Infrastructure Development

• U.S. economic development is being hampered by a reluctance to invest in infrastructure.  To reduce the stigma and better reflect balance sheet realities, spending on infrastructure should be treated as long-term capital debt, not deficit spending, according to Joel Moser, a partner at Bingham McCutchen in New York and editor of “Global Infrastructure.”  Moser points to the wooing of Asian investors for UK infrastructure projects as an example of how private investment should be cultivated here.  Leadership Effectiveness/2012 Election

2012 Election/Leadership

•  Korn/Ferry’s Leadership Architect Map outlines skills that could serve a U.S. president well in 2013 and beyond.  The map highlights abilities such as Conflict Management, Composure, Negotiating Ability, and Intellect.  Korn/Ferry is conducting research on the leadership attributes of iconic leaders FDR, George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to determine if there are commonalities key to leadership effectiveness in the role of U.S. president.

• Self-awareness and learning agility are the best predictors of who will likely be effective business leaders.  Learning agility, specifically, is cited as “the secret to career success.”  Essentially, it’s the ability to tackle new challenges by applying principles distilled from past experiences.

Health Care

• Under new Medicaid rules, hospitals are now measured on care quality in a shift to pay-for-performance.  In March, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Affordable Care Act.  CareFusion, known for technology to combat maladies that afflict U.S. hospitals (such as health care-acquired infections), has experts available on patient safety and cost trends.

Hiring, Employment Trends; Skills in Demand

• As job seekers, managers and executives look to build their careers and marketability, many companies are conducting 2011 performance reviews.  According to “The Leadership Machine, Architecture to Develop Leaders for Any Future” (Lominger, Dec. 2011), the five factors that dictate chances for promotion are: a) boss relationship; b) peer relationships; c) level of customer focus/interaction; d) ability to learn on the fly; and e) an exhibited and consistent drive for results.

Technology Investment

• In a dramatic departure from the traditional call center, Avaya is seeing more clients invest in systems that electronically monitor social media channels and direct online chatter to client service agents in real time.  Under such customer-service “experience management” strategies, service agents are trained to provide timely responses to online discussions to stem potential brand damage and/or target such customers as potential sales opportunities.

Digital Media/Online Infrastructure

• Ancestry.com is increasingly used by businesses, media and other professionals to research job candidates and build executive profiles.  To augment consumer searches to locate biological parents, distant relatives, et al, Ancestry may soon offer the capability to research genetic family histories, important to building medical histories and other practical purposes.

1) Cottage Industry Spawned by Financial Regulation: Global Economics Group today will announce that it’s opening offices in Washington, D.C. and New York, while adding legal expert/noted libertarian Richard A. Epstein and economist Steven J. Davis to its consultant roster.  GlobalEcon, formed in March, is a new breed of economic consulting firm that specializes in helping law firms decipher the complexities of new financial regulation and make their cases before a host of jurisdictions, including the Fed and Treasury (which are led by economists).  The firm formed in March and is growing rapidly.

2) Muni Bond Market is Crumbling as Financial Foundation of our Roads and Bridges: Joel Moser, editor of Global Infrastructure, says that a gradual reduction in the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds would spur the formation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to finance infrastructure investment.  The muni market has been fueled by this “hidden” Federal subsidy, enabling state, regional and local agencies to issue bonds to fund construction — with no Federal involvement in project planning or prioritization.  PPPs are the norm everywhere but here, according to Moser.  He also believes that infrastructure investment should be capitalized and amortized over time — as opposed to recording such expenditures as deficit spending.  Moser teaches Infrastructure Development and Finance at Columbia University and is a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP.

3) The Changing Profile of the Business School Dean: Korn/Ferry’s leadership and talent consulting practice is about to publish a white paper on the changing profile of business school deans.  Recent high-profile appointments indicate that university presidents, provosts and search committees sense the need for a new type of leadership — one that emphasizes CEO-style breadth and organizational expertise, as opposed to more narrow academic mastery.  Strategic skills, enterprise management, innovation, and people and relationship effectiveness will be critical to helping business schools forge ahead in the organizationally flat world of academia, according to the paper.

