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As I delve into the intricacies of Project 2025, a comprehensive and contentious presidential transition initiative, it becomes clear that this is more than just a policy guide – it's a blueprint for a radical transformation of American governance.Project 2025, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, is a multi-faceted plan designed to equip the next conservative president with a detailed policy agenda, a database of potential personnel, training programs, and a playbook for the first 180 days in office. The project is led by former Trump administration officials, including Paul Dans and Spencer Chretien, which has led critics to tie it closely to Trump's policies and campaign promises, despite his public denials of involvement[2][3].At its core, Project 2025 aims to centralize power in the executive branch, a move that critics argue could significantly erode the system of checks and balances. One of the most alarming proposals involves reissuing Trump's Schedule F executive order, which would allow the president to dismiss federal employees deemed 'non-performing' or insufficiently loyal. This measure targets the vast federal workforce of approximately 3.5 million employees, potentially disrupting government operations and exacerbating hardships for communities reliant on federal support[1].The project also proposes sweeping reforms to federal agencies, including a drastic overhaul of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Project 2025 suggests transferring the custody of immigrant children from Health and Human Services (HHS) to DHS, prioritizing enforcement over welfare. This change could expand detention centers and worsen the safety and psychological well-being of vulnerable immigrant children. Additionally, the repeal of parts of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) would facilitate large-scale detention center use across the country[1].In the realm of reproductive rights, Project 2025's policies are equally concerning. The initiative aligns with recent legal challenges, such as the case involving the FDA's approval of mifepristone, which set a precedent for limiting access to abortion medication. These legal strategies serve as a blueprint for future restrictions on reproductive rights, signaling a potential future where Project 2025's goals are realized through similar tactics[1].The project's stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices is another contentious area. Project 2025 calls for the deletion of terms like DEI, abortion, and gender equality from federal rules, agency regulations, and legislation. This aligns with Trump's recent executive order ending all DEI programs within the federal government, which he claimed could violate federal civil rights laws and exclude Americans from opportunities based on their race or sex[3].Project 2025 also outlines significant changes to disaster response and emergency funding. The plan proposes reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities, rather than the federal government. This recommendation is based on the argument that FEMA is "overtasked" and "overcompensates for the lack of state and local preparedness and response." The project suggests ending preparedness grants for states and localities, arguing that DHS should not be in the business of handing out federal tax dollars[3].In the area of media and technology, Project 2025's proposals are equally far-reaching. The initiative calls for increasing agency accountability while decreasing wasteful spending at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It also advocates for promoting national security and economic prosperity by reducing the digital divide and expanding connectivity through 5G and satellite technologies. Additionally, the project recommends that Big Tech companies contribute to the Universal Service Fund, currently funded through telephone bills[4].Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025, has been candid about the project's ambitions. In a recent interview, he expressed his delight with how the Trump administration has implemented aspects of the project, saying, "It's actually way beyond my wildest dreams... The way that they've been able to move and upset the orthodoxy, and at the same time really capture the imagination of the people, I think portends a great four years."[5]Despite Trump's public denials, the alignment between his policies and Project 2025's proposals is striking. As Dans noted, "Directionally, they have a lot in common... Trump is seizing every minute of every hour." This close alignment has led Democrats to warn that Project 2025 represents a "radical" agenda that could mean a ban on abortion, elimination of LGBTQ+ rights, and a complete overhaul of the federal administrative state[5].As we look ahead, the implications of Project 2025 are daunting. Critics argue that its recommendations could endanger democratic institutions, dismantle civil liberties, and concentrate presidential power. The project's focus on centralizing authority and undermining checks and balances raises serious concerns about the future of American governance.In the coming months, as the Trump administration continues to implement policies outlined in Project 2025, we can expect significant legal and legislative battles. The Supreme Court's role in adjudicating these changes will be crucial, as will the response from state governments and civil society organizations. As Paul Dans ominously suggested, "The deep state is going to get its breath back," indicating a long and contentious road ahead.Project 2025 is not just a policy guide; it is a vision for a fundamentally different America. As the country navigates these profound changes, it remains to be seen whether this vision will be realized and what the long-term consequences will be for American democracy. One thing is certain: the next few years will be pivotal in shaping the future of governance in the United States.
In this weeks episode: Directionally right: where the SaaS market is going- lower prices even if you survive. AI voice agents map by Bessemer. Decidr.ai AI parallel world https://youtu.be/MiPXWf_8BUs AI Chat Bot https://youtu.be/zRT86TKMaKA AI CRM automation https://youtu.be/ta2hGRlmtm0 AI natural language search: https://youtu.be/yHDhgw9AEAw Scalare completes ASX listing. Trump wins: what founders can learn from Trump. Fintech non-bank lender Bridgit has secured a $250 million facility with Citi. Equitise falls into administration. Hivery falls into administration. Figuring out what to build is the most valuable thing. Rocket pads Gilmour Space and Southern Launch get ready for lift off. Sharts hello@tribeglobal.vc
US trade policy and US-China competition concerns are high on the minds of South-east Asia observers. Synopsis: The Straits Times' global contributor Nirmal Ghosh shines a light on Asian perspectives of global and Asian issues with expert guests. Hardening strategic competition with China will remain front and centre of the foreign policy focus of the next US Administration in Washington DC. But while Asian countries have a mixed response to this superpower competition, most seek to stay on the right side of the United States and off the wrong side of China. Ahead of the US presidential elections on Nov 5, South-east Asia would foresee more continuity under a Kamala Harris Administration, with the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF, launched in 2022 by the Joe Biden Administration) continuing - while a second Donald Trump regime's approach would be more bilateral, with Washington's relations with individual countries shaped by factors such as trade deficits. Within the broader context of US-China competition though, South-east Asian countries would be looking for more clarity from Washington on distinctions between trade and investment and economic issues, and national security concerns, as host Nirmal Ghosh finds out in this episode. His guests are: Dr Satu Limaye, director of the East West Centre in Washington DC, creator of the Asia Matters for America initiative, and founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. Singapore-based APAC Advisors CEO Steven Okun served in the Clinton administration and is a veteran of numerous Democratic presidential campaigns. Highlights (click/tap above): 4:57 Directionally, the US-China relationship is going to be more tense… regardless of who wins on Nov 5 9:12 More fundamental understanding of the fragmented multi-polar and deconstructing international order 13:14 South-east Asia has been masterful at internationalising the search for autonomy; what could happen if there were to be a Trump 2.0 Administration? 16:02 How will Singapore fare? Why it will be very difficult for businesses and investors to do business or to invest if what's allowed today is not allowed tomorrow - for national security concerns 21:48 US-Asia relations: Why the threads of continuity are likely to overcome the threads of discontinuity Follow Nirmal Ghosh on X: https://str.sg/JD7r Read Nirmal Ghosh's articles: https://str.sg/JbxG Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters Host: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa'izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcast website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times' app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
US trade policy and US-China competition concerns are high on the minds of South-east Asia observers. Synopsis: The Straits Times' global contributor Nirmal Ghosh shines a light on Asian perspectives of global and Asian issues with expert guests. Hardening strategic competition with China will remain front and centre of the foreign policy focus of the next US Administration in Washington DC. But while Asian countries have a mixed response to this superpower competition, most seek to stay on the right side of the United States and off the wrong side of China. Ahead of the US presidential elections on Nov 5, South-east Asia would foresee more continuity under a Kamala Harris Administration, with the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF, launched in 2022 by the Joe Biden Administration) continuing - while a second Donald Trump regime's approach would be more bilateral, with Washington's relations with individual countries shaped by factors such as trade deficits. Within the broader context of US-China competition though, South-east Asian countries would be looking for more clarity from Washington on distinctions between trade and investment and economic issues, and national security concerns, as host Nirmal Ghosh finds out in this episode. His guests are: Dr Satu Limaye, director of the East West Centre in Washington DC, creator of the Asia Matters for America initiative, and founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. Singapore-based APAC Advisors CEO Steven Okun served in the Clinton administration and is a veteran of numerous Democratic presidential campaigns. Highlights (click/tap above): 4:57 Directionally, the US-China relationship is going to be more tense… regardless of who wins on Nov 5 9:12 More fundamental understanding of the fragmented multi-polar and deconstructing international order 13:14 South-east Asia has been masterful at internationalising the search for autonomy; what could happen if there were to be a Trump 2.0 Administration? 16:02 How will Singapore fare? Why it will be very difficult for businesses and investors to do business or to invest if what's allowed today is not allowed tomorrow - for national security concerns 21:48 US-Asia relations: Why the threads of continuity are likely to overcome the threads of discontinuity Follow Nirmal Ghosh on X: https://str.sg/JD7r Read Nirmal Ghosh's articles: https://str.sg/JbxG Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters Host: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa'izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcast website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times' app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How does a person fight against sexual temptation? What resources are available as weapons in the fight?Make up your mind beforehand like Joseph to not do "this great wickedness and sin against God." God has drawn these lines in the first place.Directionally move away from temptation but move toward the things of God with the people of God.If all else fails: FLEEThe Lord is with Joseph, even in the difficulty of sexual temptation.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNijvDWAn2Wv2KFun2AnvCA
In order for the capital markets system to continually grow in its transparency, efficiency and fairness, it needs a combination of free market ingenuity and regulatory protection. With the meteoric rise and importance of alternative investments in the past decade, did the SEC strike that balance correctly with the new Private Advisors Rule? Directionally, probably yes but certainly the details are far from perfect and unintended consequences are inevitable. With an aim to provide a practical guide for the layman practitioner, we explore the history of light touch regulation of private funds, highlight the important elements and implications of the rule, and explain why CAIA joined ILPA and many asset owners in submitting an Amicus Brief to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals defending the spirit of the rule. Guests: Jen Choi, CEO, ILPA Jon Grabel, CIO, Lacera Episode Sources
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Notice When People Are Directionally Correct, published by Chris Leong on January 14, 2024 on LessWrong. I started watching Peter Zeihan videos last year. He shares a lot of interesting information, although he seems to have a very strong bias towards doom and gloom. One thing in particular stood out to me as completely absurd: his claim that global trade is going to collapse due to piracy as the US pulls back from ensuring freedom of the waters. My immediate thought: "This isn't the 17th century! Pirates aren't a real issue these days. Technology has rendered them obsolete". Given this, I was absolutely shocked when I heard that missile attacks by Houthi rebels had caused most of the largest shipping companies to decide to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and to sail around Africa instead. This has recently triggered the US to form an alliance to maintain freedom of shipping there and the US recently performed airstrikes in retaliation. It won't surprise me if this whole issue is resolved relatively soon and if that happens, then the easy thing to do would be to go back to my original beliefs: "Silly me, I was worried for a second that Peter Zeihan might be correct, but that was just me falling for sensationalism. The whole incident was obviously never going to be anything. I should forget all about it". I believe that this would be a mistake. It would be very easy to forget it, but something like the Houthi's being able to cause as much disruption as they have been able to was outside of my model. I could just label it as a freak incident or could see if there was anything in my original model that needs adjusting. I performed this exercise and the following thoughts came to mind, which I'll convey because they are illustrative: • I have heard a few people suggest in various contexts that many countries have been coasting and relying on the US for defense, but it was just floating around in my head as something that people say that might or might not be true. I haven't really delved into this, but I'm starting to suspect I should put more weight on this belief. • I hadn't considered the possibility that a country with a weak navy might have a significant lead time on developing one that is stronger. • I hadn't considered the possibility that pirates might be aligned with a larger proto-state actor, as opposed to being individual criminals. • I hadn't considered the possibility that a non-state actor might be able to impede shipping and that other countries would have at least some reluctance to take action against that actor because of diplomatic considerations. • I hadn't considered that some people in the West might support such an actor for political reasons. • Even though I was aware of the Somalian pirate issues from years ago, I didn't properly take this into account. These pirates were easily defeated when nations got serious, which probably played a role in my predictions, but I needed to also update in relation to this ever having been an issue at all. • Forgetting that contexts can dramatically change: events that once seemed impossible regularly happen. My point is that there is a lot I can learn from this incident, even if it ends up being resolved quickly. I suspect it's rare to ever really fully grasp all of the learnings from a particular incident (in contrast, I suspect most people just grab one learning from an incident and declare themselves to be finished having learned from it). If you haven't made a large number of small updates, you've probably missed updates that you should have made. (I just want to note that I love having the handle "directionally correct". It's so much easier to say that something like "I don't think X is correct on all points, but I think a lot of their points are correct"). Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Non...
Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Notice When People Are Directionally Correct, published by Chris Leong on January 14, 2024 on LessWrong. I started watching Peter Zeihan videos last year. He shares a lot of interesting information, although he seems to have a very strong bias towards doom and gloom. One thing in particular stood out to me as completely absurd: his claim that global trade is going to collapse due to piracy as the US pulls back from ensuring freedom of the waters. My immediate thought: "This isn't the 17th century! Pirates aren't a real issue these days. Technology has rendered them obsolete". Given this, I was absolutely shocked when I heard that missile attacks by Houthi rebels had caused most of the largest shipping companies to decide to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and to sail around Africa instead. This has recently triggered the US to form an alliance to maintain freedom of shipping there and the US recently performed airstrikes in retaliation. It won't surprise me if this whole issue is resolved relatively soon and if that happens, then the easy thing to do would be to go back to my original beliefs: "Silly me, I was worried for a second that Peter Zeihan might be correct, but that was just me falling for sensationalism. The whole incident was obviously never going to be anything. I should forget all about it". I believe that this would be a mistake. It would be very easy to forget it, but something like the Houthi's being able to cause as much disruption as they have been able to was outside of my model. I could just label it as a freak incident or could see if there was anything in my original model that needs adjusting. I performed this exercise and the following thoughts came to mind, which I'll convey because they are illustrative: • I have heard a few people suggest in various contexts that many countries have been coasting and relying on the US for defense, but it was just floating around in my head as something that people say that might or might not be true. I haven't really delved into this, but I'm starting to suspect I should put more weight on this belief. • I hadn't considered the possibility that a country with a weak navy might have a significant lead time on developing one that is stronger. • I hadn't considered the possibility that pirates might be aligned with a larger proto-state actor, as opposed to being individual criminals. • I hadn't considered the possibility that a non-state actor might be able to impede shipping and that other countries would have at least some reluctance to take action against that actor because of diplomatic considerations. • I hadn't considered that some people in the West might support such an actor for political reasons. • Even though I was aware of the Somalian pirate issues from years ago, I didn't properly take this into account. These pirates were easily defeated when nations got serious, which probably played a role in my predictions, but I needed to also update in relation to this ever having been an issue at all. • Forgetting that contexts can dramatically change: events that once seemed impossible regularly happen. My point is that there is a lot I can learn from this incident, even if it ends up being resolved quickly. I suspect it's rare to ever really fully grasp all of the learnings from a particular incident (in contrast, I suspect most people just grab one learning from an incident and declare themselves to be finished having learned from it). If you haven't made a large number of small updates, you've probably missed updates that you should have made. (I just want to note that I love having the handle "directionally correct". It's so much easier to say that something like "I don't think X is correct on all points, but I think a lot of their points are correct"). Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Non...
