Whatever you do, do it in style

I have a seventeen-year-old sister.  Seventeen:  the age of beginning to discover who you are, who you want to be and how to portray that image or message to the world. As a part of this process, her and her friends begin to be placed into “categories”: the cheerleader, the academic achievers, or the I-don’t-want-to-be-labeled-because-I’m-an-individual category.  People change. Styles change. Clothes that I wore and thought were stylish in high school, my sister now uses as a costume for “nerd day.”

My point?  Style is important.  Not just to seventeen-year-old girls, but to businesses too.  Your company brand, your products, your website, the coordinating colors used in your brochures. It’s all style. It’s what gets you noticed and differentiates you from your competitors.

Take the IPhone for example, the geniuses at Apple have found a way to take a phone and make it “smart.” It’s sleek design, elegance and simplicity combined with marketing’s nonchalant “if you want it, you can get it” attitude has left people standing in line, and willing to pay $100, $300 or $400 to have one in hand.  For IPhone owners, it has become a necessity to life. And who can blame them? From finding the nearest Starbuck’s to remotely driving a car, “there’s an App for that”.

But Styles Change.  Motorola, Verizon Wireless and Google just released the Driod, an android phone marketed to take the place of Apple’s IPhone. Although not as sleek in design as the IPhone, the Droid promises to go beyond the IPhone in functionality, “Whatever IPhone doesn’t, Droid does.” The new release leaves many consumers excited to get the new technology in their hands, and even more looking to Apple, wondering how they’ll respond and with what.

Style differentiates. It’s not just about what you do, but the image you portray while you’re doing it.

At Modular Services Company, we understand the importance of style. It is what sets us apart. When designing a hospital room, most people don’t look at medical gases and electrical services as an opportunity for art, but at Modular Services Company, we see things a little differently.  We view headwalls as a chance to create the perfect design fit uniquely to your specific needs.

Company style is more than aesthetics.  It goes deeper. Much deeper.  Whether you’re a technology company, a web-browsing host, a headwall manufacturer or a seventeen year old – your style should tell the world who you are and your purpose in it. Whatever you do, do it in style.

It’s not just a normal weekend

THE WEEKEND! Simply defined as a term referring to two traditionally non-working days in a seven-day week (Wikipedia!)  Again, to be clear Saturday and Sunday are non-working days with which average, hard-working people go to the lake, watch football, sleep all day, shop til they drop, or pursue any of a million other self-indulging activities that have nothing to do with WORK!  All of that is amazing, and not to mention absolutely acceptable.  The purpose of this blog is to engage you with a question I had to tackle a couple weeks ago when a co-worker here at Modular Services Company invited me to join him and many other fellow employees on Saturday for the purpose of helping Habit for Humanity build a house for a local family.

Ultimately, the question is this “DO PEOPLE AND FOR THAT MATTER COMPANIES AND CO-WORKERS REALLY DO THIS KIND OF THING?  DO PEOPLE, DO COMPANIES, DO CO-WORKERS EVER GIVE UP THIER FREE TIME TO JOIN TOGETHER TO POSITIVELY IMPACT THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY?”  I know it sounds somewhat cheesy, but it is a serious question, one all of us need to tackle.  It isn’t about PR or publicity.  It is about values, internal values of a company from the top down.  It is about values that encourage and inspire greatness, not just in performance at work, but performance in life. At MSC, one of our core values is IMPACT.  We strive to positively IMPACT our customers, our company and our community.  Does your office, your company, or even more personal do you long to do more/be more than just your job.  Do you long to have an extraordinary IMPACT on your community with your own time?

See at Modular Services Company we Design Extraordinary, Custom Healthcare Products, that’s what we do Monday thru Friday!  If you have ever done business with us in the past, you know like I do MODULAR SERVICES COMPANY IS MORE THAN A JUST A MANUFACTURING COMPANY.  We are electrical engineers, product managers, mechanical engineers, estimators, production specialists, clinical designers, submittal engineers, solutionists, design engineers and so much more. We are pioneers, innovators, and problem solvers in the Healthcare Design Industry. However, on that sunny Saturday in August, what I saw was even more extraordinary than all of those titles and individuals.

See I took my co-workers invitation, and I met up with the close to 50 other MSC employees at Hope Crossing, the first ever fully, master planned neighborhood by Habitat for Humanity in Oklahoma City.  We had been asked to come and in one day frame an entire house, a house where an Oklahoma City resident would eventually move in and live!  It was amazing to get to be apart of literally lifting a house into existence.  We swung hammers, swept floors, laid insulation, and YES we sweat like Beasts!  Sure, it was hard work, but even in the midst of all the work, I could feel the weight of the day, I could feel the enormous impact we were getting to have on this lady’s life.  During the day, the woman who was going to move into the house we were building came by and worked with us.  She had so much joy giving us a tour of her what would be new house.  At the end of the day, our group had framed, sheathed, and blue board insulated the entire house.

EXTRAORDINARY IMPACT!  This woman’s life will never be the same, and why?  Because a group of people from MSC and 100’s of others said, “I am not going to go to the lake this weekend, or sit on my couch watching TV or waste my day surfing the internet.  I am going to go and sweat with my friends from work and we are going to help build a family a house today!”
So how do you respond to this?

This kind of story demands a response.  We’ve got to start by asking ourselves how do we make EXTRAORDINARY IMPACT not only at work but also in our communities.  How do we create cultures in our workplace where we encourage each other to use our own time to get out and make a difference in our communities?  For me, it must start now… We have to generate ideas, new ideas…Post your ideas NOW… In workrooms, on blogs, in offices!   Let’s call each other to serve and make an impact on our local communities. TAKE STEPS NOW!

Beyond the Best

I’ve always heard the phrase, “No matter what, someone will always come along and do it better.” Beat the Record. Top the Best. Which is true. World records are always broken, Olympic Athletes are eventually topped by up and coming Olympians.  This world is ever changing. Ever evolving. Just when you think there’s nothing left to invent, out comes the Ipod, smart cars, etc.

Guilty of being a bit of a “perfectionist,” it’s rare for me to consider my “best” to be good enough.  I don’t mean that to be negative, I’m just guilty of spending a great amount of time and energy looking for ways to improve on what is considered best.

Lately, my mindset had changed.  Why reinvent the wheel?  Rather than focusing on making better best…or best better, the ultimate goal should be focusing on what is “next.”

“Next” is true innovation.  Pioneers are always looking beyond; searching for the next adventure. Next is what launches businesses from drowning in the cutthroat competitive red oceans to swimming in the blue where there is unknown market space and demand is created rather than battled over. Focusing on the “next” results in the creation of new ideas and products that have a lasting effect on your community, your industry or possibly even the world.

At Modular Services Company we are pioneering new territory in clinical design. We are the innovators. The leaders within our industry. Look to us to see what’s “next” in healthcare design.

Dialogue with Us…

One of the things that sets MSC apart from others is our commitment to long term personal interaction through the design process. The best way to create custom products is to truly understand the unique needs of the user and how those needs relate to the product. The best way to get that information is to listen and learn through conversation, through taking the time to be present with the people that will use the product.



To be interpersonal is to be open to communication, to actively listen and dialogue through questions, statements, comments, sketches and drawings, photographs and mock up rooms, renderings and final installations. If we cannot connect to the people that use the product, the product will never serve the people in a way that is helpful and long lasting.



MSC makes it our final goal to design products that meet the needs of the end users. We strive to design products that are human centric in nature. This begins by listening, learning, by asking questions, watching and conversing. Even though we have designed and produced thousands of products for all different types of needs, we begin each design process with curiosity and a desire to understand what is needed most, so our product can truly help and serve the user.



The Interpersonal interaction through the design is the Method design process. The Method is the human centric design process and partnership to create custom healthcare products. 



An MSC design team works with the customer to design the ideal product, this includes the clinical design, aesthetic design and installation design.