4) Wireless Spectrum Allocation Debate also Affects Health Care: The future of wireless patient monitoring in hospitals depends on the resolution of negotiations between the airline and health care industries on the allocation of wireless radio spectrum.  The aviation industry currently controls — but rarely uses — radio spectrum range 2360-2400.  Philips Healthcare and others are testing “medical body area networks,” which would wirelessly monitor hospital patient vital signs using that spectrum range.  A compromise on the spectrum use was almost reached a year ago, but negotiations have since faltered.

5) Telecom at Fore of Global High-Tech Industry: Telecommunications now accounts for two-thirds of the high-tech industry’s profitability, yet nearly three-quarters of telecommunications companies are at risk of financial distress — according to a study of the global high-tech industry by AlixPartners, the business consultancy.  The firm soon will release the findings of a manufacturing industry survey.

6) SpongeBob, Barnacles and Innovation: AkzoNobel, the world’s largest paints and coatings company, invented and markets a barnacle-resistant coating that helps commercial ships move more efficiently through the water, cutting shipping times and energy costs.  The company’s performance coatings are also part of the Boeing Dreamliner 787 project.

7) Regulatory Oversight and Columbia Business School: Columbia Business School Prof. Charles Calomiris was appointed this week to a committee of the European Systemic Risk Board, which is part of the European System of Financial Supervision.

Gauging Employment Shifts: ADP will release its September National Employment Report on Wed., 10/5.  The report measures monthly changes in private-sector employment.

9) A Growing Market for Tech to Improve Hospital Efficiency: CareFusion marked its second anniversary on Sept. 1, 2011.  It was spun off from Cardinal Health to focus on growing market opportunities for technologies and devices that enhance both patient safety and hospital efficiency (in sync with the health care industry’s migration to pay for performance and compensation metrics that emphasize patient care quality).  CFN first traded on the NYSE on Sept. 1, 2009, opening at $20.

1) The take from Joel Moser, an infrastructure expert with Bingham McCutchen: “Interesting that Obama didn’t call it an infrastructure bank, almost as though he is distancing himself from it in advance.  Painting and fixing roofs isn’t an infrastructure program, though, it’s a jobs program.  That’s maintenance, not capital.  He did specifically mention new transportation projects that have long been in the pipeline.  This would be new incremental work but these are not new projects– rather, they’re old ones that should have been funded before.  It would be good to finally see some federal dollars for them.  Nevertheless, all of this is meaningless without a transportation bill reauthorization.  This will be $500 billion, plus or minus, with much debate about how large it should be.  If the jobs bill transportation funding reduces the amount of dollars in that bill, there will be no new funding.  Since the jobs bill is now being considered before the transportation bill, there will never be a way to determine whether it will have been net additional funding.  At best, this is some limited new finding for infrastructure–although not a large amount.  At worst, it is a political move that appears to come up with more money while in the end, doing less.  With deficit reduction as the next agenda item, it is hard to believe that the size of the transportation bill will be unaffected by the jobs bill infrastructure spending.”

2) Commentators from Russell Investments and Charles Schwab (the markets), Korn/Ferry Int’l (jobs and skill sets), Columbia Business School (the economy) and the Truckload Carriers Assoc. (commerce and infrastructure) are also available.



1) Joel Moser, a partner with Bingham McCutchen, could provide a perspective on infrastructure spending.  His take: Infrastructure development depends on either direct spending or indirect investment via bond issuance or toll hikes and other public revenues.  Gov’t at all levels can’t or won’t spend or borrow, and the public will not tolerate toll increases so, effectively, infrastructure spending has halted.  Infrastructure is the most easily curtailed form of spending since the impact of the cut is deferred.  By all measures, smart infrastructure spending builds an economy; the BRIC and Next Eleven countries are on infrastructure spending rolls, leaving the U.S. in the dust.

