7 Traits That Distinguish Super Successful People From Ordinary Ones

My book Business Brilliant is based on survey research that found seven key principles of work and wealth-building that super-successful people practice but ordinary people avoid.
Here are stories of seven of the most successful--and wealthiest--people in the world to illustrate each of those seven principles.
1. Guy Laliberte, Cirque du Soleil Founder: Do What You Love, But Follow the Money
Guy Laliberte was a high-school-educated circus clown from Quebec when he led a collective of performers to start Cirque du Soleil. Despite government subsidies, indulgent sponsors, and Laliberte's hard work, the circus barely survived for years while evolving its distinctive style. Laliberte's master stroke was to switch Cirque's status from non-profit to for-profit (with himself as one-third owner). Today he's worth $1.8 billion. Even clowning can be a smart career move, as long you're the owner.
2. Suze Orman, Financial Advisor: Save Less, Earn More
Suze Orman has made a fortune telling people to grow their wealth through frugality, despite having no personal experience in the matter. When Suze was in her mid-30s, she lived high, but was mired in debt. She didn't cut back on luxuries; instead she worked her way out. She did what she loved, followed financial opportunity, and today she is in a situation to spend $300,000 a year traveling the world on private jets. In the end, your time is much better spent seizing opportunities than pinching pennies.
3. Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder: Imitate, Don't Innovate
Bill Gates built one of the world's largest fortunes--$67 billion, according to Forbes--by licensing operating system software to IBM. In actuality, that software was wholly adapted from someone else's code. Gates' Microsoft lacked the innovative capacity to write it from scratch, so it dressed up some code from another company's software, which Microsoft had bought for $25,000. When Gates delivered the second-hand software to IBM, it was on time, but it was so buggy that IBM engineers had to rewrite it completely. Thirty-three years later, no one remembers or cares. Innovation is seldom as important as timely execution of an adequate imitation.
4. Warren Buffett, Investor: Know-How Is Good, Know-Who Is Better
Warren Buffett arrived at his savvy investment philosophy when he was very young, but his know-how was nearly worthless because he personally lacked enough capital to make large market moves. Buffett didn't get rich until he overcame his shyness, recruited members for his investment partnerships, and led those partners in squeezing stock performance out of corporate managers. Case in point: No one gets rich alone.
5. Adam McKay, Hollywood Producer/Director: Win-Win Is a Sure Way to Lose
Adam McKay is one of the most successful producer/directors in Hollywood. He's teamed up with Will Ferrell on Talledega Nights, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, and Anchorman. But his movie-making career might never have happened if he hadn't negotiated a sweetheart deal to produce film shorts while on the writing staff at Saturday Night Live. The secret to landing the deal? He didn't try to play a so-called win-win negotiating game. Instead, he told SNL'stop dog Lorne Michaels that having his own film crew was his price for staying with the show, and he was ready to walk away without it. Michaels paid happily.
6. Richard Branson, Virgin Founder: Spread the Work, Spread the Wealth
Sir Richard Branson suffers from severe dyslexia, but he's come to regard it as his greatest strength. Branson runs his Virgin Group as a venture capital fund that places bets on entrepreneurs with bright ideas that fit the Virgin brand strategy. He's never tempted to micro-manage any of the dozens of Virgin companies because he can't. "If I could read a balance sheet," he once said, "I wouldn't have done anything in life." In sum, work your strengths and get others to work theirs.
7. Steve Jobs, Apple Founder: Nothing Succeeds Like Failure
Steve Jobs had a vision, back in the 1980s, for a three-dimensional imaging computer that would revolutionize the defense, oil, and medical industries. He was wrong about it, and he lost millions of his own dollars before shutting down production of the $125,000 Pixar Imaging Computer in 1991. At the time, Pixar's only profitable unit was a tiny team of animators using Pixar software to make computer-generated TV commercials--a team that would later form the Pixar movie studio that made Toy Story. And when Jobs died in 2011, more than 70 percent of his $8.3 billion fortune came from his stake in Pixar Studios, in an industry he never had any intention of entering.

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Author: Lewis Shiff




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The 7 Things Successful People Never Say

You want to be successful. Everyone does. But your actual words might be undermining your chances of success. The things you say in the office, no matter how innocuous they seem to you, might be knocking you down the career ladder and putting the top position you dream about out of reach.

Your career is too important to be tanked by a few negative phrases. Here are the seven things you should strike from your workplace vocabulary if you want to achieve the success you richly deserve:

1. “That’s not in my job description.”

