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Goizueta information systems and operations management professor Benn Konsynski on the 30th birthday of WWW: "... Many of us were on the internet before WWW -- researchers, academic, military, libraries, etc. The operating protocols on top of the basic Internet protocols were useful, but often specialized. The world of commerce and social interchange needed a simple standard to offer creative outlet beyond specific applications and closed systems. "Sir Tim Berners-Lee brought that with common protocols for describing content (HTML), moving/referencing content (HTTP) and browser technologies for viewing and manipulating content. Over the next few years, commerce and social exchange exploded after these protocols took root. By 1995 the internet world opened to business and the general market with expectations and promise."
Turning disability into accessibility
As communities grow and modernize – are we making the proper accommodations for those with disabilities to live a fulfilling, productive, and independent life? It’s a popular topic and one that we are now seeing being advocated more in many areas of everyday life. Accessibility laws and expectations are now ensuring that all aspects of education, business, transit, and health care are made available to everyone. The concept is sound – but how are we as a community developing reasonable accommodations and community resources that allow all people to participate in the community and successfully live their life? Often, it’s not a matter of intentional exclusion, rather the issue simply hasn’t been considered and no plan exists. And there are costs to not having a plan in place. Not addressing these “social determinants of health” (housing, transportation, etc.) affect healthcare outcomes and raise costs of hospitals, social services, and health care. Addressing these issues and improving accessibility may actually increase societal health, decrease long-term societal healthcare costs, and bolster the tax base. But as we move forward there are a lot of questions in the community about how to approach accessibility: What mechanisms are in place to gather input on needs, identify barriers, and consider requests for accommodation? What types of accessibility needs exist of the people who will use different community settings? (Physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional, developmental, etc.)? What types of accessibility barriers exist (architectural, environmental, attitudinal, financial, transportation, etc.)? How much do different accommodations cost? How can community settings partner with people with disabilities and/or health and human service providers? What specific ways can accessibility improve societal health? And that’s where the experts from CARF can help. Christine M. MacDonell is the Managing Director of Medical Rehabilitation and International Aging Services/Medical Rehabilitation at CARF International. She can address the issue of accessibility as it relates to people who have experienced brain injury, stroke, cancer, amputation, and spinal cord injury. Christine is available to speak with media regarding this topic – simply click on her icon to arrange an interview.
Expert: Why do entrepreneurs fail? They choose the wrong idea.
The importance of having a sound business idea for a startup is essential, but identifying the ideas most likely to go from concept to venture is challenging. Statistics show that about 34 percent of startups fail within the first two years and 56% within the first four years. Most failures are due, in part, to the pursuit of ideas that are poorly selected and/or tested. “Inexperienced entrepreneurs have improved odds of succeeding over the long run if their first idea is sound,” says Dan Cohen, director of Wake Forest University’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “A key to that success is to generate 100 ideas and then evaluate and select the best one. That first win builds confidence for the next.” - Dan Cohen Cohen’s new teaching method, IDEATE, has been proven to help develop higher-quality, more innovative ideas. He is available to discuss ways fledgling entrepreneurs can refine their ideas — from product or service development to customer testing to securing investors to marketing and sales. He can also discuss why starting a business is easier today than it has ever been and what characteristics people share who are drawn to opportunities, innovation and entrepreneurship. Dan Cohen and Wake Forest’s Center for Entrepreneurship were prominently featured in the Winston-Salem Journal’s Business & Innovation section Spotting valuable ideas. IDEATE was one of four finalists for the 2018 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers — winning recognition from among more than 100 submissions. Most recently, Wake Forest University was a finalist for the Model Emerging Entrepreneurship Program Award at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Conference focused on entrepreneurship education. Broadcast Television and Radio Studio Information Wake Forest operates a fully-equipped, professional television and radio studio to connect experts with global news media. Video interviews can be coordinated through LTN Global Communications’ Smartcloud IP video transport service that provides regular high-quality video transport connections to most major broadcast networks. Audio interviews are coordinated through ipDTL, an IP codec used for remote radio broadcasts as well as voice-overs. ipDTL replaces classic ISDN audio codecs and has backward compatibility. Details available here.