We design products, services and process solutions that solve real problems and thus make meaning to the user. The design is human centric and involves lots of listening, researching, humility, flexibility, curiosity and experience. 



So if you have could have whatever you wanted in a headwall system, what would it look like, how would it function, how could it help your daily tasks, needs and goals?

My Former Life as a Design Educator

In my former life as a design educator, I often told my students, “you are all designers … actively involved daily in the process of design.”  We select what we are going to wear, schedule the day and decide what is for dinner.  As “solutionists” we select and arrange and define elements that work together to meet our needs.  Unless you live alone, this is often a collaborative effort because opinions count and are critical to the process … “Does this tie work with this shirt?”  Choices can be based on a conscious awareness of the elements and principles of design or choices may be intuitive and dependent on feedback from others – typically, a culmination.   

Your very own coffee table can become a metaphor that helps illustrate the design process and how it can relate to the new Element by Modular. How people use their coffee tables differs from house to house and functionality can change from day to day.  How do clinicians address the needs of their patients?  What is the acuity level and how can adaptability and flexibility be enhanced and optimized?  When we add, subtract, arrange elements (our stuff) on this table top or negative space; we are making design decisions. 

The primary purpose of a coffee table is function – what you need, when you need it within easy reach – remote(s), laptop, games, food and drink and a convenient place for feet. The headwall must also prioritize function and ergonomics for the clinicians, patients and staff.  Aesthetics also play a part in how many of us arrange elements on our coffee tables; often a focal point, this surface can have a decorative function – floral arrangements, candles, decorative objects all make a statement.

The Element contributes to the room aesthetics and the healing environment and offers limitless creative possibilities. Finally, a coffee table can be an extension of who you are and your space – identity and image.  What is your message and your passion?  Coffee table books and photographs are carefully selected for this purpose.  What image does the hospital want to convey? The design of both table top and headwall are driven by function, elements that are useful, attractive and telling come together as an efficient and cohesive unit.

Like the home coffee table, Modular’s Element is unique to the needs of each installation and solutions are found to meet those specific criteria. We begin with a head wall negative space and collaboratively we explore and find the best possible solutions to meet functional, aesthetic and identity criteria.  But … please don’t put your feet up on our headwalls!!

A Shade of Green

Going Green.  If you were to discuss a ‘hot topic’ amongst associates, friends, or the like, this would most definitely be one worthy of your time and efforts.  Whether it be commercial or residential spaces, more and more people are finding ways to improve their efficiency in the world and to lower their impact on the environment. 

So, how can this be done you ask?  It’s as easy as changing a light bulb to an energy efficient one, turning off that light or other appliances when not in use, recycling waste easily taken at your curbside, watching the runoff from your sprinkle system, or harvesting the rain water from your gutters to your garden. 

With the vastly increasing population, the impact that we have as a society on the earth’s finite resources must be addressed. 

The same holds true for Healthcare- its smart practices can encourage a greener planet.

As a healthcare manufacturer, Modular Services Company realizes our responsibility and is making vast improvements within our organization to make a difference.  MSC recycles all steel and aluminum materials leftover from the manufacturing process.  All products are free of latex, DEHP, Mercury phthalates, persistent accumulative toxic compound, carcinogens and reproductive toxins – all extremely detrimental to the environment.

To decrease waste, Modular Services Company packages all of our products in the least amount of material needed for safe transport and use.  Packages are specifically made for the product/products being shipped and their designated quantities and all shipping containers are made from cardboard or wood, both materials easily recycled.

As a company, Modular has recently formed a ‘Healthy Environment Committee’ to encourage healthy living amongst employees and their environment.   The committee has started a paper recycling program throughout the administrative offices and manufacturing plant.  They have placed new vending machines in break rooms with healthier & fresher eating choices.  In addition, Modular has encouraged exercise by participating in the American Heart Association Heart Walk and starting a walking program in which employees compete against for prizes.

