Research: Few Corporate Spinoffs Deliver Value
Large companies routinely spin off existing units to become public companies of their own, in an attempt to focus management attention and capture larger multiples in equity markets. An analysis of 350 large spinoffs from 2000 to 2020 reveals the average one creates negligible value. A study of the best-performing separations concludes that to succeed, leaders must create a compelling separation thesis, one that consists of four parts: an equity story, target financials, an asset perimeter, and program design. Continued here |
Zelensky Knows the Clock Is Ticking
When Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Washington—his first time leaving Ukraine since the Russian invasion last winter—he will find a city that is even more obsessed with itself than usual. The Republicans are about to take over the House with a tiny majority and a passel of empowered kooks, and a congressional committee has recommended that a former president of the United States be prosecuted for an attempt to defeat the constitutional transfer of power. The American drama is important and the stakes for democracy are high, but President Zelensky will touch down in D.C. for a visit to the White House and a joint address to Congress after leaving a war zone where he and his compatriots are literally fighting for their lives and for the survival of their nation against a Russian dictator who intends to erase Ukraine as an independent state from the map. Continued here |
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Ron Howard on Collaborative Leadership and Career Longevity
For decades, actor-producer-director Ron Howard has made popular and critically acclaimed movies while also maintaining a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. He explains how he turned early TV gigs into long-term success and why he often involves his cast and crew members in creative decisions. His latest film is Thirteen Lives. Continued here |
The board game getting kids excited about school
Going to school in a refugee camp can be complicated: students encounter crowded classrooms, rigid curricula and limited access to teachers. Joel Baraka, who grew up in the Kyangwali refugee camp in Uganda, is determined to change that for the better. He shows how educational board games can be a fun and effective way to improve access to learning and help kids thrive in and out of school. Continued here |
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Spaceflight Companies Promised to Do Science—So How's It Going?
In the summer of 2021, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos skimmed the edge of space in their new Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spacecrafts, officially launching an era of commercial spaceflight. Then SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission took private spaceflight to the next level by propelling a different billionaire, Jared Isaacman, and three lucky passengers into orbit. Axiom Space's Ax-1 flight to the International Space Station followed this April, lofting four passengers, including two multimillionaires and a billionaire, to the orbiting platform.What these flights had in common—other than many ultra-wealthy passengers—was that they each promised to carry out some kind of scientific experiment. And unlike most space agency flights since the 1970s, almost none of the passengers had any scientific background, with a few notable exceptions, like geoscientist Sian Proctor, who flew on Inspiration4. Virgin Galactic's crew took along an imager for plants, and Blue Origin's crew ran an experiment studying liquid and vapor interfaces in microgravity. The Inspiration4 passengers measured their heart activity, blood oxygen saturation, and immune system function and scanned their organs with an ultrasound device while they experienced zero-G life for a few days. The Axiom flight supported 25 research projects, including experiments investigating how space travel affects aging cells and heart health, and tested an anti-space-radiation vest.So far, the research aboard all those flights has resulted in only one published paper—and it wasn't about scientific findings. It was on Expand, a new biomedical database designed to collect physiological data from all commercial space passengers and store it in a single place. Continued here |
Is Your Phone Actually Draining Your Brain?
A new study puts the “brain drain hypothesis”—the idea that just having a phone next to you impacts your cognition—to the test to see if the science passes muster. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You’re trying to get some work done, and you find yourself continually picking up your cell phone. In frustration, you might slam the phone down beside you and swear to leave it alone—theoretically allowing you to focus on what you’re doing. Continued here |
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The Biggest Health and Biology Breakthroughs of 2022
From reviving dead pig organs to measuring viruses in our poop, here are some of the most intriguing medical advances of the year It’s been a rough year, especially on the health beat. The COVID pandemic continued to bulldoze its way through the population, causing surges in cases and related deaths. Somewhat forgotten viruses such as mpox, flu and RSV reared their head unexpectedly. And the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nearly 50-year-old right to reproductive freedom established by Roe v. Wade. Continued here |
To Build a Great Brand, You Have to Be Focused Find what sets your business apart from the crowd and stick with it. Continued here |
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Dietary Restriction Works in Lab Animals, but It Might Not Work in the Wild
Scientists looking outside typical lab conditions find some surprises when examining the link between eating less and living longer Hungry laboratory animals tend to live longer. Over and over, in organisms ranging from fruit flies to mice (and sometimes even in primates), scientists have seen that cutting back on food extends their study subjects’ life span. But do wild animals also benefit from eating less? And if so, why? Some scientists are trying to move their experiments beyond typical lab conditions to answer these questions. Continued here |
What happens when an astrophysicist puts ChatGPT to the test?