Opioid addiction is gripping America. It’s destroying lives, tearing apart families and devouring resources in policing and healthcare. As medical, mental health and addictions professionals look for solutions, often times accessible and public Opioid Treatment Programs, often known as a Methadone Clinic will open in communities. These clinics bring relief, treatment and support – but they also bring crowds, increased traffic and concern from local residents and the community. These concerns usually find their way to the media, where the attention can quickly turn negative. The solution to avoiding this scrutiny and making sure residents, business owners and community leaders are fully informed about the process, operation and security measures at these clinics are key to their success and integration. Questions such as: How was the site selected? How do you plan to control traffic flow and overcrowding? How will you manage parking and wait times? What are your measures to prevent diversion? Who can I speak to if I have questions or concerns about operations? CARF can speak to best practices, expectations, and requirements for when an opioid treatment program opens. Debbi Witham, Managing Director of Public Policy and is an expert in opioid treatment programs. Debbi is available to speak with media regarding this issue – simply click on her icon to arrange an interview.
Another shutdown? Let our experts explain if there's a reason to worry about the economy
It lasted longer than a month, and for now we’re on a three-week reprieve – but the federal government shutdown that saw Democrats and Republican dueling at a safe 20 paces while 800,000 federal employees were watching unpaid from the sidelines is over. But from the financial side, the big picture for America was hardly touched. Will that still be true this time around? But with the shutdown over and employees back to work, for three weeks while politicians negotiate a final deal – there are still a lot of questions outstanding? What industries are most vulnerable to another government stoppage? Is there anything that can be done politically to stop federal government employees from being used as pawns in future negotiations? Despite the economy carrying on – are investors dissuaded by these shutdowns? David M. Primo is the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and an associate professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester. He is the author of three books and is a go-to for media in New York and nationally for his expertise on topics like this. David is available to speak with media regarding the economic effects of the shutdown – simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.
A new year with new changes for how small businesses are taxed.
The only thing surer than death and taxes, might be the annual changes and adjustments to the way small businesses are taxed in Canada. New restrictions, and rates can have positive and negative impact on business owners and their companies. This coming year, changes to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan could make the bottom line of some small businesses tighter. However, the overall corporate tax rate applicable to many small businesses in Ontario has fallen to 12.5%. We may see more money going back in the pocket of owners or their growing companies. “We know that the average small business owner doesn’t know a lot about these changes.” Bill Moreau, Minister of Finance There are a lot of changes to the current system this year; as small business owners prepare to file, it is in their best interest to contact an expert. The government itself has even admitted that some businesses might not be fully up to speed, that’s where our team can help! Cleo Melanson, Tax Partner at Freelandt Caldwell Reilly LLP practices in the areas of tax and owner-managed businesses. To contact Cleo, simply click here to arrange an appointment regarding this topic. Article: https://globalnews.ca/news/4804039/tax-changes-canada-cpp-ei-small-business/
Empowered Storytelling Geared Toward Women Is a Winning Combo for Super Bowl Ads, Baylor Expert Says
Television advertisers who have chosen to appeal to women fans and viewers during this weekend’s Super Bowl have committed their millions of dollars to a wise strategy, according to a Baylor University marketing and advertising expert. Tyrha Lindsey-Warren, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of marketing in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, studies consumer behavior and attitudes, multicultural media and advertising, and movies and entertainment. Each year, she and her students analyze the Super Bowl ads. And each year, she said, she sees more ads geared toward women. In fact, AdAge reports that brands like Bumble, Toyota and Procter & Gamble's Olay are featuring women in lead roles in their Super Bowl commercials this year. “That’s smart,” Lindsey-Warren said. “The current and future market power of women – as a whole and by segments – is undeniable and truly cannot be ignored by marketers.” To make her point, she cited research showing that women influence more than 80 percent of all consumer spending; 89 percent of the financial decisions are made by women; and globally, women control more than $20 trillion in world-wide spending. In addition, nearly 24.3 million African American women are brand loyalists and cultural trendsetters who have influence over the $1.2 trillion dollars in black spending power. Forbes