When you accepted your current position, you had a good idea of what the responsibilities and workload of the role would entail. Throughout the months or years since you settled into your job, however, your role has expanded and changed shape. Some of these changes have probably been good, while others have made you wish for simpler times. When a boss or manager piles another responsibility on your already sore shoulders, it might be tempting to pull out this classic gem of work avoidance.

The better option, however, is to schedule a time to talk to your boss about your role. A specific conversation about your place in the organization is a good time to bring up the particulars of your job description, not when you’re asked to get something accomplished. No matter how stressed you are or how valid the complaint, dropping this phrase only makes you look lazy and unmotivated.

2. “It can’t be done.”

Throwing in the towel makes you look like a quitter -- and quitters don’t get promoted. Instead of giving up on a project entirely, frame your response in terms of alternative ways to get the work accomplished. Very little is truly impossible, and most managers and executives want forward-thinking problem solvers to climb the corporate ladder. If you offer solutions instead of giving up, you’ll be seen as a valuable member of the team.

3. “It’s not my fault.”

No one wants to work with a blame shifter. After all, it’s just a matter of time before this person eventually shifts the blame onto you. Take ownership of your mistakes instead of pointing out where others have fallen short. Admitting to a mistake shows character and the ability to learn and grow from problems. Pointing the finger at someone else strongly implies you’ll never truly learn from your errors.

4. “This will just take a minute.”

Unless something will literally take only 60 seconds, don’t overpromise and underdeliver. Saying something will only take “a minute” also has the side effect of undermining your efforts. Most likely the reason the particular task won’t take long is due to the benefit of your professional experience and acumen. By saying it will “just” take a minute, you're shortchanging what you bring to the table.

5. “I don’t need any help.”

The rugged lone wolf type might be the hero of most action movies, but they’re unlikely to become the hero at your company. You might think you can go it alone on a project or in your career, but teamwork is essential. Being able to work with others is the hallmark of a good leader; you’re unlikely to climb your career ladder always flying solo.

6. “It’s not fair.”

Life isn’t fair, and often your career won’t be as well. Instead of complaining, you should look for specific and actionable workarounds to the problems you encounter. Is it unfair a coworker got to run point on the project you wanted? Maybe, but instead of complaining, work harder and go the extra mile. Finding a solution will always be preferable in your professional life to whining about a problem.

7. “This is the way it’s always been done.”

Doing things the way they’ve always been done is no way to run a business. Just ask some of the companies which toed the line, accepted the status quo, and went under. Adapting to an ever-changing marketplace is really the only way to survive in an economy constantly being disrupted by the next big thing.

You don’t have to be a slave to the trends, but you also can’t stick your head in the sand and hope things go back to normal. Instead, come up with creative solutions to new problems and innovate, and you’ll soon be in the driver’s seat taking your organization into the future.

Everyone wants to be successful, so make sure your words aren’t holding you back. These seven phrases are career kryptonite -- by avoiding them, you can fly into your future and become a successful superstar.

What do you think? What phrases do you avoid on the job? Share in the comments!

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About Ilya Pozin: Founder of Open Me and Ciplex. Columnist for Inc, Forbes & LinkedIn. Gadget lover, investor, mentor, husband, father, and '30 Under 30' entrepreneur.

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Hybrid is the Best Option

A billion Dollar Isnt Gratyfying

McDonald's and Taco Bell Want Your Breakfast Money & 4 More Stories You Can't Miss Today

CHAMPIONS OF BREAKFAST – It's morning where most of you are reading me and two of America's corporate giants are fighting over you. McDonald's is offering free coffee in the morning today and for the next two weeks after Taco Bell launched a viral ad campaign, where an army of Ronald McDonalds – homonyms of McD's mascot – proffer their love for Taco Bell's breakfast. (That love is paid for, of course. Also McDonald's say its move is not tit-for-tat: "Our plans to share our great coffee have been brewing for some time," wrote a spokesman. I bet that pun had been too.) The TV spot is just one of many ways Taco Bell is touting its new waffle taco and other breakfast offerings. Ad Age writes that the first meal of the day accounts for 21% of restaurant visits in the US, and 8 out of 10 of those are fast food. Taco Bell wants its piece of the lucrative breakfast pie and McDonald's is the top competitor standing in its way. Because fruit and whole wheat toast clearly don't stand a chance...


