Brick By Brick: Rebuilding the Basics

Editor’s Note I

f you took a time machine back even just fifteen years, you would find a world quite different from the one we inhabit today. Most Americans still used dial-up to access the web, and nobody fiddled with smartphones at the dinner table. The U.S. President looked about the same as his forebears—and private citizen Donald Trump was celebrating the launch of his new television show, The Apprentice. On the surface, it’s easy to appreciate how much society can change in essentially the blink of an eye.

The Spring 2019 issue of Business Today uncovers the ways in which the evolutions in decades-old enterprises and industries are reflected in today’s business practices and sociocultural landscape. As we look at how contemporary workforce changes and scientific developments have pushed market stalwarts and startups alike to refashion long-serving strategy, we see how companies and entrepreneurs hold fast to core principles while radically modernizing the ways in which they were established.

The industry titans we talked to for this issue had a variety of insights to offer about adapting to change at the current breakneck pace of market evolution. WayUp CEO Liz Wessel illustrates a future without ‘ghosting,’ where job applicants hear back from every position to which they apply. Toronto Blue Jays CEO and President Mark Shapiro discusses how the Moneyball-esque era of stats-driven baseball decision making is taking a U-turn toward human judgment. National Geographic C.E.O. Gary Knell describes how a '360 approach to media' is paving the way for communication about the future of our climate. Co-founder of Berkshire Partners and Chairman of High Meadows Foundation Carl Ferenbach chronicles the transformation of the private equity industry over the past half-century and applying industry techniques to environmental conservation. Marc Merrill, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Riot Games, histories the globalization of the video game industry and the rapid rise of esports’ cultural relevance. Chuck Edward, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Microsoft, explains the necessity of integrating human creativity with machine precision even as the technology sector looks to AI. Growing social awareness among consumers, promulgated by the rise of social media and an increasingly accessible media landscape, has incentivized corporate responsibility and forced companies to engage in more socially-conscious practices. The democratization of higher education through the introduction of tools like affordable, accredited online colleges and classes has paved the way for a new cohort of non-traditional students to compete in the job market. However, this same modernization has spelled the demise of other industries. The once-burgeoning taxi industry is struggling to compete with Uber and Lyft, and it remains to be seen whether growing sentiment favoring environmental consciousness will come at the price of energy affordability for the average consumer.

Brick By Brick: Rebuilding the Basics explores the ways in which companies and industries have shifted their techniques as they continue to pursue their core goals and abiding principles in an ever-modernizing ecosystem. Such enterprise evolutions are occurring everywhere from the Department of Defense to The Lego Group and The New York Times. Our writers inspect how Amazon’s teaming up with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to reshape American healthcare could script a future where Alexa notices your cough and makes you a clinic appointment. Analyzing trends stretching back to the Civil Rights Movement, we trace transformative messaging in music and how the relatively recent proliferation of music festivals has allowed artists an expansive platform to advocate for social change.

Over its 51 years of publication, Business Today has evolved in similar fashion. The Magazine was established before females were first admitted to Princeton, but its three most recent editions have been led entirely by women. Now, in addition to publishing our biannual Magazine, we regularly post to our Online Journal, which evaluates topical business and political issues from a crucial student lens. Still, we hold fast to our founding mission: to provide college students up-close access to leading executives, and to equip aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs with the tools to succeed. I am immensely proud of all the work which went into producing this magazine, and hope the articles and interviews contained in this edition inspire you as they have inspired me.

MALLORY WILLIAMSON Editor-in-Chief 2 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

CONTRIBUTORS

Photo by Everett Shen

Published at Princeton University, Business Today is the most widely distributed student publication in North America, and has extensive online readership at our website, journal.businesstoday.org.

MALLORY WILLIAMSON Editor-in-Chief of Magazine

Business Today is dedicated to presenting the opinions of students and business leaders. By examining controversial issues facing our world and exploring life after college, we hope to help readers prepare for their futures.

The magazine has been published by Princeton University undergraduates since 1968.

SERENA REN Director of Design

NEEL AJJARAPU President ARIA WONG Director of Corporate Contacts and Finance ROGER CHEN Director of International Conference LIZA MILOV Director of Seminars GRACE HONG Director of Content ENVER RAMADANI Director of Design Nation Conference SERENA REN Director of Design VAIL LINN Director of Membership & Outreach MICHAEL MAN Director of Technology

GRACE XU Executive Editor of Magazine

MAXWELL CHUNG Editor-in-Chief of Online Journal MAYA EASHWARAN Executive Editor of Online Journal

EDITORIAL BOARD

WRITERS

Mark Agostinelli Charles Bagin Emily Cheston Lyubomir Hadjiyski Grace Kortum Molly Milligan Rhea Park Austin Stiefelmaier Quang Trinh Amy Wang Vivian Ufongene

Emily Cheston Lyubomir Hadjiyski Molly Milligan Rhea Park Austin Stiefelmaier Quang Trinh Amy Wang Kaylin Xu

DESIGNERS Business Today Princeton University 48 University Place Princeton, NJ 08540 609.258.1111 Business Today is a publication of the Foundation for Student Communication, Inc.. FSC, a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation, is run entirely by students for students at Princeton University. In addition to the magazine, FSC sponsors International and Regional Conferences held across the country that bring together students and executives to discuss the future of business. For more information, visit our website, journal.businesstoday.org.

