I attended an Executive Roundtable yesterday afternoon at the State Capital Building. The Mountain West Capital Network (MWCN) organized this event for MWCN members and Utah 100 Winners with ties to healthcare, consulting, biotech, biomed, and a few high-tech representatives.

Dr. Norman Thurston (an advisor on Healthcare to the Governor and the Legislature) led a dynamic discussion on the Governor’s healthcare initiative. Back in September, in one of my Inc 500 Conference summary posts, I stated: “The health care system in America (and our culture that is driving massive increases in cost) is screwed six ways from Sunday.”

After yesterday’s discussion, I stand by that claim 110%. Some interested tidbits from the presentation by Dr. Thurston:

• Since 2000, health insurance rates have doubled
• In 2006, rates increases at twice the rate of earnings and double the rate of inflation
• In 1960, consumers paid for 69% of health expenditures
• In 2005, consumers paid for 26% of expenditures (it’s shifted to insurance companies)

Basically, those 4 points are INSANE. We have a sense of entitlement in this country in that we think someone else is responsible for my health care costs, and ultimately, that makes all of us very irresponsible of our own health. There is no transparency or visibility for consumers. There are no incentive programs in the system to reward consumers for better personal health management. Healthcare professionals are not incentivized and compensated for quality. They actual make more money by giving you more quantity of healthcare.

In the question that I asked during the discussion yesterday, I said that I thought the Healthcare system in America is the most complex man-made system in the universe.

It sounds like some folks here in UT are going to try and get some laws passed to try to change these trends. And they’re not going to wait for the Federal Government to try to make changes. I’ve uploaded the PPT slides they used to present the case for and the plan to address Utah Health System Reform in Utah. They’re hoping to pass all these reforms in 2008. I think this will be hard, but I am glad someone is doing something. The way it’s going now, everyone form entrepreneurs and small businesses to consumers of healthcare to large corporations are heading quickly down a very disastrous road.

This is a great time of year. Christmas is 5 weeks from today, Thanksgiving is in 2 days, and the New Year starts in 6 weeks. My family is coming tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving here with us. We’ll have 14 people packed into our house, and it will be great! (cross my fingers)

So in the spirit of things, what 3 things are you most thankful for?

I’ll go first.

Family



I have the best family in the world! My wife Amy is so cool she has to live in the freezer or she’ll melt. Kaitlin and Alex are 2 amazing kids, I learn something from them everyday. Something that has surprised me is that a lot of what I learn from them is directly related to entrepreneurship and business. Their support is the key to me doing what I do, and doing what I do makes me very happy. And my extended family is great too. My Dad and Mom really helped turn me into what I am today–guess that might be a negative as much as a positive. I am truly lucky to have such an amazing family.

1. Friends



I have some of the best friends in the world. Friends that will come out adventuring with me. Friends that give me advice. Friends that are just plain awesome. Friends that I don’t tell near enough how thankful I am to be blessed with their friendship and relationship.

2. Entrepreneurship



I love entrepreneurship. It’s who I am to my core. Entrepreneurship can change the world. Not only do entrepreneurs solve problems and make the world a better place, but the very act of entrepreneurship changes those that participate in it and makes them better people. I really feel grateful that I am now in a position to start helping other people chase their entrepreneurship dreams–whether they’re kids selling Sno-cones at Doba, college or high school students, or first-time entrepreneurs.

These might be the ‘book answers’ for this question, but they really are what I am most thankful for. What 3 things are you most thankful for? Comment away. I’m shooting for a new record on comments: 20 from this post. So share thankfulness freely!

Thanks to Mikal Belicove for the photo!

THE highlight of the BlogWorld Expo that I attended last week was the closing keynote given by Mark Cuban. Mark was one of the most engaging speakers I’ve ever seen. He speaks his mind. And his mind is sharp. Makes for a great 75 minutes. He didn’t use any slides. After polling the audience for a couple of minutes to begin with, he realized it was a different group than he had anticipated, and he adjusted his remarks on the fly, flawlessly.

