Despite the ongoing challenges facing the world as it navigates pandemic recovery, businesses across every sector are targeting growth. Having paused to meet the difficulties created by lockdown, organizations are now taking the harsh lessons learned during the past 18 months and using them to build ambitious expansion strategies.

For many, the future lies in going global, and enhanced global reach is the linchpin in the growth strategy of today’s corporations. Moreover, recent technological advances make it possible for virtually any organization to do business globally. 

The widespread adoption of the internet provided a huge catalyst for growth. Investors realized that the U.S. represented about 26 percent of the world’s economy, leaving close to three quarters up for grabs by domestic-focused software companies empowered by ubiquitous digital infrastructure.  

Today, this is reflected in the globalized structure of the world’s biggest and most successful businesses – companies listed on the Fortune 500 operate in an average of 317 international locations. There’s no doubt, therefore, that going global enables organizations to focus on transformational success. The motivation for doing so can vary and may be triggered by a range of opportunities: 

First-mover advantage 

Companies understand the potential beyond their domestic markets and borders, so the push to expand internationally is often fuelled by the transient opportunity to secure a first-mover advantage in their industry or product category. 

This has become particularly important in the digital economy, where the power that comes from being first in a region and a product category has helped many organizations to achieve a significant competitive advantage. This strategy typically sits at the heart of the need to deliver growth and supports a bigger, long-term vision for the company. 

The availability of local talent 

For others, hiring an individual in another country creates the impetus for global growth. In some cases, this is because the organization has successfully hired an established top performer in that territory. Conversely, there may have been a longstanding ambition to establish a local office, but the company has held off until it could locate a qualified employee. Either way, the catalyst is the availability of talent located elsewhere but who is believed to be critical for the company’s future growth. That professional’s geographic location then spawns a larger-scale effort to grow the company from that one location. 

Remote working has reached a tipping point 

As we all know, just over 18 months ago, workplace norms changed overnight as remote work moved from being a preference to a mandate. While millions of people headed home to conduct work from a makeshift home office, some moved out of cities temporarily to more remote locations, but all who could were still working.  

The change in workplace demographics was unprecedented in living memory. As of 2017, only 2.9 percent of the U.S. workforce, or 3.9 million employees, worked from home at least half the time, according to data from FlexJobs. By late 2020, research by Gallup revealed that two-thirds of U.S. workers who had been working remotely during the pandemic expressed interest in continuing to do so. 

Almost simultaneously, many of the traditional barriers to international expansion are quickly disappearing, with digital platforms available that allow organizations to cost-effectively outsource key operational functions, from HR and tax to compliance and payroll.  

Those organizations that embrace the potential in global expansion will be ideally positioned to reap the rewards in the short and long term. 

Brazilian healthtech startup Fix has developed a new cast for fixing broken limbs that is 3D-printed and biodegradable.

Made from environmentally friendly bioplastic — beetroot, sugarcane, and corn pulp — the web-like design lets the skin breathe, meaning less sweating and itching from traditional plaster casts, and it can also get wet without damage.

Once you’re healed and ready to dispose of it, the cast will biodegrade in 9 months and can be used as compost or fertilizer. Plaster casts are made from petroleum products and are tough to dispose of without creating environmental harm. Fix makes 30 different styles for fingers, wrists, and shoulders and has eliminated the need for 2.5 tons of plaster serving more than 4,000 patients.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, hospitals produce 4.4% of global greenhouse emissions. With many seeking to improve their medical waste recycling, this sector is primed for innovation.

In the mountains of western North Carolina, a midsize manufacturer recently faced a major pivot to its longtime product line. The product shift made it necessary to upgrade 500 T12 fluorescent high-bay lights to energy-efficient LEDs, a pretty hefty financial outlay for any company, but especially for one undergoing a large-scale product and plant overhaul.  

After analyzing their options and learning about Duke Energy’s SmartPath™ program, the manufacturer realized they could upgrade their high-bay lights, receive rebates from Duke Energy, and leverage a loan through SmartPath that allowed them to complete the project with no money out of pocket and pay back the upgrade loan within two years. Future energy savings in addition to a lower carbon footprint for the facility were a welcome bonus. 

But first, what will it cost?  