Charlotte Adamo Ilene E Sonia Murthy Eloise Schrier Beverly Shen Wendi Yan Olivia Zhang

Cover design by Serena Ren

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

3

CHANGING THE FRAME FRESH TWISTS ON AGING INDUSTRIES

6 Who Will Save Healthcare?

Changes coming to the health care industry

8 An Interview with Liz Wessel CEO and Co-Founder of WayUp

12 Fast Food in the Fast Lane

Classic with future-forward in the quick-service industry

16 Green Is The New Black

Connecting between fast and sustainable fashion

18 An Interview with Carl Ferenbach

Co-Founder of Berkshire Partners and Chairman of High Meadows Foundation

4 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

TABLE OF CONTENTS BACK TO THE BASICS REVERTING TO CORE PRINCIPLES

22 Block By Block

How LEGO came to dominate its market

25 An Interview with Mark Shapiro President and CEO of Toronto Blue Jays

30 The Power of Music Amplifying messages of hope and progress

34 An Interview with Gary Knell Chairman of National Geographic Partners

FACING THE FUTURE TACKLING TOMORROW’S CHALLENGES

38 The Times, they are a changin’ Disruptions to legacy news media

42 An Interview with Marc Merrill Co-Chairman and CoFounder of Riot Games

46 An Interview with Chuck Edward

Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Microsoft

50 A 21st Century Arms Race

Battling red tape to keep the US on top

54 Intel and Esports: Staying on top

Tactics used to enter the gaming market

BLOCK BY BLOCK Page 22 ILLUSTRATED BY SONIA MURTHY

HIGHLIGHTS OF BUSINESS TODAY

56 Design Nation 2019

A recap of Business Today's most recent conference

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

5

CHANGING THE FRAME

Who Will Save Healthcare?

Amazon, J.P. Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway’s take on one of this generation’s biggest problems

BY AUSTIN STIEFELMAIER

A

ccording to data provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. healthcare expenditures accounted for a whopping 17.9% of national GDP in 2017. This figure is huge relative to the spending of other nations, representing just how large a part healthcare plays in our economy and everyday lives. But despite the shiny machines and quick-thinking doctors pronouncing lightning-quick diagnoses teased on Grey’s Anatomy or The Resident, today’s healthcare in many ways lags behind. Anyone who has engaged with it to any degree, whether by a run-of-themill clinic visit or a lengthy hospital stay, knows that American healthcare system is a complicated beast. Hefty paperwork, difficult scheduling, skyrocketing costs, and shipping delays all play parts in what makes already unpleasant visits worse. To say that the future of American healthcare is bleak, though, would be to overlook the new players in the industry, big and small, who are looking to shake things up.

There exist a variety of new healthcare startups with breathtakingly innovative ideas on how to revamp healthcare in America. However, these are by and large small ventures which will require significant time to leave their marks on the byzantine healthcare market. Enter

6 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

"Healthcare is regulated and complicated to a high degree, but if anyone can enter into a new market and give the regulars a run for their money, it’s

AMAZON"

Amazon (two words that surely frighten the leaders of any industry), Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan. On January 30, 2018, the companies announced that they would be pooling their resources to tackle the most pressing healthcare problems facing the U.S. in the 21st century. The

firms together have a combined total of over one million employees, and possess considerable resources to spend on what amounts to a test population. It stands to reason that if successful, Amazon would then take its systems forward and deploy them across the country. Healthcare is regulated and complicated to a high degree, but if anyone can enter into a new market and give the regulars a run for their money, it’s Amazon. So what changes are they planning to implement?

To do that, it makes sense to look back and see what Amazon has already done. For starters, the company acquired an online pharmacy, PillPack in June of 2018, and was rumored to be in talks to invest in other similar entities. Amazon has also entered into multiple partnerships over the past couple of years to enable their virtual assistant, Alexa, to make medical appointments, give answers from WebMD, and offer first aid advice. Last October, the firm went so far as to patent an ability for Alexa to detect when a user is sick. Add to that Amazon’s famously advanced computing, web, and logisticial technologies, and you begin to paint a picture of what a successful Amazon foray into healthcare might look like.

Imagine: in a couple of years, there’s an Amazon employee who’s feeling a bit

CHANGING THE FRAME

under the weather. The Echo Dot in his home notices he is sick and asks if he would like to schedule a doctor’s appointment at a company-affiliated primary care facility. Thanking Alexa, he answers in the affirmative. Before driving to the doctor’s office, he opens his Amazon health app and notes the projected wait time as he decides that he has time to stop off on an errand.

Before he forgets, he remotely checks into his appointment, sending the receptionist his ETA. Upon arrival, the appointment proceeds as usual—minus the muchdreaded wait time. Of course, his medical records and associated paperwork are electronically on file and safely encrypted

"Several industry players see Amazon’s challenge as a call for them to innovate, or be faced with the very real prospect of losing business"

provisions to its employees and those of its two partner firms. But even in this future, Amazon will have a foot in the door in healthcare: its online pharmacy. It is the most obvious extension of its existing capabilities as a distributor of goods. In the near future, you might not only buy AmazonBasics batteries, but also their new line of generic painkillers, flu medicine, or one of their many partners’ drugs.

While Amazon will undoubtedly have a difficult time with certain regulations and accepting insurance payments, it will provide a valuable service to the growing number of Americans who pay out-of-pocket for their medication.

It has become increasingly likely that Amazon will be at the forefront of change in healthcare. It may be that healthcare will be another spectacular flop for Amazon —like its smartphone business­—or it could be its next great moneymaker. One thing I can say with near absolute certainty is that several industry players see Amazon’s challenge as a call for them to innovate, or be faced with the very real prospect of losing business. The sudden dip in many

of the leading companies’ stock prices whenever Amazon announces a new major healthcare development certainly suggests that investors feel the same way. Change is clearly coming to healthcare, and it’s high time we infused some more 21st century tech into it. And maybe—as has been the case in so many other fields—Amazon will be the company leading the charge.

Illustrations by Olivia Zhang

using Amazon’s services; at most, he is just a few clicks away from satisfying the clinic’s office questions. Afterwards, he pulls up the doctor’s prescription in the health app—typed up, it’s incredibly legible and nearly impossible to lose. He looks it over and decides to order it through Amazon Pharmacy. Within a couple of hours, he is notified that his order’s been shipped and of the time it’ll arrive at his door. He drives home and gets some much-needed rest, comfortable with the knowledge that he will soon have the medicine he needs.

