Sunday, November 27, 2022

November 27, 2022 - Forward Thinking on the fragility of the world's food systems and how to fix them with Jessica Fanzo



S14
Forward Thinking on the fragility of the world's food systems and how to fix them with Jessica Fanzo

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Janet Bush talks with Jessica Fanzo. Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. From 2017 to 2019, Fanzo served as the co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report and the UN High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition. She was the first laureate of the Carasso Foundation’s Premio Daniel Carasso prize in 2012 for her research on sustainable food and diets for long-term human health.

An edited transcript of this episode follows. Subscribe to the series on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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S3
What's the right age to get a smartphone?

It is a very modern dilemma. Should you hand your child a smartphone, or keep them away from the devices as long as possible?

As a parent, you'd be forgiven for thinking of a smartphone as a sort of Pandora's box with the ability to unleash all the world's evils on your child's wholesome life. The bewildering array of headlines relating to the possible impact of children's phone and social media use are enough to make anyone want to opt out. Apparently, even celebrities are not immune to this modern parenting problem: Madonna has said that she regretted giving her older children phones at age 13, and wouldn't do it again.

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S21
How inflation is flipping the economic script, in seven charts

Every morning a new headline underscores growing economic concerns: Highest inflation since the 1970s. Central banks aggressively raising rates. Consumer sentiment at record lows. Commodity prices near all-time highs. Clearly inflation has, at a minimum, altered the economic mood, and potentially reset the path of global and national economies worldwide for years to come. McKinsey’s experts have examined many of the strategic implications of inflation. Here, we use the best and most recent publicly available data to offer seven charts illustrating inflation’s insidious progress.

Double trouble. In the past six months, inflation has far exceeded December 2021 expectations. In many countries, actual rates have doubled projections. European countries are particularly affected. For example, inflation in Lithuania is running at 15.5 percent annually, nearly five times the rate expected. Poland is at 11 percent and the United Kingdom at 9 percent, both well above projections. At 3 percent, Switzerland is an outlier. Asia is seeing a less severe change: Indian inflation is about 7 percent, only a bit above projections; and South Korea is at 5 percent. In China and Japan, inflation remains muted.

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S10
Bangladesh’s food delivery startups struggle as funding dries up

Sadia Nowshin, a 21-year-old student at the University of Dhaka, used to  frequently cycle through various food delivery apps on her smartphone. She didn’t pick apps based on the speed of delivery, service areas, or cuisine options — rather, she’d be looking at which app gave her the biggest discount. Then, one day, the discounts stopped.

“When I discovered [that] two food delivery companies stopped discounts, I just uninstalled them from my mobile,” Nowshin told Rest of World. “Why would I keep them on my mobile if they are not helping me buy food at a discount and taking extra space.”

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S34
The Best Black Friday Soundbar and TV Deals

It's a great time to upgrade your home theater thanks to some excellent Black Friday TV and soundbar deals. If you've yet to take the plunge to a modern 4K TV, or you are still listening to your favorite shows and movies through those tinny built-in TV speakers, there are massive reasons to upgrade. Modern home theater technology now has better backlighting, sharper resolution, and immersive surround sound for less money required than ever before. Go on, convert your living room into a mini cinema. 

Updated Saturday, November 26: We've added the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar and Platin Monaco 5.1 (WiSA) Wireless System. We've also updated prices and retailers throughout.

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S29
These 300-Hour Battery Life Headphones Are On Sale Now

It's been months since I first reviewed the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless headset (10/10, WIRED Recommends). And I'm still at a loss for how it pulls off its greatest trick: battery life that lasts ten times longer than the competition. And now they're on sale for the cheapest we've seen.

That means now is a great time to snag a pair of headphones that you barely ever have to return to a charging cable.

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S4
Why short-sightedness is on the rise

In the late 1980s and 1990s, parents in Singapore began noticing a worrying change in their children. On the whole, people's lives in the small, tropical nation were improving hugely at the time. Access to education, in particular, was transforming a generation and opening the gates to prosperity. But there was a less positive trend, too: more and more children were becoming short-sighted.

Nobody was able to stop this national eyesight crisis. Rates of short-sightedness – also known as near-sightedness or myopia – continued to rise and rise. Today, Singapore has a myopia rate of around 80% in young adults, and has been called "the myopia capital of the world".

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S19
On the cusp of a new era?

The past two and a half years have been extraordinary. What we are seeing is surely more than the progression of just another business cycle. The unnerving combination of a global pandemic compounded by energy scarcity, rapid inflation, and geopolitical tensions boiling over has people wondering what certainties are left. Today’s events might even feel like a cluster of earthquakes that is reshaping our world.