Business owners in every industry are faced with similar questions: How can I upgrade expensive systems – buildings, HVAC, lighting, to name a few examples – and pay for the upfront costs? How can I find a trustworthy contractor? And how am I supposed to figure this out while running a successful business at the same time? 

Energy efficiency upgrades are a huge lift for most business owners. Although they know that improvements to energy efficiency can help reduce operating costs, lower utility bills, reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and lead to increased revenue, the bottom line is that upgrades can be a costly proposition. 

Where business meets improvements 

The amount of energy that businesses consume is staggering. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), 4.6 million small buildings (which often house small businesses) in the U.S. utilize 44% of the overall commercial building energy use. ENERGY STAR^® estimates industrial plants spend nearly $125 billion on energy every year. Small businesses ring up more than $60 billion in energy bills, mostly in the form of electricity. 

But opportunities to reduce costs through energy efficiency improvements abound in nearly all industries. When looking at industrial plants, as one example, energy powers numerous systems: air conditioning, lighting and appliances. Add to that list furnaces and boilers, motor systems that pump fluids and compress gasses, and machinery driven by compressed air. These systems have been identified by ENERGY STAR as offering sizable potential energy efficiency improvements and energy cost reductions.

Benefits to the business and the planet 

Most business owners know that older equipment and systems cost them in various ways, not the least being higher energy bills. When upgrading to greater energy efficiency, businesses can look forward to increased profits realized through lower operating costs and utility bills. Boosting energy efficiency should also raise overall property value and increase potential rental income. 

The EPA reported the electricity sector was the second-largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, making up 25% of the U.S. total. Improving energy efficiency means that businesses will rely less on carbon-intensive power plants. As demand for electricity falls, less carbon dioxide emissions are released into the environment. For environmentally conscious business owners and plant managers, upgrading to energy-efficient systems, lighting and equipment is a win-win for the planet and the business.

Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about sustainability, which can extend to making spending decisions based on a brand or company’s investment in contributing to the health of the environment. By investing in energy efficiency, businesses have an opportunity to increase market share and marketability for this important topic.

Improvements beyond the bottom line  

When considering an investment in energy efficiency, most plant managers and business owners think of system improvements such as heating, ventilation or air conditioning. But upgrades in lighting technology can lead to increased productivity and safety.

A study from the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics compared fluorescent and LED lighting and discovered an 8.3% performance improvement in visual and cognitive assignments. Study volunteers also had quicker response times, less fatigue and elevated activity.  

Imagine a plant running two shifts, with employees crossing a dark parking lot once the sun sets. For these employees, a well-lighted parking lot can lead to fewer workplace accidents and contribute to a valuable sense of safety and security. 

Investing in energy efficiency can affect more than utility expenditures and employee well-being. It can also give a boost to the customer experience through improvements such as air conditioning, heating, lighting or other comforts. Environmentally conscious customers may wish to know that their favorite business is concerned about the health of the planet. Consider updating marketing materials, websites and social media in an effort to burnish the organization’s brand image.

Next steps: forecasting future savings 

The first step most energy efficiency experts agree on is to determine the business’s energy usage with an energy assessment. Many utility companies offer free assessments where they will search for leaks and insulation needs and assess ways to upgrade to more energy-efficient lighting. 

Next, work with a contractor to estimate energy savings. Utility companies may provide a list of vetted contractors who have experience forecasting savings based on energy and cost efficiency targets. Consider involving employees who may wish to lower the business or plant’s carbon footprint. Their creative ideas may benefit the business as well as create a stronger workplace culture as the team works to cut costs, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Explore energy efficiency financing options such as tax credits, loans, grants and leases. Often, these programs have a five-year payback (or less) period to help make the project more affordable. Using projected energy savings, business leaders can clearly see the costs and benefits to these options so they can make a solid business case for the upgrades.  

Taking the SmartPath

Duke Energy knew that business leaders in North Carolina and South Carolina often wanted to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities, buildings and plants but were hesitant due to steep upfront costs. SmartPath,* a new program for business customers in the two states, offers a way to get those energy-efficient upgrades done with little to no upfront investment. 