Admittedly, that story may never come to pass—it certainly will take a tremendous effort to make it happen. Most likely, Amazon will limit most of its healthcare

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

7

CHANGING THE FRAME

Liz Wessel Chief Executive Officer of WayUp

8 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

CHANGING THE FRAME

On democratizing access to the job search for college students and recent graduates WITH MALLORY WILLIAMSON Business Today: How did you get the idea for WayUp? What sorts of challenges have you encountered along the way in making it the success it is today?

Wessel co-founded WayUp at age 24 after leaving her job at Google

Liz Wessel: The idea for WayUp came in college, while my co-founder JJ and I were at the University of Pennsylvania. We saw firsthand how hard it was for college students to find really cool internships and jobs with companies that couldn’t necessarily come to their campus, or diverse part-time opportunities that would help students accelerate their resume.

So, originally, the idea came out of a personal frustration. I remember when I was applying for different internships in college, a lot of the companies I wanted to work for weren’t a really big presence at Penn, like Silicon Valley companies that, at the time, maybe would go to Penn once a year for a quick info session. I remember feeling frustration about two things: number one, not knowing which companies were looking for students like me, and number two, not really knowing what a job description meant. I think job descriptions are often very vague, and I remember thinking when I applied for a product marketing role at Google that I had no idea what a product marketing intern at Google does. Across all companies, I sensed a lack of transparency, if you will, about what the job search actually is. So fast forward two years—during which I worked at Google after college, and JJ at McKinsey—and we decided to leave our jobs to start WayUp. 4.5 years after starting WayUp, we’re now at over 5 million users, and over the years we’ve surveyed a bunch of our users, asking them questions like ‘what’s the most frustrating part of the job search?’ And it seems like there is a lot of information online about jobs—especially with the

Internet. But, what we’ve started to see are a lot of students saying 'I apply for 20 jobs and hear back from five of them.' So, what we’ve actually started to do over the last year is shift our focus from just helping connect students with job applications to helping students always hear back from what they apply for. We now are completely focused as a business on partnering with clients who will ensure that every single person hears back within 24 hours on whether or not they get to the next round of interviews, and then actually gets that next-round interview within a week. So, for example, if you applied for an internship at NASDAQ this past year, you would be guaranteed to hear back within 24 hours if you were eligible for a phone screen, and then you could schedule the phone screen for as soon as that same day, and it could be as soon as later that day or the next day. Every single candidate had that exact experience, whether they met NASDAQ in person or if they just applied online.

BT: After only about a year, you changed WayUp’s name from Campus Job. To what degree do you believe strengthening your branding has changed your business?

LW: The original reason for why we really changed our name from The Campus Job to WayUp was because we were also offering summer internships and full-time jobs for seniors, and The Campus Job doesn’t make sense if you’re thinking about what that means, as it implies that we only offer part-time jobs during school. We did also change our logo this past summer to build a stronger brand. I think that you want your brand, and your logo, and the way you speak and the pictures and colors you use to represent what you’re trying to do. I think one problem we were having

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

9

CHANGING THE FRAME

is that we didn’t have one unified way of speaking to our users. So, if one employee wrote one email, and another employee wrote the copy on our homepage, and another employee wrote another page’s copy, every piece of text sounded different.

We decided we wanted to have one unified brand, one where we’re all speaking the same language, so that no matter what we’re sending out it feels like WayUp. Hopefully, that will help our users feel like they understand what WayUp stands for.

BT: In what ways do you believe WayUp has distinguished itself from other job application websites? How have recent changes in the way people apply for jobs—like the ‘ghosting’ phenomenon, as you mentioned— played into WayUp’s successes?

LW: There are several ways WayUp is different from other platforms. By far, the biggest way is that, as far as I know, we are the only platform that is completely

on building. So I think the first one is about that user experience. That part is about the students, but it also helps the employers, because now they are getting fewer, but higher quality applications. The next one is about the information we’re giving to candidates. When you go to a place like Monster, yes, they have an unbelievable assortment of millions of jobs, and that can be sometimes overwhelming, but at the end of the day it’s just a lot of jobs. I would tell you that, on WayUp, when you see a job, we want you to learn more about the company and what you’re going to get if you end up working there, and so we’re trying to give you a lot more information about each job, which is why we have company profiles, and an entire content team that’s writing content about ‘a day in the life in this job,' ‘what this company actually stands for,’ ‘what it’s like to work there,’ and other similar topics. Third, but certainly not last, a differentiation point is that every job you see on WayUp is one that you are at least

"We are the only platform that is completely focused on making it so that when you see a job and apply... you actually hear back" focused on making it so that when you see a job and apply—it’s not all our jobs, don’t get me wrong, but the percentage is growing rapidly every week—you actually hear back. Imagine going to a platform where, after every application you submit, you hear back. You would probably shift the way you apply for jobs, and instead of using the ‘spray and pray’ method—where you apply for 100 jobs and hopefully hear back from ten—you’ll actually be much more thoughtful about which jobs you’re applying for, because you know you’ll hear back. That’s what we’re completely focused

10 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

mostly or fully qualified for. The reason is because we get profile information from each user, and then employers tell our system what qualifications they’re looking for, and then we filter out the candidates who the employer would automatically reject anyway. That also saves time for our students and employers.

BT: Do you believe that the fact that you and your co-founder aren’t very much older than the clientele you serve has helped you connect with your user base?

