From Melanie Evans and Alexandra Berzon in The Wall Street Journal: “During a pandemic, hospitals and local, state and federal agencies rely on a range of real-time metrics to respond to emergencies quickly. They need to know how many beds are available at each facility, whether hospitals need more nurses and the available number of ventilators and other critical supplies. That way, patients can get transferred quickly and medicine distributed to those in most need. The U.S. has tried—and failed—over the past 15 years to build a system to share such information in a crisis. When the pandemic started, nothing like it existed.”

In am interview with best-selling author, Ozan Varol, the author discusses the principle of “test as you fly and fly as you test” from his book Think Like a Rocket Scientist. The reason so many businesses and organizations fail to deliver on their promises and to operate at maximum efficiency is that...

Apple trotted out the iPhone 12 to adoring fans earlier this month, like a proud farmer showing off his prized bull at the county fair. 

It’s dangerously thin! Gasp!

It has many cameras! Bazzinga!

It runs on 5G! Shazam!

It comes in the most-beautiful color of blue that even God is jealous! 

Wait. What?!

Oh well. For as many things that make me chuckle at an iPhone launch, there is still plenty to pay attention to. I mean, my companies aren’t worth $2 trillion, so even this grumpy old curmudgeon pays attention when Apple sneezes.

I still think it’s hilarious how many tech writers collectively crush on Apple for a new phone color, just like I think it’s hilarious that an entire brand of shirt, Untuckit, can climb to a $600 million valuation based solely on the brand promise that “our shirts can be worn untucked.” Yeah. So can any other shirt. 

But, I digress.

First lesson: Apple...

When the storm is upon you, autonomous behavior and muscle memory kick in. There’s no time for reflection and if you find yourself in a situation for which you are not prepared you can quite literally lose your business , your legacy or both.

The coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic depression have had their ups and downs. As more and more cities and states start their second round of shutdowns, make no mistake. The storm is upon us.

United Airlines will furlough over 30,000 employees. Delta has steered 17,000 employees into early retirement as it reports a $7 billion second-quarter loss. Millions of Americans are about to lose their unemployment benefits at the end of the month. Because our economy is built on consumer spending and mobility, these canaries in the coal mine are extremely ominous. Millions of jobs rely on travel. The resulting economic loss will be devastating.

European banks are setting negative interest rates, while JP Morgan just reported a $10...

In a few short months, Disney has gone from the envy of Hollywood to a company scrambling to adapt to a prolonged crisis. Without the anticipated summer blockbuster movie releases, the firm has been forced to realign its priorities. The reopening of Disneyland in California has been postponed indefinitely. Hong Kong Disneyland has shut down again and Disney World in Florida is on shaky ground.

The glue that connected blockbuster stories and characters with retail sales, live entertainment on Broadway and theme park attendance has made Disney extremely vulnerable in a pandemic. Even ESPN, the franchise that is supposed to help weather any economic downturn, is essentially stuck in the mud, without any live sports to broadcast. As a result, Disney’s stock has fallen 18% in the last six months.

But, the Walt Disney Company isn’t the only firm experiencing economic shockwaves following the coronavirus and social distancing. Coca-Cola generates nearly half of its revenue from...

In his excellent book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King addresses the phenomenon of writer’s block. He says, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

I agree. I’ve written thousands of pages of content, spread across published books, scores of special reports, articles and hundreds of marketing, management and leadership programs for audiologists and their teams.

And, I can attest that a lot of it has typographical and grammatical errors. Some of it is no longer relevant or sorely in need of updating and a good chunk of it falls on deaf ears. But, I write it not only because of the countless hand-written letters, phone calls and personal remarks of gratitude I receive for helping change the lives of thousands of people for the better but also because I have a message that wants to be heard.

While I have the raw talent and capability that exists in one tenth of one of the cells in Stephen...

A school bus driver in Massachusetts has his students to thank for encouraging him to become a history teacher. While driving kids to school, Clayton Ward would talk to them about their history lessons. “It inspired me, hearing them say ‘You should be my teacher,'” the 30-year old bus driver said. He had dropped out of college 10 years ago but through the encouragement of the students and his love of history, he enrolled in Community College and graduated with a 4.0 GPA while continuing to drive the bus. He has now enrolled this fall at Framingham State University to finish his bachelor’s in history with a minor in education.

Make no mistake. A small word of encouragement can inspire another person to do great things.

You were likely inspired by a teacher, mentor, community leader or classmate to become what you are today. Have you taken a moment to let those people know you’re thinking of them during this pandemic?

Have you leaned into your...

In his review of the new book, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions, David Roll shares what is known about the evening before a critical World War II invasion, when General Eisenhower visited the 101st Airborne Division at Newbury, a town in the south of England:

“This was the unit whose glider forces and paratroopers, Leigh-Mallory had predicted, would suffer roughly 70% and 50% casualties respectively during the invasion. A famous photo depicts a cluster of soldiers, their faces blackened with charcoal for camouflage and to protect against glare, as they gathered around Ike. Up close, he asked them their names and where they were from. “Texas, sir . . . Missouri, sir . . . Michigan, sir,” they responded with laughter and cheers as the roll call of the states went on. He spoke to them about cattle and farming, and to Wallace Strobel, the tall Michigan trooper, he asked, “How’s the fly-fishing?” Eisenhower...

Ro, a digital health care startup, just raised another $200 million in venture capital, bringing its total to over $376 million. The company will use the funds to double its 70-person computer engineering team. 

With over $250 million in revenue generated last year, the firm’s latest round of funding came in at a $1.5 billion valuation. Ro currently runs a digital health site for men and another site for women. Patients can interact with a doctor using secure text message, phone or video. The firm has successfully completed over 5 million patient “visits.”

Ro has entered the online pharmacy space, offering 500 generic medications at $5 a month per drug. The latest round of funding will give their platform the ability to interact with medical devices such as oxygen sensors and other patient monitoring. This extensive data set will give the company tremendous power and leverage in controlling the patient life-cycle and relationship.

The patient will start on the...

Maria Konnikova holds a Ph.D. in psychology. She writes about her research on how quickly people make up their minds and how unwilling they are to change them. She’s a New York Times best-selling author and also a world-champion poker player. For her latest book, The Biggest Bluff, she trained with and then competed against some of the best poker players in the world. They taught her to question every hand. She learned to unpack every strategy and pushed herself out of her illusions–beyond her comfort zone–and she won. Konnikova’s research is so fascinating because it flies in the face of what we should do, when it comes to assumptions and failures, and what we actually tend to do. While being wrong should make us question our assumptions, it routinely has the opposite effect.

Dr. Konnikova’s rsearch shows, when we’re presented with signs that we’ve made a mistake, we very often (and quickly) choose to discard the evidence and...

The pandemic and economic crisis have forced Disney to adapt very quickly. Without the anticipated summer blockbuster movie releases, the firm has realigned its priorities. The reopening of Disneyland in California has been postponed indefinitely. Hong Kong Disneyland has shut down again and Disney World in Florida is on shaky ground.

The glue that connected blockbuster stories and characters with retail sales, live entertainment on Broadway and theme park attendance has made Disney extremely vulnerable in a pandemic. Even ESPN, the franchise that is supposed to help weather any economic downturn, was essentially stuck in the mud, without any live sports to broadcast until recently. As a result, Disney’s stock has fallen 18% in the last six months.

But, the Walt Disney Company isn’t the only firm experiencing economic shockwaves following the coronavirus and social distancing. Coca-Cola generates nearly half of its revenue from out-of-home consumption at sporting venues,...