All of us, whenever we seek to understand something more deeply, run into an awkward situation: where we think we understand how something works, only to discover that we ourselves are misinformed. Sometimes it’s only about trivial matters that don’t impact our ability to accomplish what’s important in our lives, but at other times it’s absolutely essential that we put in the time and effort to improve our understanding. This involves not only learning what’s true, but learning why what we thought was true was, in fact, false, and how to catch ourselves from slipping up again in precisely the same fashion. This is something that every budding and aspiring scientist runs into frequently along their educational journey: discovering our own misconceptions. Those of us who go through the hard work of learning how we led ourselves astray, what the actual truth is instead, and how to get it right from now on often indeed go on to become successful in our careers; those who continue to insist, incorrectly, that they were right all along rarely do. Continued here |
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A new mission to see Titanic
Four-hundred miles from St Johns, Newfoundland, in the choppy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, a large industrial vessel swayed from side to side. Onboard, Stockton Rush expressed a vision for the future: "There will be a time when people will go to space for less cost and very regularly. I think the same thing is going to happen going under water." Continued here |
14 of My Favorite Home Offices Around the World
When I look around my home office (if you can call the awkwardly placed desk in my tiny apartment a home office), I see a lot of things that make me happy. I see the houseplants that I’ve miraculously kept alive. I see my favorite vinyl records that I like to listen to while I work. I see the comfy chair I sit in when I need to zone out and scroll through my phone for a while. Continued here |
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Despite gloomy headlines, our planet is getting cleaner and healthier
There is no shortage of bad news in media headlines. “Climate change is already killing us,” the World Health Organization (WHO) declared in the run up to the UN’s COP 27 Climate Change Conference. “Low levels of air pollution deadlier than previously thought,” McGill University lamented. “Brazil’s plans to pave an Amazon road could open path to more deforestation,” yet another despondent headline from NPR blared. Most people undoubtedly accept that climate change, air pollution, and deforestation are very real problems we ought to take seriously. What fewer of us seem to realize, however, is that the world has taken these issues seriously and made significant progress toward solving them as a result. This observation leads us to an important but oft-overlooked conclusion: Economic growth and technological innovation are making our planet a cleaner, safer place to live. Continued here |
How to Stay Focused at Work After a Breakup
How do you cope with a romantic breakup while at work? Research shows that the grief of a heartbreak can just be as potent as the death of a loved one. It can evoke feelings of desperation and change our mood, behaviors, and emotions as we process these feelings. Here are some ways to take care of yourself and be productive while dealing with a breakup. Continued here |
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‘No One Wants to Talk About Mortality’
Joanna Hogg is probably the most understated filmmaker to currently have an entire cinematic universe revolving around her. The British director emerged with her 2007 debut feature, Unrelated, which had an autobiographical tinge, and went on to make two other brilliantly quiet interpersonal dramas, Archipelago and Exhibition. But it was with 2019’s The Souvenir that Hogg began to build out an interconnected series that blurs the line between fiction and memoir. She drew from her own life in telling the story of Julie, a young film student in the 1980s who embarks on a formative, if disastrous, relationship while trying to find her artistic voice. In that movie, and its sequel (2021’s The Souvenir Part II), Julie was played by Honor Swinton Byrne, and her mother, Rosalind, was played by Tilda Swinton, Honor’s real-life mother. Hogg’s next project, The Eternal Daughter, now in theaters and available on demand, is one she’s long considered filming. Set closer to the present day at Christmastime, it follows a mother and daughter who visit an old hotel and sift through sometimes-fraught memories together. Hogg knew she wanted to tell a story about facing the mortality and vulnerability of one’s parents. But only late in its development did she decide to name the characters Julie and Rosalind, suggesting that they’re older versions of the Souvenir characters. Continued here |
Pakistan's lost city of 40,000 people
A slight breeze cut through the balmy heat as I surveyed the ancient city around me. Millions of red bricks formed walkways and wells, with entire neighbourhoods sprawled out in a grid-like fashion. An ancient Buddhist stupa towered over the time-worn streets, with a large communal pool complete with a wide staircase below. Somehow, only a handful of other people were here – I practically had the place all to myself. I was about an hour outside of the dusty town of Larkana in southern Pakistan at the historical site of Mohenjo-daro. While today only ruins remain, 4,500 years ago this was not only one of the world's earliest cities, but a thriving metropolis featuring highly advanced infrastructures. Continued here |
Kremlin-backed hackers targeted a "large" petroleum refinery in a NATO nation
One of the Kremlin’s most active hacking groups targeting Ukraine recently tried to hack a large petroleum refining company located in a NATO country. The attack is a sign that the group is expanding its intelligence gathering as Russia’s invasion of its neighboring country continues. Continued here |
An Alternative to Overspending on Presents