People analytics is not just for psychologists anymore!"I think that not only will people analytics be the decision maker themselves. In the future, I actually think people analytics will be what HR is."–Cole Napper on People AnalyticsMy guest this week is Cole Napper, IO psychologist extraordinaire, People analytics thought leader, and inspirational podcast host.In this fun filled episode I take a page from Cole's playbook and loosen my collar, clearing the air for super engaging personal stories interwoven with thought leadership about creating a new era for people analytics.We discuss a range of topics, including Cole's background from Louisiana, his experience at Louisiana Tech's IO Psychology PhD program, and his role as VP of People Analytics at Orgnostic.. Cole is also a co-host of the Direction Correct podcast about People Analytics and is dedicated to creating a future where people analytics and technology combine to have a positive impact on business outcomes and happiness at work.. The episode covers various aspects of people analytics, its role in business, and its intersection with technology and AI. Additionally, they touch upon current issues like COVID-19, its impact on the workplace, and the future of people analytics in HR.Topics Discussed:Introduction to Cole Napper: Cole's Louisiana background, education at Louisiana Tech's IO Psychology PhD program, and his current role.People Analytics: Insights into what people analytics entails, its significance in the business world, and how it's shaping the future of work.Impact of COVID-19: How the pandemic has affected workplace dynamics and the role of people analytics in navigating these changes.The Role of Technology: Discussion on the intersection of people analytics with AI and machine learning.Challenges and Future Trends: Exploring current challenges in the field of people analytics and predictions for its future trajectory within HR.Key Takeaways:Podcasts can be fun and still pack quite a bit of learning into the mix.People analytics is a vital component in understanding and improving organizational dynamics.The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for robust people analytics.Technology and AI are becoming integral in advancing the field of people analytics.There are ongoing challenges in data privacy and quality in the use of AI and analytics tools.
What You Need to Know is that Speaker Mike Johnson has lived up to his promise to release the January 6, 2021 Capitol security tapes. But there are not as many hours released as need to be released. Directionally, this is a great move, and the narrative machine of big tech and big government is breaking down, but this is only the start. However, there are some worrying statements made, such that they will blur out the faces of some people in the security videos. David Barker, former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, businessman, and Wall Street Journal author, joins Ed to discuss the deceptive use of statistical analysis in climate science to demonstrate false economic impacts. Climate change does not have the negative economic impact that the official narrative claims it does. David and Ed cut through the muddy water of the economics of climate science and reveal the truth. Xi Van Fleet, author of Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning, joins Ed to reveal the truth about Communist China. Xi details the nature of China's communist regime and the communism that is springing up in the United States today. Communists have infiltrated American academia, and the CCP has barged into American business. Xi and Ed also discuss Xi Jinping's recent visit to California. Wrap Up: a closer look at Joe Biden's worst 2nd Amendment violation and how a Texas federal court just nuked it. This is the tip of the spear of executive branch agencies running amok with attempts to make law, and that's not their job.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Email us: drskeletonsartschool@gmail.com
The new ABC/WaPo poll, and if it's even remotely directionally correct, Biden is in trouble. 44 percent of Americans say they are financially worse off as a result of Joe Biden's presidency Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Have a big tiger behind you and stay on the path." Today, join Alex (@AlexHormozi) as he guests on Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson to discuss turning philosophical insights into actionable steps toward success. He stresses defining the input-output equation, overcoming mental clutter, taking action, and discusses the relationship between success and happiness, traits of successful people, and the importance of pursuing desires and avoiding fears. This is part 2 of the interview.Welcome to The Game Podcast where we talk about how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, and keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way to $100M in sales. We've got roll-up-your-sleeves kind of hustle with a little bit of cleverness and a lot of heart. Check out the episode on Chris Williamson's YouTube Channel!Subscribe to Chris' show Modern Wisdom here - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPnTimestamps:(3:51) - Use your pain as fuel(9:30) - Define your own game(14:10) - The point of the game is to play(25:48) - Directionally correct, not perfect(31:44) - Egos hinder success & limits growth potential(45:23) - AI will drive social mediaFollow Alex Hormozi's Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition
On Episode 376 we discuss...→ Debate on if Harry is empathetic or sympathetic→ Trio training→ McGonagall turning into a cat all over the place→ Profound before bed thoughts→ Mr. & Mrs. Whatsherface visit Mr. & Mrs. Whatshisface→ Amos Diggory is a Dance Mom→ The paintings: Is it alive? (TM, Noah)→ Would anything make the Dursleys come visit Harry at Hogwarts?→ When Harry actually became family to Molly→ Bugs in Hermione's hair→ What can you actually see of the mazeThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5016402/advertisement
Just head for directionally correct and not endless to do lists. And private practice owners join me for my webinar this Friday to set the compass for ourselves. Link in comments. #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #wellbeing
Happy Valentine's Day Amused listeners!!!! In honour of our new love, sex and relationships zine that was released on Feb. 10th, this week we are diving into some of the featured articles and interviewing their amazing authors. We're talking all things relationships, discussing the stress of labels, the construct of virginity, and both the romantic and heartbreaking power that music holds. We hope you love it, and don't forget to check out the Zine! Make Sure to Check out their articles! Directionally (and romantically) Challenged - Katarina Bojic The 20 Year Old Virgin - Aaliyah Mansuri What Once Was: Reclaiming Music Post Break-Up - Paisia Warhaft
Matt Palumbo says from Soros' own writing you see he is self-aware that he is narcissistic and sociopathic. Everything Soros funds is the exact opposite of our founding interests, all that makes this country great, every single thing he funds seems to have the goal of fracturing American society. We see it in his promotion of illegal immigration. Palumbo says we know the cost of illegal immigration is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, we have no way to track them in terms of crime and disease. But the biggest problem it brings is the fracturing of our society. Soros supports people who support his view that criminals are the true victims, that they were wronged in some way. And that philosophy generates more criminals over and over, particularly in Soros backed city governments and prosecutors. Palumbo says Soros is clearly getting results with his influence over Joe Biden because Biden's ideology has shifted to the far Left. GUEST: GEORGE SOROS AUTHOR MATT PALUMBO, “THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN”
In this episode, I talk about what people frequently get wrong about buying courses or paying for education. There are no silver bullets! Are you tired of competing with other buyers and waiting on brokers to send you deals? Want to learn exactly how you can find more discounted multifamily deals than you know what to do with? Click here to check out our Off-Market Multifamily Deals course, where we teach investors how to develop a robust pipeline of discounted, off-market multifamily deals in six weeks or less. Are you looking to invest in real estate but don't want to deal with the hassle of finding great deals, signing on debt, and managing tenants? Aligned Real Estate Partners partners with passive investors looking for the returns, stability, and tax benefits investing in real estate offers, but not the work - join our investor club to be notified of future investment opportunities. Connect with Axel: Follow him on Instagram Connect with him on Linkedin Learn more about Aligned Real Estate Partners
THE Leadership Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo, Japan
The calendar year represents the start of a new year for many businesses. Others will be looking at April 1st for their financial year start. Nevertheless, everyone will be facing the change of year period and it is always a great time for reflection. The holidays should be fully occupied with family responsibilities or pure down time, to rest and recharge. Take some time when you get back to the office, to start reflecting on the coming year. Are we where we need to be in the business? Is this thought depressing? We all enter year three of Covid hell. Runaway war inspired energy shortages and inflation are now rampart globally. It is hard to be optimistic in many industries. Certainly my industry, the training business, hasn't seen any daylight in the long hard night as yet. As leaders, it is good to step away from the daily grind of the business to spend some time thinking. Usually most of our thinking time is very immediate, responding to problems and crises. The melee of daily battle is not the best time to think about the big picture. The new year is a key opportunity to work on our business and not just work in the business. By this stage the business plans for the next calendar year or the April start of the fiscal year will have been completed or pretty much advanced. Here are some additional things to contemplate. Is our Why strong enough? The rationale for our existence as a business has the obvious outcomes of revenues produced and shareholder value provided. Are we doing better than that though? The intrinsic value of the work will differ from individual to individual, so we probably will never get it perfectly right. Directionally though, are we satisfied that we have the team all focused on the same goals and coordinated in their understanding of the rationale for that direction? As we get swept up in the busyness of day after day, we can get separated from our cause, our mission. We will have referred to the Why at some point for sure, but did it permeate the minds of the team? Is everyone interpreting the Why in a similar way? How regularly do we bring this topic up? Once a year is definitely not going to be enough, so the start of the year is a good chance to remind us all of the bigger picture here. In our company's case, we go through the Vision, Mission, Values every single day with our Daily Dale morning meeting. By rotation, one of the team will take the lead and go through the process. These days we do it online rather than physically in the office, but we kept it going, Covid or otherwise, because it is important to remind us all of what we are doing here. Is it enough? Frankly “no”. One of the problems with doing something like this every day is we all go into semi-automatic mode and the words don't always fully penetrate. As the leader, I need to top it up with a regular exploration of the Why behind the words to stimulate everyone's thinking. What is your cadence to bring up the Why for attention? Do we have the right people, on the right bus and in the right seats? Our options in Japan are rapidly closing out regarding quality of staff. They just aren't making enough Japanese anymore and so the population decline is creating a zero sum game of recruiting and retaining staff. The difficulties in recruiting new staff means that we have to be able to keep existing staff, even if they are not the right people, on the right bus or in the right seat. Do we need to move some people around or create some new positions to better use their talents? In the old days, we would simply fire them and replace them with more capable people, but that path is fraught today. Do we need to spend more time training some of the crew who are not producing at the level we need. Do we need to hire at a lower talent level, train them well and create more support systems, so that the real stars in the firm can outperform? If a low performer goes from increasing revenues from ¥500,000 a month to ¥1,000,000 a month that looks like a really good result. However, if a top performer can go from ¥5,000,000 a month to ¥6,000,000, the overall result is at scale and much more significant. How can we help that top performer hit the high notes of production? What about my ongoing professional education? Ask yourself, what did I do to improve my professional abilities as a leader last year? If the answer is “I worked really hard”, then count that as a failing grade. Everyone can work hard over long hours, so that is not as tremendous differentiator. What was the quality of your thinking? How was the depth of your strategy for the business? How well could you anticipate trouble and head it off at the pass? What were the new initiatives you introduced and how did they fair? Did you stray out of your comfort zone and push yourself to grow as a professional? Often we are the impediment to progress, because we are not good enough. We have been too busy to study, to train, to read, to listen, to challenge ourselves with new perspectives. How many insights did we achieve in the last year? How many new initiatives did we introduce? How much experimentation did we try? Were we driving for more speed and leading the charge in that regard? What do we need to change up for this next year? Carve out some time for yourself at the start of the New Year. It is easy to get swept back up into the whirlwind of the everyday demands of the business, but resist that temptation. Give yourself a chance to reflect, think, imagine and plan.
Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast with Cole & Scott
Bonus extra time thoughts with Dr. Tilman Sheets
Directionally, 16 delta on one side and 16 delta on the other side will indeed cancel out, but a closer inspection of the characteristics of these deltas shows that they can also differ greatly in their impacts on strategy selection. Which essentially explains the basis for volatility skew in the marketplace, as significantly different IVs will lead to significantly different extrinsic values at that strike.Did you catch our recently on how to determine Delta/Theta levels for your portfolio?
Directionally, 16 delta on one side and 16 delta on the other side will indeed cancel out, but a closer inspection of the characteristics of these deltas shows that they can also differ greatly in their impacts on strategy selection. Which essentially explains the basis for volatility skew in the marketplace, as significantly different IVs will lead to significantly different extrinsic values at that strike.Did you catch our recently on how to determine Delta/Theta levels for your portfolio?
Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast with Cole & Scott
Directionally Correct is a People Analytics podcast hosted by Cole Napper & Scott Hines. In this episode they cover: -Vendor Relations -Return to Office Guidance -And Cole coins the term "Conference Speaker Effect"
Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast with Cole & Scott
Directionally Correct is a People Analytics podcast hosted by Cole Napper & Scott Hines. In this episode they cover: -Why they are doing a podcast -What to expect in future episodes -And all the people analytics fun you should expect
Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast with Cole & Scott
Directionally Correct is a People Analytics podcast hosted by Cole Napper & Scott Hines. In today's episode they cover the following topics: -What the name "Directionally Correct" means -Why to use modeling in people analytics -McKinsey Article on Innovation & Work from Home: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/how-virtual-work-is-accelerating-innovation -HBR Article on people analytics dehumanizing employees: https://hbr.org/2022/06/are-people-analytics-dehumanizing-your-employees
In financial planning, it is almost impossible for you to be absolutely precise in what the future will look like. For example, there is no way to figure out what inflation will be each year in the next 10 years. However, we do know that it will likely increase, therefore, we must include this in our calculations to help prepare for the future. You will never be exactly right, but heading in the right direction using the information at hand is absolutely important. For more information, please visit www.mo50.com.au
In financial planning, it is almost impossible for you to be absolutely precise in what the future will look like. For example, there is no way to figure out what inflation will be each year in the next 10 years. However, we do know that it will likely increase, therefore, we must include this in our calculations to help prepare for the future. You will never be exactly right, but heading in the right direction using the information at hand is absolutely important. For more information, please visit www.mo50.com.au
For a lot of us, directions can be an easy thing to navigate but if you're like Caryn, things might be a little more difficult for her to navigate.
This episode Casey and Jocelyn own up to their lack of direction and easy overwhelm when it comes to the podcast. So they're dialing back to their roots and sticking to some good old fashioned Lessons Learned. Follow on Instagram @ProjectImpodster and make sure to subscribe!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Here's your MOMGUL breakdown:5 minutes Physical – It's the final week where Raquel and Kristen are talking 'cleanses,' and this week it's all about expectations and that it's okay to lower the bar.5 minutes Financial – Fran Hauser, startup investor, speaker, and author of Embrace the Work, Love Your Career is back for one last week with advice on reflecting and resetting in our careers using mindfulness. Listen to find out her morning ritual, and how you can implement mindfulness in your daily routine.Connect with Fran:-Website-Buy the Book-Books-IG-Frans Bookshelf5 minutes Emotional - Kristen Glosserman, Executive, Life Coach and author of If It's Not Right, Go Left is back to share some last minute tips with us on how we can start living directionally. Now's the time to close your eyes and move towards that vision! Connect with Kristen:-Website-Buy the Book-IGAt MOMGUL, we don't want followers, we want a family - join us here:Instagram: @momgulFacebook: @momgulofficialLinkedIn: MOMGULWebsite: momgul.comContact: Say Heya GINX MEDIA production
WBSRocks: Business Growth with ERP and Digital Transformation
Sales and operations planning is a dark art, and most organizations typically have a very ad-hoc process of forecasting due to its nature. But it's critical to be directionally correct with your plan. Or you might end up missing opportunities or losing customers. Also, planning is more than just creating a model on a spreadsheet. It requires you to come up with estimates and iterate until every external or internal stakeholder agrees with the plan.In today's episode, our guest, Lisa Anderson, shares her insights on why it is important to be directionally correct with sales and operations planning. She also discusses similarities in the planning for products such as E. Coli and 737 aircraft and how involved they both could be. Finally, she discusses why you might not get much value in being too detailed at the item level and why you will need to take an iterative approach to come with the forecasts.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.
