Sony sprang a surprise at the CES 2020 with an electric concept sedan named Sony Vision S. It is an autonomous driving car with a powerful entertainment system and a host of other sensors.

The Vision S sedan was launched at the tech show by Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. He said at the press reveal, “It embodies our contribution to the future of mobility.”  The car features a raft of technology that showcases ‘the contribution Sony intends to make to realize a highly advanced autonomous driving society.”

Kenichiro, speaking at the event, said that mobiles definitely have ruled the past decade but the next big thing in the coming years is mobility.

Vision S is not a ‘Tesla killer’  

The Sony concept car has technical support from Magna Steyr, Bosch, Nvidia and Blackberry. It comes with 33 different sensors, multiple displays, and a wifi connection. Magna Steyr has engineered its EV platform, which will also be able to power other vehicles, says Sony.

The electrical Sony Vision S is powered by a pair of 272hp electric motors. These give it a 0-100kph time of 4.8sec, with a top speed of 240kph.

The car uses LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) called Solid State to aid in driverless driving. The LiDAR makes digital 3D representations of stationary objects in real-life spaces.

The autonomous car’s safety features include sensor fusion technology, meaning the data is derived from different sources and Time-of-Flight (ToF) in-cabin sensors that can detect and recognize people and objects inside the car and adjust the entertainment and comfort levels accordingly.

It offers an “unprecedented in-car entertainment experience,” according to Sony. The car also has a panoramic screen spanning the dashboard with  AI, telecommunication and cloud technology that operates through an intuitive user interface. The company’s 360 Reality Audio has built-in speakers in each car seat to provide an immersive audio experience. It also has screens for rear-seat passengers.

The car gives strong Porsche-like vibes, according to one news report. Not much is known about if Sony intends to go into production for the 4-door autonomous sedan. Or is it just to showcase its high-end technology for electric autonomous cars to sell to existing manufacturers?

These and many other questions were left unanswered by the Sony head honchos at the unveiling.

Tech giants flex their self-driving muscle at CES 2020

Self-driving technology is dominating the CES 2020, with almost all lead players talking of autonomous driving cars.

Toyota’s smart city concept, Woven City, featured autonomous driven cars and delivery services.

Daimler and Hyundai and Qualcomm have all revealed technologies and cars to aid in the driverless mechanism. Self-driving technology, in-car entertainment and gaming along with 5G enabled connectivity are the futuristic visions of mobility in the show at the moment.

Hyundai is teaming up with Uber to build flying taxes and has announced an investment of $1.5 billion for the same.

Daimler has used James Cameron’s creativity to put an avatar-like concept car, AVTR, termed as a “living organism” on show.

Daimler chief executive Ola Kallenius, talked of how man and machine will merge in the near future to provide a seamless immersive mobile experience.

The post Automakers should take a note of Sony Vision S appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

Porsche, Boeing and Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences are looking to develop a concept for a fully functioning electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle.

“Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility,” said Porsche exec Detlev von Platen in a press release. “In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel.”

This unique partnership was announced on Thursday and aims to develop a premium urban air mobility vehicle. The companies will work on concepts to better understand what the market for a flying vehicle might be in the coming years.

“This collaboration builds on our efforts to develop a safe and efficient new mobility ecosystem, and provides an opportunity to investigate the development of a premium urban air mobility vehicle with a leading automotive brand,” said Steve Nordlund, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing NeXt, an organization that is laying the foundation for a next-generation mobility ecosystem in which autonomous and piloted vehicles can safely coexist. “Porsche and Boeing together bring precision engineering, style and innovation to accelerate urban air mobility worldwide.”

A 2018 study by Porsche Consulting estimates that the urban air mobility market will gain traction after 2025. The study also notes that urban air mobility solutions will transport passengers more quickly and efficiently than the current means of terrestrial transport, at a lower cost with far flexibility.

It’s no wonder that Porsche and Boeing are not the first companies to try for a chunk of the flying car market.