We have been here before. Similar “earthquakes” have struck the past: in the immediate aftermath of World War II (1944–46), during the period around the oil crisis (1971–73), and at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union (1989–92). Like a real earthquake, each of them changed the global landscape with the sudden release of powerful underlying forces that had been building up around a fault line over time—but in these cases, unfolding over a few years rather than in a big bang. Each of them ushered in a new era: the Postwar Boom (1944–71), the Era of Contention (1971–89), and the Era of Markets (1989–2019). Are we now on the cusp of a new era presaged by today’s earthquakes?

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S31
The Best Apple Black Friday Deals

Apple isn't holding a Black Friday weekend sale per se, but it is throwing in a gift card when you purchase an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, or an accessory directly from its store. That's … fine, but Apple devices are expensive. To help you save money, we've hunted down discounts on all our favorite Apple gadgets, and more, from third-party retailers. These are the best Apple Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday deals around.

Updated November 26, 2022: We've added charging accessories, an iPhone 14 case, and a pair of Beats Earbuds, and updated prices and links throughout.

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S2
The biggest myths of the teenage brain

Terri Apter, a psychologist, still remembers the time she explained to an 18-year-old how the teenage brain works: "So that's why I feel like my head's exploding!" the teen replied, with pleasure.

Parents and teachers of teens may recognise that sensation of dealing with a highly combustible mind. The teenage years can feel like a shocking transformation – a turning inside out of the mind and soul that renders the person unrecognisable from the child they once were. There's the hard-to-control mood swings, identity crises and the hunger for social approval, a newfound taste for risk and adventure, and a seemingly complete inability to think about the future repercussions of their actions.

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S28
The Best Target Black Friday Deals

There's just something about a Target trip that cures my cabin fever and all minor spats of anxiety. This time of year, all the cute Christmas decor and ornaments are out, which makes trips even more fun. Shopping on its website isn't as fun, sadly, but it's still packed full of holiday sales. Target's Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals have been live for almost every day of the month, but several discounts are even sweeter now. 

Updated on November 26, 2022: We've added some navigation, the Bose QC Earbuds, and checked over the entire post.

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S32
The Best Amazon Deals For Black Friday

Black Friday weekend is in full swing, and few retailers go quite as hard with online deals as Amazon. We've rounded up a massive list of our favorite Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here, including the company's own gadgets, as well as kitchen gear, laptops and tablets, gaming accessories, and so much more. 

Updated Nov. 26: We've added deals on several home office supplies we like, plus some headphones, a turntable, and a smart toothbrush.

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S7
The Martian robots that came to life

It's January 2004 and Nasa is about to land on Mars, twice. The twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are scheduled to arrive on opposite sides of the Red Planet within weeks of each other, and a lot can go wrong. The descent involves each lander plunging through the Martian atmosphere, deploying parachutes and bouncing across the rocky landscape encased in giant airbags.

In mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the pressure is on. Some two-thirds of previous Mars missions have ended in failure. Five years earlier, Nasa's Mars Climate Orbiter had disintegrated after engineers muddled-up imperial (English) and metric units. And, in a pre-launch test for the rover landing system, the parachutes ripped apart leaving a lander smashed to pieces on the ground.

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S6
How To Think About X

Stories about How To Think About X

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S18
Scaling up: How founder CEOs and teams can go beyond aspiration to ascent

The mystique surrounding public companies like Alphabet and Amazon and their evolution from innovative start-ups to brand icons has many executives believing that there is only one “right” path to growth. But behind these and other companies’ scale-up success stories is a distinctive set of organizational capabilities that other founder CEOs may be able to develop as they move their start-ups from aspiration to ascent to peak performance.

Through our extensive research and years of experience working with founder CEOs, we’ve learned a lot about what the hyperscaling journey entails and how it differs from gradual growth. Here’s what we know about hyperscalers: they outperform industry peers, remain resilient during downturns, and maintain strong cash positions. They set the bar high for corporate performance, and they aren’t afraid to make bold moves.

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S22
Sustainable and inclusive growth: A weekly briefing

By 2040, an estimated 85 percent of new trucks will feature zero-emissions (ZE) powertrains running on technologies such as batteries, fuel cells, or hydrogen combustion. This dramatic shift in the world of road freight will likely necessitate upgraded infrastructure and revamped regulations. This week, McKinsey research examines efforts to pave the way for the future of ZE trucking. A separate report finds that though women are active metaverse users, female leaders are scarce in the emerging metaverse economy. Meanwhile, an article investigates ways for organizations to reshape the chief diversity officer (CDO) role.

