Umbrex is pleased to welcome Philippe Simon with WINNOTEK Sarl. Philippe served two years as delegate administrator on behalf of his client in a patent licensing pool addressing a European digital TV standard whereby the client owned an “essential” patent. He assists several public research organizations in technology transfers toward private industry, and facilitates maturation of startups innovative technologies through setup of collaborative projects with industrial partners. Philippe was previously General Manager Business Development, Europe, for Thomson (Technicolor)’s Intellectual Property…

  Marcia Nuffer shares an article that highlights the pros and cons of learning online. Online learning can be, and should be, as addictive as the other technologies we use. We are addicted to technology.  Multiple studies say we check our phones between 50 and 80 times a day. Millennials up to 150 times.  Sure, 90% of that is probably checking the time, using social media, and taking selfies.  But a good part of that time is also used to…

  Thomas K. Hamann shares a white paper on the sale of cars in Germany and the factors that lie behind the current market situation. Car dealers in Germany have opened again ca. four weeks ago. But the situation has hardly changed since then; new car sales are still down (Helmut Kluger in Automobilwoche 11/12 2020). Do customers simply no longer want to buy new cars? Or is this due to hurdles that can be lowered by dealers, e.g. through…

  David Uriarte explores the limitations and opportunities in the future of travel.  In the travel industry, we are currently living devastating times. During these days, like many others, I try to imagine how the future of travel will be after Covid-19. In this process, analyze the new limits and new opportunities is a common exercise. In Europe, in the short term, many resort hotels are opening in June or July, with lower occupancies than expected, but probably with a…

  Abhinav Chandra takes a look at the forthcoming holiday season to predict how fashion companies will deal with customers’ expectations, and sales decline during the pandemic. Tackling the dual threat of COVID-19 and climate change; a data-driven action plan for retailers to adapt quickly to changing consumer purchasing behavior. It has been an eventful few months since we last published our forecast on May 13th 2020. We have seen the slowdown of COVID-19 cases in May/June and lifting of…

  With a look ahead to a post pandemic environment, James Black provides nine questions to help you identify the potential possibilities and pitfalls. While all eyes are on navigating the pandemic—and for retailers than also means navigating the critical holiday shopping period—smart manufacturers and retailers are starting to look ahead to envision how they will operate in a Post-Covid world. (This is not to say we are in a Post-Covid environment yet, rather, for how to strategically plan for…

  With the pandemic hitting the second wave and going nowhere fast, Boris Galonske shares a comprehensive framework and downloadable PDF playbook designed to guide companies through critical infrastructure operations during major disruptions such as: pandemics. The coronavirus exposes critical infrastructure to a risk environment which is unprecedented in recent history. In order to maintain resilient operations establishing a playbook how to run critical infrastructure these days is key. Situation today A pandemic has been part of risk inventories of…

  Christophe De Greift shares an article that contradicts popular culture and redefines the image of the data scientist.  The ‘sexiest profession of the 21st century,’ named in 2012 by the Harvard Business Review to define the Data Scientist, has gone through various emotional states lately, depending on its field of action. Those who support understanding and predicting the health situation are heroes, whose analyzes define life and death questions such as where to send new artificial respirators. On the…

  In this article, Supriya Prakash Sen identifies the priorities that can help put our world back together post COVID-19 and ensure we continue to survive the impending effects of climate change. Solving the Covid-19 crisis should not come at the expense of the Climate. This is a post about why we should solve for the impending Climate Emergency in designing our new world post-pandemic – and the actions that we need to take before it is too late. Many…

  Barry Horwitz shares a recent post on how to deal with the current crisis and benefit from the disruption. “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” — Stanford economist Paul Romer Yesterday afternoon, I logged into what must be my 150th Zoom conference. What was once an occasional event has turned into a daily barrage of virtual backgrounds and unknowingly muted speakers. Fortunately, it seems we are all getting better at this new reality. Well, maybe not all…

  Eli Diament’s company has recently released a comprehensive report on how the current pandemic has affected business, including  a summary of findings from their national survey of Americans, executives, business owners and business decision makers. Azurite Consulting recently surveyed 3,500 Americans , in partnership with PeakProsperity.com –  to capture a unique view of COVID-19’s impact on spending, hiring and business decision making. This is the second survey in a longitudinal study, capturing the granular impacts of Covid-19 and paths…

  Supriya Prakash Sen takes a look ahead at one industry that is growing fast in the face of a heating planet, and how we can address and reconcile the needs of both the consumer and the environment.  Last week, I wrote this article about the worrying prospects if governments, policy makers, corporations and the public at large, fail to prioritize the climate in the hurry to get things “back to normal”. Except that this is a new normal –…

  In this article for WorkMarket, Diane Mulcahy explains why gig workers may provide the solution you need to adapt to the current pandemic and changing business environment. The world, the economic environment, and the demands placed on your company are all changing in unexpected ways. The difference between succeeding or failing to manage through a crisis can depend on your ability to add staff to critical functions, and access the exact skills and experience needed to respond to a…

  Martin Pergler summarizes the assessment of comparative risk levels from two recent press articles and compares them to simple-minded risk assessments to identify the value of the information.  As we gingerly try to “unfreeze” economic and social activity after this first wave of COVID, there’s a lot of prognostication what formerly normal activities are more or less risky. Two recent U.S. press articles thoughtfully assess comparative risk levels, but also fall into several pretty typical risk assessment traps. What…

  On a somewhat lighter note, since COVID-19 has affected every social event, including football, Sherif El Henaoui takes a moment to kick around a few opinions on whether Bundesliga should restart after the Coronavirus break.  Is that the most important topic to discuss at the moment? Not for me. But given the amount of comments and emotions it seems so. Was it the right decision to re-start? Before you answer the question, check if you are qualified to respond….

  Andrew Hone’s company provides a comprehensive report designed to position your business for success in the post Covid-19 environment. Achieving rapid and sustainable cost reduction is a critical business objective, especially in the current environment. The near-term economic outlook is bleak, with the IMF projecting the world’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. At a time when most businesses are likely to see deteriorating market conditions and declining revenue, rebalancing the cost base to reflect…

  Geoff Wilson asks the questions that make you think about your business strategy post COVID-19, identifies what you should focus on, and explains how you should move forward. Hey, you there…the guy or gal with the life you always wanted.  How does it feel? You are working from home.  Your computer screen has become your window into the world.  And, you have realized that it is, in fact, possible to pack more meetings into a day if you just…

  Vik Muktavaram applies a few principles of risk management to understand why COVID-19 grew from a risk to a pandemic.  As the federal government finally took the first decisive step in stemming the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US, the images of serpentine lines of arriving international passengers at airports waiting for immigration and screening for COVID-19 coronavirus ubiquitous online and in print. Presumably, the rationale for the screening was that these arriving passengers represented a high-risk cohort. Yet,…

  With COVID-19 still plaguing the globe and the threat of a second wave looming, Kaihan Krippendorff has customized a strategy to address, prepare for, and build a strategy for the future. We are dealing with unprecedented change invoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. What we need more than ever is a sense of hope. So, we’ve taken The Outthinker Process – a strategic process that helps business leaders step outside of conventional thinking to redesign their business models and strategies…

  David Uriarte provides a short forecast on the travel industry post COVID-19. In the travel industry, we are currently living devastating times. During these days, like many others, I try to imagine the future of travel after COVID-19. In this process, analyze the new limits and new opportunities is a common exercise. In Europe, in the short term, many resort hotels are opening in June or July, with lower occupancies than expected, but probably with a larger “summer” season….

  Carlos Castelan’s company blog provides five questions to help you think about and prepare for the future post COVID-19. To say that 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone is an understatement. The last six months have brought an enormity of difficulties and change to both the world of retail and the global population. While we don’t have the fabled Sports Almanac to identify future results, we wanted to share five questions that we have used with our…

  As both people and businesses begin to feel the economic impacts of the Coronavirus, Tobias Baer provides clear steps that can help your business deal with delinquent accounts. Many of my clients so far have experienced less delinquencies on consumer debt than I had feared. Unfortunately I don’t think that I can claim that this is only because I’ve helped them draw up extraordinarily effective credit policies and scoring systems – instead, this time around delinquencies themselves might be…

  John Murray steps up and provides a post that tackles the divide in discourse surrounding current politics and pandemic issues.  It is tough to get a majority of Americans to agree on anything these days, let alone an overwhelming majority. Wait! Here’s something: ‘Political discourse in America has devolved and become toxic and dangerous.’ Last May, Pew Research published a study indicating that a whopping 85% of U.S. adults agreed that political debate over the past few years has…

  An uplifting and sage post from Paul Millerd on what politics has become, racism in America, and why love eats politics.   I’m sitting down right now at 11:03am in Spain to write this. I am not sure where I’ll end up or if I’ll hit send this week, but I wanted to give it a shot to write something amid the pain and anger in my home country. I write this after spending the entire month of May fighting…

  Angela Thompson shares a complimentary experiential and distinctive retail patterning observations in a detailed report, and provides observations on post COVID19 implications.  Earlier this year, I conducted my annual experiential and distinctive retail patterning in (a pre-COVID-19) New York City.  While the world has shifted and the way in which retailers offer experiences has changed, I believe that there are still key takeaways from the patterning which can be applied to today’s shopping experience. The goal of experiential retail…