Kitty Hawk, the flying car company backed by Google’s Larry Page and led by Udacity co-founder Sebastian Thrun. Volvo’s parent company Geely acquired a flying car startup Terrafugia in 2017 under its name. This startup is tinkering to create the most promising flying car in the world. In the same year, Toyota acquired Cartivator which is led by a drone specialist Masafumi Miwa. Toyota undertook this project to produce a flying vehicle on a speedy basis with the aim of lighting the torch of the 2020 Olympics with this.

The post Porsche and Boeing join hands to develop flying electric car appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

It was during a hot, sweaty harvest with sunburn and lots of bee stings that Cedar Anderson, a third-generation northern NSW beekeeper, realized there had to be a better way to harvest honey.

He and his father Stuart then spent 10 years tinkering with prototypes to invent Flow Hive, the beekeeper’s dream.

Where did the idea first come from? And what does it take to put together such an important social pursuit?

Industry Leaders: Flow Hive is said to be ‘the most significant innovation in beekeeping since 1852.’ How did you come up with the idea?

Cedar Anderson: It was a process of trying and failing. It took extreme amounts of perseverance and optimism to carry through from an idea into a disruptive technology that changes the world.

When the first jar of honey came out of a beehive and into the jar it worked perfectly. At this point, I was living in a shed with a baby on the way. I’d given up every other form of income and was completely relying on this invention to be successful.

My father didn’t have any money either, so we borrowed money from family members to build the first pre-production models, which needed $20,000 for injection moldings.

From here, we explored various paths to market and landed on crowdfunding. We didn’t have the funds and didn’t want to go down the venture capital path.

People have often asked, “Did you ever think of giving up?” The answer is no. I always thought I’d be able to find a way to achieve what we set out to do.

Since then, I’ve learned that business is a game of perseverance and problem-solving to overcome obstacles.

Many people thought that what we had invented wasn’t possible and wouldn’t work (it does). Many thought we’d never be able to start from scratch and make and deliver 25,000 hives in just eight months (we did).

We were running a 24/7 production line in Brisbane to make all the orders. But it wasn’t quick enough, so we put our inventing hats on to again.

Thirty percent more production was gained by placing the injecting molding machines inside big tents with industrial-sized dehumidifiers to stop the tools from sweating. The dehumidifiers cost $100,000, which was a big risk, but it paid off because we were able to produce more and able to meet the demands of the market.”

Industry Leaders: Tell us a bit about Flow Hive’s journey. How has it grown over the years, and what are some of the challenges you have faced while scaling up?

Cedar Anderson: Once the technology was patented, a crowdfunding campaign and video were launched on Indiegogo in February 2015.

What happened next was quite extraordinary. The $70,000 goal was reached in seven minutes. In two hours, it was the fastest crowdfunding campaign in the world to reach $1 million. In eight weeks, it reached US$12.2 million.

Thousands of hours went into everything from marketing, design, and manufacturing, to logistics and customer support decisions.

Next began the scramble to fulfill orders — before Christmas! Amazingly, Flow managed to deliver on their commitments only a few weeks behind schedule.

While leaping a succession of supply chain, manufacturing and logistics hurdles, the team developed its internal processes and moved toward being not only a manufacturer and marketer of the most significant beekeeping invention since 1852 but also as a prominent advocate for bees.

The intended audience was beekeepers, but the idea sparked the imagination and around 40 percent of the people who pledged to buy a Flow Hive had never kept bees before.

Fast-forward to 2019, and there are now 65,000 Flow Hives in use in more than 130 countries. Manufacturing and logistics processes have been optimized and the company now generally dispatches orders within 24 hours.

Flow has won multiple awards for innovation, design, marketing and business including Good Design Australia, D&AD White Pencil, Fast Company World Changing Ideas, two medals at Apimondia International Beekeeping Congress and was declared NSW Business Chamber’s Business of the Year.

Cedar is now at the helm of a company that has matured into not only a successful Australian exporter but a prominent advocate for bees and the natural world. A global community of 100,000s of people has sprung up around the idea of being kinder to bees and taking better care of our local environment.

How do you see the beekeeping industry changing in the future?