Gift-giving is a beloved—and expensive—tradition. But some people have found a way to partake without the cost. Anna Rollins and her father have a valued Christmas tradition. For several years, the two have exchanged books with political themes that reflect their respective ideologies. They’re confident in their choices, because they’ve typically already read the book—usually the same copy they’re now giving away. The practice may be unorthodox, but according to Rollins, it has allowed her and her father to better understand each other’s points of view. “I’ll give him a book that is meaningful to me, and he’ll read it and come at it from this very open space,” the 34-year-old educator in Huntington, West Virginia, told me. Continued here |
Innovating in Uncertain Times: Lessons from 2022
Too many leaders succumb to fear of missing out (FOMO) when new tech trends emerge and demand that something — anything — using the new tech be implemented immediately. This leads to wasted investment, missed opportunity and disillusionment about the new landscape. Emerging technologies are critical and demand attention and investment, but managers must exercise patience and avoid falling victim to the hype. Responsible exploration is key. Continued here |
3 Strategies Businesses Can Utilize to Own Their Industries Owning your industry equals business success, but it's not always easy to increase market share. To rise to the top, you need strategies that improve perception of your brand and the customer experience. Continued here |
The U.S. Economy Is Doing Just Fine -- For Now
Wharton's Iwan Barankay isn’t too worried about the possibility of a recession in America. Inflation, however, is still a threat. Wharton’s Iwan Barankay speaks with Wharton Business Daily on Sirius XM about how the economy is in better shape than many may assume. Continued here |
Lenovo announces cheaper Mini LED monitors with 140 W power delivery
Lenovo is preparing to release a pair of Mini LED monitors that are cheaper than its current Mini LED offering but don't skimp on features. The 4K USB-C displays offer up to a whopping 140 W over USB-C, the most extreme power-delivery spec we've ever seen a monitor claim. Continued here |
Why This Founder Chose Her Husband As Her Co-Founder Siff Haider, co-founder of wellness brand Arrae, talks about the pitfalls and pros of being married to her co-founder. Continued here |
Framework, Noctua, and other brands add official 3D models to Printables
A number of device and accessory brands—including Adafruit, Framework Computer, Noctua, and Raspberry Pi—have started sharing free official 3D-printable models of parts, accessories, and mods on Printables, kicking off what the site hopes is a general trend toward repair-friendly parts and community mods. Continued here |
Strategy for Start-ups
In their haste to get to market first, write Joshua Gans, Erin L. Scott, and Scott Stern, entrepreneurs often run with the first plausible strategy they identify. They can improve their chances of picking the right path by investigating four generic go-to-market strategies and choosing a version that aligns most closely with their founding values and motivations. The authors provide a framework, which they call the entrepreneurial strategy compass, for doing so. Continued here |
Tired, Filthy, and Overworked: Inside Amazon's Holiday Rush
Tyler Hamilton has optimized his every waking minute. Between Black Friday and Christmas, five nights a week, he pulls himself out of bed, brushes his teeth, and rushes to his car just before sunset. On his drive to the Amazon fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, he stops at Wendy's to buy two bourbon bacon burgers, two large chilis, fries, and a drink. Hamilton eats the burgers as he drives and then punches in to start his shift arranging incoming product inventory just before 5 pm. In the middle of the night, he takes thirty minutes of unpaid break time and reheats the chilis. By the time he clocks out at 5:30 am, his car has frozen, so Hamilton sits huddled in the dark until it warms enough that he can drive home. Continued here |
How to Market Your Company as a Trustworthy Online Brand Cybersecurity is a crucial component of your brand reputation. Continued here |
The Homeownership Society Was a Mistake
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a mortgage. I don’t know if you should buy a house. Nor am I inclined to give you personal financial advice. But I do think you should be wary of the mythos that accompanies the American institution of homeownership, and of a political environment that touts its advantages while ignoring its many drawbacks. Renting is for the young or financially irresponsible—or so they say. Homeownership is a guarantee against a lost job, against rising rents, against a medical emergency. It is a promise to your children that you can pay for college or a wedding or that you can help them one day join you in the vaunted halls of the ownership society. In America, homeownership is not just owning a dwelling and the land it resides on; it is a piggy bank, where the bottom 50 percent of the country (by wealth distribution) stores most of its wealth. And it is not a natural market phenomenon. It is propped up by numerous government interventions, including the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. America has put a lot of weight on this one institution’s shoulders. Too much. Continued here |
The vegan leather made from India's waste flowers
Inside a dusty compound in the northern Indian city of Kanpur lies a sterilised lab with an incubator full of flasks. Each of these flasks contains a small mound of what looks like a sourdough starter. The room nextdoor houses a shiny metal cylindrical vessel called a bioreactor, akin to what you might expect to find in a laboratory which manufactures antibiotics. But this is no pharmaceutical facility – what is being made in the pipe-laden bioreactor won't save you from an infection. It could help make India's rivers a bit cleaner though Continued here |
Autism: Understanding my childhood habits