LW: I’m 28 and when I started the business, I was 24. JJ, my co-founder, is 29, and when he started it he was 25. I definitely think that us being closer in age in the early days allowed us to make sure that we are building for something that we, and our friends, and those we knew would want to use, but on the flip side, now that we’ve gotten older, it’s not like we are less in touch because we’re still talking to students all the time. We also have several employees dedicated to getting feedback from or talking to users. I still also read probably about 10% of our user support tickets—I’m reading our user tickets all the time, so I still find ways to stay in touch with the users. It’s so funny: I feel like being 28, I’m so old now!

But, the average college student—this is something most people don’t know—is 26 years old. So it’s not too different.

BT: How would you describe workplace culture at WayUp? How does the way the office is run affect the product you put out?

LW: Our culture is one where everyone is obsessed with learning. I think that it’s one of the top traits we look for when we hire someone: how do they learn, and are they a lifelong learner? We have nine leadership principles, which all together are what we think makes a great employee at WayUp. One of them is 'be a master at your craft, but know you’re not the master,' which means ‘be really good at what you do, but know that you can always improve, and always should be looking for ways to improve.’ I think that very much is indicative of our culture—it’s a team where everyone is incredibly passionate about what they do, and passionate about our mission. We’re a very mission-driven company—when we get an email from a student saying that they got hired through WayUp, we celebrate. We put the quotes up on the bathroom walls, and at our Friday team meetings we celebrate our ‘Hire of the Week,’ and put them in our internal newsletter. We love celebrating people getting hired, especially when it’s someone who got hired for a job they otherwise wouldn’t have found. My favorite

CHANGING THE FRAME

quotes are when someone says 'I never thought this company would have wanted me,' or 'I never would have found this company had it not been for WayUp.' BT: You have a super cool background for a young entrepreneur—you didn’t come from a traditional academic business background. How have you adapted the skills you took away from your studies of politics, Japanese, and math at the University of Pennsylvania to your work at WayUp? LW: My major had nothing to do with what I did after college. I think some people argue that majors help you with certain skills, but I would argue that the political science classes I took didn’t help me to be a better CEO. I know it’s controversial, but it’s how I feel. I decided I wanted to study something I loved, and I loved politics—and still do—and as a result I decided that I was going to study something I loved and build other skills and find other interests outside of the classroom, or in my minors, that can help me figure out what I want to do because I didn’t want to go into politics right out of college. I started one company in college, and that helped me learn that I loved entrepreneurialism, and that I believe that technology is the best way to scale a company. I also minored in math, which helped me with my quantitative skills. I did a lot of writing for some of my extracurricular clubs like Model Congress (probably more so than my poli sci classes), which helped me with my copy skills, and then senior year I could’ve graduated early but instead my last semester I took all these classes I thought would help me with marketing skills like a Photoshop class. I was very proud to say I was able to study something I loved, but I can tell you—as the person who gets to see all the data behind the scenes of what the best companies in the world are actually looking for, unless it’s a computer science job where, yes, they’re looking for computer science students, or an accounting job where they’re looking for accounting majors, with the exception of maybe 10 to 15 job types, most of our clients don’t care at all about what you study if they’re recruiting an undergrad.

And I think that’s a really cool thing! We have clients who are among the top banks on Wall Street who are really excited about an English major, as long as they also show a quantitative interest—maybe that

achieve and get into the careers that they want to get into, and internships can play such a crucial role in figuring out who you are and what you do and don’t like.

"I started one company in college, and that helped me learn that I loved entrepreneurialism, and that I believe that technology is the best way to scale a company" they’ve bought their own stocks on the side, or whatever it might be. They’re really excited about that diversity of interests.

BT: WayUp is the founder of National Intern Day. How does speaking directly to the intern experience affect your strategy?

LW: Everything we do, we do to help people figure out what they want to do for a living and to help them actually accomplish and achieve that. An internship is one of the most crucial aspects of figuring out what you want to do. Sometimes it helps you figure out what you do want to do, and sometimes it helps you figure out what you definitely don’t want to do. In college, I interned at Blackstone in Tokyo in a private equity internship, and it helped me learn two things: I definitely did not want to go into private equity coming out of college, and on the positive side, I did want to live abroad—I did get to do that while at Google.

We have such a focus on internships because our ultimate goal is to help as many college students and recent graduates achieve the careers that they want to

BT: What advice would you give a college student looking to found their own business?

LW: I would say try to start when you’re in college. I think you can learn very quickly whether you actually are cut out for the entrepreneurial world and whether you actually like it. I think you can learn some of the hard-to-learn skills while still not risking everything because you’re still a student and can get away with a lot more. If you’re a student entrepreneur, you’ll get a lot more responses to emails. I would say, anyone who’s thinking about it, stop thinking about it and just try doing something in college, and you can see for yourself if it’s the lifestyle you want, because it’s not a lifestyle that’s super glamorous.

Photograph courtesy of Liz Wessel

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

11

SECTION

Fast Food in the Fast Lane

BY KAYLIN XU

SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

2019BUSINESS BUSINESSTODAY TODAY 1212 SPRING FALL 2018

CHANGING THE FRAME

Balancing classic flavors with future-forward tastes in the quick-service industry

I

n a world where demand for speed seems to permeate every aspect of our lives, it is no wonder that quickservice restaurants (QSRs), known colloquially as ‘fast food,’ have an important place in many people’s lives. However, notorious for their deleterious effects on health and the environment, QSRs have had to struggle with consumer demands that are increasingly health-conscious and eco-conscious. Despite consistent and striking growth in sales of natural food and beverage products over the past few years, the QSR industry has not floundered as much as one might expect. In the US, the fast food industry is growing—currently worth about 198.9 billion USD, the industry is poised to exceed a worth of $223 billion by 2020. A particular standout is Chickfil-A, which saw a 13.4% rise in same store sales just last quarter. The question then arises: what can explain the unexpected persistence of the QSR industry in the face of rising health and environmental concerns in the public eye? The answer may lie in the examination of the reaction of major QSRs to shifting consumer demands.