Cedar Anderson: Flow Hive is a game-changer – it makes beekeeping so much more accessible and brought beekeeping out of the too-hard-basket and into backyards, rooftops, and balconies at an unprecedented scale. Suddenly anyone can reap the rewards of a restful and environmentally regenerative hobby in a way that was gentle on the bees and the beekeeper alike.

It became clear that the market didn’t want just the Flow technology so we made a beautiful item to go into the garden to house our technology and create a turnkey solution for our audience.

Having significant advantages of zero processing equipment needed and a lot of labor-saving, plus the unique observation windows, the Flow Hive far was deliberately priced higher than conventional beehive prices.

Industry Leaders: What could the government or society do to encourage more social entrepreneurship?

Cedar Anderson: The BeeInventive culture is inspired by bees and we endeavor to take a leaf (or petal) from their book – we call it The Flow On Effect! We strive to do business in a regenerative, ethical and sustainable manner and have joined the global movement of like-minded people using business as a force for good as a Certified B Corporation.

Flow is about more than just harvesting honey in a gentle way—it’s about creating community, educating people about the importance of bees, and empowering beekeepers both old and new to make a positive change to help protect these important little creatures.

Humans, honeybees and our agriculture have been in symbiosis for a long time now. Humans have brought the honeybee with them wherever they’ve traveled because there’s this amazing amount of pollination that the honeybee can do. A typical hive of say 50,000 bees can pollinate up to 50 million flowers a day. There is no other insect on the planet that can do this, and that’s why the honeybee is such an extraordinary insect when it comes to our pollination needs. It’s said that if the honeybees disappeared, we would lose a third of the food types on our shelves.

But if that happens, we’re in far more trouble than losing a third of our food types. Honeybees are in the spotlight because they are so important to our agricultural needs, but to me, they represent a bigger picture. A bigger picture of all of the species of pollinators, and there’s something like 20,000 different species of native bees in the world. Ten percent of these are already facing complete extinction.

“So, the losses related to honeybees, or apis mellifera, is a bit like the canary in the coal mine. It’s pointing out when humans change almost every surface of the earth, drastic effects of this has drastic ramifications on our ecosystem and all of the species that need their habitat to survive. There are places in the world that are reporting 90% insect losses across the board. There are places in the world where honeybees cannot survive and now people are resorting to hand pollination, climbing up trees with feathers and pollen.

“We need to save the honeybees. Not for the selfish reason of having food types on our supermarket shelves, but because if we can’t provide a world where honeybees can survive, we are going to lose so many species and eventually find it hard to survive ourselves. Something like a billion liters of insecticide gets sprayed onto our home earth surface each year. We need to stop that. Our forests and wild spaces are still being cleared at unprecedented rates. We need to reverse this. We need to get out in the yard and create habitat for all of these species which are on the brink of extinction. All of these little pollinators. In doing so, we create stepping stones through the urban landscape and give some of these spaces a chance. We need to bring back the wild spaces. We need to re-wild our world.

The government can help by developing policies that remove barriers for start-ups while funding innovation hubs and enterprise centers and providing direct funding to social enterprise start-ups. Provide encouragement for innovation in renewable energy, environment, and social impact sectors.

Society can help by choosing to purchase products and services from social enterprises, and by switching personal investments from polluting industries to the new economy. Impact investment groups can help by shifting to a stronger focus to funding a broader range of social enterprises in Australia.

Industry Leaders: What are your plans for the future, and where do you see Flow Hive in another 5-10 years?

Cedar Anderson: Beyond conventional harvesting, the next biggest frustrations for beekeepers are: brood box inspections to look after the bees; and finding out what you need to know as a new beekeeper.

In the domestic market, we will be addressing brood inspections with some innovative technology we are inventing, making it far easier to access the brood box.

Support for our new beekeepers is being addressed by a global launch of an education platform, which will include content from Cedar and his father and many other experts from around the world.

Most beehives exist in the world in the commercial sector, which we have only scratched the surface of. We’ve been sinking significant resources into developing a commercial offering that will be a real game-changer. We have already tested and built Flow Hives to operate on autopilot with load senses sensing the honey, and they’ll automatically harvest themselves.

We have developed the telemetry so they can be operated and monitored remotely, even if the hives aren’t in the cell phone signal area.