  When Kaihan Krippendorff found his calendar clear due to COVID-19 cancellations, he, in collaboration with his team, decided to launch the Reimagine the Future summit. This article is a summary of all 47 sessions, reviewed recordings, and in-depth content analysis of the session transcriptions and audience dialogue from today’s most influential business thinkers who took part in the summit.    In March, as the reality of COVID-19 started taking hold, when my team received our fifth request in one day…

  Eric Hiller takes a look at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education and discusses the pros and cons of online learning.    “With the advent of our unfriendly visitor from Wuhan, the COVID-19 virus, a lot of things have changed. Higher education has been particularly hard hit. I could not find a complete list of colleges and universities in the USA that were closed, but one can get a pretty good qualitative sense of the effect,…

  As the disruption continues, many businesses struggle to retain their employees. This post from David Burnie’s company provides strategies that can help keep employees on board, engaged, and motivated. Happy, successful employees are critical for a successful company. While companies must consider how to retain employees at the best of times, employee retention is an especially pressing topic during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Ontario continues social distancing indefinitely, maintaining an engaged staff will offer a sense of stability to…

  Eric Hiller provides a short introductory article and a link to a forthcoming webinar on Thursday, May 28, 2020, that explains how to keep a supply chain up and running during COVID-19 and into the future.  The old world… So, you had a supply chain, and you thought it was pretty “optimized.” Yeah, you could improve it here and there, but you had wrung out 95%+ of the addressable waste. To really make progress, you would need to make…

  Alex Sharpe takes a look at where we are, where we’re going, and why history can help us identify possible opportunities. The CORONA Virus is rocking our worlds – no doubt. It is a scary time with lots of uncertainty. Fortunately, times like this cause a disruption which also means opportunity. For many of us that is not easy to hear as we watch businesses struggle and industries change. It is even harder as we hear about the loss…

  Boris Galonske offers direction on how to navigate the effects of COVID-19 in the form of a detailed outline of a playbook.  The coronavirus exposes critical infrastructure to a risk environment which is unprecedented in recent history. In order to maintain resilient operations establishing a playbook how to run critical infrastructure these days is key. Situation today A pandemic has been part of risk inventories of large corporations for several years. However, the accelerating speed with which the coronavirus…

  Dan Markovitz shares why COVID-19 provides the opportunity to institute change.  “You’ve heard it countless times before:  ‘People don’t like change.’ ‘Change is hard.’ ‘Change activates people’s lizard brain. They’ll fight you or run away.’ ‘People don’t mind changing. They don’t like being changed.’ You hear these complaints so often that you’d think they’re inscribed in the 10 Commandments by now. (They’re not, by the way.) Sure, there’s plenty of truth in those sayings, but the good news is…

  Martin Nel shares his synthesis on recent events and data that have informed his outlook on how COVID-19 will affect major players in Canadian Retail Banking. Covid-19: When will it end? What will be the damage to the economy? What will be the impact on the major players in Canadian Retail Banking?  Looking at the S&P 500 over the last few weeks, it seems that it will all be over soon, with limited economic damage. Let’s call this the…

  Christophe De Greift identifies the problem of low data literacy and shares four rules that can improve statistical data during COVID-19 and our understanding of the situation.  The world was caught off guard by a new virus that we are still trying to understand. If we turn to official sources to find answers to our questions, we often find graphics that are not very relevant and even misleading about COVID-19. In the era of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics,…

  Take a look back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with Tobias Baer where he asks us to imagine the positive impact to both the individual and the economy. Amidst all the gloom and panic, I saw a light today. Grounded in Germany, I made a long bicycle ride through mostly empty countryside. All my worries about my family, clients, and own affairs notwithstanding, I couldn’t help feeling bliss and happiness, and it dawned on me that also…

  Robyn Bolton shares her predictions on what comes after the wave of COVID-19 abates.  ‘What happens next? You know, once all of this is over?’ my friend asked. ‘There will be a new normal, but what will it look like?’ This is the question everyone is asking. Lots of people proclaim to have the answer. Some are based on history, but history isn’t a great predictor of the future. Some opinions are based on trends and projections but rely…

  As we begin to consider the far-reaching and long-lasting impacts of the current pandemic, Robbie Kellman Baxter thinks ahead and shares her thoughts on the future of live gatherings and how that will affect a wide range of institutions, organizations, and individuals. A few weeks ago, Facebook announced they’re canceling any large physical events with 50 or more people through June 2021. (Some they’ll hold as virtual events.) Microsoft announced something similar. Many organizations are allowing no business travel…

  Amanda Setili shares eight steps you can take to mitigate stress and uncertainty during the current crisis.  I’ve been astounded by the degree and speed of innovation and change these last few weeks. Things that in normal times would have taken months or years to do have been accomplished in days, largely because people are banding together to help each other. In the midst of suffering, stress, and a good bit of fear, there is more kindness than ever….