How it works: SmartPath offers robust rebates based on an energy savings calculation after an initial free assessment and proposal by a trusted contractor. After the customer is accepted into the SmartPath program, the estimated energy savings are calculated and verified by the Duke Energy engineering team. The final rebate amount is paid based on the customer’s actual savings. For qualified customers, upfront costs may be eliminated through the use of financing provided by the National Energy Improvement Fund.**

Duke Energy and climate change 

As one of the nation’s largest electricity providers, Duke Energy is committed to the environment and strives to lower the risk of climate change by reducing carbon emissions and investing in resilient infrastructure. The energy provider aims to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from electricity generation at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Learn more at duke-energy.com/SmartPath.

*SmartPath is available to all North Carolina and South Carolina business electric customers of Duke Energy and Duke Energy Progress. Companies must also be opted in to the Energy Efficiency (EE) Rider. Customers must choose from a published list of company-authorized trade allies to perform an energy assessment at the eligible customer’s facility at no charge to the customer. Customers are responsible for verifying certifications/licensing, if any, of the trade ally they choose.

**Financing is offered to those who qualify and is not offered by Duke Energy. Financing is solely between the National Energy Improvement Fund and the customer or trade ally.

As many of us rapidly approach our year anniversary of working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jellyfish Training has been reminiscing about office life.

With this in mind, they have teamed up with Jellyfish, a digital transformation agency, and asked Mark Deprose, VP of Real Estate & Facilities, to provide actionable tips and insights. He discusses how employees can improve their at-home setups and gives tips for how employers can adapt their office environments to aid in returning to office life.

In addition, they asked children what they think offices will be like in the future after COVID-19. They were tasked with drawing their own ideal office and brought the designs to life in the drawings below. From breakout beaches to hover robots, the designs show how children think adults deserve some futuristic fun when offices return to normal.

Managing Your Space

As we move into a more hybrid way of working, with staff working more of their year from home, as well as the uncertainty of the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to get control of your real estate. There are now 100’s of tools on the market that enable businesses to manage and measure their space effectively and enable staff to book desks and meeting rooms – all through one platform. With these tools, we can start to understand our staff’s behavior, where they sit, who, and how frequently, which will help inform our future space decisions. Accurate data is also critical in helping us know when to increase or decrease the amount of office space we need, especially when closely linked with a recruitment strategy.

Adapting to a New Way of Working

The way our staff will use the office in the future will change, though we still need the data to back this theory up. Staff will be able to choose to work from home when they need to concentrate, but come to the office to see their colleagues, collaborate on projects, and have fun. Before lockdown, there was already a shift in office design and pushing for different ways of working, with a real emphasis on providing less open-plan desks and more quiet work areas and fun communal space. The data will now be a key decision-maker in designing space going forward and creating environments that will draw staff out of their homes.

Retaining the Culture

Company culture and the people in your business should never be underestimated and make a company unique. Video conferencing is a means to an end — and we’ve proved we can all work effectively from home — but isn’t a substitute for an actual face-to-face meeting. COVID has forced the hand of business owners, making them review their working from home policy, but it shouldn’t mean we turn our back on the office; in fact, the office will now play a more critical role than ever, giving staff a safe environment to go and collaborate with their colleagues and develop their working relationships – something that just cannot be replicated online.

Comfort Should be Your Number One Priority

Ensure you invest in a good chair. There are lots of cheap chairs out there, but you can’t guarantee their comfort. Purchasing a proper branded office task chair will ensure you have a product designed specifically for long periods of use, unlike a dining room chair or stool. Also, ensure you have everything at the correct height – simple modifications can make a big difference to your comfort and reduces the risk of back and neck strain. If you don’t have the budget for expensive furniture, then there are many effective products out there that can help improve your existing furniture.

Create a Nice Environment to Work

Try and position yourself near a natural light source or window, which will help provide a better outlook and a potential fresh air source in the summer. If you don’t have access to natural light, then make sure you have adequate light in the room. Try introducing daylight bulbs and additional lamps if the space is too dark. Keep well organized, and make sure you have plenty of storage around you so you can keep your environment clutter-free. Also, introduce plants to your space as they will help improve air quality and look great. One thing people also forget is what others can see when on video calls. Make sure you keep the room tidy, especially the area that’s in view on video calls. Even put some pictures up if you have blank walls.