Automation of the hives and telemetry will give commercial beekeepers a real competitive advantage while saving a lot of costs on labor.

The post ‘Honey on Tap’ Beehive Creates Buzz in Bee Industry appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, announced on Wednesday its chief executive Dave Lewis will step down next summer and will be succeeded by Ken Murphy, an executive at Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Dave Lewis, 54, called the decision “a personal one” and said, “the tenure of the CEO should be a finite one and now is the right time to pass the baton.”

The former Unilever executive said he had completed the turnaround plan he set in the wake of the accounting scandal that led to Tesco posting one of the biggest ever corporate losses in the UK. The plan involved focusing on cutting costs and getting the fundamentals of the supermarket business right. This helped the tumbling brand improve availability, overhaul its own-brand range, and improve brand measures and customer satisfaction.

Tesco CEO Dave Lewis announces departure

Dave Lewis’s statement on his departure from the UK’s biggest retailer:

“Our turnaround is complete, we have delivered all the metrics we set for ourselves. The leadership team is very strong, our strategy is clear and it is delivering.”

Lewis will be leaving Tesco in better shape than when he joined the supermarket in 2014 to find a £326 million hole in the company’s accounts. He also acquired the cash-and-carry group Booker and is launched Tesco’s budget store Jack’s. Tesco’s new ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ lines in 550 stores also gave the supermarket chain a revenue boost.

Hs said to have cemented Tesco’s turnaround with last year’s annual results, boosting profits and dividend. He has also hit his target of achieving a four percent profit margin, beating it to achieve 4.4 percent.

Tesco chairman, John Allan, said that it was with great regret that he had accepted Lewis’s resignation. “Dave has done an outstanding job in rebuilding Tesco since 2014 and he continues to have unwavering support from the board,” said Allan. “Some time ago, however, he indicated to me that he was considering the best time to hand over to a successor.”

The spotlight for Lewis’ successor was on internal candidates such as Charles Wilson, former CEO of Booker, which Tesco acquired last year. However, he stepped down from his role last year after being diagnosed with cancer.

Tesco’s new CEO Ken Murphy was joint CEO at Boots U.K. & Ireland before rising to Chief Commercial Officer and President of Global Brands at American retail giant Walgreens Boots Alliance.

John Allan described successor Ken Murphy as a “seasoned” leader with “deep commercial, marketing and brand experience within retail and wholesale businesses”.

The post Dave Lewis leaving Tesco in a “position of strength” appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

E-cigarette giant Juul Labs is facing investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in regards to how the company’s vaping device became so popular with underage teens.

Juul Labs’ meteoric rise to the top of the multibillion-dollar U.S. e-cigarette market has been accompanied by growing scrutiny from parents, politicians, and public health advocates that the company fueled the drastic rise of underage “juuling.”

Juul is also being investigated by state and local law enforcement officials, with ongoing inquiries being conducted by Attorneys General in Illinois, District of Columbia, Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office in Illinois filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs that accuses the e-cigarette giant of violating the Prevention of Tobacco Use by Minors and Sale and Distribution of Tobacco Products Act by allegedly marketing to minors. In the lawsuit, the Lake County State’s Attorney Michael G. Nerheim also accuses Juul of violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act for allegedly using deceptive marketing aimed at underage teens.

The State Attorney’s Office is seeking punitive damage.

North Carolina’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Juul in May, asking a court to limit the e-cigarette giant’s sales and marketing in the state.

The company is also facing separate lawsuits from Juul users – both minors and adults.

Juul Labs’ ‘Deceptive’ Social Media Marketing

Juul Labs CEO Kevin Burns said the e-cigarette company never intended for Juul to be used by adolescents.

A federal survey suggests otherwise – nearly 21 percent or 3 million U.S. high school students vaped last year. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Economic and Consumer Policy subcommittee examined 55,000 non-public documents out of Juul Labs. The subcommittee reported that schools received payment for participating in Juul’s Youth Prevention Plan that put Juul representatives and students in the same room. One testimony put forth by the subcommittee described a Juul representative telling students that vaping was totally safe.

