Markets Rise in Response to Fiscal and Monetary Actions
Financial markets rose this week in response to government steps designed to shore up the economy during the pandemic.
“The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced a bevy of new moves aimed at getting another $2.3 trillion of financing into businesses and revenue-pinched governments,” writes Jeff Cox of CNBC. “Stock futures jumped after the announcement, which came moments after the government reported that 6.6 million new jobless claims were filed last week.”
I expect markets to rise and fall over the coming months, depending on the impact of the coronavirus. But it’s a good sign that government efforts are having an effect, and I am generally hopeful that the positive trend will continue.
Social Media Accelerates Collaboration in Research and Development
It’s fascinating how social media platforms such as Twitter are accelerating collaboration on scientific research during the pandemic. “The platform is also fundamentally reshaping the way scientists and academic physicians can discover, discuss and share research,” writes Nicole Wetsman in Scientific American.
The article quotes Vinay Prasad (@VPrasadMDMPH), a hematologist-oncologist at Oregon Health & Science University. Prasad, who has more than 30,000 followers on Twitter, observes a profound shift in the way scientists are using social media. From his perspective, Twitter is having a disruptive and “net positive” impact on medical research.
“Before Twitter, researchers had limited ways to respond to and critique new research in their field. They could write a letter to the editor or an opinion piece in a journal, but that response would be published only if editors of that journal agreed to it. Even if it was published, it would often not appear for weeks,” Wetsman writes.
Remote Work and Virtual Meetings Shine a Spotlight on IT
It’s an understatement to say how incredibly critical IT has become to the modern enterprise, especially in the past month.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has thrust once-anonymous IT support workers into a new role: corporate saviors,” writes Ian King of Bloomberg News. “As millions of employees make the transition from well-maintained office equipment to jury-rigged kitchen table setups, information technology departments have been called upon to keep companies online and connected. Requests range in size and scale, from replacing employees’ $5 mouses, to speeding up networks, to keeping multimillion-dollar data centers up and running.”
As technology leaders, we instinctively understand the absolutely vital role of IT. Over the past several weeks, the indispensable nature of IT has become more widely understood and appreciated. I predict that our role as trusted leaders will become even more essential in the months and years ahead.
Google Pixel 4A May Launch Soon
Google’s new smartphone may be released soon, according to several reports.
“There have been rumors and leaks aplenty about the Google Pixel 4A, but they’re starting to bubble up even more today. 9to5Google published what it claims is a complete set of specs for the Pixel 4A, and most intriguing of all, it says that Google won’t be releasing a Pixel 4A XL,” writes Cameron Faulkner of The Verge. “The Pixel 4A will instead split the difference in size between the prior models, with a 5.8-inch display that’s a little larger than the 5.6-inch Pixel 3A but slightly smaller than the 6-inch Pixel 3A XL.”
Leadership Advice and Lessons Learned
Here is another quick roundup of extremely useful articles from the Harvard Business Review on the topic of remote work, virtual meetings and digital leadership skills:
