Tag: employees

‘Never let a crisis go to waste’: How 3 CEOs helped their companies thrive in a pandemic

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The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted different responses from company CEOs seeking to ensure their businesses survive. Keeping their employees safe has been the first priority, but beyond that, their task has involved understanding the situation, launching countermeasures, and trying to evolve ways of working to ensure their businesses can continue. We spoke to the chief executives of three major companies in three very different industries. In their responses to the crisis we found that Winston Churchill’s adage of “never let a crisis go to waste” was as relevant as ever, with businesses finding positives during the pandemic. Accelerate strategy Shipping giant AP Møller-Maersk embarked on a historic transformation in 2016 to become an integrated transport and logistics company—combining its shipping line, port operations, and freight forwarding businesses into a single entity. However, progress had been limited . The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to Maersk’s customers who, faced with falling demand, had to manage their global supply networks as effectively as possible. They wanted better information across the supply chain and the ability to change outcomes while goods were in transit. These demands affirmed Maersk’s strategy to shift from being a port-to-port container transport company to an integrated, end-to-end logistics company, making use of digital technologies to provide the connectivity and visibility that customers required. Maersk’s customers turned to its blockchain-enabled supply chain platform TradeLens , where the number of transactions almost tripled from 70,000 a week in January 2020 to 194,000 a week in June. Transactions through Maersk.com increased by 20% to 25% between January and October 2020. Maersk’s CEO Soren Skou told us: “The investments we made in the last five years in digital capabilities came in very handy during COVID-19.” The pandemic accelerated Maersk’s technological transformation efforts, which led to new digital products and services while modernizing its customer interface, back-end infrastructure, and assets such as ships and terminals. Maersk also built expertise through acquisitions, purchasing warehousing and distribution company Performance Team , and customs management firm KGH Customs . Skou was able to apply what he’d learned from the financial crisis of 2008-09, when Maersk and its competitors fought for market share and ended up driving down freight rates. This time, Skou focused on profitability: cutting capacity by 20%, but filling the remaining vessels even as the pandemic caused shipping volumes to drop. The plunging price of oil also helped Maersk’s financial performance, and its earnings actually increased in the first three quarters of 2020 , despite near-paralysis of the global economy. Scale-up innovation Large companies are often seen as slow and trailing in innovation compared to smaller, more nimble competitors. Standard operating procedures mean they focus on developing “perfect” solutions, testing in pilot markets and proving the business case over a couple of years, before finally rolling out—by which time they have probably missed the boat. Mars Petcare, a global leader in pet food and pet health services, found that COVID-19 necessitated scaling up innovation Read More …

Why people are turning to robots when they’re sad and anxious at work

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The global pandemic has created a seismic shift in workplace mental health, with over three-fourths of workers saying that this is the most stressful year ever. That’s according to a global study by my company, Workplace Intelligence, and Oracle which surveyed more than 12,000 workers at all levels across 11 countries. Now more than ever, leaders need to put mental health at the top of their agenda and address this issue. Employees can’t possibly perform at their best when they are suffering inside. And poor mental health is now inescapable as employees work remotely with no separation between their work and personal lives. The study found that 85% of respondents’ mental health issues at work negatively affect their home life, causing things like suffering family relationships, isolation from friends, reduced happiness, and sleep deprivation. The mental health epidemic at work persists because of the stigma around it. Employees are afraid to speak out about how they feel due to fear of being ostracized by their teams, or even being laid off Read More …

