The airline industry has been hit with unprecedented circumstances, with demand declining rapidly. A traditionally lethargic industry has been forced to accelerate decision making in order to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic, and salvage the demand left. Airlines must continue to innovate and implement health and safety practices, in order to regain the trust of passengers, for the survival of their businesses.
Read More
China is not commonly seen as a powerhouse in game development in much of the Western world, despite its tremendous game-making potential. However, the global surge of mobile gaming, growing acceptance of microtransactions, and increasing influence of Chinese companies in game development might just mean the country will start finding a bit more international success with its releases.
Read More
Nonprofits are an important source of jobs and provide vital services. Unfortunately, many nonprofits fail to survive because they lack concise funding models and long-term strategies for growth. Now that Covid-19 has taken its toll on both nonprofit funding and community demand for nonprofit services, how can nonprofits learn from this pandemic and revise their growth strategies to enable long-term sustainability?
Read More
As a result of an unexpected increased use of video conferencing during the pandemic and shifting cultural norms, it has become much more acceptable for men to dabble in cosmetics. Summer Journalism Fellow Charlotte Ehlers traces the evolution of men’s makeup from the Ancient Egyptians to the present day and then analyzes consumer behavior that is influencing the steadily growing men’s makeup market. Finally, she predicts that the market in the future will continue to be more open to skincare, grooming, and lean more towards ‘unisex’ or natural makeup.
Read More
Streaming services like Netflix are shaking up the film industry, but are also working on diversifying their content by collaborating with international filmmakers. However, this foray into diverse content only goes so far, because the industry still suffers representation for women/minorities in senior leadership and explicit representation of LGBTQ+ characters.
re:work, led by CEO Shelton Banks, provides individuals coming from non-traditional backgrounds with training and opportunities to secure jobs in technology sales. As re:work uses HireVue’s digital interviewing software, Banks explains to what extent his company relies on HireVue’s assessments to select candidates. Business Today writer Vignesh Panchanatham also conducts a side-by-side analysis with statements about HireVue’s capabilities from their CEO, Kevin Parker.
Read More
Katherine Ryder, Founder and CEO of Maven, explains telemedicine’s role in increasing access to healthcare while decreasing costs and how Maven’s virtual care and services are driving impact and change for women’s health. She also touches briefly upon the lack of female representation in VC and entrepreneurship.
Read More
Brigitte Anderson, Founder and Principal of Orange Vista LLC, describes her first ventures in promoting financial inclusion and banking in emerging markets in Africa through the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. She also explains what led her to pivot Orange Vista as a market consultancy group towards the health and education sectors, Chicago’s innovation scene, and the value of mentorship throughout her inspiring entrepreneurial journey.
Read More
Mike Lyons, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at PNC, shares his experiences in effective leadership strategy and responsible investing, from his close collaboration with the CEO of Bank of America during the 2008 recession to the release PNC’s first annual Green Bond to encourage the transition to a low-carbon economy, at the 45th International Conference.
Read More
Before the pandemic took over, the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry was booming, with experts predicting greater capital availability and healthy liquidity scenarios for the players in the space. However, the coronavirus pandemic, with its unimaginable magnitude of economic disruption, has impacted the CRE industry in an unquantifiable way that can only lead to lesser demand for new office spaces in the ‘new normal’ era of economic functioning.
Read More
In the decades leading up to the recognition of CSR as a central pillar of business, CSR was typically viewed as an extraneous project of minor importance for businesses during a time where consumers placed a greater emphasis on the quality of a product rather than the quality of a company. However, as technology and information have become readily available and accessible to more and more of the world population, people have evolved in their consumption calculus by evaluating every aspect of the product that makes it what it is.
Read More
Sa Sa, the Hong Kong-based beauty retailing giant, had never published a fiscal deficit since the days of SARS due to a proactive expansion strategy in both physical stores and digital outlets. Everything changed in 2020 when a new coronavirus emerged, but Journalism Fellow Hypatia Wu’s analysis reveals that its financial slump had begun even before the global pandemic.
Read More
COVID-19 has raised risks associated with travel, from prolonged exposure to other people to last-minute cancellations before getting on a flight. Typically, people buy travel insurance to mitigate risks when visiting places outside of their home country. However, the current state of traveler’s insurance may not be enough to cope with the aforementioned pandemic-induced risks. Summer Journalism Fellow Charlotte Ehlers proposes a plan where federal governments set up their own travel insurance plans and market them alongside preexisting COVID safety measures to restimulate the tourism industry.
Read More
Gene C. Waddy is an entrepreneur and co-founder of DIVERSANT LLC, the nation’s largest African-American owned IT staffing and solutions firm. In many ways, DIVERSANT is a reflection of Waddy’s professional expertise, personal drive, and his commitment to helping others. The company has developed a reputation for excellence among numerous Fortune 500 companies.
Read More
Broadway musical Hamilton was released on Disney+ at the start of July, which put the streaming service into the limelight as Disney+ took an initial step away from solely original Disney content. With this new rollout, Disney’s overarching aim was to infiltrate the streaming monopoly made up of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Come COVID-19, the pandemic has confined people to their homes and given the streaming industry an unexpected boost - especially for Disney+. Summer Journalism Fellow Joe Strong analyzes the stock value, market capitalization, and competitive advantages of Disney+ alongside one of its biggest competitors: Netflix.
Read More
Josh Nichols, Founder of CrossBraining, Inc., an experiential learning and video assessment platform, explains how CrossBraining encourages hands-on learning by enabling students to capture, narrate and reflect on their learning targets through video storytelling. He also shares what opportunities exist for the education system to be more innovative, especially during COVID-19 and what aspiring student entrepreneurs need to know about the product design process.
Read More
With an increasingly globalised world, the commercial potential of collegiate sport has exponentially grown. However, the NCAA’s “amateurism” business model is being increasingly attacked. Summer Journalism Fellow Joe Strong explains that the more that basketball players choose to forego the NCAA, the more that the quality of NCAA talent and therefore, its appeal to fans, will decrease. Many aspiring professional athletes want to be able to support their families earlier, and alternate pathways to circumvent the NCAA, like the NBA G-League’s “Professional Player Pathway,” are becoming increasingly popular.
Read More
As the world watched a video of George Floyd taking his last breath, the Black Lives Matter movement gained rare air, and as millions looked for ways to make a difference, small Black-owned businesses got an unprecedented boost. As Summer Journalism Fellow Ashleigh Field explains, many of these owners are using this prosperity to reinvest back in the community and contribute to the larger cause for justice and equality.
Read More
Summer Journalism Fellow Charlotte Ehlers speaks with Patricia Letayf, co-founder and Director of Operations at Five One Labs, a startup incubator in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that has incubated five cohorts of startups since its inception in 2017. Letayf describes how Five One Labs combines her interests in Middle Eastern politics, business, and economic development and how it also uses entrepreneurship to enable diverse groups of young people in Kurdistan to rebuild their community.
Read More
Today, ed-tech is an umbrella term that refers to any technological initiative designed to streamline learning. Despite this, startups in the space have had a rocky ride over the past half-decade with investors and skeptics raising questions about their cash burn, business models, and even their crown jewel: content. The black swan event that is COVID-19 has seen educational institutions and students flock to ed-tech platforms during the transition to online learning, but this begs the question: is ed-tech here to stay once the dust settles?
Read More