For so many people today, anything to do with data management or analysis is seen as something for IT to do or very math intensive. However, Chris Borduas, the Owner of Tillerman, LLC., knows a much more accurate and vibrant side of data management which he is here to share. Learn about how the creative elements and the data analysis mix to make more informed decisions, the importance of understanding your end-users, and how to avoid some of the all too common traps in analyzing data. Takeaways: Data management is much more than just a function of IT, at its core data management is about understanding a need, figuring out how to serve that need, and how to get the information that you need. It's really a creative exercise more than anything. There are three components of data management: 1. Where do you get the data; 2. What do you do with the data; 3. How do you make it into something you can use to help run your business. In data management, you should really be trying to simplify the process for people so they can more easily understand and use the data. If you want to drink a glass of water, you can't drink a single glass of water if it's coming from a fire hose. To simplify the process for people, there are three steps and questions you have to ask: 1. What's out there and what do we need; 2. How do we consolidate it into something you can use; 3. Understand the end-use of it. Before you start analyzing data make sure you know what question you're trying to answer. For example, know what KPIs are going to tell you whether something is a good investment or a bad investment to you. Avoid falling into the ‘Perfection Trap' of getting caught up in chasing down a >1% variable. Don't let perfection get in the way of strong directionally accurate information because perfection doesn't exist. Directionally accurate information is very valuable, especially when you have the ability to make quick decisions based on the directions shown in the data to get ahead of trends, etc. Links: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chris-borduas-9a59593 Website: https://www.tillermanusa.com/TillermanUSA/Welcome.aspx Article: https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/how-retailers-can-get-the-most-from-their-pos-data/ Quote of the Show “We're trying to get the right people, the right information they need to make the best decisions they can” -Chris Borduas Book Recommendation: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon Ways to Tune In: Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leadership-in-action/id1585042233 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/2t4Ksk4TwmZ6MSfAHXGkJI Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/leadership-in-action Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGVhZGVyc2hpcGluYWN0aW9uLmxpdmUvZmVlZC54bWw Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4263fd02-8c9b-495e-bd31-2e5aef21ff6b/leadership-in-action YouTube - https://youtu.be/tTdIc931fCM
Folks, we don't need the Ws! Co-host Arik is steaming mad at the 23rd letter of the alphabet—especially when it comes to Al Gore's most famous invention. Sound engineer Pauly from Bali nearly lands himself in the THN penalty box for venturing into political territory. Finally, it's not a double-U. It's a double-V! Carla from Burnt Korn, Alabama, promises not to use any “ords” that use that letter. Also, she can't stand hair bows on bald babies. Pauly from Bali is shocked, “Wait, those aren't all cancer babies?” Hmm. Did Art Garfunkel once allegedly refuse to pay his hospital parking fee, and allegedly destroy a parking arm gate with his sportscar? Everyone, sing along! “Are you going to pay your fare?” Directionally-challenged Carla is sick of traffic circles. She can't stand it when her GPS, Mildred, tells her, “Get off two quarter-circles ago, dummy!” Arik agrees, and recounts a traffic circle horror story from a failed honeymoon in Ireland. Finally, Arik doesn't hate dogs. Then again, he does hate animals that eat themselves to death. “Does that include humans?” Carla wonders. What's even worse are cats that treat gourmet kitty food like litter box pellets. But nothing is lower than vegans who try to convert cats into vegetarians! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehatenapkin/support
Folks, we don't need the Ws! Co-host Arik is steaming mad at the 23rd letter of the alphabet—especially when it comes to Al Gore's most famous invention. Sound engineer Pauly from Bali nearly lands himself in the THN penalty box for venturing into political territory. Finally, it's not a double-U. It's a double-V! Carla from Burnt Korn, Alabama, promises not to use any “ords” that use that letter. Also, she can't stand hair bows on bald babies. Pauly from Bali is shocked, “Wait, those aren't all cancer babies?” Hmm. Did Art Garfunkel once allegedly refuse to pay his hospital parking fee, and allegedly destroy a parking arm gate with his sportscar? Everyone, sing along! “Are you going to pay your fare?” Directionally-challenged Carla is sick of traffic circles. She can't stand it when her GPS, Mildred, tells her, “Get off two quarter-circles ago, dummy!” Arik agrees, and recounts a traffic circle horror story from a failed honeymoon in Ireland. Finally, Arik doesn't hate dogs. Then again, he does hate animals that eat themselves to death. “Does that include humans?” Carla wonders. What's even worse are cats that treat gourmet kitty food like litter box pellets. But nothing is lower than vegans who try to convert cats into vegetarians! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehatenapkin/support
Long before Jakob had words, he was letting us know when we were making wrong turns. I talk about how we managed those meltdowns and how we took his passion for directions and used that to teach him how to be more flexible.
Welcome to The Big Mike Fund Podcast. Today, it is my pleasure and a privilege to welcome Jake Vanderslice to the podcast. Jake is a specialist in self-storage and is also a brother from the Freedom Founders Mastermind as well as the Collective Genius Mastermind. In this episode Jake and I talk about the process, benefits, and the state of investing in self-storage, how Denver is holding up in the pandemic, and interest rates and cap rates. Minute Markers: 00:20 - Hello and Welcome 00:30 - Jake Vanderslice introduction and backstory 03:08 - The value in investing in existing self-storage facilities 04:00 - The length of time for the process of leasing a facility and getting it ready 05:00 - The benefits of self-storage 06:45 - Jake’s first and second fund 08:14 - Distributions on Jake’s first fund 11:54 - REITs and cap rates 14:50 - Rising interest rates 16:00 - Denver, COVID, and their status 19:30 - The risk of oversupply and the challenge of retail conversions 22:20 - Getting a hold of Jake 22:58 - Thank you for listening to the Big Mike Fund Podcast Quotes: “We got into the self storage business in 2015 with some institutional partners. We liked the space because it's scalable, repeatable, and predictable. The data at the time suggested that it was historically resistant to downturns.” – Jake Vanderslice “One of the main things we like about the asset classes, the granularity of the income streams, you're relying on (in our case) thousands of people to pay us tiny bits of rent every month. Versus in retail projects, for example, we have a brewery paying us $15,000 a month and they're going to pay or not.” – Jake Vanderslice “The old adage that cash is king is still important, but I think today cash flow is king, and people just really want predictable repeatable dividends. If you can create that that's compelling” – Jake Vanderslice “Commercial banks are still lending. We really haven't seen any other changes beyond just our maturity dates and that 4% on our interest rates.” – Jake Vanderslice “The thesis is this as the interest rates drop, the cap rates should match. Directionally, we have COVID which is terrible. It's a pandemic and we’re all suffering health-wise and economically, but on the other side, you've got drop rates. What the Fed has done is created an environment where investors are willing to take lower cap rates because the cost of capital is cheap.” – Mike Zlotnik “We're dealing with a yield-starved environment with rates having trouble to where they are. There are really no great alternatives to Wall Street. The fund yields are very low unless you're dealing with really junk bonds and you're buying into high-risk stuff, or if you are looking for conservative cash flow. It's hard to find..” – Mike Zlotnik Resources: Vanwest Partners Jake Vanderslice LinkedIn
To get started in most endeavors it’s best but not required that you be “directionally correct.” What is not required is for you to be perfect. Start. Evaluate. Iterate. After checking in, we talk about getting off our "buts" and getting started in our new projects. We've got some real opportunity in the moment. We talk about how to get yourself started by avoiding perfection paralysis. Are you on the Tech After Five mailing list? http://eepurl.com/KLhj Scott Pfeiffer helps entrepreneurs succeed and partnerships thrive @ Mind Your Own Business. Phil Yanov is the Founder and Lead Community Organizer of Tech After Five. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/techafterfive/message
Steve Bannon, Jack Maxey, and Jason Miller discuss the latest on the pandemic as New York becomes the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.
Steve Bannon, Jack Maxey, and Jason Miller discuss the latest on the pandemic as New York becomes the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.
Yet another run of the mill episode with events, talk about the Minecraft server, Caleb Signs a lease, and ideas about things moving forward. waterwatchpodcast.weebly.com/waterwatch…quest.html Waterwatch Website: Waterwatchpodcast.weebly.com Instagram: @waterwatchpodcast Twitter: @waterwatchpc Thanks To + JD aka The Big Dick Dude Who Hangs Out At Mahalls Sometimes + Vlad of Delayed Gratification Records + Mercy aka @AlphaEmo420 on twitter
TWIFO 179: DIRECTIONALLY INTIMIDATING CRUDE AND AGS HOST: MARK LONGO, THE OPTIONS INSIDER MEDIA GROUP CME HOTSEAT GUEST: ADAM WEBB, FOUNDER OF MACROHEDGED WHAT WERE THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS IN FUTURES OPTIONS THIS WEEK? WTI OPEC MEETING BEGINS - OPEC AND ALLIES AGREE TO DEEPEN OIL OUTPUT CUTS OPECWATCH TOOL - https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/cme-opec-watch-tool.html THERE'S NO DREAMY UPSIDE TO BE FOUND IN CRUDE RIGHT NOW. AGS SOYBEAN MEAL: DECENT OPTIONS VOLUME - ABOUT 40K ON THE TAPE THIS WEEK SRW: AKA SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT (AKA CHICAGO WHEAT) - ABOUT 80K CONTRACTS ON THE TAPE THIS WEEK CLASS 3 MILK: TRADING A WHOPPING 7500 CONTRACTS THIS WEEK EQUITIES TRADE WAR OPTIMISM LIFTING MARKETS, CRUSHING VOLATILITY VIX: 14.75 - UP 1 VVIX: 99 - UP 3.25 FROM LAST SHOW RVX: 18.50 - UP 1.75 FROM LAST WEEK VIX/RVX SPREAD: 3.75 - WIDER THAN LAST WEEK FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK QUESTION FROM JACKSON KNIGHT: WHY IS IT SO HARD TO TRADE FUT OPTS WITH MOST MAJOR BROKERS IN 2019? SEEMS LIKE ITS STILL 2009 FOR A LOT OF THESE FIRMS WHO ONLY EXPECT YOU TO TRADE APPLE AND SPY? QUESTION FROM ANALYSIS1: WHY DO YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT SKEW SO MUCH? I FIND IT CONFUSING. QUESTION FROM MLLRTZ: CAN YOU DISCUSS OPEC WATCH ON THE SHOW? QUESTION FROM ELION: ANY FOLLOW UP DATA ON THE CME METAL SKEW STUDY? I FIND THAT ONE SOMEWHAT PERPLEXING. QUESTION FROM ELLIOTT: WHY DO SOME PRODUCTS DO LARGE FUTURES VOLUME BUT SMALL OPTIONS VOLUME? DOESN'T ONE USUALLY LEAD TO THE OTHER?
TWIFO 179: DIRECTIONALLY INTIMIDATING CRUDE AND AGS HOST: MARK LONGO, THE OPTIONS INSIDER MEDIA GROUP CME HOTSEAT GUEST: ADAM WEBB, FOUNDER OF MACROHEDGED WHAT WERE THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS IN FUTURES OPTIONS THIS WEEK? WTI OPEC MEETING BEGINS - OPEC AND ALLIES AGREE TO DEEPEN OIL OUTPUT CUTS OPECWATCH TOOL - https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/cme-opec-watch-tool.html THERE'S NO DREAMY UPSIDE TO BE FOUND IN CRUDE RIGHT NOW. AGS SOYBEAN MEAL: DECENT OPTIONS VOLUME - ABOUT 40K ON THE TAPE THIS WEEK SRW: AKA SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT (AKA CHICAGO WHEAT) - ABOUT 80K CONTRACTS ON THE TAPE THIS WEEK CLASS 3 MILK: TRADING A WHOPPING 7500 CONTRACTS THIS WEEK EQUITIES TRADE WAR OPTIMISM LIFTING MARKETS, CRUSHING VOLATILITY VIX: 14.75 - UP 1 VVIX: 99 - UP 3.25 FROM LAST SHOW RVX: 18.50 - UP 1.75 FROM LAST WEEK VIX/RVX SPREAD: 3.75 - WIDER THAN LAST WEEK FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK QUESTION FROM JACKSON KNIGHT: WHY IS IT SO HARD TO TRADE FUT OPTS WITH MOST MAJOR BROKERS IN 2019? SEEMS LIKE ITS STILL 2009 FOR A LOT OF THESE FIRMS WHO ONLY EXPECT YOU TO TRADE APPLE AND SPY? QUESTION FROM ANALYSIS1: WHY DO YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT SKEW SO MUCH? I FIND IT CONFUSING. QUESTION FROM MLLRTZ: CAN YOU DISCUSS OPEC WATCH ON THE SHOW? QUESTION FROM ELION: ANY FOLLOW UP DATA ON THE CME METAL SKEW STUDY? I FIND THAT ONE SOMEWHAT PERPLEXING. QUESTION FROM ELLIOTT: WHY DO SOME PRODUCTS DO LARGE FUTURES VOLUME BUT SMALL OPTIONS VOLUME? DOESN’T ONE USUALLY LEAD TO THE OTHER?