Inventors have raised millions on crowdfunding sites to build better masks

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In March, as COVID-19 cases spiked and supplies of N95 protective masks dwindled at the Bay Area hospital where her brother-in-law works, Megan Duong launched a local search for N95s. Along with her sister-in-law, Sabrina Paseman, Duong enlisted volunteers and tracked down 7,000 masks—barely enough to cover the needs of two hospitals for one day. “We just knew that it was not a scalable solution,” Duong said. So, Duong and Paseman, both former Apple employees, set out to invent a new tool that, they hoped, would make available mask technologies more effective and accessible. They weren’t the only inventors attempting to meet sudden, massive demand for personal protective equipment, or PPE. Experts say that PPE like masks is critical for slowing the spread of COVID-19. But for much of the pandemic, high-quality PPE has been in short supply for medical workers. Meanwhile, PPE available to the public has been of variable quality , with users complaining that cheap cloth masks, although widely available and recommended by public health agencies, are uncomfortable, hamper social interactions, and have limited effectiveness. Those issues have spurred new innovation, as inventors strive to make PPE cheaper, safer, more comfortable, and more accessible—and, in many cases, may see opportunities to turn a profit while doing so. Already, some new designs have earned praise from experts. Many others have not yet demonstrated that they’re any more effective than a standard cloth mask. “My concern is people are going to be spending a lot of money based on hype, which is not going to give them or anybody else any additional protection,” said Gary Garber, an infectious disease physician who also works with Public Health Ontario in Canada. On crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, inventors have raised millions of dollars for new designs of face masks, gloves, and other PPE. University engineering labs have turned their attention to making masks and face shields. Read More …

Amazon is selling its no-checkout tech to other stores, and we have questions

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After two years of running its own cashierless “ Amazon Go ” stores, Amazon now wants other retailers to start using the tech. The “ Just Walk Out ” service, which launched this week, lets retailers equip their stores with cameras, weight sensors, and other technology to detect what people grab from the shelves. Shoppers scan a credit card when they enter the store, and the system automatically bills them for each item when they exit, with an optional kiosk allowing them to enter an email address for receipts. It’s unclear what size of stores Amazon is targeting, but the company says it’s ideal for places where customers are in a rush and have long lines. The company told Reuters that it has “several” unnamed retail customers on board already. If Just Walk Out takes off, it could upend the entire brick-and-mortar retail system even without shifting ever-greater amounts of shopping online . Yet in announcing the new program, Amazon has chosen not to discuss many fundamental issues, such as how it’ll affect jobs and what it will do with all the data it collects. The company declined to answer most questions for this story, instead referring to a brief question-and-answer section on its website . Will Just Walk Out stores accept cash? Although Amazon says it can retrofit existing stores with its tech, the company isn’t saying whether those stores could (or should) continue to accept cash Read More …

We keep falling for phishing emails, and Google just revealed why

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You should feel cranky about all the phishing emails you get. Because getting your brain in a grumpy gear will elevate the odds of your not getting fooled by the next phony invitation to log into your account. At a briefing Wednesday evening at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Google security researcher  Elie Bursztein and University of Florida security professor Daniela Oliveira shared that and other insights about the business of coaxing people into giving up their usernames and passwords. The first thing to know about phishing: It’s not as random and sloppy as it might seem. Said Bursztein: “Phishers have constantly refined.” The roughly 100 million phishing emails Google blocks every day fall into three main categories: highly targeted but low-volume spear phishing aimed at distinct individuals, “boutique phishing” that targets only a few dozen people, and automated bulk phishing directed at thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. Those categories differ in duration. Google typically sees boutique campaigns wrap up in seven minutes, while bulk phishing operations average 13 hours. Google also sees most phishing campaigns target its commercial mail service . Bursztein said Google-hosted corporate email accounts were 4.8 times more likely to receive phishing emails than plain old Gmail accounts. Email services were the most commonly impersonated login page in those attempts, at 42%, followed by cloud services (25%), financial institutions (13%), online retail (5%), and delivery services (4%). Bursztein noted that Google still can’t definitely identify many phishing emails—as improbable as that might seem, considering all the data it collects. That explains why Gmail shows an orange box above messages that look somewhat suspicious but aren’t necessarily attacks. This is your brain on phishing attacks The presentation also covered the human factors that make phishing easier. As Oliveira explained, “When we are in a good mood, our deception-detection accuracy tends to decline.” She cited research showing that increased levels of such feeling-good hormones as testosterone and estrogen, oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine increase people’s risk-taking appetite. But a jump in cortisol levels associated with stress makes us warier. Presumably, the soundtrack for your mail screening should not be Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” but the J. Read More …