2) Senior executives with Korn/Ferry Int’l could provide insights on jobs creation and the skill sets needed in today’s economy.

3) Kathy Jones, fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab, could discuss the economy broadly and the bond market specifically.  Her take: An extended period of low rates means that sitting on cash will generate no yield at all.  Investors will either need to increase duration or credit risk.  But as long as the Fed remains accommodative, the pressure on rates remains downward.

4) The Truckload Carriers Assoc. could provide insights on the impact of minimal infrastructure investment, as well as the current economic conditions and the effect on commerce flow.

5) Macroeconomic Advisers, which prepares the monthly ADP Nat’l Employment Report, just issued an analysis of what’s likely to be part of President Obama’s jobs plan.  The report takes a look at the potential impact of an extension of federal funding for emergency unemployment benefits, an extension of the payroll tax holiday, an extension of temporary businesses expensing capital expenditures, a new tax credit for businesses that hire, infrastructure spending (including renovation of schools), and a job training program targeting the long-term unemployed.  Copies of the four-page report available upon request.

6) AlixPartners is set to unveil the findings of a study of the current manufacturing environment, which finds that the focus in 2010 on investments in “lean” and “six sigma” processes and other manufacturing-improvement initiatives (during a period of retrenchment) has led to minimal ongoing cost savings.

2) Ahead of the ADP and BLS jobs reports, the director of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year program is available to discuss the role of small businesses and entrepreneurs in driving hiring momentum.  E&Y’s Bryan Pearce recently led a roundtable discussion of CEOs and entrepreneurs, which raised a number of themes likely thwarting job growth: regulatory volatility/uncertainty, the leadership void, a skills gap, health care costs and class warfare.

3) Given the volatility in the equity markets, there is growing interest among individual investors in bonds — munis, Treasuries and corporates.  Many brokers — including Schwab, TDAmeritrade, eTrade and Vanguard — now offer platforms for investors to compare prices and buy individual bonds directly.  Experts are available to discuss the evolving “democratization” of the bond market.

4) Tim Noonan, managing director in Russell Investments’ adviser-sold business, could discuss the mental and physical toll that volatility is taking on financial advisers and their clients — and Russell’s role in working with advisers to keep their long-term plans intact and on track.  Specifically, Tim works with clients on retirement income needs and directs Russell’s rapid-response content for advisers who are trying to handle client concerns in the current volatile market environment.

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2011
Contact:
Jonathan Varman
908-953-6432
jvarman@avaya.com

Avaya Introduces Collaboration Solutions to Help Healthcare Providers Enhance Patient Care

Avaya at HIMSS 2011: Business Communications Leader Demonstrates New Mobility and Automated Outreach Offerings For Improving Healthcare Processes

HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, Orlando, Fla., – Avaya, Inc., a global leader in business collaboration systems, software and services, today announced new and enhanced communications solutions to help healthcare providers improve workplace collaboration and patient care. The solutions–to be demonstrated at the 2011 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition–use mobility, automated outreach and other technologies to enhance care coordination, pre-admissions preparedness, and post-discharge care.

“Healthcare professionals need to be instantly reachable and quick to respond in order to deliver the most effective care,” said Sanjeev Gupta, general manager of Avaya’s Healthcare Solutions group. “Avaya’s solutions help speed up hospital clinical processes, and remove the barriers that can frustrate healthcare professionals. Our solutions – and the tools we are introducing today – are designed to drive streamlined communications within an industry where every second counts.”