11/10/19 - For the Directionally Impaired - Ecclesiastes 10:1-20 by EP Church Annapolis
In this episode I meet Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of recipe box service, Gousto. We discuss ethics, personal data and the importance of managing yourself before you manage others. Be sure to visit SmallBusiness.co.uk for more articles on artificial intelligence and improving sustainability. Remember to like us on Facebook @SmallBusinessExperts and follow us on Twitter @smallbusinessuk, all lower case. Want to read the Timo Boldt's podcast interview instead? Hello and welcome to Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk. I’m your host, Anna Jordan. Today we have Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of recipe box service, Gousto. He launched the firm in 2012 and it has been growing exponentially year on year. Earlier this year they raised £18 million collectively from health influencer Joe Wicks, Unilever Ventures, Hargreave Hale, BGF Ventures, MMC Ventures and Angel CoFund. In July, they raised a further £30 million to develop their artificial intelligence technology, bringing total raised to £100 million. Boldt is also on the digital advisory board for Unilever. Anna: Hello, Timo. Timo: Nice to meet you. Anna: Yeah, and you. How are you doing? Timo: Very good, excellent. Anna: Great. Timo: What would you like to talk about? First, I’d like to talk a little bit about the artificial intelligence side. I understand it is a substantial part of the business. There’s also a real emphasis on tech, so much so that you have a separate Twitter account for @GoustoTech. I was wondering – do you see yourself as a tech company as much as a recipe box service? Timo: We see ourselves as a data company that happens to trade in food. We have always been on this huge, huge mission to be the most loved way to eat dinner and we can only really do that by harnessing the power of technology, transforming the way that UK families eat, plan, shop. So, technology is kind of the enabler. AI for the past six, seven years has played a crucial role. And the idea is that when you open the app, you should see a completely personalised menu. I should see a different menu. We should only see what we really love to eat. I think that’s the power of AI integrated into the app and that’s providing real differentiation. From a personal data perspective, how are the pages personalised? What data tends to be taken to personalise these pages? Timo: The section is literally called ‘Just for You’. You open the menu and it has a selection of recipes on it that only you should see, no one else should see. You can still browse the entire catalogue of the menu, but you don’t have to. What we do is pretty simple – we look through your history, we look at what you ordered before and we try to make a recommendation. We also try to look at similar customers, so pattern recognition and then trying to predict what else they might want and then offering that to you. And those algorithms are the exact two types of algorithm Netflix is using. How did you find the transition when GDPR came in? Timo: Look, I mean, I think GDPR has caused a lot of increase in process. Directionally, I think it’s quite good for the customer. We definitely had to up our game in terms of process and understanding the legislation. I don’t think that it’s has impacted, at all, our ability to surface better menus and better value for the customer. We welcome it, it’s fine. I’d like to move on to Dragon’s Den. You appeared on the programme in 2013, but unfortunately you were turned down by the Dragons. You were contacted by an investor shortly afterwards offering you a substantial sum. How did that fit into the expectations you had from the programme when you signed up to go on? Timo: Yeah – as a young entrepreneur, I think you have to try absolutely everything to get attention and raise money. I hand-delivered 100+ boxes to journalists. One of the opportunities that emerged was Dragon’s Den. I had an enormously fun time going onto the show. I actually got two offers on the show – one they didn’t show and the other one we rejected. Duncan Bannatyne became a customer after the show which is almost better than getting money. And as you said we had a great offer from a group of angel investors. They’re amazing people – they’ve all spent their lives in the food industry. They added not only capital but lots of knowledge, helping us in the early days to set up the supply chain. You know, talking to farmers, making sure we source the best quality food. I think it was a big catalyst for us. We didn’t take the Dragons’ money, but it was an amazing opportunity and we had lots of fun. Ethics play a big part in the business. It’d be interesting to know how you maintain those ethics throughout the supply chain. Timo: We’ve always been on this mission to make the planet better off with every single meal we sell. In the early days, when I launched Gousto, I really wanted to find a way of taking the 40pc of food that’s wasted our system out of the equation, both in the supply chain and at customer level. By setting up Gousto we’ve really managed to take out food waste and that’s been a phenomenal part since day one. And it makes great business sense because you don’t waste food. We are also extremely focused on plastic, on packaging. This year alone, we’re pledging to reduce plastic by 50pc and the team is on track. We’ve always had this massive ethos, or sustainability focus. Now that we’re larger, we employ people who really go deep into the supply chain to understand farmers’ credentials, animal welfare and so on. It’s very close to my heart. I’m interested in finding out more about the food waste side. If you’ve got a certain demand for one of the meals on the menu. If you had leftovers – say you have potatoes, for example – you have a certain demand and have some left over, what happens to that? Timo: What the clever guys are doing is that they are literally helping to come up with menus that reduce food waste to zero. One, there’s a huge focus on food forecasting, making sure we only buy what we really need. But then secondly, we can really play with the menu, so that we can make sure that we only use the food all the time when it’s fresh and tasting the best. You talked a little bit about sustainability before – and it makes up a large part of the brand’s image. As we’ve mentioned before, you’ve got Unilever as an investor and you’re also a member of the digital advisory board. Unilever hasn’t always had the best reputation when it comes to sustainability. For example, it was named one of the most prominent plastic polluters in the Philippines [research from Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives] earlier this year. When you were presented with the opportunity to partner with them, both on an investment level and on their board, what was going through your mind? Did you worry that it might affect Gousto’s company image? Timo: Almost no FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) company in the world has done as much as Unilever has done for sustainability. They are so driven by the topic of sustainability. Paul Polman, the former CEO, is leading the agenda and the charge globally. I really admire what they’ve done. Are they perfect? No. Do I work for them? No. Do they ask me what they should do about sustainability? No. I think they are a force for good. They’re not perfect. I think when I joined the Digital Advisory Board, I saw an opportunity to impact and influence and raise the agenda even further. But I’m not working for them in any way – I’m an advisor, I’m unpaid and I think we have to work with large business to really drive change. It’s amazing if Gousto can change the world. But ultimately, we need Tesco, Amazon, Sainsbury’s and Unilever to have impact at scale. Tell me more about your role on the Digital Advisory Board. What kind of things do you do in that role? Timo: It’s an amazing board, they’ve got super-experienced CEOs from large companies. Unilever is spending £10bn on marketing per year and the big challenge is yesterday they got beaten up by Tesco, tomorrow they probably get beaten up by Amazon and Ali Baba. Everything is moving online. And it gets even harder for them – their brands are getting cannibalised, competition is on price all of a sudden, the Chinese market is growing rapidly. It’s all e-commerce, it’s no longer in the shop. I’m in a very humble capacity trying the educate the board around direct-to-consumer capabilities, our sustainability mission, that 100pc of Gousto’s revenues are online, how you build data science into your business model, how you hire tech people at scale. I’m playing the tech advisory role, wearing my start-up hat. In the past you’ve talked about the importance of growing yourself as a CEO within your business. What do you mean by that? Timo: I’m a massive believer in the power of learning and being curious. I’ve done an Executive MBA, so at weekends I’d go to Cambridge to upskill myself. I’m becoming a certified coach right now, so I’m on a one-year coaching diploma course in the evenings and on the weekend. I also joined other scale-up wards, so I massively believe in this philosophy that everyone should aspire to be the best version of themselves. For me, the question is: how can I be the best CEO possible? Seven years ago, I didn’t manage anyone, today we manage 500 people. Tomorrow, we’ll manage 1,200 people. I need to constantly upskill myself, leading by example, then role-modelling to the organisation that you’ve got to invest in yourself and you’ve got to take time off to think about your own development. I think that’s super important as the work is changing so fast. Plus it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s hard for business owners, particularly small business owners, to really take the time for themselves. How would you suggest alleviating the guilt that they feel a lot of the time and leaving some of the work to the people that they’ve employed? Timo: Yeah, I totally think that’s true. Lots of people feel like they have no time. I mean ultimately, if you want to be brutal, busyness is some form of laziness. We’re all way too busy, but as a leader you have to get yourself out of the minutiae and the day-to-day. I think you’ve got an enormous responsibility to lead by example and help people understand how important self-development is – reflection, reflection practice – so I think it matters, but it is really hard. Once a quarter, I try going off-site to only focus on my own development. And I probably spend 50pc answering my phone and another 20pc responding to emails so I’m not perfect. I’m trying really hard, but it is challenging. If you have the right people in the business and you surround yourself with amazing people, people are the key to success. The more incredible talent you have, the more structure you have, the more you can afford to get out. If you feel guilty you might not have the right people. You can’t be controlling. In my head it’s not about accountability, it’s about ownership. It’s about giving people autonomy and then cheerleading them. Your job as leader is to set the North Star and then to galvanise people – buy them cake, celebrate, collab. Do whatever you can to make them feel good, celebrating every step towards success. If they fail, build them up again. Focus them on the richness of learning from failure. But it’s not about the day to day and controlling every step. The food industry as a whole is facing quite a few problems – not problems, more challenges – as we go into the future. Particularly with sourcing enough food, changing temperatures, all sorts of things. What kind of challenges do you see in the food industry and what advice do you have for an entrepreneur looking to start a business in the food industry? Timo: The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity for entrepreneurs. I think grocery is a wonderful market for entrepreneurs to enter and to do good. If you look at the grocery market, you’ve got huge supermarkets that for the last 50 years have built a supply chain of 10,000 stores which after 50 years is no longer fit for purpose. Everyone wants to order food online, people pay a premium for convenience, sustainability and health are so important. I think there’s a big opportunity around how we sell to customers, how we fit into their life. I also believe that there are lots of issues on the supplying side, for example urban farming. In perfect conditions, you can grow organic salads and organic tomatoes using a fraction of the water that traditional farming uses, with none of the nasty chemicals. None of this is mainstream today, but in the next ten, 20 years, it’ll become mainstream and all of us will eat through those new ways of growing food and to me that’s hugely exciting. Anna: The rise of hydroponics, growing food underground, things like that? Timo: Totally, yup. But it’s in an embryonic stage right now. Well, that’s it from me. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Timo: The one piece of advice I’d give to anyone starting a business is to really focus on managing yourself before you manage other people. I think that’s one of my biggest learnings in building Gousto. Having deep recognition of your own strengths and weaknesses, knowing how to handle your demons, solving your weaknesses, turning weaknesses into sources of energy and strength. You need to understand the ups and downs of the emotional rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. I think that learning this and building up the self-awareness and appreciation then allows you to have the energy to talk to other people and build them up when they’re down and to lead other people. But that to me is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned. To help our listeners, what would you say is your greatest strength and weakness? How did you go about realising that and managing it? Timo: My strengths are that I like people and I’m a people person. I’d say that I’m 99pc extroverted. I have huge levels of energy – I never run out of energy. From a weakness point, I’d say that I don’t pay much attention to process and how we get there. I’m more focused on the idea and empowering the right people and I think that can alienate certain people sometimes because they might be more interested than I am in the exact process of how we get there. Whereas I feel like if we’ve got the right people, I should cheerlead them and they figure it out. So over time, if you look at our team that’s surrounding me, they all pretty much play to my strengths, they offset some of my weaknesses, they are amazing at process and structure which I’m not the best at. I think that if you’ve built a system that plays to your strengths, you’re absolutely fine to apologise for your weaknesses every once in a while. Anna: That’s really good advice. Well, thank you for that Timo and thank you for coming on the podcast. Timo: Thanks so much and that was super fun. Thank you. Anna: You can find out more about Gousto at gousto.co.uk. You can also visit smallbusiness.co.uk for more information on artificial intelligence and improving sustainability. Remember to like us on Facebook @SmallBusinessExperts and follow us on Twitter @smallbusinessuk, all lower case. Until next time, thank you for listening.
Spotify is spending money trying to convert TV watchers to podcast listeners. It’s an interesting ploy that’s going to be an uphill battle, but there are implications for working podcasters like you. Directionally speaking, TV watchers are gaining more exposure to podcasting, often through podcasts that could work quite well on TV. If fact, some are being produced by television production companies. And many more are being voiced by television actors. “What TV show are you watching?” is a common conversation centerpiece among friends and co-workers. It’s also happening, albeit on a much smaller scale, with podcasting. But those talked-about shows -- regardless of the medium -- are often shorter, self-contained programs. Sure, talk shows, monologues, and news programming get a lot of viewers. But few parties are made better by an in-depth discussion of NBC Nightly News, for example. How do we create that kind of content that today’s TV watchers are looking for when they discover podcasting? How do we adjust to the fact that everybody watches TV but not everybody listens to podcasts? If we're going to facilitate the switch away from TV and into podcasts as our friends at Spotify have predicted… what do we have to do? Tell me that right here in the comments, or go to Flick.group/podcastpontifications (http://flick.group/podcastpontifications) and share with the group. If you'd like to show your support for this ad-free program, go to BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/evoterra) and buy me a coffee. And if you are in business and in need of someone offering strategic advice as you navigate the podcasting waters, that's what my firm does! Get in touch with me: PodcastLaunch.pro (http://podcastlaunch.pro) to see a list of services we offer clients all around the globe. ----- Share this with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/podcasting-is-better-than-tv-film-at-11 (https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/podcasting-is-better-than-tv-film-at-11) Podcast Pontifications (https://podcastpontifications.com) is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier. Follow Evo on Twitter (https://twitter.com/evoterra) for more podcasting insights as they come. And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit PodcastLaunch.pro (https://podcastlaunch.pro) to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Support this podcast
114 Jonathan Bates Directionally Accurate Decision Making Welcome back to the show! My guest today is Jonathan Bates or JB for short. Jonathan is a keynote motivational speaker, business coach, entrepreneur and veteran. Jonathan served in the US Navy as a Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer aka “The Bomb Squad” since 1996 and has a passion for helping people execute their goals with precision. Today we talk about how JB taught people how to disarm IED’s, under water mines and other explosives with 100% reliable results all over the world. askeod.com/stopbs H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle by Brad Lomenick And as always we’d love for you to consider supporting the show through Patreon or a sponsorship with your company for more info check out our Patreon Page or leave your info at Entreneato.com Thank you for listening and now on to todays’s interview! Matt
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Anne L. Kelly is Senior Director of Policy at Ceres, a non-profit advocacy organization that seeks to mobilize investor and business leadership to build a more sustainable global economy. Anne also directs Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP), a coalition of 49 leading consumer-facing companies including Mars, L’Oreal, and VF Corporation seeking to advocate for meaningful climate and energy policy at the federal and state levels. She is a registered lobbyist and is actively engaged on Capitol Hill on behalf of Ceres and BICEP member companies. Anne is an environmental lawyer with twenty years of combined experience in the private and public sectors. In the 1990s she directed the Massachusetts-based Environmental Crimes Strike Force consisting of a multi-disciplinary team of legal and engineering professionals charged with bringing high-profile civil and criminal actions against environmental violators through the MA Office of the Attorney General. She later worked as Special Assistant to EPA Region I Administrator John DeVillars. In this role she worked on corporate leadership programs and developed an International Pollution Prevention Program which was piloted in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Anne is a member of the adjunct faculty of Boston College Law School where she has taught courses in environmental law and climate change. Anne has also taught environmental law at Tufts University, Suffolk University, New England School of Law, and is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. She also serves on the board of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. In addition to her JD, Anne holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Anne Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Why companies should get active on climate / energy policy Companies that are stand-out champions in BOTH the leadership/operational side AND policy advocacy Ceres top policy priorities right now Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Anne's Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say don't be discouraged. This is a steep hill. You're standing on the shoulders of a movement that is 20 years. It can be difficult when you have to deal with your communications, your marketing office, your CFO, but don't be discouraged. Directionally, things are moving in your favor and there's good things to come. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm actually really excited about professional sports. I just had the pleasure of going to the Green Sports Alliance and I was so excited about meeting all these famous former athletes who've become clean energy specialists and to see the innovation. I was at the Atlanta Falcons stadium, and to see the innovation there and the solar panels and the announcement recently of my own hometown team, the Detroit Lions, which is exciting. To know that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has taken on plastic straws as a cause. There are so many examples of professional sports getting in the game, all puns intended. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I thought about this for awhile and I think it's a classic, which is Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1963. I think it's still really important to read a book that was so pivotal to the origins of this movement and then to understand just how much resistance Rachel had to face when she published the truth. It's a good foundational piece and would give sustainability professionals a lot of inspiration and encouragement when they realize what Rachel Carson went through, what she did for all of us and also how far we've come since the book was published. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? I mentioned a few and I would just reiterate that Winning Businesses is tremendous, filled with tremendous resources. Our colleagues at GreenBiz are also constantly giving us good information, interviews, webinars, podcasts. Our colleagues at CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, are just experts. The Science Based Target Initiative. They're part of that. I would say I'm SBTI is another great resource. As a media partner, I would direct people to the Climate Nexus Hot News every day. I'm able to get quickly caught up on the news media and what's going on. For that, I would also say the ENE Reporter is really helpful as a resource to just know what's going on. I'd be remiss if I didn't promote our own Ceres website. We have a number of reports that help people with the basics from disclosure, to the basics of stakeholder engagement, to engage the chain, which is on supply chain management. A lot of reports on water management and water responsibility. We have a report on feeding ourselves thirsty, which really looks at the performance of major food companies in terms of water. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you in the work that you're leading? So listeners can go to Ceres.org to learn more about the work that we're doing and specifically to look up our policy network which goes over our public policy initiatives. The website is complete and I'd be very happy to connect with any listener individually if they have an individual question or if they'd like to get engaged in our work.
