This month marks the third anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act becoming law.

Consumers have gained access to many new benefits under the law including free preventive services, new rights to appeal insurers' decisions, drug discounts for seniors on Medicare, and tax credits for small businesses.

Yet the biggest

A Lot Of Effort And Hard Work
Is work ethic becoming passé? It seems much of today’s “leading” business thinking focuses only on working smarter not harder.

Well, one person determined to keep “work ethic” alive is William “Bill” Kennedy. He’s the owner and leader, of Hartson-Kennedy Cabinet Top Company, in Marion, Indiana.

Kennedy, 90, is still very involved with the day-to-day operations of the company he co-founded with his father-in-law in 1948. Sure he’s slowed down a bit in recent years, “only” coming into work from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., but I bet he could tell you, down to the dollar, what his payables and receivables are for the week.

When I asked about how he’s survived and prospered all these years, Kennedy said so many companies make things way too complicated. “I’ve kept it simple”, he said. “You got your account receivables and you got your payables. What’s left is what you have to work with. You have to watch it every day!”

Our President & CEO, Tim Leman, recently wrote in his executive blog about the terrific news Gibson received a few weeks ago being named a Best Places to Work in Indiana firm. We had applied for this distinction twice before and were not successful either time. Why did we succeed this year when we had failed twice in the same endeavor?

March Madness
Down by one point with 2.1 seconds remaining, Grant Hill threw a 75-foot pass to Christian Laettner. He dribbled once, turned around and shot. Swish. Duke 104, Kentucky 103.

If you’re a fan of college basketball then you likely remember the 1992 NCAA regional championship game between Duke and Kentucky. It’s widely regarded as one of the greatest college basketball games ever.

At Gibson, March Madness typically comes the second week of the month when we hold our Human Capital Summit (HCS) for area employers. We put on several major seminars for employers throughout the year, but the HCS is our largest event.

When we talk about risk management and risk assessment, the focus is often on the big issues. But it’s not the only way to look at risk assessment. When you’re working to identify every potential risk, you sometimes need to think outside the box. Well, in this case, inside the box.

Every individual product, from food to electronics, encounters risks throughout its lifespan. As the product passes through production lines, across borders, and through the hands of numerous organizations, it encounters a wide array of risks. By applying a risk assessment to the product itself, rather than the individual businesses involved we can get a unique view.

Have you ever written an email, text or letter, or made a Facebook post that you wish you could get back? The funny thing is you knew better before you sent it, didn’t you? I repeated this mistake recently.

It’s been twenty years since I graduated from high school. I went to a small public school with about 100 students in my grade. My class is getting together this July in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I’ve been helping the reunion planning committee. Turns out the party is getting bigger every day. So much so, that we’ve outgrown the restaurant originally selected by our committee and are moving it to a larger place.

We were required to pay $200 to the original location to reserve a meeting room. A few weeks ago, we canceled our reservation, giving them 4 ½ months of advance warning. Unfortunately the general manager of said establishment is refusing to return the deposit money unless he is able to rent the room above his bar & grille to someone else.

This didn’t sit right with me. I told the committee member who had personally fronted the money not to worry. I would straighten this out.

According to a recent survey by Pew Research, approximately 45% of adults own a smartphone in the US.  Replacing a broken smartphone, or purchasing insurance through the phone carrier to cover a loss, can be very costly.

Establish Your Franchise

One of the many components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA aka Health Care Reform) is each state must decide if they will implement the Medicaid expansion. The goal is to expand coverage to state residents that aren’t covered by or eligible for one of the many programs currently offered.

Indiana already has several program options in place, including the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), but eligibility can be complicated and varies based on the individual program guidelines. There is much disagreement between parties as to which program is the most cost-effective for the state and how to provide the coverage needed by over 400,000 low-income Hoosiers.

There are certain tools that are required for every risk management plan. Whether you work in construction or manage a busy office, there will be many factors that are the same. Every risk management plan requires safety equipment, training, and insurance.