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KINDA DEADLINE – Today is the deadline for millions of uninsured Americans to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act – a.k.a. Obamacare – or face a fine of $95 or 1% of income (whichever is higher). That is unless you live in one of the states that do not rely on the federal marketplace and have set their own deadline, or you simply check a blue box on healthcare.gov that says you've tried enrolling but aren't quite done. This completely honor-based "grace period" should extend until about mid-April. The intended goal is to get as many people signed up as possible – especially young people, whose premiums help cover the more expensive care of senior citizens (and people who eat waffle tacos for breakfast) – and avoid traffic jams on healthcare.gov, which has already had its problems. But the actual effect might be just the opposite: according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, half of uninsured American adults don't know when the sign-up deadline is (answer: sorta today) and half intend to remain uninsured. If you are one of them, here's the information you need.


 REVOLVING DOOR – In the case of the faulty ignition switch that has been linked to 13 deaths and caused General Motors to recall 2.6 million cars, attention is now shifting to federal regulators. According to a House subcommittee memo released yesterday and explained here by the New York Times, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration twice refused to open an inquiry into the issue, in 2007 and 2010, ignoring the warnings of its own investigators, who reported that the switch had disabled air bags in several accidents and caused at least four deaths. The GM case also serves to highlight the close ties between corporations, their law firms and the regulators who oversee them, with top employees often going through a revolving door between the private and public sectors. The New York Times' Christopher Jensen and Matthew L. Wald write of the NHTSA:

"That knowledge of how the agency works can “absolutely” make a difference when it comes to protecting consumers, said Joan Claybrook, who headed the agency from 1977 to 1981.

Former agency employees know how to present information to maximize chances that it will limit a recall or even divert an investigation, she said, “and that is the harm because they are hired guns essentially.”

 ELEVENTH HOUR – The latest report from the UN panel of scientists on climate change, the IPCC, was released early this morning. If you thought warnings couldn't get much more dire, you were wrong. Scientists urged governments to do more, faster to cope with climate change's existing and future consequences. According to the IPCC, climate change is already affecting food supplies, hurting the poor, wreaking coastal infrastructure and endangering biodiversity. Its effects will only get worse, too. The word "risk", NBCNews notes, is used on average five times per page. The tone of the report is particularly noteworthy because the need for political consensus this time did not water it down. Writes Eric Holthaus of slate.com:

 What makes the new IPCC statement so striking is its process. The entire 44 page summary was agreed to line-by-line by scientists and political representatives from more than 110 governments during a marathon session over the last week. Simply because of the way it was constructed, this report instantly becomes the most authoritative ever written on the subject of climate change impacts and the long-term consequences of current (in)action. Fast-growing China must agree with tiny Maldives, and the relatively rich United States must align with poor governments like Tanzania.


SHORTCUTS – The best-selling author of Moneyball and The Big Short, Michael Lewis, is everywhere in financial media for the launch of his new book, "Flash Boys". Lewis' new target? High-speed trading. Lewis says the market is rigged against anyone but the fastest of high-speed traders, who are able to anticipate what you will buy and buy it first, thus driving up the price. All in a matter of milliseconds. He highlights a young Canadian trader who figured out what was happening when his purchase order were consistently only half-filled: some high-speed traders have access to a faster, proprietary fiber optics connection to the markets, which allows their order to get through milliseconds before those of other investors who rely on the "public" connection – not just the casual day trader, but also major pension and hedge funds. The process is not illegal, Lewis concedes, only doesn't seem quite fair. "If it wasn't complicated, it wouldn't be allowed to happen," he said on 60 Minutes yesterday (the clip is worth seeing, it makes things crystal clear). The complexity disguises what is happening. If it's so complicated you can't understand it, then you can't question it."

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Author: Isabelle Roughol

Hiring Advice & News From Around The Web

The week gets busier and busier, doesn’t it? So we decided to make things a little easier on you. Instead of searching for interesting hiring advice all over the web, you can find the good stuff here. Enjoy this list of our favorite articles.

Advice and How-Tos 7 Questions and Answers About Recruiting With Social Media

Everyone is incorporating social media into their recruiting practices, but every recruiter has had that moment — the moment when you feel like the kid in class, raising your hand to ask a question that you feel like everyone knows the answer to already.

This should help: 

Where is everyone getting all of their images?