Jane: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Episode 18 of Getting Personal: Omics of the Heart. I'm Jane Ferguson, and this podcast is brought to you by the Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine Journal and the American Heart Association Counsel on Genomic and Precision Medicine. It is July 2018, which means that the best possible place to be listening to this episode is at the beach, but failing that I can also recommend listening on planes, during your commute, while exercising or while drinking a nice cup of tea. So before I get into the papers we published this month, I want to ask for your help. If you're listening to this right now, hi, that means you, we're a year and a half into podcasting and I would love to know what content you like and where we could improve things. We have a poll up on Twitter this week, and I would really appreciate your input. If you're listening to this a little bit later and miss the active voting part of the poll, you can still leave suggestions. Okay, so what I would like you to do right now is to go to Twitter. You can find us as Circ_Gen and locate the poll. If you don't already follow us on Twitter, go do that now too. We want you to let us know what content we should focus on and what is most useful to you, so go ahead and pick your favorites from the options and also please reply or tweet at us with other thoughts and suggestions. Options include giving summaries of the recent articles like I'm about to do later this episode, conducting interviews with authors of recently published papers, interviews with people working in cardiovascular genomics, broader topics. For example, to get their insight on career paths and lessons learned along the way. And something we have not done yet on the podcast but are considering, would be to record podcasts that focus on particular topics in genomics and precision medicine. These could give some background on an emerging field or technology and we could talk to experts who are leading particular innovations in the field. So, if that sounds good to you, let me know! If you're not on Twitter, I don't want to exclude you, so you can email me at jane.f.ferguson@vanderbilt.edu and give me your thoughts that way. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Okay, so on to the July 2018 issue of Circ.: Genomic and Precision Medicine. First up is a PhWAS from Abrahim Rao, Eric Ingelsson, and colleagues from Stanford. The discovery of the PCSK9 gene as a regulator of cholesterol levels has led to a new avenue of LDL lowering therapies through PCSK9 inhibition. However, some studies suggest that long term use of PCSK9 inhibitors could have adverse consequences. Because of the long follow-up time required, it will take many more years to address this question through clinical studies. However, genetic approaches offer a fast and convenient alternative to address the issue. In this paper, entitled: "Large Scale Phenome-Wide Association Study of PCSK9 Variants Demonstrates Protection Against Ischemic Stroke," the authors use genetic and phenotype data from over 300,000 individuals in the UK BioBank to address whether genetic loss of function variants in PCSK9 are associated with phenotypes including coronary heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, cataracts, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, epilepsy, and cognitive function. The missense variant RS11591147 was associated with protection against coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke. This SNP also associated with type II diabetes after adjustment for lipid medication status. Overall, this study recapitulated the associations between PCSK9 and coronary disease, and revealed an association with stroke. Previous studies suggested use of LDL lowering therapies may increase risk of cataracts, epilepsy, and cognitive dysfunction, but there was no evidence of association in this study. Overall, this study provides some reassurance that the primary effect of PCSK9 is on lipids and lipid related diseases, and that any effects on other phenotypes appear to be modest at best. While a PhWAS can't recapitulate a clinical trial, what this study indicates is that PCSK9 inhibition is an effective strategy for CVD prevention, which may confer protection against ischemic stroke and does not appear to convey increased risk for cognitive side effects. Next up we have a manuscript form Jason Cowan, Ray Hershberger, and colleagues from Ohio State University College of Medicine. Their paper, "Multigenic Disease and Bilineal Inheritance in Dilated Cardiomyopathy Is Illustrated in Non-segregating LMNA Pedigrees," explored pedigrees of apparent LMNA related cardiomyopathy identifying family members who manifested disease, despite not carrying the purported causal LMNA variant. Of 19 pedigrees studies, six of them had family members with dilated cardiomyopathy who did not carry the family's LMNA mutation. In five of those six pedigrees, the authors identified at least one additional rare variant in a known DCM gene that was a plausible candidate for disease causation. Presence of additional variants was associated with more severe disease phenotype in those individuals. Overall, what this study tells us is that in DCM, there is evidence for multi-gene causality and bilineal inheritance may be more common than previously suspected. Future larger studies should consider multi-genic causes and will be required to fully understand the genetic architecture of DCM. Yukiko Nakano, Yasuki Kihara, and colleagues from Hiroshima University published a manuscript detailing how HCN4 gene polymorphisms are associated with tachycardia inducted cardiomyopathy in patients with atrial fibrillation. Tachycardia induced cardiomyopathy is common in subjects with atrial fibrillation, but the pathophysiology is poorly understood. Recent studies have implicated the cardiac hyperpolarization activated cyclic nucleotide gated channel gene, or HCN4, in atrial fibrillation and ventricular function. In this paper, the authors enrolled almost 3,000 Japanese subjects with atrial fibrillation, both with and without tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy, as well as non-AF controls. They compared frequency of variants in HCN4 in AF subjects with or without tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy, and found a SNP, RS7164883, that may be a novel marker of tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy in atrial fibrillation. Xinyu Yang, Fuli Yu, and coauthors from Tianjin University were interested in finding causal genes for intracranial aneurysms, and report their results in a manuscript entitled, "Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor ARHGEF17 Is a Risk Gene for Intracranial Aneurysms." They sequenced the genomes of 20 Chinese intracranial aneurysm patients to search for potentially deleterious, rare, and low frequency variants. They found a coding variant in the ARHGEF17 gene which was associated with associated with increased risk in the discovery sample, and which they replicated in a sample of Japanese IA and in a larger Chinese sample. They expanded this to other published studies, including individuals of European-American and French-Canadian origin and found a significantly increased mutation burden in ARHGEF17 in IA patients across all samples. They were interested in further functional characterization of this gene and found that Zebra fish ARHGEF17 was highly expressed in blood vessels in the brain. They used morpholinos to knock down ARHGEF17 in Zebra fish, and found that ARHGEF17 deficient Zebra fish developed endothelial lesions on cerebral blood vessels, and showed evidence of bleeding consistent with defects in the vessel. This study implicates ARHGEF17 as a cerebro-vascular disease gene which may impact disease risk through effects on endothelial function and blood vessel stability. Sumeet Khetarpal, Paul Babb, Dan Rader, Ben Voight, and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania used targeted resequencing to look at determinants of extreme HDL cholesterol in their aptly titled manuscript, "Multiplexed Targeted Resequencing Identifies Coding and Regulatory Variation Underlying Phenotypic Extremes of HDL Cholesterol in Humans." Stay tuned because we're gonna hear more about this paper from the first author Dr. Sumeet Khetarpal later this episode. Rounding out this issue we have a Perspective article from Chris Haggerty, Cynthia James, and coauthors from Geisinger and Johns Hopkins Medical Center entitled, "Managing Secondary Genomic Findings Associated With Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy: Case Studies and Proposal for Clinical Surveillance." In this paper the authors discuss the challenges for returning findings from clinical sequencing for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, presenting case studies exemplifying these challenges. They also propose a management approach for returning clinical genomic findings, and discuss new innovations in the light of precision medicine. We also published a review article by Pradeep Natarajan, Siddhartha Jaiswal, and Sekar Kathiresan from MGH on "Clonal Hematopoiesis Somatic Mutations in Blood Cells and Atherosclerosis", which discusses recent advances in our knowledge on the role of somatic mutations in cardiovascular disease risk. Finally, we have an update on some pharmacogenomics research into CYP2C19 Genotype-Guided Antiplatelet Therapy by Craig Lee and colleagues which we published a few months ago. Dr. Lee was also featured on Podcast episode 15 in April of this year. Jernice Aw and colleagues from Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore shared from complimentary data from their sample of 247 Asian subjects which found the risk for major adverse cardiovascular events was over 30-fold greater for poor metabolizers, as defined by CYP2C19 genotype on clopidogrel, as compared to those with no loss of function allele. You can read that letter and the response from Dr. Lee and colleagues online now. And, as usual, all of the original research articles come with an editorial to help give some more background and perspective to each paper. Go to circgenetics.ahajournals.org to find all the papers and to access video summaries and more. Our interview is with Dr. Sumeet Khetarpal who recently completed his MD-PhD training at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently a resident in Internal Medicine at Massachusets General Hospital. Sumeet kindly took some time out from his busy residency schedule to talk to me about his recently published paper, and to explain how molecular inversion probe target capture actually works. So I am here with Dr. Sumeet Khetarpal who is co-first author on a manuscript entitled, "Multiplexed Targeted Resequencing Identifies Coding and Regulatory Variation Underlying Phenotypic Extremes of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Humans." Welcome Sumeet, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Dr. Khetarpal: Thank you so much Dr. Ferguson, it's really a pleasure to talk to you today. Jane: Before we get started, maybe you could give a brief introduction on yourself and then how you started working on this paper. Dr. Khetarpal: Sure, so this work actually was a collaboration that came out at the University of Pennsylvania that I was involved with through my PhD thesis lab, my mentor was Dan Rader, and also a lab that is a somewhat newer lab at Penn, Benjamin Voight's lab which is a strong sort of computational genomic lab. This work actually highlights the fun of collaborating within your institution. We had, for some time, been interested in developing a way to sequence candidate genes. Both known genes and also new genes that have come out of genome-wide association studies that underlie the extremes of HDL cholesterol, namely very high cholesterol versus low HDL cholesterol. We've been looking for a cost-effective and scalable way to do this. Independently, Ben, who is very interested in capturing the non-coding genome, was interested in developing a method to better understand the non-coding variation, both common and rare variation that may be present at all of these new loci that have come out for complex traits such as HDL. We, at some Penn event several years ago, were talking about our common interest and Ben had actually identified this work that had come out of J. Shendure's lab at the University of Washington. A paper by the first author, Brian O'Rouke, in Science in 2012 in which they had developed an approach that involved molecular inversion probes, or MIPs, to capture regions of the genome related to target the gene that they were interested in studying for autism-spectrum disorders. They had applied this largely to coding regions of, I think, almost 50 genes and almost 2,500 patients with the feedback to do deep, targeted sequencing. So our thought was, well, we could try to apply this approach and adapt it to capture non-coding regions, and also see if we can expand the utility of this approach to study the phenotypic extremes of a complex trait such as HDL cholesterol. Jane: Yeah, that's really cool. I love how you saw this method in a totally different application and then realized that there was expertise at Penn that you could bring together to apply this in a different way. I'd love to hear more about this MIP, the molecular inversion probe. How does it work? How difficult is it to actually do? Is it very different from normal library preparation for sequencing or is it something that's actually relatively easy to apply? Dr. Khetarpal: These MIP probes are oligonucleotide probes that capture your region of interest by flanking them and capturing by gap filling. There's a method to capture parts of the genome in a library-free way. They do ultimately involve barcoding the way traditional library-based target capture does and then deep sequencing. But the most impressive feature about them is just that they're very scalable. I think in the original paper by O'Rouke and colleagues they were able to sequence their set of genes and their set of samples at about a sample preparation cost of $1 per sample, and we were actually able to do about the same for our study. The main utility of the approach is just the economic scalability, and the ability to customize your panel to capture several regions of the genome that are adjacent to each other. Jane: Right, so how many genes or regions can you multiplex at the same time? Is it just one prep, like you just design all of your oligos, you put them all together in one reaction, or are you doing separate reactions for each region? Dr. Khetarpal: We're actually doing all of our oligos together. In our case, I think it ended up being around the order of almost 600 oligos together to capture our ultimately 50kB of genomic territory that we wanted to capture. Really, our study was kind of a pilot experiment where we picked a few genes or regions of high interest to us, both known genes that effect HDL and also those that have been implicated in genome-wide association studies that were of high interest to our labs. I think that this approach could actually be expanded to capture much more genomic territory in a single capture reaction. We sort of touched the surface probably of what we could do. Jane: Wow, that's cool! And then for sequencing it, I guess it's really just a function of how many samples you wanna multiplex and how much you want to sequence from each region. So I suppose the way you did it, you had about 50kB and then you had over 1,500 participants and you were able to do those on a single HiSeq run, right? Dr. Khetarpal: Right. Jane: So I suppose if you'd done more genetic regions, you would've had fewer people and vice versa so you can balance that out depending on if you're having more samples or more genomic regions to sequence. Dr. Khetarpal: Exactly, in certain ways the design of our experiment we had a limited sample size that did afford us some luxury in terms of knowing that we would have deep coverage of the region that we were targeting. I think that's always a critical question in sort of targeted or just sequencing in general. The balance between the number of regions that you want to sequence and the number of samples you want to sequence is going to dictate what your sequencing depth with be. Jane: Right, okay so I guess if we go on to what you actually found, how'd you pick this? You picked seven regions which encompasses eight candidate genes for HDL, so how did you select those? Dr. Khetarpal: The population that we were studying, the samples we were looking to sequence were largely individuals which fall into two bins if you will. One was extremely high HDL cholesterol which we're defining as the greater than the 95th percentile, but really there was a range within that population that spanned individuals with probably greater than the 99th percentile of HDL. We were hoping as a proof of principle effort to identify variation in genes that were known causes of high HDL cholesterol in prior studies of Mendelian genes for HDL. So genes such as LIP gene which encodes endothelial lipase or CETP or SCARB1, these 3 genes are, at this point, well-known genes that loss of function mutations are associated with extremely high HDL. We thought that capturing some of those genes would potentially both provide a level of validation for the approach, hypothesizing that individuals with high HDL would be enriched with these genes, but also may allow us to find new variants in these genes or also non-coding variants which has not previously been studied before. Some of the genes came out from that line of thinking, then some of the other genes happened to be genes that in the Rader laboratory we had a vested interest in understanding the genetic variation that might link the genes to HDL, which may not have necessarily come out before. For example, the gene GALNT2 is one of the first g-loss implicated novel genes for HDL, novel as in the earliest g-loss study for plasma lipids had identified that gene as associated with HDL but it never had come out before as being so. Our laboratory was very interested in better understanding the genetic relationship between genes such as GALNT2 and several of the others such as CCDC92 and ZNF664 with HDL. It ended up being a hodge-podge or a sampling of genes that had at some level been implicated with HDL, but really it's just a proof of principle that this method could work for both identifying variation in known genes and also less studied ones. Jane: You validated the MIP genotyping by exome genotyping, and then saw concordance of over 90%, is that lower than you were expecting? Was it about what you were expecting based on these two different methods of genotyping? Dr. Khetarpal: Yes, I think we were expecting somewhere on the