McDonald’s is by far the giant in the QSR industry, holding a whopping 17% of market share. However, even it was hit by declining sales growth in the years leading up to 2015, likely due to a consumer shift towards foods perceived to be healthier. In response, the company conducted the largest consumer-research effort in their history, an effort that led to the development of a growth strategy that includes three 'growth accelerators': delivery, digital, and store remodeling. By going in depth into each of these growth

accelerators, the Golden Arches were able to offset their environmental and health-oriented deficits by transforming themselves into a more convenient and easy option for the consumer than ever before, even when that entails deviating from long-entrenched standard practice.

Knowing that all the growth accelerators were conceived of by prioritizing max impact on max people in the shortest amount of time, it is no surprise that McDonald’s focused a lot of its attention on delivery. With the advent and popularization of delivery apps and services, it is a sector of sales that is essential to develop for any major QSR chain nowadays. However, where McDonald’s stands out is how quickly it launched McDelivery. Despite McDonald’s mammoth operations, a specially assembled 'fast action' team managed to construct and launch McDelivery in just three or four months, forgoing the usual process of testing a service in various smaller markets before potentially introducing it years later. A mindset promoted in this period by the CEO, Steve Easterbrook, was the idea of 'progress over perfection,' an idea that will endure and appear in the implementation of the other growth accelerators as well.

'Progress over perfection' is just one example of how QSRs have had to change standard practice to keep up to pace with consumer demand.

"The fast food industry is poised to exceed a worth of $223 billion by 2020"

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 2018

13

CHANGING THE FRAME

Digital, the second growth accelerator, is meant to leverage the power of apps in an age where people’s lives are increasingly dominated by technological devices. McDonald’s clearly recognizes this, as their biggest increase in spending last year was in the department of technology. The development of their app, My McD’s, followed the same philosophy as the development of McDelivery, with the app being put out before all imperfections were tested for and resolved. CFO Kevin Ozan comments on the difficulty of this shift in mindset: 'Some of our competitors already had an app, so we wanted to move quickly [...]

Again, that wasn’t an easy concept for our system given our historical strength in testing and 'fail-proofing' initiatives before introducing them in our restaurants.'

Throughout this whole process of designing McDelivery and My McD’s, Kevin Ozan claims that they focused on being 'customer-obsessed,' constantly thinking about what is most easy and convenient for the customer, instead of simply 'customer-centered.'

Becoming an easier and easier option for consumers may be one way McDonald’s seeks to grow its sales, but it is a strategy that fights against the growing tide of aversion to 'fast food.' In contrast, its

SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY 14 2018 BUSINESS TODAY 14 FALL

third and final growth accelerator, store remodelling, incorporates a slightly different approach. This accelerator involves modernizing the physical restaurants through renovation, putting in digital self-order kiosks, and introducing table service. Having visited and worked in one of those remodelled restaurants myself, I can attest to the fact that the remodelling pushes the general McDonald’s experience towards looking and feeling more like that of a traditional dining restaurant rather than 'fast food.' This effort is also reflected in their menus and marketing. Offers such as a 'Mushroom and Swiss Artisan Grilled Chicken burger' have popped up, alongside increased transparency in their nutrition and ingredient labelling.

They have even created and advertised numerous videos about their ingredients, featuring spotless environments and various professionals. Combined with how they have removed antibiotics from their chicken, the general effort to move away from the fast food stereotype of a greasy burger joint with unhealthy food, poor service, and questionable practices has transformed McDonald’s into less of a perceived 'sin' for the modern-day healthand eco-conscious consumer. Once again, the company’s capital allocation embodies the value that it places on this effort, with

more than $1 billion being invested into remodelling US restaurants in 2019.

So McDonald’s is clearly doing their due diligence in keeping up with consumer demands by wielding new trends and developments in tech, changing certain mindsets, and shifting their brand image away from that infamous, viral 'pink slime' nuggets video into something a little more palatable for a more health- and ecoconscious public. However, a company can only change their image into 'healthy' so much while still debuting menu items like

"A company can only change their image into 'healthy' so much while still debuting 'Cheesy Bacon Fries'"

CHANGING THE FRAME

'Cheesy Bacon Fries.' Besides, McDonald’s sales have been increasing, but their overall growth isn’t as good as their competitors (it reported 2.3% same-store sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2018, while Chickfil-A’s had an estimated growth of 13.4%).

Also, in its aforementioned huge research effort that it undertook in 2015, McDonald’s found that their sales weren’t declining because people were moving towards more upscale dining, but that they were losing customers to direct competitors (other QSRs). The question is then: what are the other QSRs doing? Looking towards the QSR with the most growth, Chick-fil-A, we see that it is employing many of the same strategies as McDonald’s, and just as quickly. Both companies are pushing delivery services, apps, new menu items, updated eco-friendly practices. Upon closer examination, though Chick-fil-A is exploring some unique avenues. The major difference between the two QSRs is that Chick-fil-A’s main focus is on service and quality, even if that comes at the expense of offering less value deals. One way that Chick-fil-A maintains its reputation for a high quality of service and food is by limiting expansion.

There are only about 2,200 locations across the country, and it doesn’t have nearly the same international reach that McDonald’s has. Far from being a downside, this is

actually done on purpose; the process for an operator buying and opening a new Chick-fil-A restaurant is very difficult. A smaller number of locations allows Chickfil-A to maintain better quality control and consistency across their restaurants, bolstering their reputation for service and quality. Other strategies employed by Chick-fil-A include debuting new non-retail, catering-focused prototypes in Nashville and Louisville. This allows Chick-fil-A to manage and accommodate growth while maintaining their high service standards by alleviating the pressure on back-of-thehouse operations in normal restaurants.

Again, this impression of high-quality customer service lends itself to a shift away from the fast food stereotype of low-quality service and by extension low-quality food.