Juul Labs targeted teenagers and children, as young as eight years old, in camps and public out-of-school programs. The e-cigarette giant also recruited thousands of online influencers to market to teens.

Under Juul’s influencer marketing program, the company curated and identified 280 influencers in Los Angeles and New York to seed Juul devices and find social media buzzmakers with a minimum of 30,000 followers to attend the company’s launch events for products.

Today we’re implementing a series of new measures that build upon our existing efforts to reduce underage use of vapor products: https://t.co/PTSf9b6t2o

— JUUL Labs (@JUULvapor) August 29, 2019

The four-year-old San Francisco-based company shut down its pilot social media marketing program in November last year. It also closed its Facebook and Instagram accounts and pulled several of its flavored products out of retail stores.

Long-term vaping effects unknown

E-cigarettes have grown into a $6 billion-a-year industry since its arrival in the U.S. in 2007. Juul holds more than 75% of e-cigarette market share. Juul Labs sell battery-powered devices that heat flavored nicotine oil pods into an inhalable aerosol.

Most health experts agree that aerosol is less harmful than cigarette smoke to the human body. It doesn’t contain carcinogenic byproducts of burning tobacco. However, there is no research on the long-term effects of vaping.

Investigations into Juul Labs and the health-related effects of vaping have been launched by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

In 2018, Altria, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, bought 35% stake in Juul Labs for $12.8 billion. According to Wells Fargo, the deal valued Juul Labs at $38 billion.

The post E-cigarette giant Juul Labs accused of peddling death to teens appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

The automobile industry has come a long way and yet it continues to lumber forward without a gender-equal workforce.  Almost half of the US working population comprises of women but women account for only 27 percent of the US automobile industry. There are several reasons at play behind this but the most proponent is the perception of the auto industry as a man’s club.

Catalyst reports that in 2018, only 16 women (8%) were executives in the top 20 motor vehicles and parts companies in the Fortune Global 500. Globally, over top executive teams in the auto industry, only 8 percent of executives were women.

When Mary Barra took the wheel of General Motors in 2014, she became the first woman to head a major global automaker. For aspiring auto leaders, Mary Barra’s journey clad with remarkable perseverance and leadership is an avenue of experiential learning. She is hailed as one of the most influential women leaders in the world and her work is her transcript.

We look into other incredible women leaders in the automotive industry and the leadership lessons we can learn from them.

Leadership lessons from 3 influential women leaders in the auto industry

Dhivya Suryadevara, CFO – General Motors

Dhivya Suryadevara is the first woman CFO of General Motors. After joining the auto company in 2004, Suryadevara has quickly risen through the ranks. From handling GM’s $85 billion pension operations to overseeing’s GM’s restructuring and business development to retain its competitive edge, Suryadevara has victoriously met every challenge. As she told Real Simple, she always thrives and enjoyed anything challenging and complicated.

Now that GM is trying to salvage its agility in today’s technological disruption, Suryadevara has her role paved out to lead the auto company through this wave. As she told Detroit Business in 2017, Automakers “are going to be disrupted; we don’t want to be the one that’s disrupted. We want to be the disrupter, but with a strong balance sheet.”

Born and brought up in India, Suryadevara’s journey from Chennai to Harvard Business School and now the CFO of GM has been full of challenges – cultural, financial, and professional. What makes her one of the most influential women leaders in the auto industry is her undeterred spirit in the face of challenges.

Michelle Christensen, Automotive designer

Former lead exterior designer at Acura and Honda, Christensen was the first woman to lead the design team of a major supercar. Her design of the Acura NSX supercar left everyone stunned with its gorgeous design clothed with bold curves and sleek character lines.

Honda had big hopes riding on the second-gen NSX for it was a retrial for the car after production was stopped in 2005. Christensen had previously showcased her design and leadership acumen on several other Acura assignments including designing the concept of the Acura ZDX Crossover.

Honda was looking for someone who could make the propitious car as sleek and powerful on the exterior as it was under the hood and it found one in Christensen. The supercar was a smashing hit. Road & Track named the NSX its Performance Car of the Year for 2017 and words like “Ferrari-killer” were used.