reported in 2018 that “women constituted about 49 percent of the 108 million-plus people who watched” that year’s Super Bowl – and paid closer attention to the ads. “Nowadays, whatever brands plan to do during the Super Bowl must be extremely strategic and well planned when commercials go for over $5 million dollars,” Lindsey-Warren said. “With the #metoo and #times up movements as well as the diversity and gender issues in advertising industry and more, I think brands struggle as to how they approach targeting women on such a global stage.” She said brands that use “empowered storytelling” – storytelling that exudes the emotion of empowerment – make a difference. Good examples, she said, are Always’ “Like a Girl” commercial in 2015 and Audi’s “Daughter” commercial in 2017. “In my research, especially among Millennials and Gen Z, this approach is a powerful combination for brands who want to increase purchase intentions for their products or services,” Lindsey-Warren said. “The emotion of empowerment is multidimensional and promotes encouragement and can be extremely motivational,” she said. “When one is empowered, it can be an ‘aha’ moment and very transformational in a positive manner. In addition, empowered storytelling is a proactive approach to storytelling that demands you keep the receiver of the story in mind at every stage of the process because, at the end of the day, you want the receiver of the story to be better in some way for having received the empowered narrative they just viewed or experienced.” And when consumers are empowered, they tend to tell others. In the digital space, this looks like sharing videos, posts, quotes and more on social media channels. “Essentially, empowered storytelling gives brands the opportunity to achieve the right balance of entertaining and encouraging and, ultimately, healing by showing that they care for their consumers through the motivational messages and narratives they are producing,” Lindsey-Warren said. ABOUT TYRHA LINDSEY-WARREN, Ph.D. Tyrha Lindsey-Warren, Ph.D., is a marketing scholar, business executive, artist and entrepreneur. As a consumer behavior scholar, her research is rooted in narrative transportation theory (i.e., storytelling) that exudes the emotion of empowerment and its impact on consumer attitudes, behaviors, purchase intention and message recall. She also studies health edutainment, multicultural media and advertising, as well as movies and entertainment. Lindsey-Warren is an expert in effective communications strategies for leaders, multicultural communications and marketing. Her latest research, “An Examination of Television Consumption By Racial and Ethnic Audiences in the U.S.,” was published in the Journal of Advertising Research. She will be discussing this study during panel discussions in New York City and Los Angeles for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business provides a rigorous academic experience, consisting of classroom and hands-on learning, guided by Christian commitment and a global perspective. Recognized nationally for several programs, including Entrepreneurship and Accounting, the school offers 24 undergraduate and 13 graduate areas of study. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business.
The hidden treasure of digital piracy? It can boost bottom line for manufacturers, retailers
HBO's popular television series "Game of Thrones" returns in April, but millions of fans continue to illegally download the program, giving it the dubious distinction of being the most pirated program. Many may wonder why the TV network hasn't taken a more aggressive approach to combating illegal streaming services and downloaders. Perhaps it is because the benefits to the company outweigh the consequences. Research analysis by faculty in Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and two other schools found that a moderate level of piracy can have a positive impact on the bottom line for both the manufacturer and the retailer -- and not at the expense of consumers. "When information goods are sold to consumers via a retailer, in certain situations, a moderate level of piracy seems to have a surprisingly positive impact on the profits of the manufacturer and the retailer while, at the same time, enhancing consumer welfare," wrote Antino Kim, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies at Kelley, and his co-authors. "Such a win-win-win situation is not only good for the supply chain but is also beneficial for the overall economy." While not condoning piracy, Kim and his colleagues were surprised to find that it can actually reduce, or completely eliminate at times, the adverse effect of double marginalization, an economic concept where both manufacturers and retailers in the same supply chain add to the price of a product, passing these markups along to consumers. The professors found that, because piracy can affect the pricing power of both the manufacturer and the retailer, it injects "shadow" competition into an otherwise monopolistic market. "From the manufacturer's point of view, the retailer getting squeezed is a good thing," Kim said. "It can't mark up the product as before, and the issue of double marginalization diminishes. Vice versa, if the manufacturer gets squeezed, the retailer is better off. "What we found is, by both of them being squeezed together -- both at the upstream and the downstream levels -- they are able to get closer to the optimal retail price that a single, vertically integrated