Loving Walmart, ships, & insights.
RWL #418
Greetings from The University of New Hampshire! What a week! Three conferences and my first bout of COVID. One of those I would have liked to do without. I’ll let you guess which one. A big thanks to the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) for last Friday’s “New to Healthcare” conference. I thought it was a great event, and what a great concept. Of course my students stole the show, but what else would you expect?
As usual, willing good for all of you!
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Read
What: EatingWell, Walmart's Thanksgiving Dinner Deal Serves 8 People for $52—Here's What's Included
https://www.eatingwell.com/walmart-thanksgiving-deal-2024-8729282
Why: First I have to say, I love Walmart. Now, I don’t actually want to shop there. I mean, if I never willingly went into a Walmart again, I would shed no tears. But Walmart has done great things for poor people across the United States, and frankly the world. It’s piles of cheap stuff make people who have little money feel a little less stressed. And poor people have enough challenges. If they can get their clothes or shoes or glasses or big screen TVs at a price they can afford, that makes me happy. God bless Walmart.
If you’re wealthy enough not to need to shop at Walmart, of course you hate Walmart. But that’s also your class privilege showing. You don’t actually like real poor people, just poor people you see on TV. Being poor sucks and Walmart helps it suck less. That’s why I love Walmart.
This $52 deal for Thanksgiving makes me wistful for the $3 Diet and Into the (Food) Desert. How cool was I back in the day? Wow.
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Watch
What: WSJ, How the World’s Largest Shipyard Is Challenging China’s Dominance (7 min)
Why: National defense isn’t just about the “pointy tip of the spear” - the actual armed forces. It is also the production capacity behind the armed forces. This is what allowed the US to win WWII. (Excellent book on this topic, The Arsenal of Democracy.) This short video covers some interesting challenges we have put on ourselves through well-meaning laws. The US is no longer a ship-building power. But we have allies who are (South Korea). This situation leaves me deeply concerned. The video presents a glimpse of some of the challenges.
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Listen
What: HBR Ideacast, Turn Employee Feedback into Real Results (28 min)
Why: There are a bunch of interesting nuggets in this pod, but I think the most interesting one is the observation that new leaders (new to an organization, not new as in inexperienced) who are asking for ideas about what to improve are casting too wide of a net. They already have an idea of what they want to and can do, so they should pose those ideas for feedback. I’m thinking about that myself.