Ninety percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. That is exactly why on Facebook, videos are shared 12 times more than links and text posts combined, and photos are liked 2x more than text updates. Images are plentiful online, but using most of them without rights or credits can get you into trouble (plus that’s just not cool). Here are a few ways to get tons-o-images:

• Create a Haiku Deck and use the images produced.
• Photopin is a great, free site with a wide variety of pictures. Don’t forget to include the credits!
• ECards are another free and popular way to generate fun images.
• BigStock isn’t free, but their picture quality is pretty awesome and they have packages at different costs.
• Take your own pictures of the office, or ask employees to share pictures on a hashtag so they are all searchable.

When is the most effective time of day for me to be posting?

When in doubt, Google it! Media Bistro has pulled together optimal posting time for each given social network. Here are the best times to post, but you can also check out worst times and helpful tidbits.

• Facebook: Weekdays 6-8 a.m. and 2-5 p.m.
• Twitter: Weekends 1-3 p.m.
• Google+: 9-11 a.m.
• LinkedIn: 7-8:30 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.
• Pinterest: Saturday 2-4 p.m. and 8-11 p.m.
• Blog posts: Mon, Fri, Sat 11 a.m.

How in Sam Hell is everyone posting so frequently? I have a life …

Those “best times to post” slots were all over the map, right? It seems impossible to keep up with, and without the right tools, it is. Try out something like Sprout Social, HootSuite, or any number of social publishing tools out there. These allow you to fill up a queue of posts all at once and schedule their publishing times. Bam! You can knock out your posts for the week in one sitting.

How frequently should I be posting?

Amy Porterfield,social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, advises posting on all of your social networks two to five times a day. Because of those staggered “best times to post,” “One post a day simply isn’t enough because most of your fans won’t see it due to timing,” she says. This shouldn’t be considered the minimum; this is the standard. Over-posting is annoying to your audience and can get you unfollowed or unliked 

instantly..

What networks should I be a part of?

The answer here is, all of them. Obviously that is not possible, so the three standard in recruitment marketing according to a Staff.com infographic are:

• LinkedIn is the No. 1 site for social recruiting, with 93 percent of companies using it in their recruiting efforts in 2012.
• Facebook comes in second with 66 percent
• Twitter is a close third at 54 percent
• Google+ for good measure …

How do I get more likes and followers?

The answer: Like and Follow. It is a very give-and-take relationship in the social world. Everyone is trying to grow their network, and get clicks and retweets. They want the same thing you do, so when you engage, they will too. Several morehelpful follower-grabbing tips for Twitter come from social media expert Luke Chitwood:

• Create valuable content.
• Comment on relevant news/tweets.
• Create countdowns.
• Offer exclusive content.
• Participate in the dialogue.

How do you get people to share your stuff?

Once you’ve gone through the content checklist: interesting, relevant, timely, informative, and engaging, you still have to give your audience a reason to share your content. A call to action is always helpful. Simply asking people to retweet, comment, or share can actually increase the likelihood that they will do so. Science of Social Media data reveals that that tweets including either “Please ReTweet” or “Please RT” are more likely to get retweeted than tweets without those phrases. In fact, “Please ReTweet” gets a 51 percent likelihood of getting retweeted.

Social recruiting is here to stay, so recruiters should ask questions, and try out new things in the social media world. Again, when in doubt, Google it. “I’ll figure it out later” will only ensure that your untimely efforts will get lost in the shuffle. Do you have any social tips or tricks to share? We would love to hear them below.

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Why the Tech Industry is (Still) Failing Women

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That women are underrepresented in the startup community is hardly news. Just eight percent of startup founders are women, according to EZebis, a site that supports women in tech. This is despite the fact that women-led private tech companies have been shown to achieve a 35-percent-higher return on investment. After all these years, the face of tech startups is still a young guy with fashionable stubble and thick black glasses.

I’d like to think my company HootSuite is anything but a stodgy old boys club. As a social media company, the heart of our business is building relationships. Our employees are by and large young, progressive and open-minded. We have a yoga studio at our headquarters and get fresh, local fruit delivered daily. On any given day, around a dozen dogs roam the halls of our pet-friendly office.

But the numbers don’t lie. Out of every 10 people interviewed for a tech position at our office, 9 are men. We have approximately 50 engineers and developers on our team, and fewer than 20 of them are women. (By contrast, the gender breakdown is closer to 50-50 for other departments.) Figuring out why this is and what can be done about it is a question that keeps me up nights.

Why? You can point to the scarcity of female role models in tech, though thankfully high-profile leaders like Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg are slowly changing that. Or you can blame it on the obstacles to building a culture of entrepreneurialism among women: According to a recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, more than half of women doubt their abilities to start a business, while men report having a much more robust professional network for advice and inspiration.