“It looks fast even when it is parked,” Acura General Manager Mike Accavitti told the Los Angeles Times and his quote perfectly summed up the ingenious design of the Acura NSX 2016.

 People have been carrying the blokey image of the auto industry for a long time. But that didn’t stop Christensen from taking up the challenge. Michelle Christensen didn’t just become one of the most popular women leaders in automotive by designing a gorgeous car but also laid out the path for the many women aspiring yet hesitating to take on roles previously undertaken by only men.

Linda Jackson, CEO – Citroën

CEO of Citroën, a French car manufacturer, is popularly hailed as the most influential British woman in the automobile industry. Linda Jackson didn’t always aspire to be in the car business. It was a summer job at Jaguar and a clerical position at MG Rover that got her enthralled by the industry. Once she was smitten by the industry, she never looked back. Since her appointment as the CEO of Citroën, the French automaker has seen a remarkable rise of the brand and sales.

An exceptional leader, she has led Citroën through many pioneering initiatives among which is the launch of the first car review website by an auto manufacturer where customers can review dealerships, cars, and even salespeople. Being customer-focused has always been on Jackson’s agenda.

In an interview with Management Today, she talks about the protracted myths about the industry which she has largely debunked. One of them is the perception of the auto industry as predominantly involved in engineering and sales or that you have to be a petrol head to like working in the industry. Jackson came from a finance and management background which helped her look beyond the technicalities of car manufacturing and into customer perspectives.

From a period of turmoil to leading Citroën into a period of stable growth, Jackson’s leadership has been conducive to the automaker’s continuity. Now with Jackson leading the company with a technology and mobility oriented vision, we can expect to see a lot more of Citroën in the future.

The post Leadership Lessons from 3 Influential Women Leaders in the Auto Industry appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

After Mary Barra was passed on the baton of the most important position of General Motors, all eyes were on her. Some of them were that of admiration while many were also of condemnation and callous criticism.

In the very first year of becoming the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra was faced with a major crisis involving safety malfunctions in the older vehicles of GM.

However, the crisis only made her stronger. She depicted her commendable skills of problem-solving and led GM out of the puddle with its reputation intact. Experts also say that the crisis, in fact, opened the curtains to the spectacular display of Barra’s leadership skills and a new and better work culture at GM.

Mary Barra is a role model for many.  Her leadership style is an inspiration for industry leaders in every sector.

Here are five noteworthy leadership lessons from Mary Barra that we all should learn

She is untethered by crisis

In her first year as the CEO of General Motors, Barra was faced with the ‘switchgate crisis’ that resulted in over 100 deaths. She led GM out of it by being honest and dealing with the problem head-on. She prioritized transparency and accountability – things that were absent in the culture of GM for a long time. Barra didn’t try to get rid of the scandal instead she made sure nothing similar ever happened again. She accepted GM’s mistake publicly, hired Kenneth Fienberg, known for handling high-profile victim compensation cases, and initiated a thorough investigation.

Millions of cars were recalled, several employees were fired and Barra had to testify against the Congress. She made customer safety and transparency a priority over costs. She then introduced the ‘speak for safety program’ that encourages employees to report issues without the fear of punishments to encourage accountability and responsibility.

She is an excellent communicator

One of the most noteworthy leadership lessons from Mary Barra to learn is the skill of lifelong learning and exploring. While rising through the ranks in GM, she moved through communications, human resources, operations, and management.

In her speech at the Wharton People Analytics Conference, she said, “really focusing on engaging with people, and making sure you do win their hearts and minds … and how you empower them, I think has been key.”

During the 1998 General Motors strike, Mary Barra was appointed as the internal communications director to bridge the communication gap between union workers and the management.  Her leadership style involves giving her subordinates and peers the space to express their opinions. With this communication flair, Barra was able to initiate a communications strategy where communication moved both ways on the hierarchy ladder so that meltdowns could be tackled before they materialized. Her communication style, which involves calling meetings impromptu to discuss issues and find solutions without delay, is another important leadership skill to learn from Mary Barra.