Simply by virtue of lessened association with 'fast food,' a QSR like Chick-fil-A can be perceived to be healthier and become more appealing to the current consumer.

The power of simple association comes to the forefront when you compare the practices and reputations of McDonald’s and Starbucks. Starbucks received an F rating from Friends of Earth for their policy against the use of factory-farmed animals and antibiotic/hormone-tainted animal products, while McDonald’s received a C. But most people view Starbucks as being

more animal-friendly than McDonald’s simply because McDonald’s is more closely associated with fast food and all its accompanying negative stereotypes.

In recent years, many new trends and technologies have transformed the market, allowing for fast food giants to play into the consumer’s desire for hyperconvenience, which helps incentivize the consumer to think less about the 'unhealthy' reputation of QSRs. We see special success in instances where companies like Chick-fil-A focus primarily on moving towards a healthier, eco-friendlier image by putting emphasis on service and quality, disassociating themselves from the typical fast food stereotypes of grease-laden food, rude employees, and poor practices. As we move into the future and consumer demands continue to change in a context of rapidlydeveloping technologies, we are sure to see ever more interesting innovations on the part of QSRs. However, through all this, it is important to not forget one key aspect of development: the need for balance, taking note of traditional models that are working well even as we push forward innovation that advances us into new areas.

Illustrations by Charlotte Adamo

Illustrations by Ilene E

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING BUSINESS TODAY FALL2019 2018

15 15

CHANGING THE FRAME

Green Is The New Black Why fashion companies need to revisit the connection between fast and sustainable fashion

BY RHEA PARK

I

n recent years, consumers have called for companies to focus more on sustainable fashion rather than fast-fashion. A study administered by the International Association for Research and Testing in the Field of Textile Ecology, found that '60 percent of millennials are interested in certified sustainable clothing.' However, only 37% of Millennials actually purchase sustainable goods.

Part of the reason for this inability to capitalize upon the sustainable fashion market may be a failure to connect elements of fast-fashion with eco-friendly fashion. Fast-fashion prides itself on cheap prices and an endless variety of styles to choose from, allowing consumers to buy more clothing at cheaper prices. However, eco-friendly companies such as Patagonia promote buying limited amounts of clothing at higher prices. But the steady increase in the amount of clothes bought every year shows that consumers still place a high value on fashion.

Sustainable fashion tends to be higher priced due to the additional cost it requires to grow organic materials and provide proper working conditions and adequate wages. Yet, for Gen Z and Millennial consumers, many of whom have not yet entered the workplace, these high prices put sustainable fashion out of their financial reach. In addition, eco-friendly clothing often tends to not be on trend, thus deterring people from buying it even more.

However, there are sustainable brands that seem to buck this trend. One such label is Reformation, a company that prides itself on its eco-conscious approach to fashion.

Their website claims that they manufacture mostly out of their LA base to reduce their carbon footprint, and that the company proudly makes use of recyclable materials.

In addition, their hangers are made out of recycled paper, and they publish a quarterly sustainability report. Like many eco-friendly brands, Reformation is not cheap. But despite the $80-300 price tags on

16 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

their most popular items, Reformation is all the rage today with Gen Z and Millennial consumers. In fact, regularly endorsed by Karlie Kloss and Rihanna, Reformation is perhaps the most trendy and well known eco-conscious fashion label. A large part of their success may be due to the way Reformation has integrated elements of both fast and eco-conscious fashion.

"Sustainable fashion tends to be higher priced due to the additional cost it requires to grow organic materials and provide proper working conditions and adequate wages" Unlike brands such as H&M and ZARA, which offer a limited selection of ecofriendly goods, Reformation brands itself as an eco-friendly fast fashion company in its huge variety of style, its emphasis on trends, and its sustainability. The seemingly unlimited selection on the Reformation website with its signature LA boho-chic aesthetic, makes one feel as if they are shopping at a trendy, fast-fashion store.

Instead of producing 'authentic' vintage pieces, Reformation puts a modern twist on sustainable fashion. For instance,

rather than the boxy, utility shirts many companies, such as Zara, market as their sustainability line, Reformation has changed the game by making trendy pieces like crop tops and wrap dresses with ecofriendly materials. Reformation’s focus on catering specifically to youth fashion trends allows their consumers to feel that they are buying eco-friendly and fashionable clothes, rather than being forced to sacrifice one for the other. Instead of producing 'authentic' vintage pieces, Reformation puts a modern twist on sustainable fashion.

Indeed, Kathleen Talbot, Reformation’s VP of Sustainability & Operations, explains that their brand is founded on the 'fundamentals of sustainable fast-fashion.'

While Reformation has become iconic among summer fashion brands, having trendy designs does not wholly explain why so many people are willing to pay its high price tag. Numerous celebrities and consumers, such as Karlie Kloss, have stated that what keeps them coming back is the feel and cut of the clothes. 'I have access to some of the most expensive, elaborate couture pieces' said Kloss to The New York Times. 'And yet, in my daily life I wear Reformation.' Part of Reformation’s appeal may also be, paradoxically, its exorbitant prices. Gen Z and Millennial consumers increasingly want clothing pieces that are unique: they do not want cookie cutter.

Additionally, the high prices create a barrier to entry, making the brand feel more ‘exclusive’ and limiting the likelihood of bumping into someone that is wearing the same piece of clothing. Many customers also assume that high prices are affirmative indicators of high quality.

In addition to emphasizing sustainability in its manufacturing, Reformation has also adopted aspects of the fast fashion industry in its production model. In an interview with Fast Company, Yael Aflalo, founder of Reformation, said that she identifies what consumers buy and then produces more. She combines this

SECTION

R

N LA

E

ials n n ille d in m f ste aino e r % t 60 e inte sus g ar tified othin l cer ble c a

E EV

Reform

with sustainability and ensures sure that during the process of creating her products, her workers are paid properly. Reformation, in her eyes, is changing the way fashion is made without changing its style.