But it’s hard to get around a simple reality: Computer science, the backbone of any tech startup, is still a male-dominated field. Women comprise fewer than 30 percent of U.S. computer science and engineering programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels,according to the National Science Foundation. Coding, in particular—caricatured as marathon, ramen-fueled computer programming sessions in movies like The Social Network—has traditionally been seen as a guys’ thing. But does it have to be?

Girl Dev is a pilot program started from our offices at HootSuite. Once a week for three hours, groups of women interested in improving their computer coding skills meet in our cafeteria after work. The focus is on teaching not just the basics of HTML and CSS but more advanced topics including Javascript, PHP and app development in a supportive and non-competitive environment.

We also host monthly meetups of Ladies Learning Code, a Toronto-based initiative that has introduced more than 4,000 women and girls to programming and technical skills since 2011. One Saturday a month in our office, 14 mentors and roughly 40 attendees spend 8 hours working together. Importantly, it’s not all code. Mentors introduce themselves, share their personal stories and offer insight on ways to thrive as a woman in a male-dominated industry.

Creating supportive environments like these to learn computer science skills is a start. But truly narrowing the gender gap in the startup community—like the solution to so many challenges—comes down in large part to how we educate children. Providing better computer science education in public schools to kids, and encouraging girls to participate, is the only way to rewrite stereotypes about tech and really break open the old boys club.

To that end, Ladies Learning Code recently introduced Girls Learning Code, camps and workshops aimed specifically at 8- to 13- and 13- to 17-year-old girls. With a focus on teamwork, creativity and technology, the program aims to help girls see tech as a medium for self-expression and a means of changing the world, notes Emma Nemtin, marketing director for tech company Hubba and one of the organization’s mentors: “By giving the girls a great learning experience, putting them in a room with dozens of other girls who also think technology is cool, giving them access to mentors and role models, and then showing them examples of what it can mean to work in tech, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that these girls grow up knowing that they have a choice . . . .”

Did you like this post? To read my weekly insights on social media, leadership, and tech trends, just click the 'follow' button at the top of this page.

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Proven Success Pattern: a Trait That I Look for When Hiring

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When I am recruiting prospective employees, there are many attributes I look for that would be common aspects sought by many employers: previous experience, skills that would be applicable for the new position, applicable educational background, etc. For me, there are additional intangibles such as personal presence and confidence, communication skills, attitude, the ability to respond to change, and more.

There are, however, red light warning signs that often cause me to pause and reconsider my enthusiasm for a candidate. I always want to understand the story behind the candidate's life. I like to see a logical progression — a Proven Success Pattern — that can explain, or simply tell the story about the path that led the candidate to my office door.

Multiple job changes, a period of unexplainable gaps in employment, or a series of resignations due to dissatisfaction with the previous job or employer are reasons for me to be more likely to slow down the process in considering a candidate.

Even if unemployed for a period, I look to see what the candidate did during gaps —volunteer, study, travel the world, raise a family? These can be solid and valuable ways to enhance the caliber of an individual. But for the resume that show a year or two in one spot, and then the next, I often move away from making the decision to employ that candidate, unless there are very logical explanations.

PSP is up to everyone's control. Staying active and engaged in self-growth even if not employed is a key reflection on the individual.

In my teens I worked summers in a shoe warehouse, a factory, as a landscaper, and more. In college I was in student government, worked in the library, and worked in the theater and concert management organization on campus. I was active in politics and always had a job or was volunteering. For young people in college, I look for the same kind of unique active involvement. It reflects work ethic and goals.

If getting a bachelor's degree, I encourage everyone I meet to augment that time with extracurricular activities. Show that you did more than simply go to class. Get involved in something, anything, and make that as much of your resume as your core classwork.

It's a competitive world, especially for young people, and PSP is one of the eliminators I use to narrow the field when recruiting talent. It's one of those intangibles for me. How about for others?

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  Author: David H. Stevens

Being an entrepreneur is tough. Being a successful entrepreneur, even tougher. Lots of people dream of being running their own business and being The Boss but that’s all. They just dream. Maybe dabble a little with a business at some point and give up when it isn’t wildly successful right away. What separates the “also rans” from the extraordinary?

For a good part of my life, I alternated between working for other people and entrepreneurship. Some of my ventures turned out pretty well, others went down in spectacular flames. Those “failures” weren’t much fun, but they opened doors to learning and growth. And to be honest, there were times when I went through those doors kicking and screaming.