order of 90 plus percent. It's hard to know why we just hit that, we likely would've benefited from being able to genotype all of the individuals by the exome chip that we had sequenced as well, where we were able to validate in about two-thirds of those individuals. It's hard to know exactly what the cause of the about 10% discordance rate might be, whether it's just in certain samples the genotyping quality was perhaps on the border of being valid or the sequencing quality. Jane: Right, I'm wondering sort of with the MIP, what's the gold standard? Is the XM chip genotyping still the gold standard and the MIP maybe is more error-prone, or perhaps the other way around? Or is it you can't tell at this point which is the true genotype and which is an error potentially for those discordant ones? Dr. Khetarpal: Certainly whenever there's a new sequencing methodology that is proposed I think it's critical to have some sort of validation. We happened to cover regions that would span the genome enough that we had XM chip genotyping in a large subset, that that might be the best approach. But if you had a limited number of regions or variance that you were interested in one could imagine also doing Sanger sequencing as the tried and tested validation approach. Of course it becomes not so scalable at a certain point. Certainly we would say that the MIPs, while the method has been developed and expanded by the Shendure lab, our hope is that through our studies maybe it will be applied further. It's still very much a new approach and so validation is key. Jane: Very important. What do you think was the most exciting finding that came out of this, after you analyzed the data, what were you most excited about seeing? Dr. Khetarpal: The critical finding for us, which I think implies the utility of the approach, was just the validation of four of the loci that we had studied. Validation in our cohort of known genome-wide significant associations for HDL that had been published previously in almost 200,000 individuals in terms of sample size, in our experiment involving just about 1,500 people we were able to find consistent associations of those same variants that segregated with low versus high HDL. Directionally consistent with the large genome-wide association studies. I think the value of this finding is really just to emphasize the utility of the case control design in these phenotypic extremes, in addition to the overarching goal of our study, which was in a way that perhaps provides the most validation of the approach in terms of concordance with prior known studies. Jane: So if somebody was listening to this and was trying to decide should they use MIP for a study they have in mind, should they use another technique? Based on your experience, what would you recommend? Dr. Khetarpal: I think in our current stage it's a very exciting time because we're just seeing whole genome sequencing really take off and being used at scale to ask critical questions about non-coding variation as it relates to both disease and complex traits. I don't think we're quite there yet with being able to apply that approach in a cost effective manner. The ability to annotate and analyze that data is still at it's infancy. The utility of the MIPs is that it provides a very cheap alternative. I can say from my experiences actually doing the capture and preparation from sample to sequencer stage that it's a very easy to use methodology that is very fast and cheap. That if one is really interested in a handful, or more than a handful, of candidate genes and their non-coding regions as it relates to a trait or disease of interest, it may not be the era for going full on with whole genome sequencing, especially at the current cost. That's where I think the MIPs really come in to be very useful. Jane: It sounds great, is there anything else that you'd like to mention? Dr. Khetarpal: Just to say that we recognize it's a relatively small study as our pioneer approach with this method but that the Rader lab and Voight labs are actively pursuing larger applications of this to study, not only HDL, but other complex traits, such as diabetes, in much larger populations. I can't overemphasize how easy of a method it is to apply, but also that I think a bigger take home of this study for me as a very recent graduate student working in a very collaborative institution the ability of two laboratories to come together with different sets of expertise to try to tackle a problem that I think goes beyond the individual science. For any human geneticist how to find the variation you're interested in and not break the bank is kind of at the core of what we do, and so I think it was very fun to be part of this collaboration and our hope is that the outcome of it is a method that can be useful for many people, both in our field and beyond. Jane: I think it's great and I'm hoping this will inspire a lot of other people to try this method and see if it can work for them. So, congratulations on the study, it's really nice work. Dr. Khetarpal: Thank you so much! Jane: That's all I have for you for July, thanks for listening. Send me your thoughts on the podcast via Twitter or email, or leave us a review in Itunes. I look forward to talking to you next month.
LAYING THE TRACKS: Move in a direction that following the tracks. If the tracks are strong, we can build and reduce the possibility of not jumping the tracks. Make sure your moving along the lines that are Directionally correct.
Back to the Future - You know about the refrigerator. We’re joined, once again, by Special Guest Seth Worley. Host Joe Rosensteel and Dan Sturm with Seth Worley.
EP111- End of year news. Holiday Recap E-Commerce up approx 18%, total retail up 4.8% UPS Woes Amazon News Amazon Holiday Recap Amazon wins 50% of holiday sales !?!? WPP, Publcis, Omnicom spend $800M on Amazon ads Other News Home Depot may buy XPO (large item logistics firm) Stitchfix first quarter post-IPO Michelle Gass takes over helm at Kolhs. (Episode 77 of the podcast featured outgoing CEO Kevin Mansell) Don’t forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 111 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Friday, December 29th 2017. Last show of 2017, happy new year everyone! Tune in next week for our much anticipated annual predictions episode. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing New beta feature – Google Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 111 being recorded on Friday December 29th 2017 I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I’m here with your hoes Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott shirtless after a long Jason Scott holiday decided to have you back. [0:52] Yeah yeah we had to kind of this perfect storm where you had a bunch of travel ahead travel that offset from your travel and it has been 30 days since we laid down a Jason Scott show. [1:06] Yes the first of all the most important question have you seen Star Wars yet. Jason: [1:09] I have I have made good use of our time off and I feel I got caught up on all the media that you’ve been frustrated that you haven’t been able to talk to me about so I got to see the Star Wars probably a week after you but. Totally enjoyed it and I’ll see what I can do any spoilers but I feel like I was I was pleased and enjoyed it. Scot: [1:32] Yep yeah I loved it there there’s a pretty good second a fan of that hates it though so it’s been I know Chris. Over at he was previously at Puma now at Izod is very upset about Star Wars we have to get him on the shoulder after more people have seen it took to hear his thoughts on it. Jason: [1:50] Yeah although we might have to reserve that for the e-commerce Star Wars fan spin off podcast. Scot: [1:56] Yeah yeah. Jason: [1:58] Slightly more nutrients. Scot: [2:01] But for hours. Jason: [2:03] But I feel like this is useful information only to you and not to any of our listeners that I have done some hard work in this month I’ve totally caught up on mr. robot and I was like over a season behind you on that. And I feel like I’m almost completely caught up on all the The Avengers Netflix series so I’m I’m excited. Chat in the in our pre-show prep sometime. Scot: [2:28] The content is really coming out rapidly though so have you seen you got to watch Discovery so Star Trek Discovery is good and then the new Will Smith movie on Netflix is really good I think you’d like it. Jason: [2:38] Not so I am cut up on Discovery and I agree I’ve been telling joining it other than the irritation of having to subscribe to. [2:47] The yet another service for one show that’s the CBS Show Network. [2:54] So I’m also watching the good fight just because we used to watch The Good Wife and we weren’t interested in striving just to watch the spin-off series but since we bought it for Star Wars we’ve been watching that as well. Yeah lots of lots of good content and it is sort of merging with the Commerce world as many of our our friends than that, space it become the major content Publishers in the New World. Scot: [3:17] Yeah I guess pretty wild. So weed since it’s been a month since we had a show we have a lot to cover and let’s jump into it so first we’re going to do some trip reports and then we’ll cover some news, and the Scooby the last show 2017 so, in next week’s episode what should be the first show of 2018 we that would be our annual prediction show where will review those predictions we made was it Jason episode 64 I think. [3:45] Summer back then we made some bold predictions and we’re going to ask ourselves on those and then lay down our 2018 bold predictions for what’s going to happen in all things Commerce, so that why don’t you could have told me you tell me about some of the nursing retail you saw as you were traveling around in December. Jason: [4:04] Yeah so I did do a bunch of trips in December I think ironically you may have gone to visit more new stores then I had but I did. Mention and I hope a lot of people see it now I would I got to visit one of the very first Amazon pop ups in Whole Foods so there’s now a bunch of Whole Food stores that have these dedicated Amazon pop ups and they. Have all the the Amazon branded gadgets and a few third-party Gadgets in the store so my local Whole Foods has one. Nothing super surprising their inventory is really good though so like they had the the security cameras when they first came out I was able to get some of the. The echo buttons for my Ferrari Alexis here at the house so we can play Jeopardy and do that sort of stuff. And you course heard heard my device in the background responding to to our podcast cuz I forgot to hit mute. [5:08] What interesting thing about the Amazon pop-up store it was interesting to me the point-of-sale that they’re running in the pop-up store is clover which is a super popular. Small-business POS system I find it humorous because. If you go into an actual Amazon bookstore it’s kind of painted check out because they make you use the Amazon app and they don’t accept cash. And so somewhat ironic that these Amazon owned pop-ups inside of Whole Foods which is owned by Amazon. Take credit cards through the clover but won’t let you pay with your Amazon account. [5:44] So very very different retail philosophy than the Apple the Amazon book stores where they don’t show prices and. Make use the Amazon app and all that sort of stuff but I have a feeling that has more to do with a expedience than any particular strategy. Scot: [6:01] Yeah I’m sure someone in the bowels of Amazon is working on it PLS for a Kindle what kind of a tablet I’m sure that’s in the works. Jason: [6:09] Yeah absolutely. I also got to visit the Google pop-up store so this is an annual pop-up they do in New York it was in. Tribeca last year and I think it’s in the Flatiron District which is just a little further north. [6:25] This year and I would say was a little disappointing last year it was a net new retail concept that used it to give live demos of all the new Amazon Google Hardware. And you know last year the home had just launched that is your first can see that the pixel it just launched they were showing the first VR headset since there’s a lot of like. New hardware and it was kind of a cool experience in retail environment in this year. Everything’s very incremental like it’s it’s basically the same retail environment as last year but with the newer Hardware in it and. You know Google doesn’t have a lot of net new hardware this year it’s mostly. Evolutions of the hardware they showed last year so you know Google home is better than a couple permeations now that the pixel 2 which is course better to have more apps on the Google VR but like there really wasn’t any. [7:16] Marquee thing to see your experience in the the store this year that you would have done last year so I guess. [7:26] If you looked at it on its own it was probably a good showroom by the way you can’t buy anything that’s inside of their showroom but if you compared it to last year it was it was pretty darn incremental. And then I did last month have a trip to Amsterdam. There’s not a ton of super interesting retail that would be relevant to this audience. But one of the Novelties they have a very large Apple Store it was one of the European Flagship stores. It’s now about 5 years old but it still has the distinction of being the the world’s largest Genius bar so it has this huge Genius Bar and the only reason I bring it up is its. It’s kind of shocking to walk in the store to huge two-story store in addition to the Super One Genius Bar. They have tons of project tables for various services that they provide and it’s it’s really a stark contrast to the fact that like. [8:26] 75% of the of the floor space of this Apple Store is really dedicated to Services verses. [8:34] Selling Apple retail products and I do feel this is a large evolution of the Apple stores that you know they have. They’ve done produced that their party products that they carry you know they’re there more focus on Apple products than ever before but that the real role of the store has shifted from. Introducing Apple products and selling Apple product to providing service for Apple products. Scot: [9:01] Yara are local Apple Store upgraded to that new kind of what are they call it Town Hall. [9:07] Jars the growth and yeah I was surprised the number of skews they carry went way down on the third-party side like the whole speaker display went away in a bunch of that stuff and it is very much more of a service kind of an orientation which is which is very interesting. Jason: [9:21] Yeah and of course is Apple’s bottom or third-party unit products and made them first party products it makes it less appealing for them to carry the competitors. Products of that that’s the only part of it but it it you know there is it gyro when you would have gone, anytime you went by the Apple Store you pop in because you be likely to see something new if it wasn’t a new Apple product it would be some new accessories and you know now like, you know if you’re very techy it’s not very likely you’re going to walk into an Apple store and and you know. Have the excitement of discovering something new thing you haven’t heard of. Scot: [9:55] Yeah, cool so I was in New York for a personal trip and we went up to see the tree in a couple shows and whatnot and hit a lot of retail and as we were kind of wandering around the city I had a list of things to check off for SUP was the Amazon store down by Empire State Building I had not been in that one yet so I wanted to see that and were the first people I see there is Jason Del Rey one of our friends the Jason Scott shows that was kind of a, funny coincidence in the city of what is an 8 to 10 million people I run into Jason at the Amazon store. Jason: [10:27] No way was he working there is that his night job or was he. Scot: [10:30] No he was actually he in a fellow colleague had actually done at or behind that store is the prime now hub for I guess South Manhattan and they have done a tour of that as kind of precedent and your this was. December 19th or 20th now that’s. Yeah yeah somewhere in there so it’s going to peak season I guess they did got a tour during peak season is of President and he was exiting through the store just kind of have a look and ran into. Jason: [11:00] Yeah and I knew that wasn’t his side hustle I just want to make fun of them. Scot: [11:06] And then. The it’s been about 18 months since I’ve been an Amazon store and I felt like the adenta lot of cool new stuff about having to act better integrated and the checkout was you could chuck check out anywhere which is kind of neat you didn’t have to go to check out a lot of cool things they’ve done there. Jason: [11:22] Yep and is there a coffee shop in that one that’s a little bit on the smaller side right ok Google. Scot: [11:26] It has a coffee shop yeah yeah I couldn’t tell we didn’t have time to stop by I could tell if they actually operate or if it’s a third-party it wasn’t Brandon Starbucks or any other brand or anything so it’s kind of Nursing. Jason: [11:39] And that is, that’s on 34th Street in New York which is one of the more stories retail streets in the world that’s the largest Macy’s and a ton of retail flagships open up on that store so it’s pretty important retail real estate. Scot: [11:56] Yeah that’s what yeah we literally walk from there to Macy’s in like dinner a box or something wasn’t bad at all. That was cool and it’s good to see Jason and then I stopped a lot of brand stores know we talk a lot on the the show about digitally native vertical Brands opening the store so I wanted to see some of them went to everlane which was in her everything’s kind of, unisex Basics and the store was jam-packed that was does interesting he can actually buy stuff out of that stores there’s a lot going on there. My favorite when I stumbled on it hadn’t planned to go is I read a lot about these sneakers called All Birds and, there’s always described his slippers plus sneakers equals all birds and look at this really kind of wool soft kind of thing in the upper and then have a soft Rubber Sole. I answered went there try those on those really fast and because that place was humming I mean it was like. 6 people deep try on shoes or when was walking out with boxes so you could tell there was a lot of energy around that store. The most crowded one is a Skate brand called Supreme I’ve never had all these articles about this place where people wait overnight and. Part of the whole thing is they only let like 15 people in this world of time cuz it’s really small so so went there sure enough there was a line literally around a New York City Block and it’s kind of funny the line breaks because. Passes of all these other stores they get angry when that line go so you see the light you know she’s breaks in the line so. People that don’t