While Reformation’s price tag still keeps itself out of reach for many middleand low-income consumers, it seems Reformation has been able to capitalize on a specific demographic that is willing to spend the amount of money necessary for eco-conscious fashion, so long as the pieces are stylish and trendy. Reformation’s success signals that instead of ditching the fast-fashion game completely, fashion companies need to incorporate elements of fast fashion in order to successfully bring eco-friendly fashion to the marketplace.

The demand for sustainable fast-fashion is already here. It is up to brands to provide more reasonably priced and stylish goods.

If companies are able to do so, sustainable practices could become a norm rather than an exception among clothing retailers.

ta

n go

ation

ia

of % c 37 ls a se y l a o n e n n i r c h ae u l ll mi lly p inab a tu usta ods s go

pa

Illustrations by Beverly Shen

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 2018

17

Ferenbach has applied skills from the private equity industry to his environmental conservation efforts

Carl Ferenbach

Co-Founder of Berkshire Partners and Chairman of High Meadows Foundation WITH SCOTT NEWMAN 18 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

CHANGING THE FRAME

On adapting to the changes in private equity and translating those skills to tactical environmentalism Business Today: During your tenure as managing director at Berkshire, private equity changed quite a bit. What has been the most profound change in the industry since you entered the business?

Carl Ferenbach: It went from being an entrepreneurial business to a large, global asset management business. It professionalized profoundly. It was able to come into being because a small number of institutions in the 1970s and 1980s—mainly life insurance companies—

were a source of capital to smaller, non-investment-grade companies. We, and some others ahead of us, figured out that life insurance companies needed deal flow, and we could provide it. They understood how to do risk financing.

That was the first sort of step. Then, other investors—like some of the state pension funds—were looking to diversify their investment portfolios. Supporting the funds of this new group of buyout firms became something that was interesting to them. And then others followed—university endowments for

"The Berkshire mantra was that the

CULTURE

needed to be about collaboration at every level"

instance. The thing that really allowed the whole business to grow was the enormous growth in the availability of risk capital that was provided by these new classes of investors. What really changed was the institutionalization of capital and the professionalization that led to the creation of a new asset class. That was huge.

BT: What was once called leverage buyouts is now called private equity.

Why did the name change, and how has been Berkshire able to adapt?

CF: LBO’s got a bad name in the late 1980s. It was simple. Many buyouts then were financed with 80 or 90 percent debt capital, with the sponsor group putting up 10 percent of the money.

If you couldn’t retire the debt by its terms, which happened when the overall economy turned down at the end of this decade, then you were in default to the lenders. And the defaults began to create problems for the banks. Because there was a problem, there was also a lot of negative publicity. It felt like an Op-Ed a week in the Wall Street Journal that was saying something negative about all this risk and all this irresponsible activity that these LBO’s had led to. At the end of the 1980s, the famous bidding war over R.J. Reynolds with KKR and Forstmann Little got a huge amount of press that also generated a book, The Barbarians at the Gate. As we went into the '90s, people were looking for a fresh start. And so, the name changed.

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2018

19

CHANGING THE FRAME

BT: What has been the changing role of leverage over the years and how does Berkshire view an investment now versus how it used to view one?

CF: It became apparent as it became more competitive and prices went up that you really needed to be able to grow these businesses if they were going to be successful. And so, we increasingly focused on growth—whether it was in a stodgy old railroad or in the exciting new wireless business—but growth became a requirement to both retire debt and earn superior returns. As this occurred, we felt the need to articulate our own set of values for the development and operation of the Firm, and the Berkshire mantra was that the culture needed to be about collaboration at every level. We were never hierarchical. We didn’t have a chief executive officer, and we shared responsibilities. It still operates similarly– based on the values articulated then. And our investment process was analytical rigor. We just had to understand what was going on in these businesses, and what was going on in the markets and the surrounding environment. We also felt strongly that we always wanted to be viewed as fair, inclusive, and participative. Our approach fell out of that sense of being collaborative. There are no stars. There’s no star system. We really just want to understand these businesses and what the people do, and we always want to be fair in all of our transactions, I think that has not changed.

20 SPRING 2018 BUSINESS TODAY

"Do something that makes a contribution to a community, even if it’s purely for profit, constantly evaluate it, and don’t be afraid to

STEP BACK

and do something else"

CHANGING THE FRAME

BT: Turning to your philanthropic work, there were many charitable causes you could have chosen to support. Why did you choose to focus on the environment?

CF: We [Carl and Judy Ferenbach] had bought a farm in Vermont in 1987 or 1988 or somewhere in there. After we had been at it for ten years or so, my wife, who is a great design person and had been a landscape designer, was meddling with the land, and we began to ask ourselves: ‘what is really going on here?’ We didn’t understand anything about the environmental impact of our activities or any of the activities going on around us. This was during a period when everybody in the Northeast had been dealing with acid rain. Acid rain came from the emissions from the major coal-burning facilities through the Ohio Valley and the Midwest. So, it was emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide that was causing the acid rain.

The Environmental Defense Fund, bless them, [was then] a small organization but advocated for and managed to work through amendments to the clean air act in 1990 that instituted a cap and trade system that allowed the utilities to substantially reduce their emissions. We had been on the receiving end and trying to figure out what that meant and what was happening to our forest, and if there was anything happening to anything else.

Through others we developed a relationship with the Vermont Community Foundation. Working with them, in 2004 we organized and

capitalized the High Meadows Fund to focus on environmental needs and issues in Vermont. Two years later we organized the High Meadows Foundation to manage and facilitate our philanthropic support. Its focus has been environmental science and policy and innovation in education. At the end of 2011, I stepped down from Berkshire to spend full-time on High Meadows and the organizations it supports.

