The Power of WIIFM
by Miki Saxon
99.9% of people recognize the power of WIIFM (meaning “what’s in it for me” in deference to the .01%).
Even to an early adopter/cynic like me its power can boggle the mind, especially when it moves economic behemoths to switch sides in a bitter debate like climate change.
The latest example of WIIFM in action is Coke.
Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force.
Ya think?
Of course, I can think of hundreds of more serious consequences from the global water shortage than a lack of soda pop.
WIIFM also fuels government fraud and, barring sales to the military, there is no fraud target more appealing than Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
This is also an area where corporate fraud transcends individual fraud by orders of magnitude.
While politicos love to point to illegal immigrants as a large source of fraud, because blame is most easily placed on those with the least lobbying power, it is, in fact, organized citizens, doctors and the corporate medical world like the HMA hospital chain, which grades its emergency room doctors based on daily hospital admissions—whether needed or not.
Physicians hitting the target to admit at least half of the patients over 65 years old who entered the emergency department were color-coded green. The names of doctors who were close were yellow. Failing physicians were red.
Never underestimate the power of WIIFM.
Flickr image credit: SueKing2011