For years I’ve studied what makes some entrepreneurs successful while others limp along or throw in the towel. What characteristics are key to passing ordinary on the way to EXTRAORDINARY?

1) A vivid image of where they want to go and what it will be like when they get there. A dream that’s so clear, so compelling that it’s worth the work it takes to achieve it. Coupled with that image is the belief that it’s possible even when facing huge obstacles. They believe in themselves and their dreams.

2) A willingness to try and risk failure. And a willingness to learn from those mistakes. Read the stories of successful people and you’ll find that every single one had setbacks and disappointments. As Michael Jordan, arguably one of the greatest basketball players of all time said, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” Henry Ford tried several businesses and went bust five times before establishing the Ford Motor Company. Risking failure, learning from mistakes and trying again -- and again -- and again. That's what makes someone extraordinary.

3) Action-oriented. They’re self-starters who don’t wait for conditions to be perfect before they begin. They don't wait for permission. With a plan in place, they focus on what’s going to move them closer to their goals. Procrastination is fear wrapped up in excuses. Those who achieve their dreams show up every day and do what’s necessary. They understand that small steps, taken consistently, eventually result in success.

Does it take more than just these three traits to be an extraordinary entrepreneur? Yes, and I’ll be writing more about them in the future but without these traits no one can be truly successful.

About the Author: Bonnie Pond, author of The Power of Three: How to Be Happy and Get What You Want in Life (Without Doing Anything Illegal, Immoral, or Unethical) has founded several small businesses. She knows building a company takes hard work and that having a life outside of work often takes a back seat. A double cancer diagnosis a few years ago led to Bonnie's commitment to live like she really means it and make her life count -- and to help others do the same. As the "Live an EXTRAORDINARY Life" expert, she's worked with hundreds of people around the globe focusing on happiness, confidence-building, purpose, overcoming fears and doubts, and action vs. procrastination. In her work as a speaker, author, and host of a weekly radio show, Bonnie shows people how to step up and take their lives from ordinary to EXTRAORDINARY. 

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  BONNIE POND

Fewer doctors? Innovate medical devices and services""

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Rapid diagnostic tests, digital health technologies and human factors will be key as #MyIndustry combats the shortfall in the US of more than 91,500 physicians by 2020 recentlyhighlighted by the Association of Medical Colleges. This shortfall will affect all primary care and medical specialities; the US are not training enough doctors for its’ growing and aging population. This is not a problem solely confined to the US; growing global populations will make the already acute shortage of physicians in countries including China, India, Nigeria and Indonesia substantially worse. A recent op-ed in The New York Times from Scott Gottlieb andEzekiel Emanuel suggested that the situation in the US could be alleviated by changing the way in which healthcare is delivered.

Digital health technologies including remote patient monitoring and minimally invasive surgerywere two of the areas which were highlighted as being able to ease the demand on physicians. Data analytics will also ease the burden on physicians; this could be through post-marketing evaluation of clinical procedures, medical devices which provide clinical decision support and closed-loop systems such as the artificial pancreas.

There are two linked themes which run through many of the suggestions about changing the way in which healthcare is delivered; simplify the provision of healthcare and empower other healthcare professionals to provide services physicians currently deliver.

The provision of healthcare can be simplified by evaluating the benefits which a treatment is providing and making medical devices which perform more functions and perform them in a more intuitive manner. Developing next-generation medical devices in this manner will require a suite of skills from an understanding of the clinical procedures, to the hardware and software which could be integrated into the device and finally ensuring that the device fits intoexisting workflows.

Empowering healthcare professional to provide services currently delivered by physicians will require additional training and access to clinical decision support tools which can substitute for the role of physician. In addition legislation will need to be changed to permit these healthcare professionals to perform tasks currently only performed by physicians. While this strategy expands the number of people able to delivery healthcare, it also expands the number of people liable for litigation. Medical malpractice currently costs about $55.6 billion in the US alone. It will be intriguing to see how this tightrope is walked over the coming years.

These benefits will only be realised when they are broadly implemented by healthcare providers. Monitoring implementation of changes in healthcare provision can provide multiplebenefits. Systems such as time-driven activity based costing have been championed byMichael Porter and Robert Kaplan. They enable a patients’ journey to be tracked; including monitoring which healthcare professionals provide their healthcare, the equipment which is used and the length of time interactions last. This enables standardisation of protocols and more accurate costings.

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