She looks at the bigger picture, always

GM was a sinking ship and the prime reason was red-tapism and lack of innovation. After she became the VP of global development, she eliminated redundant executives involved in decision making to make the decision-making process swift.

An extraordinary example of the remarkable leadership skills of Mary Barra is how she put General Motors back on track from filing bankruptcy to regaining its stature of being one of the most important auto companies in the US in just four years.  She did it by bidding farewell to outmoded operations and prioritizing innovation. On her watch, GM invested millions in electric vehicles and self-driving cars to keep the company profitable in today’s agile world. As a result, GM walloped Tesla by rolling out moderately priced, long-range electric vehicle.

She cares

Leadership lessons from Marry Barra teach us how important it is for leaders to act responsibly for people and the society. Equileap’s 2018 Global Report on Gender Equality noted that GM is one of just two global businesses that have pay equality in top, middle and bottom ‘bands’ as well as overall no gender pay gap across the company.

In the commencement speech she delivered at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2016, she said, “As leaders, we have an obligation to act responsibly and courageously for people and the planet, because our actions have long-term effects on the generations that come after us. It means creating workplaces where every employee is empowered to contribute to his or her full potential. It means working to improve the communities where we live and work by.”

With a passion for helping others and remarkable business acumen, CEO of General Motors is a role model for many. Here are four leadership lessons from Mary Barra that every aspiring leader should live by.

The post Leadership Lessons from GM CEO – Mary Barra appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

The influential leaders at the vanguard of this shift are poised to thrive at the intersection of innovation, commerce, and sustainability. Industry Leaders magazine looks at the most influential industry leaders in healthcare who are leading the many stakeholders of the industry in the expansion and development of healthcare.

Influential industry leaders in Healthcare

Atul Gawande

CEO- Haven

Atul Gawande – CEO of the JPMorgan, Amazon and Hathaway venture – Haven, professor at Harvard and an acclaimed writer for the New Yorker, is known for changing the course of healthcare in the US. Haven is a joint nonprofit company aimed at lowering the healthcare costs of the combined 1.2 million employees of the three companies. Under his guidance, haven aims to fundamentally change how the healthcare system is structured. Dr. Gawande is known for his thought-provoking articles and books – four bestselling books – “Complications,” “Better,” “The Checklist Manifesto” and “Being Mortal.”

He extensively writes about problems that plague the healthcare system and increase unnecessary medical costs of consumers. His article titled “The Cost Conundrum” attracted the eyes of several high-ranking officials including former president Barack Obama who, according to The New York Times, made the article “required reading in the oval office.”

David S. Wichmann

CEO – UnitedHealth Group

As the CEO of the largest healthcare company in the world by revenue, David S. Wichmann foresees the overall strategic direction of the company. The company claims to be going through an innovation wave that is backed by data analytics. Wichman’s stature as one of the most influential healthcare leaders is solidified by his efforts in leading UnitedHealth Group’s enterprise-wide adaptation of digital health technology. Wichman is on a mission to augment human interactions with digital channels to help consumers make better healthcare decisions and enable providers to offer personalized medical care.

Divya Nag

Director of Health – Apple

The youngest on this list of influential industry leaders in healthcare, Divya Nag was an entrepreneur at just 20. Her company Stem Cell Theranostics is attacking one of medicine’s biggest problems – the loss of stem cells when kept in a petri dish. Nag’s company turns cells into heart cells that can persist in a petri dish and be used to test new drugs.

She currently heads Apple’s efforts in health-tech and has led the team at Apple in developing ResearchKit – an open-source app developer that provides data storage and information sharing to doctors and researchers. Nag leads the team behind Series 4 Apple Watch which will have ground breaking health tools like an emergency response system and a medical-grade EKG heart rate monitor.

Jennifer Doudna

Inventor of CRISPR-Cas9

Jenny Doudna is an influential figure in the ‘gene-editing tool revolution” for her work with Emmanuelle Charpentier in the development of CRISPR Cas9 – an invention considered to be one of the most groundbreaking in the history of Biology.

CRISPR –Cas9 is a gene-editing tool that has provided the means to edit genes on a larger scale and at minimal costs. It is currently the simplest, most versatile and precise method of genetic manipulation and is therefore, a buzzing word in the health industry. Cas9 can be used in treating several serious genetic disorders.