  Andrew Hone’s company has developed a 6-week program which takes businesses through each step of our three-stage framework for responding to COVID-19. COVID-19 represents a formidable challenge to businesses of all sizes. Necessary policy responses have caused significant disruption to the global economy, with simultaneous demand, supply and financial shocks. Most businesses are experiencing a sharp decline in near-term revenue, requiring actions to mitigate the impact on cash flows and potentially to secure additional funding. Based on our own…

  James Bowen takes a look ahead to the end of this year, and shares his thoughts on four likely scenarios that may come to pass.  Today we live in an environment of extreme uncertainty. More than 26 million Americans who had jobs a month ago are now unemployed. No one can tell you whether that number will be bigger or smaller a month from now. We have seen negative prices for the West Texas Intermediate oil contract, but that…

  James Bowen takes a moment to muse on risk expectations and market values.   Today I read Christopher Schelling’s insightful article in Institutional Investor, “The Dust Bowl Ravaged 1930s America: Coronavirus is Today’s Equivalent.” It led me to thinking about risk, and in particular how a risk no one considered at all a little over a month ago has emerged to destroy trillions of dollars of value — perhaps not in percentage terms, but certainly in dollar terms the…

  Amanda Setili shares eight steps you can take to mitigate stress and uncertainty during the current crisis.  I’ve been astounded by the degree and speed of innovation and change these last few weeks. Things that in normal times would have taken months or years to do have been accomplished in days, largely because people are banding together to help each other. In the midst of suffering, stress, and a good bit of fear, there is more kindness than ever….

  Sarah Ralston Miller and Zaheera Soomar co-authored this article on how to support and strengthen company culture during the current crisis.  Through the Covid-19 pandemic, our world of work has changed almost overnight. In the past few weeks, we’ve spoken with senior leaders at organizations with whom we have been working to strengthen their ethical culture. These leaders understand that their culture is an essential resource to navigate through the current crisis, and are finding new ways to cultivate…

  In this detailed article, Surbhee Grover identifies the decision-making inputs and new market approaches that will be required to survive in the new economy. For entrepreneurs, coming out of COVID-19 isn’t the end of a crisis. It’s the beginning of a new way of thinking about their approach to product-market fit, financing, marketing and go-to-market strategies. And for some, will be a time to reflect on their personal approach to risk. The exponential pace of change to society will…

Join Kaihan Krippendorff on May 6th, for a summit with 24 thought-leaders from around the globe, across 24 hours where thought leaders will discuss how to rethink tomorrow for you and your Organization. Confirmed speakers include Dan Pink, Amy Edmondson, Marshall Goldsmith, Faith Popcorn, and Rosabeth Moss-Kanter.   100% of profits will go to charity. Donations will be awarded to Kiva, No Kid Hungry, GiveDirectly, and the European Food Banks Federation….

  Joyjit Saha Choudhury takes a look ahead to determine the effect of COVID-19 on health plans.  COVID-19 has upended our society, economy and the healthcare ecosystem in particular, and tremendous efforts are underway to try and manage the epidemic. In this difficult and unsettling time, I wanted to help think ahead to actions US-based payors and providers should take for a post-COVID-19 world.  This piece is structured in three parts – part 1 outlines likely strategic changes to the…

  Tobias Baer explains why the lack of randomized testing hampers businesses and raises the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The lack of randomized testing again and again hampers businesses because it means executives need to make decisions half blind – and Covid-19 is no different, only that in the case of Covid-19, the cost of not doing randomized testing literally might run into the trillions of dollars. Randomized testing is nothing new – and widely considered best practice in…

  Martin Pergler shares a couple of files on understanding COVID-19 contagion dynamics, and some of the tradeoffs of managing spread vs long term social/economic impact. People seem to be increasingly internalizing and accepting efforts prudentially required to slow down COVID-19s exponential infection rates. And hopefully we’ll converge even more from the poles of “barricade ourselves behind hoarded toilet paper” and “what me worry, I don’t see a problem yet” behaviour. However, given differences in, and evolution over time of,…

  Surbhee Grover takes a moment to think about the future and how the Coronavirus will change the way we work and live.   Our lives, as we’ve known them, have come to a grinding halt. What will the world look like when the music starts again? In the time we are not obsessing with COVID-19 updates, or trying to revive the business; ensure availability of dog food (and wine), and survive homeschooling, some of us are starting to wonder…