No one knew I was autistic as a child but, looking back, there were a number of sensory clues. Apart from a tendency to repetitively stroke soft fabrics or run grains of sand through my fingers, I also found swirling and gentle rocking mesmerisingly soothing. When I was eventually diagnosed with autism much later in life – at the age of 60 – it gave me a new understanding of how and why I behave the way I do. That includes certain childhood behaviours, from fabric-stroking to the way I played with toys and insisted on specific foods. But it also raised questions, such as what might these preferences reveal about how children with autism experience the world? And how could we use this understanding to help children fulfil their potential, form friendships, and enjoy life? Continued here |
How (and When) to Say No to the Boss
Saying no is a difficult thing, especially if you’re in the early stages of your career or if you’re passionate about your job and find meaning in what you do. But research shows that purpose-driven work can negatively affect your mental and physical health if you don’t maintain work-life balance. Continued here |
How 2 Purpose-Driven Brands Build Products That Give Back In time for the holidays, the story of two purpose-driven luxury brands. Continued here |
2 Essential Traits for Success in Your Business These elements are key aspects every leader must have. Continued here |
Research: Workplace Stigma Around Menopause Is Real
For half the global population, menopause is a natural part of life. It also happens to overlap exactly with the age at which employees are most likely to be qualified to advance into top leadership positions — and the authors’ new research shows that people experiencing menopause are often judged as less leader-like, thus creating yet another barrier that holds women back in the workplace. However, the authors also found that when women talk openly about going through menopause, it can reduce this bias, helping them to come across as having high leadership potential regardless of menopausal status. As such, the authors suggest that managers must normalize the open discussion of menopause (since many women are afraid to mention such a stigmatized topic at work), create psychologically safe workplaces that empower everyone to share and ask for support without fear of retribution or discrimination, and proactively ensure that all employees feel supported — not silenced — as they progress through the phases of their careers and lives. Continued here |
The Prosecution of Trump Runs Into Some Serious First Amendment Troubles
But they are surmountable if the government takes into account his other actions on January 6, 2021. Yesterday the House January 6 Committee unanimously voted to recommend that former President Donald Trump be criminally prosecuted, for charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing an act of Congress, and, the most serious, insurrection. A congressional criminal referral of a former president is unprecedented, and if Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice decide to prosecute Trump, they will have to address a formidable defense: that Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, no matter how irresponsible or how full of lies about a “stolen” 2020 election, was, after all, a political speech and thus protected by the First Amendment. Continued here |
Turn Your Boring Job into a Job You'll Love
But these days, that mindset doesn’t work so well. Between rapid technological changes and shifting customer expectations, many roles can’t adapt quickly enough to stay relevant. If you do exactly what you were hired to do, odds are, you (and your job) will — eventually — become outdated. Plus, you will feel bored and uninspired. Continued here |
The Employee Retention Credit Is a Great Deal--but Beware "ERC Mills" Filing for the ERC is complicated, and some CPAs won't do it. That's forced founders to opt for pricey alternatives, some of which are more interested in fees than performance. Continued here |
Megan Thee Stallion Is the Victim, Not the Defendant
Daystar Peterson, the performer known as Tory Lanez, is on trial in Los Angeles after he allegedly shot fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in both of her feet two years ago. But in the court of public opinion, she is the person who’s really being judged. The critically acclaimed, top-selling artist, whose real name is Megan Pete, was injured in a July 2020 incident that began as she, Peterson, and others were driving away from a party. Ever since Pete identified Peterson as her attacker, the lack of empathy, concern, and protection for Pete—one of the biggest entertainers in the world and most successful female artists in hip-hop history—has been downright jarring. Continued here |
The $275,000 Business Lesson That My Grandma Taught Me To spot and seize business opportunities you have to think outside the box. Continued here |
How Venture Capitalists Make Decisions
For decades now, venture capitalists have played a crucial role in the economy by financing high-growth start-ups. While the companies they’ve backed—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and more—are constantly in the headlines, very little is known about what VCs actually do and how they create value. To pull the curtain back, Paul Gompers of Harvard Business School, Will Gornall of the Sauder School of Business, Steven N. Kaplan of the Chicago Booth School of Business, and Ilya A. Strebulaev of Stanford Business School conducted what is perhaps the most comprehensive survey of VC firms to date. In this article, they share their findings, offering details on how VCs hunt for deals, assess and winnow down opportunities, add value to portfolio companies, structure agreements with founders, and operate their own firms. These insights into VC practices can be helpful to entrepreneurs trying to raise capital, corporate investment arms that want to emulate VCs’ success, and policy makers who seek to build entrepreneurial ecosystems in their communities. Continued here
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