Have the Best Possible Technical Setup 

Your internet connection is key to success as pretty much all business is now reliant on the internet and done through a browser. If possible, try and make a hard wired ethernet connection from your PC/laptop to your Wifi router, instead of relying on a wireless connection, which others could share. This will hopefully provide a more reliable connection, saving any embarrassment from poor connection on calls. Also, invest in some good quality Bluetooth headphones with a microphone, so you can switch between calls, video conferencing, and listening to music. Earbuds are great as they are more discrete, just don’t forget to charge them!

Once upon a time, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google were darlings in Congress and people’s hearts. They seemed to promise a dazzling new techno-future.

But that relationship has soured significantly, as Facebook and Google have become platforms for deception as much as enlightenment and commerce. Fear over Facebook grew in the 2016 election with the widespread effort by Russia to influence the United States election.

And so we now hear calls to regulate or even “break up” some of these famed technological giants.

The 21st-century ecology of social media represents a modern-day example of how, throughout the history of the U.S., the very “bigness” of big business has alternately been celebrated and vilified.

Before the Civil War, most U.S. businesses were small. But the rise of the railroad industry coupled with the demands of Civil War armies catapulted the country into its first era of big business. The Civil War trained a generation of leaders to manage vast numbers of people and large-scale, complex logistical operations. These leaders subsequently helped grow the railroad, steel, and coal industries, out of which behemoths such as Standard Oil emerged.

Often described as the quintessential “robber baron,” J. P. Morgan epitomized the early big business era. He helped create General Electric and International Harvester, acquired a controlling interest in half of the country’s railroad miles, and engineered the formation of the first billion-dollar company, U.S. Steel. At one point, he was a board member of 48 corporations.

Before long, however, the size and power of these large companies were called into question. Big business capitalist heroes became villains. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. (“Trusts” were a legal device to combine companies across state lines when it was difficult to do so because of state laws.) With this act, the federal government took the first major legal step against monopolistic business practices.

In 1911, under the Sherman Act, the government brought an antitrust suit against Standard Oil, which had a 64 percent market share of the refined oil market. As a result, the Supreme Court ordered that Standard Oil be made small again — broken up into 34 new companies. Ironically, these new companies thrived, and the breakup proved immensely profitable for shareholder John D. Rockefeller, as the combined net worth of the companies increased fivefold.

The largest companies continued to be vilified during the Great Depression. But once again, war — specifically, World War II — made heroes of them since they were instrumental in building the airplanes, tanks, and other war machinery. This heralded a new post-war golden age of big business, with corporate giants such as General Motors, DuPont, and IBM.

But bigness seems to reach a point when its very bigness stifles the creativity and progress of an industry. This happened to AT&T, deemed too large and powerful in the late 20th century. So in 1984, as the culmination of an antitrust lawsuit filed ten years earlier, AT&T was broken up into several independent companies known as Baby Bells. New, specialized long-distance carriers such as Sprint and MCI emerged in the breakup’s aftermath. The ensuing surge of competition collapsed long-distance telecommunications costs, which dropped from 25 cents a minute in the 1970s to 5 cents a minute in the 1990s.

The imminent revolution in computers and telecommunications would have been far more difficult without the breakup of AT&T. The sheer dominance of AT&T — a function of its size — would have smothered efforts at communication innovation.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 shattered the industry oligopoly that earlier regulations had protected. As a result, airfares plummeted, and airline passenger miles grew from 297 million in 1980 to 466 million in 1990, to 607 million in 2007. Pan Am, Eastern Air Lines, and Braniff International found they could not compete without protective regulations and subsequently failed. At the same time, deregulation seeded new low-cost carriers, such as Southwest Airlines, Peoples Express, and, eventually, Spirit Airlines.

Today the technology giants are facing the same criticisms as their business ancestors, such as U.S. Steel and AT&T, and it’s tempting to conclude that the sheer bigness of big business inherently creates a problem. But history reveals a more complex story. For a public cause such as mobilizing to win a war, a business Goliath wins the day. But for seeding innovation and creativity, a business David can often bring the advantage. And the level and role of regulation in limiting power and protecting consumers is part of this story.

Whatever may happen with technology companies today, it will extend a long historical tug of war between the celebration and vilification of big business.