Innovative technologies will continue to play a central role in healthcare in 2011. Gartner estimates that “in 2011 healthcare providers worldwide will spend $87.7 billion on IT, including hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications.”[1]

Avaya will showcase its solutions in booth #2718 at the 2011 HIMSS Conference and Exhibition. This includes the new offerings:

• Avaya Mobile Device Checkout 3.0: This frees hospital staff from the nurse’s station by enabling communications from anywhere on hospital grounds using a personalized Wireless LAN device. With this solution, a hospital worker registers a shared or personal mobile device at the start of his shift by swiping the barcodes on their mobile device and ID badge. This assigns a personal phone number to the device, eliminating complex login procedures or the need for staff members to get a new contact number each time they come to work.  This addresses the key issue of availability, since, according to a recent Spyglass Consulting Group report, 69 percent of hospital-based physicians and 87 percent of private practice physicians indicate their biggest communications challenge is connecting with colleagues in a timely manner. Mobile Device Checkout also allows simultaneous log in to clinical applications, such as asset management.
  Today’s update builds on the prior release by expanding support beyond  hospital WLAN devices to now integrate with other smart phones and wireless tablets, including iPhones, Blackberrys and iPads. Enhanced reporting also provides expanded device management capabilities within the hospital.  General availability is March 2011.

• Avaya Patient Follow-up: This enables hospitals to use automated outreach to call and follow up with patients after their discharge from a hospital. It uses voice automation to ask customized questions based on a patient’s medical records and their reason for hospitalization.  Designed to reduce the number of patients re-admitted, this solution also reduces the dependency on using staff for repetitive follow-up activities.  The system can be tailored to acute conditions, and helps in chronic disease management by ensuring patients follow proper care at home. It is generally available summer 2011.

Other solutions to be demonstrated at HIMSS include Avaya Patient Appointment Reminder, which drives outbound calls to remind and confirm patients for pending appointments using speech automation or prompts, and Avaya Patient Admit Coordinator, which uses multi-modal communications to accelerate and coordinate hospital admittance for patients recently treated in the emergency room.  Avaya also will spotlight the groundbreaking Avaya FlareÔ Experience solution, and demonstrate how it simplifies multi-modal collaboration to help clinicians focus on patient care.

Leading Hospitals Use Avaya Solutions to Improve Collaboration

Avaya serves a wide range of healthcare organizations, including Halton Healthcare, a multi-site healthcare organization based in Ontario, Canada, Rochester General Hospital, the flagship care facility for the Rochester General Health System (RGHS) of N.Y., and WellStar Health System, a Marietta, GA-based not-for-profit health system serving 1.3 million area residents.

Halton Healthcare deployed Avaya Mobile Device Checkout to address the communications challenges facing their emergency department. Previously, contacting a physician or nurse could be cumbersome, and in many cases they would need to rely on hospital-wide overhead paging. Avaya’s solutions enable Halton Healthcare’s staff to use their mobile devices to directly and instantly reach a co-worker’s extension. In an environment where seconds save lives, this decreases the time to reach staff, and reduces the excess noise of hospital-wide overhead paging.

“Avaya Mobile Device Checkout is the best solution the department has implemented in 20 years,” said Dr. Richard Casey of Halton Healthcare. “We have our professionals getting connected in real-time, which is a great advancement in our communications, as well as patient flow and safety.”

Rochester General Hospital also uses Avaya Mobile Device Checkout as the backbone of its emergency department communications. The hospital’s employees–including physicians, transporters, reparatory therapists, radiologists and nurses–no longer have to wait to use wall phones to reach colleagues in emergency situations. They now have an assigned mobile device that they check out by scanning their ID, and then carry with them at all times. Approximately 50 mobile devices are in use by employees, each reachable by a role-based extension number.

“We now communicate quickly and on the fly,” said George Glessner, process coordinator, emergency department, Rochester General Hosptial. “Steps are eliminated for most everything, whether one needs to obtain lab test results or transport patients to radiology. With Avaya Mobile Device Checkout, the staff is now reachable from anywhere in and just outside the hospital, including the emergency department parking lot and helipad, thus enabling us to easily make arrangements for patients in critical condition as they arrive.”

