiscal balance in Asia

Lessons Learned from Battling COVID-19: The Korean Experience

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world like a gigantic tsunami, turning social and economic activities upside down. Methods: This paper presents some of the innovative response strategies implemented by the public health system, healthcare facilities, and government in South Korea, which has been hailed as the model country for its success in containing COVID-19. Korea reinvented its public health infrastructure with a sense of urgency. Results: Korea’s success rests on its readiness, with the capacity for massive testing and obtaining prompt test results, eective contact tracing based on its world-leading mobile technologies, timely provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to first responders, eective treatment of infected patients, and invoking citizens’ community and civic conscience for the shared goal of defeating the pandemic. The lessons learned from Korea’s response in countering the onslaught of COVID-19 provide unique implications for public healthcare administrators and operations management practitioners. Conclusion: Since many epidemic experts warn of a second wave of COVID-19, the lessons learned from the first wave will be a valuable resource for responding to the resurgence of the virus

“Untact”: a new customer service strategy in the digital age

The Industry 4.0 era has brought a shift in consumers’ purchasing behaviors from traditional retailing to online and/or mobile channels, triggered by advanced digital technologies and an easy access to the global market. Smart digital devices and advanced technologies have enabled “untact” service, facilitating customer encounters without a face-to-face contact with employees. This study presents the concept of untact service based on a review of the literature on technology-enabled customer encounters with service providers and analysis of several real-world cases. The results indicate that untact services are becoming widespread in various areas of daily life, such as ordering food at franchise restaurants via digital devices, handling financial transactions without visiting a bank branch through e-banking apps, and using online or mobile order systems for a multitude of products/services. This study elaborates implications of untact service in terms of new opportunities and challenges involved when it is implemented as a new customer service strategy

Developing Green Healthcare Activities in the Total Quality Management Framework

This study examines the effectiveness of green healthcare activities in hospitals based on the total quality management (TQM) framework. The proposed research model and associated hypotheses were tested using structural equations modeling based on the data collected from 261 employees at general hospitals in South Korea. The results of the study revealed that the role of top management is essential for the successful implementation of green healthcare activities through motivating employees for their active participation in the program, providing continuous education and training on the importance of environmental sustainability, and diligent monitoring of the progress at the organization level. The study findings provide theoretical and practical implications on strategic approaches to planning and implementing green healthcare activities in hospitals for the greater good

Planting and harvesting innovation - an analysis of Samsung Electronics

This study explores how firms manage the entire life cycle of innovation projects based on the framework of harvesting and planting innovation. While harvesting innovation seeks new products in the expectation of financial performance in the short term, planting innovation pursues creating value over a long time period. Without proper management of the process of planting and harvesting innovation, firms with limited resources may not be successful in launching innovative new products to seize a momentum in high tech industries. To examine this issue, the case of Samsung Electronics (SE), now an electronics giant originated from a former developing country, is analyzed. SE has shown to effectively utilize co-innovation to maintain numerous planting and harvesting innovation projects. Both researchers and practitioners would be interested in learning about how SE shared risks of innovation investment with external partners at the early stage of innovation cycles

Innovation for creating a smart future

tToday, we live in a dynamic and turbulent global community. The wave of mega-trends, including rapidchange in globalization and technological advances, is creating new market forces. For any organizationto survive and prosper in such an environment, innovation is imperative. However, innovation is nolonger just for creating value to benefit individuals, organizations, or societies. The ultimate purpose ofinnovation should be much more far reaching, helping create a smart future where people can enjoy thebest quality of life possible. Thus, innovation must search for intelligent solutions to tackle major socialills, seek more proactive approaches to predict the uncertain future, and pursue strategies to removebarriers to the smart future. This study explores the detailed requirements of a smart future, includingboth hardware types and soft social/cultural components