- 09 Jun 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
In a Pandemic, What’s the Best Strategy for the Global Vaccine Alliance?
How should the vaccine alliance Gavi respond to the worldwide need for a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic? Tarun Khanna discusses his case study.
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- 05 Jun 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
How the next recovery can revive upward mobility
Will Covid-19 derail ongoing efforts to provide skills training and meaningful career opportunities for the low-income workers who are bearing the brunt of the crisis? Brookings’ Marcela Escobari explains the realities of low-wage employment and what businesses and local leaders can do to foster economic development that creates the steppingstone jobs that lead to better jobs.
- 03 Jun 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: John Barry
What lessons does the 1918 influenza pandemic offer as we respond to the coronavirus crisis? Historian and public health expert John Barry joins Joe Fuller to talk about the parallels and differences between these global virus outbreaks. Barry is the author of the best-seller The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Then as now, he asserts, transparency from authorities and compliance with science-based public health directives like social distancing, along with extensive testing and contact tracing, are imperative.
- 01 Jun 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Joe DeLoss
Social entrepreneur Joe DeLoss discusses how his company, Hot Chicken Takeover (HCT), has negotiated the coronavirus pandemic. As a fair-chance employer, HCT hires workers who have faced a variety of challenges. Joe says this is in fact a significant competitive advantage. He describes the HCT Covid-19 stability guide for employees and explains how the restaurant chain’s reopening strategy prioritizes the safety of both customers and employees.
- 28 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Dan O’Connor
Commerce expert Dan O’Connor rejoins the podcast for a special Dispatch episode. Dan draws on his experience advising leading retailers and his ongoing research on global digital platforms to offer a glimpse of a post-Covid retail landscape. He also counsels those small businesses able to weather the crisis to take the opportunity to refocus. Across categories, the “at-home,” budget- and safety-conscious, consumer is an essential constituency.
- 26 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Hayden Brown
Hayden Brown has been Upwork’s CEO since January 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic shifted much of the workforce to working from home. Upwork is a leading platform connecting freelance workers to businesses who need help. Hayden shares with what changes she has seen since Covid-19 hit, what skills are in demand and how this new normal might change the nature of remote work. Often the capabilities that are not readily available in the local market are accessible on platforms like Upwork.
- 26 May 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Can the ‘Cummings Way’ Live On after the Founder Retires?
After 50 years at the helm of Cummings Properties, billionaire and philanthropist Bill Cummings is contemplating retirement. Christina R. Wing and Cummings discuss what's next for both the family business and foundation that he built. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
How Catalant helps align workforce and work
Large firms aiming to innovate or achieve a degree of agility increasingly look for outside help. Catalant has placed itself at the crux of this dynamic by offering a project management software platform and staffing marketplace for harnessing the skills of internal and external personnel. Cofounders, co-CEOs, and HBS alums, Rob Biederman and Pat Petitti talk about the company’s evolution and how it’s providing clients regular insights into their most strategic work.
- 20 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: People + Work Connect
Covid-19 has brought Great Depression-level unemployment to many economies and triggered imbalances of supply and demand as some businesses have needed to staff-up quickly. One private sector response, People + Work Connect, is a business-to-business personnel exchange platform active in more than 40 countries. The brainchild of corporate chief human resources officers (CHROs) at Accenture, Lincoln Financial, ServiceNow, and Verizon has signed up hundreds of businesses looking to place idled workers or fill open positions. Accenture’s Nicholas Whittall and Mary Kate Morley Ryan discuss the initiative.
- 18 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Craig Malloy
What happens when a video conferencing company has to rely on its own products for its day-to-day operations? The pandemic turned Austin, Texas-based Lifesize’s commute-to-work culture into a virtual organization overnight. As its customers’ videoconferencing volumes increased almost tenfold, the firm adjusted to remote work and completed a major merger. CEO Craig Malloy talks about the fast-forwarding of many enterprises’ long-range plans and the implications of the new normal.
