Lullaby Q

The concept was introduced to VitalTech in 2016 after board member Dan Flaherty noticed that residents of a senior-care nonprofit he financially supports were not wearing their pendants that monitor for falls.

The TrueLoo is being used in Carlton Senior Living across four of their communities in northern California, with 70 installed to date. Kashyap says it will be rolled out to the general public following completion of a clinical study with the senior living community. Cost hasn’t yet been determined; senior-living operators will likely pay a monthly fee.

The information is provided to the senior living managers so they can monitor their residents’ health. It’s hardly appealing dinner table talk, but the information that can be revealed, such as dehydration, urinary tract infections and diseases like Clostridium difficile (also known as C. difficile and C. diff) and norovirus are big problems among seniors that can often lead to hospitalization. The idea is that catching these problems early allows them to be addressed, preventing hospitalizations and other, more serious health issues, including the spread of infectious diseases among senior living communities.

As these boomers age, they want to do so actively, gracefully and independently. Technology is being viewed as the big disruptor that will allow them to achieve those goals. And that’s presenting a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs developing these types of products.

The incident taught me an important lesson: There is no more precious commodity than the relationship of trust and confidence a company has with its employees,” Schultz wrote. “If people believe management is not fairly sharing the rewards, they will feel alienated. Once they start distrusting management, the company’s future is compromised.”

Schultz left Starbucks soon after to found his own espresso chain, Il Giornale, and its early success led him to acquire Starbucks and merge the two companies. In “Pour Your Heart Into It,” Schultz said that a barista “on his own” successfully worked to decertify the union for Starbucks retail workers.

I’m not an anti-union person. I am pro-Starbucks, pro-partner, pro-Starbucks culture,” Schultz said. “We didn’t get here by having a union.”

Both organizers and labor experts expect the company under Schultz’s leadership will ramp up efforts to quash the labor push.

“I think they’re likely to double down on their anti-union efforts and do everything they possibly can,” said John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University.