know how the line works all these International people trying to get in line they’ll just kind of hop in the line. [13:26] They have all these bouncers to the line and they’re very Surly in this part of the whole experience for there, like you know this is not the end of the line go over here that’s in the line of their kind of mean to you so it’s funny to watch that. Repeating the Supreme store and it’s literally like 60 skews in there and people were buying as much as they can get their hands on it also read that it’s. Demand-supply so tightly most people that shop in there take all that stuff and sell it on eBay and Amazon so it’s really kind of a become a. [13:54] People just got to camp out and get the stuff and sell it online to firstfield with looks so that was interesting. [14:01] Yep then if you’re in the retail world you getting your gift run by story so I went by there they were quite busy and then there’s a couple new down in SoHo Adidas and Nike have some cool new stuff so I got to experience that. All very good and then the one that was kind of thing is a e American Eagle I guess it is they have the say eStudio where is this whole concept that’s in Union Square. Say it’s a denim shop in a laundromat and it’s kind of funny the laundromat was really more of a prop like no one was there using it, looks like there are six machines that it almost never been choose there like these giant dustrial stainless steel machines this is I read several articles this is going to be kind of, how to get Millennials back into the store with this this. [14:47] Going to come get your laundry they’re going to shop while they do it the Millennials I was with can I give it a thumbs down they didn’t like that store the other things that you would have appreciated is every. Every pair of denim had a tablet there they were too high and iPads. But they were just sitting there plant looping a video there is no kind of integration with reviews and it’s got to start having been to the Amazon store where they pull everything from online into the store and then this one which is just like this. Kind of looping video and spend all this money on these tablets for they were interactive at all I thought was kind of a big mess for those guys so good to experience a lot of retail on my truck which was fun. Jason: [15:23] Yeah it’s perfect that you were you got a chance to do that I was you went pretty fast. Is the everlane store did you see anything digital in that store because unlike a lot of those other brands everlane really is the one that like, started off as a digital Brandon and added retail and of course online they’re really well known for having Rich product information on there, on their website and are super transparent like they showed up building materials for all the the products you know the real pricing for everything today have any of that in the store. Scot: [15:56] Not that I saw it felt like. [15:59] It felt like a small Gap you know kind of the same kind of just Basics or like yours a sweater in four colors here is pants and five colors on a table there weren’t any I didn’t see any digital displays or any of that kind of stuff in the store. Jason: [16:13] Yeah that was my impression from earlier as well so it it’s interesting and disappointing a little bit that even when it’s an important part of your brand online that that. A lot of these guys that are opening it just a few stores aren’t figuring out how to carry that through to their physical presence as well. Scot: [16:30] Yeah yeah, you need to walk over to the Amazon store and see how it’s done. Jason: [16:35] Exactly although Apple Amazon probably has some room to improve there too so hopefully next year will be talking about some of them cooler retailers that that are getting it right maybe that that should be a prediction for next year. Scot: [16:49] Yep yep you can always aren’t you so that’s the truth before it’s let’s start it, mac review of news how do you. How do you feel the the holiday it’s too early to call it but we we should have a pretty good read here since we’re doing this after Christmas how do you think holiday went for 2017. Jason: [17:09] Yeah I am pleasantly surprised I’ll even go so far as to say that my slightly pessimistic Outlook going into holiday. It has not proven to be the case so you know there were lots of Rosy predictions going in the holiday ever are almost every year by the way. And I had mentioned on the earlier show that often times when you have a better than average year in sales it’s because you got. Super Promotional and you know very marginal rosian so you. You see all these great articles in December about have a good holiday sales were and then you’d see all these badass quarterly reports in January from all these companies that talked about how they didn’t make any money. And so that still could happen but the. Early indications are that we had pretty rough but better than usual growth in e-commerce we definitely had better than usual growth in brick-and-mortar Commerce and that it wasn’t. A hyper promotional holiday where where you know we just got there by by dramatically cutting costs and starting some crazy. Arms race so so that all looks pretty encourage. Scot: [18:22] Yeah yeah I’m seeing the same things I’m really interested in hearing how Amazon did so I’m on pins and needles until their fourth quarter of you because. If if e-commerce accelerated kind of the 18 maybe 20% level and I think we could see a. Amazon 30% Q4 which day did Jeremy slow down in the 4th quarter state. Because it’s just such a big order for them it’s it’s hard comp to do well on so if they did High twenties R30 that that just means he just soaked up an amazing amount of of share so I’m curious to see what they were. Jason: [18:58] And that I mean we’ve already seen some predictions I think there’s a Barron’s article that that. Said they like 50% of all holiday sale sales work was Amazon so that that would certainly boutwell of that proves to be true. You know what one of the data sources we follow pretty close to use the MasterCard data and they’re they’re calling it a 18% growth in December for e-commerce and 4.8% for retail which is. A big jump that would be the biggest growth since 2011 for a brick-and-mortar retail so that super exciting and then one cautionary Tale. Maybe with a slight astrix there’s a couple firms that track. UPS and FedEx on time shipping and it does appear that we ran into some capacity problems particularly with UPS. So they’re reporting that UPS had a 89% on-time shipping over cyber 5 that’s obviously like. You know one of the the biggest Peaks. UPS is of course trying to be ready for that Peak but you know 89% on time is is pretty low that’s that’s what is lower than historic. And then even in the first week in December they were 91% on time and that you know computers pretty unfavorably was like last year where they were at 97%. On time for that same week FedEx which is used a lot less in the overall scheme of things for e-commerce is it like 99% on time. [20:33] But these numbers are accurate which UPS dispute you might imagine the. [20:42] It is a signal you know that that’s totally in line with this trend we’ve been talking about about these carriers just aren’t growing as fast as e-commerce and so we were perpetually having a bigger capacity problem every year. For these Peaks and so you know UPS grew about. 8% capacity this year but we just said that the e-commerce might have been around 18 or 20% and that the result is that they’re having to put all kinds of extra strength and construction zone retailers about, what does ship Win 4 for retailers in it you know you could predict project this trend out a couple years and it certainly seems that whatever retailer Zone, their own last-mile capacity. There’s only one are going to have a pretty big advantage over over the the rest of the industry as, you know the industry continues to grow faster than then the UPS can can fulfill. Scot: [21:43] Yeah yeah the good news though is we didn’t have a debacle like was a 2015 and a 2015 is that one year we’re like 3 million packages gutensohn the system and it couldn’t keep up so. Jason: [21:55] And a lot of it just miss Christmas shipment which is the course the worst. Scot: [21:58] Yeah yes a lot of stress on the system but it did kind of held up it looks like you know what kind of mentioned Amazon in there but let’s make it official it wouldn’t be a Jason Scott show without talking about. [22:27] So first let’s talk about Amazon does it come in manual pressure release the week after Christmas and I will put a link to it in the show notes but. This is about me massive it’s like. Literally 120 bullets of of highlights I pulled out a couple that I thought listeners would find interesting the most specific one is they actually said 4 million people. Child Prime during the holidays which decimal specific number they’ve ever used about Prime, and it’s a big number so you know most people kind of Peg Prime at maybe 60 million, but if you have 4 million people just come in trial for the holiday that’s pretty amazing. [23:13] You know if if if half of those stick that’s like a 5% bump right there and just Prime books they said the top selling item was the Echo. And then. Add Amazon Alexa has been the top. Download in the IOS app store which I’m sure Apple loves to see which is kind of nursing they also said tens of millions of Alexa enabled devices were sold. [23:35] So I guess is range of 10 to 99 million devices what do you use to lower that range 10 in a lot of people have talked about. These things aren’t that saturated there’s not many people using these devices you know that’s that’s it with 300 million consumers 10 million is. Pretty much cereal I think that’s probably Global number too so interesting to see they’re pushing a lot of Alexa enabled devices out there. There’s some tidbits around the marketplace they said a billion items were sold over the holiday season didn’t know Define the holiday season I’m going to guess they probably call it November one forward and I think they’re talking about. [24:14] Thanksgiving for it at cuz they take a coffee run promotions earlier, three-way abdulian items were sold in the Dover the Cyber 5 which is Thanksgiving the Cyber Monday they said third-party sold 140 million items on the Fulfillment side they highlighted the 10 performance centers had a million item days, that’s a lot of items shipping out of the film It Center in this is kind of an interesting kind of flexing of their data science muscles I thought, I thought you would appreciate they said these Coast has more holiday spirit than the West Coast because Alexa was asked play holiday music 2 and 1/2 times as frequently on the East Coast vs West Coast, I really weird tidbit for them to pull out and it just kind of showed you know how these trends that are able to see through all the devices and machine learning capability that they have. Jason: [25:03] Yeah it’s it’s almost scary to think about like some of the insights they can get in human behavior was from all of that data. Scot: [25:11] Yeah they said like the most requested recipe was chocolate chip cookies the most requested song was Jingle Bells today I got a couple interesting things there. When Amazon article I wanted to ask you about it said that these ad agencies and image of wpp Omnicom and pupusas. Did they are spending 800 million in 2018 for ads on Amazon which is a 40 to 50% increase year-over-year I thought that was. Interesting that the ad agencies are really waking up to Amazon as a an advertising video but then also I’m curious like we’re who’s losing the, you know the the 400 million or whatever that Delta is in there is a coming from TVs coming from Google what what do you think about that. Jason: [26:04] Yeah it is super interesting that I mean Amazon is a great advertising platform for a variety of reasons and so I think we’re going to. Continue to see them get more relevant at the moment you know what these are, wildly rough estimates of third parties so I can’t get into talking exactly about what what pupusas suspend is with Amazon for example. Directionally what I think you’re seeing at the moment is a ton of spending, from brands on Amazon but it’s pending it’s coming out of the Brand’s trade budgets versus their marketing budget so when you you think about a. A Big Brand a cpg like Procter & Gamble or an apparel brand or whatever like they’re likely is a CMO that has a marketing budget to build brand Affinity in his his KP eyes are things like unassisted brand recall. He’s the one buying the Super Bowl ads and those guys I don’t think are spending a big trance are not shifting a lot of spin to Amazon yet. But in addition to those guys there’s the sales person that owns. All the sales that happened with Walmart or Target or Costco and those guys that have a budget, to buy ads or promotional opportunities with those retailers to help sell products for that particular retail so traditionally. [27:35] That could be coupons that they they co-published with that retailer order could be in-store advertising it could be an incap to make the product more visible order or these kinds of things and so now. Amazon has become a major retailer for all these Brands and so it has an account team just like all these other brands, and it has a trade budget just like all those other brands but instead of buying in store point-of-purchase displays or coupons, they’re they’re spending that those dollars with a am at G and and you know most often AMS, on Amazon platform and so if anything that those dollars are really shifting, from other retailers that are getting smaller as Amazon’s getting bigger and the trade budget goes along with the sales, on Amazon so you know that those dollars are probably coming out of Target more than they are coming out of network television advertising at this point. Scot: [28:36] Yeah I haven’t seen a circular in a long time but I’ve stopped getting the paper long time ago too so I imagine there’s there’s not a lot of opportunities to spend money on the circulars in those kinds of things. Jason: [28:46] OSHA disappointingly most retailers still have those programs and you absolutely can spend money on them and you know there’s a lot of sacred cows there so shifting dollars off of those things, probably harder than it logically should be but but it’s certainly starting to happen and once those dogs get shifted to Amazon they become. Way more measurable and. Frankly most cases more effective in so you know once once that Ship Happens that becomes a great case study and I suspect a lot of seeing those are looking at those things. You know I won’t be surprised if we see the the Big Marketing budget start to follow some of those trade budgets onto Amazon. [29:28] Another Super interesting thing to me in this last month that we didn’t get a chance to talk about. Is there have been a number of interesting signs about Amazon entering the. The prescription drug market so that they actually got Pharmacy licenses in about 13 states. And there are various kinds of Pharmacy licenses and this is not a license to dispense medications it’s a license to. Dispense medical equipment so that could be the stuff you use for getting oxygen in your home or Walkers are all this this various medical equipment that Amazon that has a license to sell in like 12 or 13 states. But when those licenses were disclosed you know that it became news Amazon’s looking at the the pharmacy business and you know whether it was coincidental or not. We we saw CVS make a big announcement about a potential merger acquisition with Aetna, that would sort of be emphasized CVS’s retail business, of course Walgreens in the middle of a merger we’re seeing the big Pharmacy companies kind of, try to diversify themselves and not be as as focused on retail at the same time that we’re seeing a number of interesting indications that Amazon might be getting into the the pharmacy business. Scot: [30:58] Yeah yeah the CVS setting the stuff was quite popular on CNBC is a way to kind of have an Integrated Health platform and should be interesting to see you. [31:10] What stops Amazon from doing the same thing you know they could open up their own health insurance armor something there’s there’s no business I don’t think he was on would get into so to be a nurse in the seat. Jason: [31:20] Yeah I normally. Scot: [31:21] How that how it plays out. Jason: [31:22] When when you know Amazon gets in any new business like their quickly are people that run up and go well here’s why that business is different than other ones Amazon’s been successful and here’s why Amazon won’t be able to be successful here right like in in general, all those barriers proved to not be very big barriers in Pharmacy one of those big barriers is that, you know you really have to have a partnership in agreement with the insurance companies, to enable the the folks that are insured by those companies to get their prescription meds from you and since that the traditional pharmacies of locked up a lot of those deals, you know people have speculated it would be hard for Amazon to answer without a a insurance partnership. And what’s what’s interesting is there’s a huge chunk of people that are now buying, their prescription meds out of pocket and not using Insurance either because they’re underinsured or don’t have insurance or because they’re they’re finding that you can in many cases, get better rates on the prescriptions than the negotiated race that the insurance company has locked them into in so you know one one piece of speculation is the Amazon could really be focusing on, Pharmacy products for people that are paying out-of-pocket versus, you know being a big part of the the insurance industry and of course it’s not outside the realm of possibility Amazon could buy a big insurance company pretty easily in the same way they bought Whole Foods. Scot: [32:54] Yeah yeah absolutely another kind of kind of. [32:59] It’s going a little bit outside of Amazon but are our friends at recode. Jason had a interesting scoop where, hi he had heard this kind of the cowboy rumors that Home Depot was looking at acquiring there are Logistics partner which is XPO XPO Logistics is. A company that focuses on The Last Mile logistics for heavy items so if you’ve ever gotten something delivered from a Home Depot like Appliance or a set of cabinets or, I furniture and that kind of thing XTO is well known for that and you know what what he was reporting is that. Amazon’s looked at the company and if amp it as part of their Furniture efforts to Amazon’s doing a pretty big push into Furniture I’m sure Wayfair use XPO also but that I haven’t seen anything specific to that, but if you have a pretty good lock on this kind of heavy stuff being delivered so you know