The decarbonization of trucking will be shaped by three main factors: regulatory inducements, technological developments, and infrastructure rollouts. As the total cost of ownership for ZE trucks falls, demand is expected to rise sharply. But senior partners Bernd Heid and Philipp Radtke and coauthors suggest that high up-front capital costs involved in this transition could lead freight companies to increasingly rely on leasing and partnerships.

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S8
A fired Twitter contractor on their fears for the platform under Musk

Melissa Ingle was a senior data scientist at Twitter, working on civic integrity and political misinformation. As a contract employee, she wrote algorithms that moderated harmful content on Twitter ahead of the U.S. and Brazil elections. Earlier this month, Ingle was one of the 4,400 contract staff who lost access to Twitter’s internal systems without being notified. Many expect the cuts to the moderation team to have a crippling effect on the health of Twitter. Ingle talked to Rest of World on her fears about the porous future of Twitter moderation.

I was a senior data scientist, working in civic integrity and political misinformation. I wrote and monitored the algorithms which scanned Twitter for political misinformation. We continuously trained and updated our models. We also sent a subsection of the tweets we flagged for human review. The core content moderation operation staff was a team of 30 total; they checked for all kinds of content: hate speech, harassment, pornography, child abuse or trafficking, etc. We were mostly data scientists and interfaced with many other groups at Twitter.

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S33
The Best Kitchen and Home Deals for Black Friday

Making a house a home takes time, and often … a lot of money. Luckily, it’s Black Friday, and there are some great deals on all your household needs. Whether you’re building up your kitchen appliances, syncing up all your smart home gadgets, or simply trying to clear the air, there’s something on sale for you. Here’s what we’ve found.

We test products year-round and handpicked these deals. Products that are sold out or no longer discounted as of publishing will be crossed out. We'll update this guide throughout the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.

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S23
Greenhushing: Why Some Firms Keep Quiet About ESG

Worried about backlash, some companies don’t openly share the steps they may be taking to reduce their carbon footprint. Wharton’s Mirko Heinle explains this troubling trend of “greenhushing” and what it means for climate change.

Wharton’s Mirko Heinle talks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about why firms are engaging in "greenhushing."

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S35
The Best Black Friday Deals Under $50

let's face it, buying presents for loved ones over the holiday season is expensive. But you don't always have to reach for the most extravagant items to add to your cart. There are plenty of affordable options that'll make for great gifts regardless of who you're shopping for. To help make it easier, we've rounded up a plethora of Black Friday deals under $50 on streaming sticks, smart displays, video games, and more. Check out our 25 Gifts Under $25 guide for more budget-friendly holiday gift ideas.

Updated November 26, 2022: We've added fitness and outdoors gear, streaming deals, and more. We've also updated pricing and availability.

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S27
Gitte Frederiksen: Great leadership is a network, not a hierarchy

What if leadership at work wasn't for a select few, but rather shared among many? Management consultant Gitte Frederiksen gives us the recipe for "distributed leadership" -- dynamic, multidimensional networks of leaders that tap into everyone's knowledge and creativity -- and shows how it allows teams to do more and do it better.

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S26
What the FTX Collapse Means for the Cryptocurrency Market

The rapid fall of FTX makes clear that better regulation is necessary to protect investors and reduce crime in the cryptocurrency market. Wharton’s Kevin Werbach, a longtime advocate of stronger oversight, explains why the path to regulation isn’t a straight line.

Wharton’s Kevin Werbach speaks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about the fall of FTX and the need for better cryptocurrency regulation.

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S12
Toward a sustainable, inclusive, growing future: The role of business

How should the world confront its most pressing environmental and social challenges? An answer lies in sustainable, inclusive growth—that is, economic growth that provides the financial resources needed to contain climate change, promote natural capital and biodiversity, empower households, and promote equitable opportunity. Any effort to usher in such growth will need many stakeholders, but businesses, which drive more than 70 percent of global GDP, will be a key player.

The challenges to sustainability and inclusion are large and urgent. On the sustainability side, energy efficiency is reducing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in some countries, but worldwide emissions continue to rise, accelerating climate change and its attendant physical risks. The world is therefore on track to exhaust its “carbon budget,” the amount of greenhouse gases it can emit without triggering dangerous levels of warming, by 2030. As for inclusion, though in some ways the world has become more inclusive over the past few decades, billions of people still live in countries that could do far better on such measures as life expectancy, child mortality, and gender parity in labor force participation. The current decade will determine whether we opt for sustainable, inclusive growth or for dangerous warming and large segments of society left behind.

