Are Air Miles And Hotel Reward Schemes Worth The Lack Of Sleep?
There are many pros to frequent travelling, such as the great benefits to be gained from membership of the numerous frequent flier and hotel reward schemes which soon mount up if you are always on the move. But, an intriguing article recently appeared in the New York Times that points out the real disadvantage of being a member of the frequent traveler’s club, namely lack of sleep on long-haul commercial flights.The NY Times has found that, after poor customer service, the biggest complaint coming from frequent travelers is that they can’t catch enough sleep while they are flying. In fact it is becoming such a problem that travelers are resorting to extreme action to get a few hours of shut-eye. CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines are becoming very popular, thanks mainly to the fact they are now a third smaller than they were a few years ago and therefore easier to carry onboard. The machine works by pumping air through a mask, keeping the user’s airways open while they sleep, preventing sleep apnea and other similar ailments.Other frequent travelers resort to alcohol in an attempt to bring on sleep. According to the N Y Times one un-named passenger on an 18-hour flight to Asia said: “I watched two movies, ate three meals, got drunk twice, slept for five hours and I still wasn’t there! Plus, when I did arrive I had a hangover.” Indeed, it is that hangover element, combined with the fact that alcohol-induced sleep is not fulfilling, that prompts sleep expert Greg Belenky, director of the University of Washington’s Sleep & Performance research center to dismiss it. He instead suggests that other drugs such as prescription sleep tablets or natural remedies such as melatonin supplements should be used to get a good rest.However, taking a prescription sleeping drug that lasts seven hours on a five hour flight could prove a problem, so should only be used for long haul flights. It is generally acknowledged that sleeping in a vertical position causes the body to produce adrenalin-type compounds in order to keep the blood supply flowing and they prevent fitful sleep, so bagging an upgrade to flat-beds in business or first class is the best solution for frequent travelers; but that is an expensive option that many bosses will not sanction.So, while frequent travelers may have trouble sleeping while they fly, they should be able to catch up using one of their numerous free night’s accommodation acquired through their hotel reward scheme memberships; either that, or beg their boss for an upgrade to business or first class while they fly!
How Internal Branding Can Make Your Fractured Brand Whole
Great, iconic brands achieve a mystical state of oneness – a universal clarity and consistency that drives their businesses to fantastic success.The rest of us? Instead of brand unity, we preside over what amounts to three different brands. For a business to operate at full power, these three need to be aligned. It takes work to make a brand whole.3 brands? Where did they come from?First: the brand you want to have. Call it your strategic brand. This is the brand that (ideally) is written in your strategy and is up there on your website. When you have meetings and discussions about brand, this is what people usually have in mind.Second: your actual brand. It’s the brand as the outside world sees it – what your customers and the public are saying about your company when you’re not around. Many companies don’t concern themselves much with the actual brand, even though that’s what finally drives business success. It can be painful to learn how different the actual is from the strategic ideal.Third: your internal brand. This is the brand that lives in the heads of your salespeople, managers and everyone else in your company. It’s the internal brand that makes it possible to transmit the strategic brand outward in the form of customer contacts, product design, marketing communications, business presentations, and so on. Yet this is the brand businesses are least likely to focus on.It’s what’s inside that countsThere’s a good case to be made that the internal brand is the most important of the three brands – or at least the one that you should be spending most of your time on. After all, the strategic brand is mostly theory and ideals – it doesn’t actually do much. The actual brand is important, obviously, but you have limited control. The internal brand is where theory turns to practice – it’s what brings the strategic and the actual brands into alignment and makes the whole thing run.In an ideal world, companies would enjoy a perfect mind-meld between staff and strategic vision: everyone would know and understand the brand and execute perfectly. But this never happens by itself. Instead, in the real world of neglected internal branding, everyone in the company has his own idea of what the brand is and how it should be expressed in everyday activities.Internal branding in practice: a 3-stage processBuilding an effective internal brand takes serious effort, preferably in the form of a formal program. What does such a program look like? There are usually three stages:1. Knowledge stageImmerse the organization in brand knowledge, typically through a system of training workshops and collateral material deployed at all levels of the organization.2. Attitude stageReinforce brand knowledge through incentives and motivational activities. These can come in the form of HR performance systems, coaching, internal communications, team activities, competitions and rewards.3. Skills stageModify the organization’s processes and practices to support the brand promise. Areas to focus on include customer-focused personal behavior, external communications and internal business processes. Give special attention to measuring changes in behavior and related business outcomes.To be successful, internal branding needs to be a formal process with its own objectives, budget and resources. It works best as part of a wider strategic branding initiative. And it absolutely must be actively supported by top management.If all goes well, internal branding closes the gap between strategy and internal practice. Do that, and you’re well on your way to whole-brand bliss.