what. What’s interesting is Amazon sniff somewhere and other retailers really wake up and are starting to make pretty big news this would be like a 9 billion dollar acquisition so this isn’t just kind of a small, defensive plays on these things that are happening here based on what Amazon’s doing so it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on that one to see what happens. Jason: [34:10] Yeah but you can you can easy to imagine you know you’re in one of these businesses that predominately deliver big heavy stuff like Home Depot or Furniture Company in Hugo hey what would happen to us if Amazon bought our fulfillment. Scot: [34:23] Yeah yeah seems like the best antidote for that is to start building up that kind of capability like like Amazon is doing so interested to see if, retailers do that and what it would cost him, Cheryl or she will be on board with that when I could dine ask you about that was announced during our break there was Target acquired shipt s h i p t there’s all these companies name, Chris plays on the word ship this is D grocery delivery company I think they’re out of Alabama are some somewhere unusual they’re not a Bay Area delivery company, Target acquired before between 500 and 600 million depending on how they’re not works and stuff so kind of furthering this kind of grocery delivery battle with what do you think about that. Jason: [35:05] Yeah it was so for clarification this is not the company that Kmart uses to ship your pants right so that’s an old e-commerce. [35:17] For those of you that used to watch that the Kmart original e-commerce ads that were pretty funny will put a link to those in the show but yeah that was a big acquisition and and actually, Target 2nd and condition this year in the Fulfillment Channel. [35:35] And it’s interesting to for folks that aren’t familiar with shipped you can kind of think of them as like an instacart they they have a big network of. 1099 employees. That they send to the store to pick up goods and deliver them same day to Consumers and so they they do some fresh grocery deliveries and they do a lot of General Merchant deliveries. I need the have been doing some work for Target but they also do Kroger and Costco I think and so if you’re Target. You’re buying this company that that a bunch of your competitors are using right now for same-day delivery and that’s a little bit dicey like target has said in the short run we’re not going to change them at all we’re going to. Continue to use them and. It’s a little tricky you you pay shipping $99 membership fee to be able to get deliveries from them and then you get deliveries from any of the retailers in their Network, and obviously the more retailers they have in their Network the more valuable they are in the more likely they are to be able to get people to pay. These $99 membership fees so if Target was investing in shipped hoping shipped would just grow as a separate entity. It’s a scary investment because if your Costco. You might not want to use shift anymore now that they’re owned by one of your competitors Target right and so. [37:08] Potentially the company becomes West valuable when one of their customers buys it you know especially when they’re banking on this networking effective. Of having more retailers in getting more customers. The the other side of this would be to say hey Target just needs more capacity for doing same day delivery themselves and they’re buying ship for that that capability in there eventually going to, ship them away from the separate business model towards just being a resource for Target. And you know that would make a lot more sense but then they probably overpaid for it right because they probably paid a valuation based on. On this growth projection that ship has it as a separate entity so it’s a little bit of a catch-22 how how Target will use them. But it certainly makes sense that that retailers need to be thinking and investing in, their own last-mile capabilities like particular you’re going to be in the fresh category you want to think about how you’re going to do home fulfillment on Fresh which is point to point. So I think there’s some interesting things I’m glad to see Target making investments in here like this is potentially a risky investment. Given that that you know Target’s claiming that they’re going to let them run as a standalone company in there there you know now potentially tainted as a standalone company given the throne by Target. Scot: [38:37] Yes they have to think the value is if we roll out same delivery to ask Target stores we generate y sales and it’s worth $500 to get why sales so I sales must be like in the billions of dollars which makes sense to me. Jason: [38:51] Yeah and Target you know which is doing well at e-commerce over 50% of all Targets e-commerce is fulfill from spores in so this is really, Expediting that that’s for fulfillment and since target has a store close to someone that many consumers, same day can be you know potentially cheaper than shipping and in many cases so you know it it is leveraging Target strength which is this this big network of stores that are close to Consumer so big picture I like it you know I hard to say whether they pay the right price for it or not. Scot: [39:29] We’ll save it for the prediction show but I’m curious if you think this causes Postmates an instacart to kind of if those pens fall as well from this acquisition so we’ll save it for next year. [39:42] I want to report on is Stitch fix we talked about when they’re S1 was filed we spent a fair amount of time going through that and explain that model will since that show they went public and, that is kind of a lukewarm reception so when you go public you put this range out there. There ain’t nothing was 16 to $18 the price a little bit below that range at 15 which is an indicator that you know if people were concerned a bad the. Have a negative backdrop blue apron had missed a quarterly number as. Stitch fix was out on the road which is terrible timing these things happen so so they could do it you know that. Google subscription models even though once food and wants apparel and we know on the show that’s vastly different problems to solve it but I think investors kind of said. This is this is a challenging segment let’s punish but let’s let’s. Not punishment put on more risk around the stitches thing get 15 but then was really interesting is, there’s I want to go public there’s a about a six-month of three to six-month window before you announce your earnings, so they didn’t have any news or anything. People as they got familiar with the model I don’t know exactly what happened but it got up as high as 28-29 then they announced their quarter in December 19th and, you know there there’s kind of Tale of Two Cities there I think they did really well on the quarterly results compared. [41:13] Going forward they did talk about there should be some pressure on margins and having to spend a fair amount on sales and marketing to acquire customers some folks reacted negatively and then it came back from them so I would say it’s been a successful IPO there, last I looked there in a market cap of about two and a half billion which is, pretty good and you know so I think there are there out there doing really well and you know I think this investment is going to be with people watch to see can they really turn that into active. Subscriber system. Jason: [41:44] Yeah and it’s not automatically a bit I know the higher price you get in that IPO you know the more money that is for the company in the short run but in the long run, it’s not necessarily a horrible thing that you you have some room post-ipo for that kind of bump right in that bike, certainly you know create some advantages in terms of equity for employees and and all that sort of thing right. Scot: [42:12] Yeah yeah there’s. [42:15] Target also depends on who’s selling IPO so do you have primary source and secondary shares so if your investors are selling in diepio and they get a low price that’s going too bad because they are looking for a high return, what is the company selling shares you know there is an argument to be made kind of Goldilocks it be somewhat conservative other people tell you no. Did Equity you’re selling you should maximize the value of that and do what you can so I think it’s a. Nothing and I was just one mile marker on this very long road and it’s really kind of start of a New Journey so so I think it’s good that they’ve done well and and people are following them and there’s been some turning there still there. Base of shareholders but it seems to have gotten sticky and people that are believing it or are there now know there are a lot of naysayers that kind of talk about it. [43:07] They don’t believe that it’s kind of an algorithm company and it is it is hard when they also say they have something like 3,000 stylus them company with 3000 stylish set up so people are still trying to figure that out. Jason: [43:22] Yeah and that you know they truly are an interesting company that they’re certainly claiming a lot of interesting successes or an artificial intelligence and you know both, gopher merchandising for for you know deciding what goes in that that fix that box and, you know how sticky those products are two customers how many they keep but also they’re starting to use that artificial intelligence to Define new products and and sticks Stitch fix his kind of shifted from, predominantly being a reseller of other people’s apparel tub to producing their own products based on this artificial intelligence data now that they have. This big critical mass I think it’s we’ve talked about on the show before the chief data scientist there is that Chief data scientist from Netflix so, pretty credible team on the artificial intelligence stuff and in many ways these guys are the poster child for artificial intelligence research retail so if. It’s cool that they’re public in there. You know disclosing more information and we’re getting a c under the under the covers a little bit more so certainly someone to to follow closely. For that also interesting that you know it’s a female run company and I say that because the the next piece of news we have is about another new weed female run company which is Colts. Scot: [44:41] Yes yes a Kohl’s promoted their Chief digital officer to CEO so we actually had Kevin on the show Kevin Manziel and, this is this is really not official yet I mean they’ve announced it but it doesn’t happen until I think May of next year but there’s been a lot of Articles kind of talking about how she’s going to save the company. Jason: [45:01] Yeah I’m always excited about this because Michelle is the latest in a sort of class of the. Digital Executives becoming the chief executive of the company and you know that we’re really just starting to see the first wave of those so am I mean like one of the very first ones. Was Art Peck who’s now who is the VP of e-commerce at Gap and is not running Gap. Billy Mays been on the show Huey Ren e-commerce for Abercrombie & Fitch she’s now the CEO at surlatable. How often is is a guy we know well in the industry that ran digital it at Home Depot and then became a senior executive at eBay and he’s not the president at Macy’s. And so you know Michelle is is the latest in in this class and I’ll be really interesting to see what she does at Kohl’s which is. Particularly interesting Lee position so it’ll be another in some ways there like the department stores that are. Really struggling right now and are looking for some reinvention and in some ways they have some. Unique advantages around pricing and treasure hunting and you know things that have traditionally been hard to do digitally so it’s certainly going to be interesting to follow. Scot: [46:20] Did you see that article about so Walmart has this incubator called store number 8 and they’re working on some pretty cool stuff I figured you’d be work to speed on it than I am. Jason: [46:29] Yeah they they’ve name this incubator store 8 which is a based off of a Walmart store 8 which was the Prototype store and they are. Like both have a bunch of internal projects and are investing another projects. The they’ve announced a couple projects recently one that that is potentially a competitor to the Amazon go which. Will probably be talking soon as I have done a deep dive in the past will probably be talking about again the future because I I strongly suspect pretty soon that Amazon go stores going to open to the public. [47:05] Walmart store 8 his has announced a bunch a bunch of initiatives around VR so this one Katie Flanagan who runs that the incubator for Walmart. And she’s very bullish on the future of VR Commerce and so they they recently had a big guy with the Huffington Post and they should a bunch of. Of tech startups that are doing. You know there is interesting things with VR increasing when you with Walmart brand so they showed I got a mod clown cloth be our concept in. A bona bus VR concept and I have to say there’s a ton of interesting stuff coming out of the incubator I have great respect for the. The team at Walmart but I am not personally as a bullish on VR Commerce in the next couple years as it feels like they are I think it’s. You know it’s an interesting technology but like in many ways it’s it’s it’s to sort of awkward and intrusive. To really be a convenient shopping experience and you know most cases you know the shopping experiences that are winning are the ones that are lower friction than anything before. And you know throwing on all this awkward VR equipment to go shopping. Doesn’t feel super super exciting to me like if anything I’m I’m more optimistic on the sort of a our experiences than the VR experiences. [48:34] Why does minor people than me at Walmart so it’ll be interesting to see how that all plays out. [48:39] But you know predicting the future is exactly what we’re going to do on our next show so assertively TuneIn. 2 2 episode 1 12 or we’ll recap the Bold predictions we made from last year, Anna Scott and I will both share what we think are some of the surprising things that are going to happen in 2018. And with that I’m happy to report that it’s happening again we’ve used all our a lot of time. So we certainly appreciate all of our listeners sticking with us if you enjoy the show we’d love to get that 5 star review on iTunes weed encourage you to leave feedback on our Facebook page and continue the dialogue. Scot: [49:20] Thanks everyone for joining us and have a Happy New Year. Jason: [49:23] Until next time happy commercing!
Welcome to Directionally Correct, where we talk about recent stories in the news and what it might mean for your business. In a "ripped from the headlines" style, Greg Saltsman and Alicia Hicks discuss current topics and cutting edge trends and how you can benefit.
On this recap we discuss... → Directionally challenged → Marauders Map OS update → Don't underestimate Sirius Black → The will of James and Lily → Sirius is coming to dinner
Introduction: I’ll ask you to tell us what you do in a sentence or two. * Director Corp Dev at SunEdison * Integration of acquired companies in NA * Setting up global shared services center. You’ve worked as a consultant at one of the large global consulting firms and ‘in-house’ on M&A with a very fast moving corporate player. Can you compare the two environments? * 8 - 9 years on PwC on audit side. * Exposure into non-account work and he saw that he couldn't 'speak the language' of other parts of the business. * swimming pool - swims the whole pool. Consulting vs. in-house? * Mind set is very different. Serving in a client service role objectives are a little different. At the end of the day in house you'll still be here. As a consultant, that might not be the case. Your companies name is attached to it, not your own. * There's a higher level of accountability building the house that you have to live in. * Drive of the people in consulting is different. In corporate, you'll see different motivations, not necessarily all on the same page. Contrast the differences. * Leading by influence. Getting everyone on the same piece of music. Easier at a consultant. For the last several years, you’ve been focused on M&A activities. Can you give us some context of the work you’ve done… * Merger and integration. * Buys two types of companies - those with people, those without. * FirstWind Deal - entire company - 250 people * Projects * Split between finding deals and integrating them. * Buying a company isn't easy. Making it work is also difficult. Can't just throw it over the wall and expect them to coexist. As you’re looking at a possible acquisition, when do you typically get involved? * doesn't work very well to bring in an integration team too close to the deal being done. * Should all tie into the valuation model. Need someone who can see the synergies and help with valuation. * When you bring everyone into the game early and get buy in on a road map for integrating the two entities - cost savings, new business, etc. For those of us on the outside looking in, give us a sense of the work that’s gone into an acquisition before any news becomes public? * Typical lifecycle: NDA * Diligence & preliminary term sheet * Sign a PSA, purchase and sale agreement * Sign to close varies Once your team has settled in on the idea that a specific transaction will go through, what are you looking for within the firm to maximize the value of this acquisition? * You can either save $ or drive more $ * Cost savings: * Business A isn't going to do something anymore - may also cost rev. * Duplicative back office functions * Complementary supply chains * Revenue Side: * Cross-sell or up-sell to current customer lists * Partnerships * Technologies each company may have * Sometimes you're betting on the future of a technology paying There’s likely a significant value factor – the business model, horizontal / vertical integration, specific book of business. I’d imagine in every transaction, there’s one big value driver. Is that right, or am I missing something? * Is there a theme associated with it. * FirstWind: Wanted to get into wind. Directionally, it was about getting into wind. Also sub-components. The audience for this podcast are ambitious corporate professionals. What one piece of tactical – go implement today – advice do you have for this group? * Everything needs to drive some kind of value. * On a macro level that may take months * On a daily level - you need to know what you're doing that will drive the highest value. * What is the highest and best use of your time. What’s your favorite business book? * Coopitition, Game Theory, 3D negotiations. * Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Tell Chris thank you on LinkedIn. chawkins@sunedison.com
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