Modular Services Company is always looking for new and improved ways to minimize our effect on the environment and will continue these efforts for future generations.

Just a few fun, fast and last minute thoughts to “go green” by – “It’s a lawn not a lake!”, “You are what you eat!”, and last but not least, “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!”

I have been thinking about photosynthesis

Honestly this may sound strange, but I have been thinking about and researching the subject of photosynthesis.  You might be wondering why photosynthesis?  It all started with a friend of mine putting together a training/mentoring group to develop young leaders in business.  The group is going to be small and extremely helpful to young leaders (and their organizations) on their way to senior leadership in their company or business.  In thinking about the process of developing leaders I began to think about it through the lens of photosynthesis.  This led me to think about photosynthesis and how it relates to creating and inspiring ideas that lead to action or products or something of value.

The part of “Photosynthesis” I have connected to is the “Synthesis” part.  The word Synthesis means “the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity.”  Put simply the word synthesis denotes process, it means the combining of separate parts to be one and every part of the process is important to eventually combining to make up the whole.  This process can take time, one part of the process may occur quickly while other parts take more time

This synthesis is all around us.  We see it everyday.  The synthesis of plants growing or energy forming deep in the earth are examples of synthesis.  I think the reason I am so interested is I am realizing more and more that good products and ideas come from a process of creation that clings to the process.  They come from understanding the unique parts of the whole, by understanding the careful balance of the single part and how each relates to the final whole.  Most of all I am realizing that getting to the final result takes time and the time part of the process is often the most important aspect of the end result.  In a culture where you can have it now, where waiting on something is painful, where if we cannot have it now, we do not want it, where we require immediate reaction to almost everything we do and deep down inside we all love it that way, we are addicted to it and as a result we do not wait on things well.  To a person in the Generation Y the idea of synthesis is alarming.  Realizing the process is important is initially a downer, believe me I want it now, but there is wisdom in slowing down and working the process.  The proof is everywhere.

Learning to be comfortable with the process is very important.  In developing new products, ideas, headwalls, a healthy economy or new leaders it is important to acknowledge the process and not be tempted to skip ahead or leave out steps.  Letting ideas evolve and the process to run its course will allow for a unified and complete whole.  It may take time but in the end the process will generate positive fruit.  Some things simply cannot be created without following the process, without the synthesis playing out.

A Season of Giving

I love the month of December.  Living rooms decorated with stockings and ornaments, the blaze from the fireplace that takes away the bitterness of the cold outside, neighborhoods turned Winter Wonderland. For a brief time during the year, magic is in the air. However, in order to catch even a glimpse of this seemingly perfect world, one cannot let the pace of the holidays overshadow the purpose of the holidays.

With Christmas comes the spirit of giving. Giving to not only those we love, but those in need, those whom we may never meet. It’s a time to impact others – to leave an imprint on another’s life. Webster defines “impact” as an action to affect or influence.  But in my opinion, that definition doesn’t say enough.  I think impact is life-altering. Like a pebble that breaks the surface of still water, true impact ripples and spreads through the lives of others. It is how legends are created. It is how generations are changed. And it doesn’t always have to take much: Holding the door open for a young mom that already has her hands full, saying a kind word to the cashier who has been on her feet all day, picking up the dropped change for the elderly man that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

As you celebrate the holidays this year, let me encourage you to give. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in monetary form. Give your time. Give yourself. In a few short days, the cleanup will begin, lights will come down, trees will be thrown out, and Christmas albums that have dutifully performed their annual rendition of red-nosed reindeer and jingle bells will be stored away. But that doesn’t mean the giving mentality should be packed away with the rest of the décor. If we can do so much within the short amount of time offered between Thanksgiving and New Years, how much more lives could be impacted if we keep a giving mentality throughout the year?

