The barrier between work and life has gone away, primarily with the smart phone. The average US worker spends 25% of the day reading/answering emails (Source: Deloitte), and this is happening at work… …and at home… …and at kids’ sporting events… …and on vacation… …and, and, and… Workers are getting addicted to all the noise….

In the past 90 years, the US stock market has generated returns exceeding 9% annually. Yet, this growth has been irrational sometimes (fear and greed), as the US Stock prices grew twice as fast as business earnings. From 1920 to 1929, Dow stocks’ business growth was 118%…stocks went up 271% (300% with dividends)…and then corrected…

Companies need people on the inside who reflect the people they serve. There is a value proposition in having diversity of thought to provide better options to solve problems / get better outcomes. Yet, organizations are struggling to address gender inequality.  At the current pace, it will take 100+ years for women to be represented…

John Mackey, a 25 year-old college dropout, started a small natural foods store in 1978 called SafeWay. Booted from his apartment for storing food there, he just lived in the store. There was no shower stall, so he bathed in the dishwasher with the attached water hose. In a supermarket Industry with shrinking sales, razor-thin…

After many Canadians traveled to the US to shop at Target stores, the management team decided to expand into Canada. Short lived, it then closed 133 stores after estimating profitability would not come for 6 more years (2021). What happened? The economics were completely different. First, the supply chain is challenging, as the Canadian geographic…

How do you program ethics into robots? Can you trust machines with moral decisions? How do you codify compassion or mercy? In hospitals, APACHE medical systems help determine the best treatments for patients in intensive care units, often those who are on the edge of death. While the doctor may seem to have autonomy, it…

There are 1.7 million truckers in America, and another 1.7 million drivers of taxis, buses and delivery vehicles. This middle-class career that does not require a college degree is at risk. Robots’ march into vehicles, factories, stores, and offices could also profoundly deepen inequality. Research has shown that artificial intelligence helps erase jobs that require…

Kronos is a company that tries to improve every year to be “a great place to work (GPTW).”  There is no status quo – this year there are changes to benefits, moving to a new building, etc., to keep everyone engaged. Their HR collects immense data for insights, culminating in their Manager Effectiveness Index. They…

There are many good companies; yet, I was surprised to see the differences in market capitalization when comparing technology stocks with old companies:      ·  Amazon’s valuation of $464B is 2X Wal-Mart’s     ·  Tesla’s market cap is $47 billion…Ford’s is $45 billion The question is why? Have the markets over-reacted? Or is it…

Manufacturers did not display agility when global competition disrupted supply chains. Of the top 20 global chemical companies in 1990, 17 had disappeared by 2010. Dow survived by being able to pivot on a global scale. State-owned enterprises have a different business model – to employ people. They receive subsidized capital, labor, and energy. If…