His remarks focused on blogging, and three points he made stand out: You need to be brutally honest in what you do. As soon as we know that people are listening, we start putting filters on ourselves. Not only do you need to be honest, but you have to put the work into things you post. Good old fashioned research and work combined with honesty is what makes for a strong online opinion and personal brand. Technology changes so fast in today’s world, you have a HUGE advantage if you can out-work others. There is no shortcut for the desire to gain other people’s attention. Find something and give it a shot. A key thread in his remarks was about hard work. I can definitely related to that. You take a team that talks about ‘working smart’ and give me another team that just plain ‘works hard’ and I’ll beat you every time with the hard work camp. Someone in the audience also asked Mark which companies he’d buy if he had the money. First, he said Facebook. Second, he said Verizon (because of their fiber to homes). I’ve put off joining Facebook for a while now. After hearing the quality of Mark’s thoughts, and then hearing him say he’d buy the company if he had the money, I signed up for Facebook immediately upon returning to UT. And Mark is one of my first friends. (I’m in there along with 4,459 other people on his profile, and I’d bet it was one of his assistants that approved my request.) So for all you Facebook Fans out there, Mark pushed me out into the hype with the rest of you. And since I’m now looking to build my Friend Kingdom, feel free to invite me. jeremy “at” jeremyhanks.com is where you’ll find me. Anyway, Mark did a super job. More than made up for some of the more mediocre sessions I attended during the conference. You should all subscribe to Mark’s blog at http://www.blogmaverick.com/. You might not like what he says, but it will be brutally honest and well thought out. So for causing me to finally jump on the Facebook bandwagon, giving me some amazing tips about blogging, and being a likable, incredibly smart, and straight-shooting guy, Mark Cuban is my new hero.

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dobalash (dō-bä’lăsh’)

n.

1. An antagonistic reaction to a trend, development, or event involving Doba.
2. What happens if Doba doesn’t just stop it with all the awards and recognition: “The dobalash reached a new fervor with its recognition by Utah Business as Best Companies to Work For.”
3. The breakdown that will happen if Doba lets even a tiny bit of this go to our heads.

Doba was one of the companies that Utah Business has recognized as a 2007 Best Company to Work For (me, Blaine Nielsen, and Ashley Schaumburg were in the pic on the cover in front of our Doba Green wall). I have to admit I was impressed with the level of detail and the sophistication that Utah Business employs in the process of selecting these companies. The surveys that employees fill out during this process are very comprehensive and complete.

Here’s the part of the article about Doba:

Any visitor to Orem-based drop shipping company Doba can quickly see that this company believes in having fun at work. Employees might be seen playing ping pong, foosball or video games in break rooms. On Wednesday mornings, breakfast is provided for the entire company, and it may even be the CEO mixing the waffles. Doba doesn’t enforce a dress code, believing work can be done just as effectively in T-shirts and shorts as in traditional business attire.

Calling the company “employee-centric,” president Jeremy Hanks says taking care of workers will lead to the best customer service a company can provide. Doba sends gift cards to employees’ family members on birthdays and anniversaries and rents out entire theaters for family movie nights. It also sponsors Doba Day, a celebration of the company’s birthday that includes eating contests, stunts and giveaways.

With so many perks, clocking in at Doba may not even seem like going to work, employees say. And that’s just the way management likes it.

“We place so much emphasis on our employees because we feel like it’s a two-way street,” Hanks says. “They invest a lot into Doba and they believe in our company, so we invest as much as we can in them.”

Though employees love the generous health benefits and competitive compensation, it’s the way they are treated that makes them stay at Doba. Says one employee, “Perks such as a game room and a light-hearted working environment are nice, but the best benefit is working for a company that you can believe in and enjoy going to work at.”

Survey Highlights:

• Access to the Doba Truck, a Ford F-150 with Doba logos.

• Doba Dot awards, a monthly recognition program based on outstanding performance.

• Barbeques and movie nights throughout the year for employees and their families.

This is really awesome. I hope that there really isn’t a dobalash.

I posted over a year and a half ago about Focusing on Your Employees. I truly believe that success in building an amazing company that is a great place to work it’s the sum of many little things. I focus a lot on employees. Having the caliber of employees that we have at Doba makes that sure easier.

Finally, go try this experiment: 1. Get a copy of the November 2007 issue of Utah Business. 2. Hold it up in front of a mirror. 3. You’ll see the secret real title of the cover story: Best Employees in Utah.

In the end, it’s the employees that deserve the recognition more than the companies.

More info from the official Doba release: Doba Honored as a “Best Company to Work For” by Utah Business magazine.

I’m at the Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas. I came down with my good friend Mikal Belicove.

You may be wondering and saying to yourself, “Self, why did Jeremy drive all the way to Vegas to go to BlogWorld?” Well, on the left sidebar of my blog I say:

“I might not post often, but when I do, it could blow your mind.”

Figured I should come and listen to professionals and experts if I am out here trying to blow people’s minds.