Curiosity: 2 Year Old Style

One of the best ways to learn about “learning” is to watch a child learn.   These days it seems my family life can be mostly described as one big experiment.  My wife and I are the proud parents of a two-year-old girl.  Each day my daughter is experimenting and learning, she is constantly learning and this learning is fueled by an unyielding curiosity. Yesterday my daughter stood at the outside water faucet for one hour filling a small cup and then dumping the water into a small bucket. Fueled with curiosity, she wanted to hear the sound of the water, to feel the weight of the water in the cup and on her hands, head, clothes and feet (you would think she went swimming if you saw her) and to see the water move from cup to the bucket and then to start all over again.

 

“Children are such curious creatures. They explore, question, and wonder, and by doing so, learn. From the moment of birth, likely even before, humans are drawn to new things. When we are curious about something new, we want to explore it. And while exploring we discover. By turning the light switch on and off over and over again, the toddler is learning about cause and effect. By pouring water into a dozen different-shaped containers and on the floor and over clothes, the 4-year-old is learning pre-concepts of mass and volume. A child discovers the sweetness of chocolate, the bitterness of lemon, the heat of the radiator, and the cold of ice.” (Dr. Bruce Perry)

 

Curiosity is the kindling for learning, and to Modular Services Company, is the fuel for innovation.  Without a desire to learn, without curiosity or the desire to know something new, innovation could not happen.  My daughter does not know the answers or the action or reaction to the particular experiment she is conducting, but with curiosity welling up in her mind and heart she is committed to the process.

Being curious at Modular Services Company is a must.  In order to innovate, we have to be curious.  As the innovators and pioneers of the headwall industry we always push one another to be curious by always asking questions, by taking the time to think through the details, by not ignoring the simple things, by learning and re-learning as much as possible. Being curious in our mind and heart is the way to start product innovation, serve our customers, and develop innovative processes. 

 

Being curious allows us to become pioneers of new territory. It allows us to do things that other companies will not risk. In some ways, being curious allows us to become child-like again, discovering the world through creativity and wonder.

Small is the New Big

 This post is actually about another post. On another blog. It is written by the marketing guru, Seth Godin. Mr. Godin is a best-selling author, speaker and entrepreneur. His counter-inuititive approach caught my eye and I wanted to share his words with you to hear your thoughts on the subject.  Click the link below to see the original post:

Small is the New Big by Seth Godin

 

Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune.

There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.

Of course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes were better than small ones, because they were faster and more efficient. Big buildings were better than small ones because they facilitated communications and used downtown land quite efficiently. Bigger computers could handle more simultaneous users, as well.

Get Big Fast was the motto for startups, because big companies can go public and get more access to capital and use that capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms were a one-stop shop.

And then small happened.

Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it. American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small). BoingBoing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people).

Big computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod shuffles. (Yeah, I know big-screen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be right all the time).

I’m writing this on a laptop at a skateboard park… that added wifi for parents. Because they wanted to. It took them a few minutes and $50. No big meetings, corporate policies or feasibility studies. They just did it.

Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door) than big ones.

Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the fourth most visited site according to some measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.

Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.

Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.

Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.

Small means that you can answer email from your customers.

Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.

A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.

A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.

A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.

A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.

Is it better to be the head of Craigslist or the head of UPS?

Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.

Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.

Before reading this article, I had never thought of Modular Services Company as a “small” business.  But I suppose compared to the corporate world, we are.  As a family-owned business that originated in 1921, Modular Services Company has in all its years been under leadership of the Walker family. And although we manufacture capital medical equipment that ships to hospitals all over the world, we value each and every relationship with our customers. We listen to our customers and through listening, we custom manufacture each of our products to their specific design.

 

So, if small means the founder of the company personally interacts with our customers; if small means our leader is a part of everyday decisions that directly affect our customers’ hospitals; if small means thinking big. Then, yes, we are small.

 

Modular Services is the most experienced headwall company in the industry. We are the leaders and the innovators in our market.  Although “small” we create “big” impact.  We are committed to teaming with clinicians, architects, contractors and others who share our same desire to make a positive change in the healthcare environment.

 

We’d like to hear your thoughts on Mr. Godin’s article. Leave us a comment on your past experiences with “small” vs. “big” companies.