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S1
Why Your FP&A Team Needs a Single Planning Platform - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM WORKDAY

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Chuy’s, a Texas-based chain that owns and operates more than 90 Tex-Mex restaurants in 17 states, found itself facing the same uncertainties as every other business in its sector. Off-premises sales surged. Dine-in sales plummeted. Long-range plans went out the window.

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S11
Twitter drama has Brazilians flocking to Indian platform Koo

Last week’s mass resignations from Twitter prompted users from all over the world to start looking for alternative social media platforms. In Brazil, it appears as if many users jumped to Koo, an Indian social media app. 

On Friday, Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO of Koo, told Rest of World that “we have seen an influx of users from Brazil for the last 16 hours and already have close to a million Brazilians who have joined the platform.” Apptopia, a U.S.-based company that tracks app and mobile device data, confirmed to Rest of World that at least 500,000 users in Brazil downloaded the app between this past Friday and Sunday. 

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S13
Global flows: The ties that bind in an interconnected world

Ours is an interdependent world, connected by global flows of goods, services, capital, people, data, and ideas. Global value chains have been built on these flows, creating a more prosperous world. However, in light of the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and years of rising tensions between the United States and China, some have speculated that the world is already deglobalizing. New MGI analysis finds a more nuanced reality. The world remains deeply interconnected, and flows have proved remarkably resilient during the most recent turbulence. Furthermore, no region is self-sufficient. The challenge therefore is to harness the benefits of interconnection while managing the risks and downsides of dependency—particularly where products are concentrated in their places of origin.

This new research paper offers a view of the flows driving global integration and an assessment of interdependency and concentration risks and the important role of multinational corporations. The research is based on a comprehensive assessment of trade (30 global value chains spanning resources, manufactured goods, and services), capital, people, and intangibles flows as well as an analysis of about 6,000 globally traded products.

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S16
A devilish duality: How CEOs can square resilience with net-zero promises

What a difference a year makes. In November 2021, business leaders showed up in force in Glasgow at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), pledging to take on the challenge of reaching net-zero greenhouse-gas-emission goals by 2050. While no one believed that the path to net zero would suddenly become easy, commitments made to target nearly 90 percent of CO2 emissions for reduction signaled that the private sector was truly engaged. Then major new headwinds began swirling: surging inflation, war in Europe, energy insecurity, and a potential global recession. Still, governments pressed ahead, passing major climate legislation packages in Europe and the United States. More than 3,000 companies have made commitments on net-zero pathways.

At the time of COP26, McKinsey released a perspective on the requirements needed to secure a net-zero carbon emission transition. 1 1. “Solving the net-zero equation: Nine requirements for a more orderly transition,” McKinsey, October 27, 2021. It was clear, given the challenges to deploying capital at scale, managing economic dislocations, and scaling up supply chains and infrastructure, that the path would not be linear and would include slowdowns and backstepping. Ultimately, sustainable systems are more value creating than traditional ones. But countries and companies must balance trade-offs among net-zero commitments, affordability for citizens, and security of energy and materials supply.

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S9
Inside a boot camp for Chinese TikTok sellers bringing live e-commerce to the U.S.

Jacqueline Zhuang made her debut as a TikTok live-shopping host from a studio in Guangzhou, promoting the sequined red dress she was wearing, in front of a rack of glittery clothes. “If you wear it to your bestie’s wedding, I’m sure the men stare at you, and the girls envy you,” Zhuang declared passionately in English. Encouraging voices cheered her on from off camera. “For the friends who pick it, I will have an extra surprise for you,” she added.

Only a week earlier, 30-year-old Zhuang had quit her decade-long career as a newspaper journalist and television anchor for what she believes is a career of the future — hosting live streams on TikTok to sell things to shoppers in the West. To set herself up for success, Zhuang joined a boot camp, a two-day crash course in sales tactics and English-language internet slang to entice Western shoppers. Promoters of the course promised to show Zhuang and the other attendees — factory owners, teachers and a former flight attendant — everything they needed to know to sell Chinese products to English-speaking consumers on the world’s most popular social media platform.

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S20
Women in the Workplace 2022

This is the eighth year of the Women in the Workplace report. Conducted in partnership with LeanIn.Org, this effort is the largest study of women in corporate America. This year, we collected information from 333 participating organizations employing more than 12 million people, surveyed more than 40,000 employees, and conducted interviews with women of diverse identities—including women of color, 1 1. Women of color include Black, Latina, Asian, Native American/American Indian/Indigenous or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, or mixed-race women. LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities—to get an intersectional look at biases and barriers.