Medical Malpractice – How To Choose A Good Medical Malpractice Lawyer
There are many reasons to consider medical malpractice lawyers in our society and my Mom’s case is not all that unusual. About two years ago, her heart valve was severely damaged during what was to have been a routine pacemaker lead extraction. The only way to repair the torn valve was open heart surgery, which caused several additional heart related problems that she did not have before. In fact, she ran ten miles a day until the heart surgery accident and was in excellent health.Now her life is very different from the way it was before the surgery accident. I have been trying to get her interested in filing a medical malpractice suit, and have done quite a bit of research about how to go about finding a good malpractice lawyer because her life and her health have been ruined by this surgery accident. Hopefully, my research will help and encourage others to seek the help of these highly skilled professionals.When it comes to your health, safety is the biggest concern. This is the reason that so many people choose to get care from clinics and hospitals. Sometimes, things do go wrong and you know that it wasn’t your fault. This is when you may need to consider looking for experienced lawyers who specialize in this area of the law. It isn’t an ideal situation and if you are like my Mom, you may not want to consider medical malpractice attorneys, but things do happen and you need to do what’s best for you and your family.There are many ways to find good medical malpractice defense lawyers. You can look online and read reviews. You can also consult friends and family members who may have had to deal with medical negligence lawyers in the past and seek their advice. You don’t necessarily want to go with the first one that you contact. It’s important to prepare a list of questions and concerns before you can begin to seek out good medical defense lawyers. You don’t want to go with just anyone, you need to make sure that the person representing you will work hard on your behalf and keep your needs as their priority.They should be adept at handling most medical malpractice cases. Most medical negligence lawyers have a great deal of experience, but it shouldn’t bother you to ask them for their statistics and experience handling cases similar to yours. This is especially true if your dealing with something other than medical malpractice doctors, such as wrongful death medical malpractice. In this unfortunate situation, it’s crucial for you to find lawyers who are on your side. While the wrongful death of a loved one is a terrible blow to the family, it is essential that you hire a lawyer and begin to collect the facts before witnesses disappear and the trail goes cold.Keep in mind that not all of these cases involve medical doctors. Sometimes, you may need to find dental malpractice lawyers to assist you with your case. If this happens to be the situation that you’re in, you need to make sure that the dental malpractice lawyers that you are considering have experience with cases like yours.Working with firms can be a bit confusing and you may not know exactly what type of question to ask. The medical negligence lawyers that you contact should be both helpful and assuring to you. If you are not comfortable with them, you may not be certain that they are on the case for your interests and not just their own. Calling around and talking to different attorneys is a great way to choose a good lawyer or a malpractice firm.You should narrow your list of lawyers down to three of four, and then set up appointments with each one to talk face-to-face. You will get a real feel for whether you will be comfortable working with them from this one-on-one exercise. Medical malpractice lawyers are a special breed of attorneys and some of them can be almost arrogant, but most of them do know what they are doing and since they typically only take cases on a percentage basis, that is they don’t get paid unless you do, if they agree to take your case, you can be fairly confident that they will do a good job for you.