Have you or your employees been feeling work-from-home burnout and Zoom fatigue these past months despite the supposed convenience of working from home and using videoconferences to meet?

Unfortunately, the vast majority of efforts to address WFH burnout try to treat the symptoms without addressing the root causes. The fundamental root cause of WFH burnout stems from organizations adapting their existing ways of interacting in “office culture” to remote work. To defeat WFH burnout, organizations need to understand the reality of the problems leading to WFH burnout to survive and thrive in our new world. Otherwise, using office-style culture to conduct virtual work simply forces a square peg into a round hole, leading staff to burn out.

Recognize the 12 Problems Leading to Work-From-Home Burnout

Combining my expertise in emotional and social intelligence with research on the specific problems of working from home during COVID, I’ve untangled these two concepts into a series of factors:

1. Deprivation of our basic human need for meaning and purpose. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the vast majority of us don’t realize we aren’t simply experiencing work-from-home burnout. We’re deprived of the fulfillment of basic human needs of meaning and purpose that we get from work. Our sense of self and identity, personal narratives, and the meaning-making we have in our lives are tied to our work. That’s all severely disrupted by shifting to remote work.
2. Deprivation of our basic human need for connection. Our work community fulfills the need for connection for many of us. Work-from-home cuts us off from much of our ability to connect effectively to our colleagues as human beings, rather than little squares on a screen.
3. Deprivation of building trust. In office settings, it’s easy to build trust through informal interactions. This trust-building doesn’t happen naturally in virtual settings. There’s a reason teams that start virtual but later meet in person work together substantially better after doing so. By contrast, teams that shift from in-person settings to virtual ones gradually lose that sense of shared humanity and trust.
4. Deprivation of mentoring and informal professional development. A critical part of on-the-job learning stems from informal mentoring from senior colleagues. It also comes from the observational professional development you get from seeing how your colleagues do their jobs. Losing this mentoring has proven especially challenging for younger employees.
5. It’s not simply “Zoom fatigue.” It’s a real experience, but it’s not about Zoom or any other videoconference software. The big challenge stems from our intuitive expectations about virtual meetings bringing us energy through connecting to people but failing to get our basic need for connection met. Even if they’re strictly professional, in-person meetings still get us to connect on a human-to-human level. By contrast, our emotions just don’t process videoconference meetings as truly connecting us on a human-to-human gut level.
6. Forcing a square peg into a round hole. Many companies try to replace the office culture glue of social and emotional connection through Zoom happy hours and similar activities that transpose in-person bonding events into virtual formats. Unfortunately, such activities don’t work well. Similar to other videoconferences, we have intuitively elevated expectations. We end up disappointed and frustrated by failing to have our needs met.
7. Lack of skills in virtual work technology tools. This problem leads to lowered productivity and frustrating experiences for those who need to collaborate.
8. Lack of skills in effective virtual communication. It’s notoriously hard to communicate effectively, even in-person. Effective communication becomes much more difficult when in-office teams become virtual teams.
9. Lack of skills in effective virtual collaboration. There’s no natural way to have the needed casual interactions vital to effective collaboration and teamwork. Body language and voice tone are important to noticing brewing people problems, and virtual communication provides us fewer opportunities to detect such issues.
10. Lack of accountability. In-office environments allow for natural ways to hold employees accountable. Leaders can easily walk around the office, visually observing what’s going on and checking in with their direct reports on their projects. The same applies to peer-to-peer accountability: it’s much easier to ignore an email with that question than someone stopping you in the hallway or standing in the doorway to your office. You’ll need to replace that accountability with a different structure for remote work.
11. Poor work-from-home environments. Some employees might have access to quiet spaces and a stable internet connection, while others may not. Given the restrictions brought about by the pandemic, overhauling workspaces will take significant time and resources not available to many.
12. Poor work/life boundaries. Ineffective separation of work and life stems from both employer and employee actions. In the long term, doing so causes lowered productivity, increased errors, and eventual burnout.

Conclusion

Work-from-home burnout and Zoom fatigue are much more complex than they appear. You need to implement a wholesale strategic shift to reframe your company culture and policies from the “emergency mode” of working from home to remote work being the new normal.