- 14 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Barry Schuler
The pandemic has radically altered the economic landscape and vastly complicated the VC market. Money is in short supply and start-ups need to run leaner. Consolidation looms. DFJ Growth partner, Barry Schuler, discusses risk mitigation, mentoring entrepreneurs through the crisis, and taking the long view.
- 12 May 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Autonomous Vehicles Are Ready to Disrupt Society, Business—and You
The rise of autonomous vehicles has enormous implications for business and society. Professors William R. Kerr and Elie Ofek explore the factors influencing their development and commercialization. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Karen Mills
Return guest, Harvard Business School senior fellow Karen Mills, is uniquely qualified to assert that the Covid-19 pandemic poses a greater threat to US small businesses than the Great Recession of 2008-2009. She directed the Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013 and has been advising Congress and fintech companies on how to help small businesses through the pandemic. She is the author of Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream.
- 06 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Taso Du Val
The pandemic has increased demand for online, remote freelance and contract work. Digital labor platform Toptal provides a market for highly skilled freelancers and contractors working in such fields as software engineering, artificial intelligence, design, and project management. Not surprisingly, the downturn has sent more workers to the platform. In some cases, employers have turned to the platform to find temporary work for their idled employees. CEO, Taso Du Val, joins the podcast. (Toptal’s remote work playbook: https://www.toptal.com/playbook)
- 04 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Sham Kakade
Contact tracing—mapping the spread of a virus by identifying individuals in the chain of transmission—is an essential tool in the fight to limit the damage of Covid-19. Early experience in South Korea, China, Singapore, Germany, and elsewhere has shown what works. Successful schemes save lives and mitigate economic losses. Smartphone apps have a role play, but as with e-commerce, security and privacy are concerns. Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics recently published a paper outlining how contact tracing can be designed to protect users’ privacy. Coauthor Sham Kakade, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, explains.
- 01 May 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Handicapping the global competition for talent
Post-Covid recovery will hinge on how well countries leverage talent. This lends new relevance to international business school INSEAD’s 2020 global ranking of that capacity. Released in January, the school’s seventh annual Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) weighs countries’—and major cities’—ability to attract, foster, and maintain talent. The 2020 GTCI focus on AI is also apt, given predictions that the coronavirus will speed trends like automation. Co-author Felipe Monteiro interpreted.
- 29 Apr 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Nick Dalton
Unilever was several years into a company-wide plan to revamp its workforce when the coronavirus flared into a pandemic. The multinational entered the crisis braced for change. Executive vice president Nick Dalton discusses how that flexibility has helped Unilever maintain business continuity, provide for worker safety, and coordinate remote work. With the disruption of global supply chains and ordinary life largely locked down, all eyes are on the consumer goods business.
- 28 Apr 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Is the Healthiest Building in the World Worth the Rent?
Some people call 425 Park Avenue, New York, the healthiest building in the world. But will tenants pay a premium for better air and environmental friendliness? John Macomber and Joseph Allen discuss their recent case study and new book. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Apr 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Covid-19 Dispatch: Kent Thiry
Kent Thiry is a veteran healthcare executive with decades of experience observing public health policy and administration at both federal and state levels. He shares his assessment of why the US was slow out of the blocks in responding to Covid-19. Looking at the virus’ likely effects on the healthcare market, he anticipates that the crisis will accelerate adoption of tele-medicine. More broadly, he foresees a shift of more manufacturing to domestic locations, a speed-up of automation, and prospects for a greener, lower-carbon economy in the recovery from the current slowdown.
- 24 Apr 2020
- Managing the Future of Work
Freelancer.com: On-demand Skills and Ideas
The Covid-19 pandemic appears to be accelerating the global workforce shift toward freelance and contract work, as it makes remote work a more attractive option. For many, the traditional employment model is being replaced by digital labor platforms like Freelancer.com, which touts skills outsourcing and innovation crowdsourcing. What’s in it for enterprises and freelance workers? Vice President Sarah Tang explains.
In a Pandemic, What’s the Best Strategy for the Global Vaccine Alliance?
How should the vaccine alliance Gavi respond to the worldwide need for a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic? Tarun Khanna discusses his case study. Open for comment; 0 Comments.