entity would charge." In the example of "Game of Thrones," HBO is the upstream "manufacturer" in the supply chain, and cable and satellite TV operators are the downstream "retailers." Kim and his co-authors -- Atanu Lahiri, associate professor of information systems at the University of Texas-Dallas, and Debabrata Dey, professor of information systems at the University of Washington -- presented their findings in the article, "The 'Invisible Hand' of Piracy: An Economic Analysis of the Information-Goods Supply Chain," published in the latest issue of MIS Quarterly. They suggest that businesses, government and consumers rethink the value of anti-piracy enforcement, which can be quite costly, and consider taking a moderate approach. Australia, for instance, due to prohibitive costs, scrapped its three-strikes scheme to track down illegal downloaders and send them warning notices. Though the Australian Parliament passed a new anti-piracy law last year, its effectiveness remains unclear until after it is reviewed in two years. As with other studies, Kim and his colleagues found that when enforcement is low and piracy is rampant, both manufacturers and retailers suffer. But they caution against becoming overzealous in prosecuting illegal downloaders or in lobbying for more enforcement. "Our results do not imply that the legal channel should, all of a sudden, start actively encouraging piracy," they said. "The implication is simply that, situated in a real-world context, our manufacturer and retailer should recognize that a certain level of piracy or its threat might actually be beneficial and should, therefore, exercise some moderation in their anti-piracy efforts. "This could manifest itself in them tolerating piracy to a certain level, perhaps by turning a blind eye to it," they add. "Such a strategy would indeed be consistent with how others have described HBO's attitude toward piracy of its products."
Is Washington playing Russian roulette with airline safety?
The government shutdown that is finally over had some worrying near the end and for good reason. Air traffic controllers, the very professionals who keep planes in the air and at a safe distance from each other had gone for more than four weeks without getting paid. Exhausted, demoralized and depleting ranks were probably the near-perfect storm for an imminent accident or disaster. Luckily, and thankfully, these dedicated professionals rose to the occasion and ensured safety was still the priority. Often, working even while the very equipment and technology they rely on was not being serviced. But as the shutdown takes a break for three weeks and everyone is made whole with back-wages and paychecks – does America need to rethink the potential risks and consequences to having the staff who are essential to safety across the entire country go without pay and benefits during a political dispute? The consequences of a major airline crash are huge economically and in terms of lives lost. So, can the nation’s air traffic controllers be exempt form the impacts of a government shutdown? Who would have been liable if an accident did occur? Are aviation, customs and our nation’s airports not considered essential and therefore worthy of being paid during a shutdown? And how close did we come to a disaster? While we wait and watch for a solution in Washington over the coming weeks, there are still a lot of questions to be answered, and that’s where the experts from the University of Rochester can help. David M. Primo is the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and an associate professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester. He is an expert in airport safety and security and a professor at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, and can comment on airline safety and passenger impacts amid airports such as Laguardia International restricting air travel due to the government shutdown. David is available to speak with media regarding the economic effects of the shutdown – simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.
How Technology is Changing Work as We Know It? Let Industry Experts Answer that Question
Are you interested in what the Future of Work is and how technology will impact your business and industry? Hear how the future of work will impact organizations’ culture, required skills, the way talent will be sourced and how the workspace and makeup of the workforce itself will change. Join IDC Canada and ITAC on January 30th for our annual Tech Trends Breakfast Series event to learn how technology is and will continue changing work as we know it. At this Tech Trends Breakfast event, IDC analysts, partners and industry experts from Tata Consultancy Services, Zoom.AI and ServiceNow will examine how enterprises can adapt to rapidly changing technologies and workforce ecosystems to build a competitive edge. The interactive panel will be moderated by Tony Olvet, Group Vice President of the research analyst team at IDC Canada. While there will be opportunities throughout the panel discussion to ask questions, attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions in advance to help us shape the discussion. Attendees will also have access to presentation materials following the event. The Future of Work Tech Trend Breakfast event will be on January 30th at Twenty Street, Toronto. To see full event details or to register click here. If you have any questions about this event, please contact Cristina Santander at csantander@idc.com.