WellStar Health System turned to Avaya for a comprehensive communications platform powered by Avaya Aura™ to tap the full potential of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP enables WellStar to experience new cost savings, and soon implement real-time collaboration for staff using voice, video and data communications. WellStar’s SIP foundation also brings the benefit of increased continuity by supporting three real-time registrations. This enables phone service and operations to continue in the event that one or even two of the registration offices go down.

“From a redundancy standpoint, having continuous communications is significant for us,” said Debra Naderhoff, executive director, telecommunications for WellStar, “because it means that our phone service won’t fail us, and in life and death situations, this is critical. With Avaya, we are well-covered for business continuity.”

[1] Gartner, Market Insight: Healthcare Provider Industry Primer, 2010. Nov. 18, 2010

About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems.  The company provides unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

Sean Healy
Healy Corporate Communications
201-857-2520
201-218-2039/cell
sean@healycorp.com
www.healycorp.com
Twitter @HealyCorpComms

Americans Are Ramping Up Their Investment Activity and Tolerating More Risk, According to AlixPartners Survey

Amid Diverging Strategies, Investors Agree on One Thing: Vast Majority Want Washington to Force Banks to do more for the Economy

NEW YORK (Jan. 25, 2011) – An increasing number of Americans are ramping up their investment activity, compared to levels seen in May 2010, albeit representing a moderate uptick.  The 2011 U.S. Financial Services Industry Outlook by AlixPartners, the global business-advisory firm, finds that 13% of Americans overall and 18% of self-described “investors” have accelerated their investing activity over the past seven months, versus 10% and 17%, respectively, who said they were increasing their investments in May.

The survey also found growing risk tolerance, including heightened investor interest in the so-called emerging BRIIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China). While some 21% of the investors who plan to increase their investing activity said they would up their allocations in U.S. equity and bond markets, fully 17% cited a preference for investing in the BRIIC countries, versus a paltry 8% who plan to up their allocations in Europe.

“Though a majority of U.S. investors continuing to sit on the sidelines, those putting their toes in the water are shunning European markets afflicted by sovereign debt concerns.  Instead, they’re opting for stability in the U.S., while pursuing growth opportunities offered by emerging markets and high-growth sectors, such as oil and gas, and telecommunications,” said Stefano Aversa, co-president of AlixPartners.  On Friday, Aversa will be chair a panel, “What If Another Mega-Bank Fails?” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Over the next three years, 48% of Americans and 57% of self-described investors are planning to invest, up from 35% and 52% in May, according to the survey.  Over the upcoming three-year period, says the poll, 26% of investors plan to shift their investing allocation towards “high growth,” while just 12% plan a shift toward “blue chip,” suggesting that some pockets of investors are ready to invest more aggressively.

At the same time, however, 42% of Americans say they have not changed their investment behavior since mid-2010, and just 14% say they now are more likely to invest, down five percentage points since May.  Moreover, 10% of Americans say they have reduced their investing activity since mid-2010.

Against this backdrop of diverging intentions, a strong consensus has emerged among all Americans, investors or not.  Just six months since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, an overwhelming majority of Americans say banks and other financial institutions that received aid during the financial crisis should be forced to provide more loans, reduce fees and otherwise do more for the U.S. economy and consumers.

As the Dodd-Frank rules are being drafted, no less than 70% of survey respondents say that banks should be required to do more for the economy.  Americans are also extremely skeptical of the expected regulatory impact of Dodd-Frank; the AlixPartners poll reveals that only 12% of those surveyed are now more likely to invest as a result of the new financial reforms.

“Even as retail investor behavior has stabilized somewhat in recent months, financial institutions should be concerned by the omnipresent ire toward banks and the uncertainty as to whether financial-reform legislation will quell that anger or drive an uptick in investing,” said Steve Deedy, managing director at AlixPartners and co-lead of the firm’s Enterprise Improvement unit.

“Caution and uncertainty are still very much the order of the day with investors of all stripes, especially everyday Americans,” said Will Harris, a director in AlixPartners’ Financial Services Practice, who headed up the survey.  “Financial institutions are going to have to go the extra mile for consumers to earn back consumers’ trust and kick-start Amercans’ investing activity.”

The recent poll asked American investors to identify the industries and geographies they look upon most favorably today.  While a clear majority (55%) responded “not sure” when asked to pinpoint an industry, among the 10 industries included in the survey, oil and gas (9%), telecommunications and media (9%), consumer goods (6%), real estate (5%) and financial services (4%) rated highest, with aerospace and defense, automotive, building and construction, chemicals, and manufacturing ranking lowest.

The survey also found that if and when they do invest, less than one-quarter (23%) of Americans plan to invest without any professional investment advice.  Even among those who consider themselves “financially savvy,” only 29% plan to invest on their own, down from 39% in the mid-2010 AlixPartners survey.

**Note:AlixPartners also conducted the survey in the U.K. and, according to the poll, 93% of Britons say that the financial reforms in the UK have either had no impact on their investment behavior or made them less likely to invest, according to a separate poll conducted in the U.K.  For a copy of the press release on those results, please visit www.alixpartners.com.
Methodology
The AlixPartners U.S. Financial Services Industry Outlook polled 1,000 Americans in December 2010 among a sample panel statistically weighted to represent a cross-section of the U.S. adult population based on age, gender, region and race.

About AlixPartners
AlixPartners LLP is a global business-advisory firm offering comprehensive services in four major areas: enterprise improvement, turnaround and restructuring, financial-advisory services and information-management services. The firm has more than 900 professionals and 15 offices around the world, and can be found at www.alixpartners.com.

1) The robo-foreclosure scandal highlighted what happens when communications breaks down, resulting in poor customer treatment and rampant inefficiency. Increased accountability and regulatory demands is driving the deployment of communications-enabled business processes that blend automation and face-to-face collaboration to clarify information and roles and accelerate responses and decisions. “Compliance catalyzes collaboration” is one of 11 communications technology trends that Avaya believes will take hold in 2011. For more on Avaya’s 11 trends for 2011, see http://www.avaya.com/usa/resource/assets/whitepapers/Avaya%2011%20Trends%20FS-F2.pdf.

2) In the absence of a Nobel Prize in education, the Qatar Foundation just announced that it has established the WISE Prize for Education, a $500,000 grant to be awarded annually to an individual or team that demonstrates unparalleled innovation in education. The first award winner will be announced at the 2011 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), to be held in November in Doha. Nominations will be accepted from Feb. 1 – April 30. For more, visit www.wiseprizeforeducation.org.

3) As we approach 1/1/11 and the first wave of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, operators of long-term care and skilled-nursing facilities are seeking capital to fund expansion and real estate acquisitions. Oxford Finance Corp., which specializes in health care industry lending, is seeing an increase in demand for capital, given that long-term care demand is expected to far outpace capacity within a decade or so. Oxford has been entering into a range of financing agreements, including closing a $16 million senior credit facility with SnF Management, a provider of long-term care and rehab services. Oxford, whose credit lines range from $500,000 to $40 million, is filling a unique and growing niche in capital finance.

4) CareFusion Corp. is set to launch EnVe, a high-performance critical care ventilator. Weighing only 10 pounds, the EnVe ventilator is 70-80 pounds lighter than other intensive care ventilators. The device allows patients to be maintained on a single life support device throughout their hospital stay — even while being transported to various parts of the hospital or to other facilities. By keeping patients on a single ventilator, clinicians can better manage and care for patients by not breaking the ventilator circuit or downgrading ventilation treatment, which reduces the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia and other adverse events.

5) Columbia Business School professors are available for comment on holiday shopping trends, the economic outlook for 2011 and other market developments (e.g., the extension of the Bush tax cuts).