This research revealed that we’re amid a “Great Breakup.” Women are demanding more from work, and they’re leaving their companies in unprecedented numbers to get it. Women leaders are switching jobs at the highest rates we’ve ever seen—and at higher rates than men in leadership. That could have serious implications for companies. Women are already significantly underrepresented in leadership. For years, fewer women have risen through the ranks because of the “broken rung” at the first step up to management. Now, companies are struggling to hold onto the relatively few women leaders they have. And all of these dynamics are even more pronounced for women of color.

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S30
The 138 Absolute Best Black Friday Deals Right Now

The holiday shopping season started a bit early this year, but that's only made things more confusing—what's really a deal? What's not? It's hard to know which deals to snag and which to walk away from. Luckily, we've done the hard work for you. WIRED reviewers try countless gadgets, tools, and digital delights of all kinds every week, and we have developed smart shopping tips and tricks to weed out fake discounts and bring you the real deals. We can say with confidence that these are the absolute best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals you're going to find this weekend.

Keep this page bookmarked. You will find regular updates as products go out of stock and prices change, and we'll keep scouring to find more deals worth grabbing. 

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S15
A defining moment: How Europe's CEOs can build resilience to grow in today's economic maelstrom

A confluence of crises and disruptions has darkened European skies. The energy crisis is already dire and could get worse. The war in Ukraine continues, an unabated humanitarian tragedy. The cost of life’s essentials has gone through the roof—prices in some countries have risen eightfold. Business signs are weakening. In July and August, purchasing managers’ indexes indicated contraction for the first time since early 2021. China, a key supplier and customer, is wrestling with its own economic problems. The effects of climate change are pronounced across the continent, with drought and extreme heat curtailing hydropower and even putting industrial production at risk. The energy crisis threatens to derail the net-zero transition. Semiconductor shortages, technological shortfalls, and labor shortages remain. The latest McKinsey scenarios, undertaken in partnership with Oxford Economics, suggest that European GDP will most likely contract overall in 2023 (Exhibit 1).

How will Europe’s business leaders respond? This is a defining moment for a generation of executives who have never been tested in quite this way. Yes, today’s leaders have faced down the global financial crisis, the euro crisis, Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic. All were challenging in their way; each crisis called for ingenuity, grit, and determination. Many business leaders met these challenges exceptionally well. But today they face a unique confluence of crises that is of another magnitude. The playbooks of the past will be only moderately helpful.

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S5
How mud boosts your immune system

"Don't get dirty!" was once a constant family refrain, as parents despairingly watched their children spoil their best clothes. Whether they were running through farmers' fields, climbing trees or catching tadpoles, it was inevitable that children's whites would turn brown before the day was over.

Today, many parents may secretly wish their children had the chance to pick up a bit of grime. With the rise of urbanism, and the allure of video games and social media, contact with nature is much rarer than in the past. For many, there is simply no opportunity to get muddy.

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S17
‘It's important to bring the spirit of emergencies to the long term'

Business leaders may feel that they have been dealing with a never-ending series of crises since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly three years ago. A health emergency ushered in a supply chain disruption that yielded an inflation predicament; add in higher energy prices and other upheavals, and the demands on leaders’ crisis management skills are at an all-time high.

For perspective on how to thrive during emergencies, we turned to José Andrés, a Spanish-born chef whose company encompasses nearly 40 restaurants globally. Most chefs can offer some wisdom in dealing with pressure, given the relentless atmosphere of restaurant kitchens. But Andrés’s expertise is unique: in 2010, he founded World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit whose mission is to deliver fresh meals to people in need during emergencies including tornados, hurricanes, pandemics, and wars. This year, the nonprofit estimates that it raised and spent $420 million, including on more than 170 million meals distributed to Ukrainians since the invasion of Ukraine.

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S24
How Company Managers Use Investor Conferences To Hype Their Stocks

Recent Wharton research finds evidence of company insiders timing voluntary disclosures ahead of corporate events, profiting off heightened visibility.

Investor conferences that companies host bring many benefits to their shareholders, but they also have a dark side in that they facilitate “managerial opportunism,” as Wharton research has found. In some companies, managers use the increased visibility around the conference to “hype” their company’s stock, which helps insiders profit, according to a recent paper titled “The Dark Side of Investor Conferences: Evidence of Managerial Opportunism” by Wharton accounting professors Brian Bushee, Daniel Taylor, and Christina Zhu.

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S25
Twitter and Free Speech: What Is Musk’s Plan?

As Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk must reconcile his dream of a free-speech paradise with the reality of a business based on ad revenue. With so much money on the line, the billionaire is changing his approach, says Wharton’s Pinar Yildirim.

Wharton’s Pinar Yildirim speaks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about how Elon Musk may handle content moderation on Twitter.

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