Doudna’s first remarkable discovery was uncovering the structure and function of the first ribozyme, a type of catalytic RNA which helped revolutionize RNA research.

Ken Frazier

CEO – Merck & Co.

One of the most influential leaders in healthcare, Kenneth Frazier is the CEO of Merck & Co – a company known to develop medicines and vaccines for the world’s most challenging diseases. Under his leadership, the company has consistently invested in research and development while focusing on developing treatments for life-threatening diseases. One of the treatments developed with this focus was an investigational vaccine for Ebola deployed in the Republic of Congo. According to Bloomberg, in 2013 Frazier took a big financial risk and prioritized research over meeting the company’s earnings target.

Since Frazier’s appointment as CEO in 2011, the company’s stock price has doubled. Under his leadership Keytruda – Merck’s cancer immunotherapy drug achieved a reputation of being one of the most significant drugs in a new generation of oncology treatments. Last year, Merck’s board of directors revised its policy to retain Frazier as the chairman and CEO even after turning 65.

These industry leaders in healthcare are leading the way in changing the outlook of the healthcare industry from a volume-centric industry to a care and value-based industry. Aided by the current thrust of digital transformation, influential leaders in healthcare continue to bring harmony among providers, governments, organizations, researches, and consumers in making health services more accessible, affordable, swift, and efficient.

The post Most Influential Industry Leaders in Healthcare of 2019 appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

America’s thirst for beers appears insatiable, with over $1 billion spent on beer alone this Fourth of July. This comes as no surprise to those accustomed to cookouts, get-togethers and, well, drinking. We all know it, and that’s why you’re here with us reading about America’s top beer holidays.

While any of the 365 days in a year are the perfect excuse to pop a top, there are specific beer drinking holidays that are finely sprinkled throughout the calendar to give us extra motivation.

Here’s are America’s top beer holidays

According to the data collected by the National Beer Wholesales Association (NBWA), here are America’s top beer-drinking holidays.

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is the third-highest gorge-fest of the year, behind Thanksgiving and Superbowl Sunday. In the days leading up to Independence Day, Americans ransack $1 billion worth of beer and cider from supermarkets. This year’s July 4^th beer sales could pass $1.6 billion, according to WalletHub, making the Fourth of July one of America’s top beer and barbeque holidays.

We know these facts are a little hard to digest. Why not crack open a few cold ones before we move on to the next beer holiday of the year?

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is the second-largest beer sales period in the United States after the Labor Day weekend. While liquor stores are closed on Memorial Day, this doesn’t stop Americans from guzzling down gallons worth of beer.

Labor Day

For beer drinkers and barbeque lovers, Labor Day is a bittersweet holiday marking the end of summer. It’s also the perfect day for anyone who asks “What should we have for dinner tonight?”

Christmas

The two days of Christmas Eve and Christmas have become a beer holiday unto itself in recent years. Spend the beer holiday drinking your favorite brews with your friends and family.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has grown into one of America’s booziest holidays of the year. Revelers consume more on this day than on Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day. A few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, you’ll find a plethora of beer advertising on Twitter.

Cinco de Mayo

You might be thinking, ‘What does Cinco de Mayo have to do with beer?’ We don’t know, either! But head over to your local pub and pick up a few beers anyway!

Halloween

On Halloween, Americans are eager to wear their thirst on their sleeve. With the rise of in popularity of pumpkin beers, it gives people an opportunity to be festive about their beer choice. During Halloween, a net total of 50.9 million beer cases are sold nationwide.

St. Patrick’s Day

According to a recent Nielsen CGA Analysis, St. Patrick’s Day is the equivalent of a pot of gold for brewers, distributors in the United States. During St. Patrick’s Day last year, national stout sales increased by 141% from the previous weekend. In Chicago, stout sales rose by 688%, and in Boston, an enclave for the Irish, stout sales saw an uplift of 355% from the previous weekend.

Happy Independence Day! Cheers!

The post The Complete Guide to America’s Top Beer Holidays appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.