BT: How did your work in private equity prepare you for and inspire your work at the Environmental Defense Fund and at High Meadows?

CF: You do what you know, and we knew what we had done in organizing Berkshire. High Meadows is small.

There are now three of us, but the principles and the values are the same.

We are following the same methodology basically—how do we figure this out and what do we do? And it is relationship driven. We [took seats] on boards, and stayed close to most, but certainly not to all, of our grantees. We have been interested in helping them with their self-evaluation, their growth, and their development. It is similar to having a bunch of portfolio companies.

BT: How relevant and necessary was an MBA for you? What would you say to those unsure about whether or not to pursue one?

people who had been through the Vietnam War, and of course, we had people coming directly out of college, and we had everything in between. And that hasn’t changed that much in the last 45 years.

The private equity firms hired heavily from MBA programs and ultimately urged, encouraged, and financed people who worked in their non-MBA intern programs to get an MBA, and then return to the firm. We thought for the most part the right MBA was very relevant.

BT: What advice—whether about business or life or anything in between—would you give to our many undergraduate readers?

CF: That’s hard because after all, you’re all individuals, and in the end, you’ll all pursue your own interests and dreams.

But do something. Do something that makes a contribution to a community even if it’s purely for profit, constantly evaluate it, and don’t be afraid to step back and do something else. You’ll have a long life, and there’s plenty of opportunity. You all have fantastic educations and lots of good brains and common sense. You’ll figure it out.

Photograph courtesy of Carl Ferenbach

CF: It was really relevant for me, but I was out of school six years before I felt free to go and do it. You saw a lot of everything in terms of peoples’ life decisions in the '70s. At that time, we did have a lot of

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

21

22 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

Y

OCK

B

BL

BLO

CK

BACK TO THE BASICS

BACK TO THE BASICS

How LEGO came to dominate its market

BY LYUBOMIR HADJIYSKI

L

ike a home, companies need a solid foundation to ensure they can withstand the test of time. LEGO—the Danish toy manufacturer—is one of those companies with a solid foundation. But unlike other firms, it has chosen to build this foundation using its iconic multicolored, plastic, and easily snappable bricks. The world-famous LEGO brick has both propelled the company to its current success, and has laid the foundations for future growth. And while these foundations have slowly been built up, in the early 2000s the company was in a state of nearbankruptcy. How did it manage to turn around its business and emerge as one of the world’s leading toy companies? The answer lies in going back to the basics.

Nowadays, the LEGO Group is among the world’s most recognizable companies, and certainly the most well-known toy company in the world. The company’s name is an abbreviation of the Danish words 'leg godt' which together translate to 'play well.' According to Forbes, it was ranked as the world’s 91st most valuable company in 2018, with a valuation of nearly $7.8 billion. During that same year, it had sales totaling some $5.1 billion. Back in 2015, it was ranked first in Forbes Most Valuable Brand list, which rates companies based off of 'marketing-related intangible assets including names, signs, symbols, logos, and designs.' A 2017 report by Brand Finance noted that LEGO’s crossgenerational appeal and the creative freedom it gives children were reasons why it became the world’s most valuable toy company, outperforming rivals Mattel and Hasbro. LEGO has seen several years of sustained growth in sales and market share, but things weren’t always so stable.

But just 16 years ago, in 2003, LEGO was on the brink of bankruptcy. It had acquired a debt of some $800 million, a negative cash flow of $160 million, and a year-on-year 30% fall in sales. In the 1990s, it had experienced consistent but stagnating growth rates.

With the popularization of computers and electronic games, LEGO worried that it would start losing its share of the market

if it did not adapt to this new consumer landscape. Hiring business consultants to advise it on its performance, LEGO started moving away from its core toy brick business. As the Financial Review writes, it started rapidly expanding its product line to better compete with companies like Hasbro, which sold a wide range of toys for a varied target audience. The number of parts required to manufacture these new lines rose rapidly—from 6,000 to more than 12,000—which proved to be logistically difficult and expensive. Many of these new products included motorized and electronic elements; however, these frequently proved to be more expensive to make than their selling price. According to Business Insider, the rapid increase in the variety of toys sold by LEGO, many of which were commercial failures, proved to be expensive and moved the company away from its iconic toy brick models at a huge cost.

To compound the profit-related problems, the company’s structure was also in shambles. In the years leading up to 2003, many of its long-serving designers were fired and people with little knowledge or appreciation of the company’s roots were hired. Their attempt to innovate resulted in the creation of product lines that did not cater to consumer demand, resulting in plunging sales. LEGO also decided to branch out of toy making and started expanding its theme park network globally. However, with little experience in hospitality, operating these establishments proved to be a logistic and financial strain on the firm, and loss-making continued.

During these turbulent years, the main drivers of sales within the company were LEGO’s licensing deals with multi-million dollar blockbuster franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter. While providing millions of dollars in income, LEGO came to depend on the fate of other companies— in this case Hollywood blockbusters—to drive its own growth. Sales of its most profitable lines fluctuated based on movie release dates, which LEGO did not control.

The company did well in the years when movies premiered, but sales plunged in

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

23

BACK TO THE BASICS

"By revamping the products that clients had grown to love over the decades of LEGO’s existence the company ensured its survival" 24 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

years when no new movies were produced.

As a result, as then-COO Poul Plougmann explained, LEGO saw weak demand for its toys in 2003 and was essentially left without a profitable product line in that year. The company was on the brink of bankruptcy. So what changed?

That’s where Jørgen Vig Knudstorp comes in, taking over the company as its CEO in 2004. His strategy was a unique mix of innovation and going back to the basics. By revamping the products that clients had grown to love over the decades of LEGO’s existence—and modifying them in ways to ensure their relevance and continued popularity— the company ensured its survival.

Knudstorp’s first decisions included widespread structural and financial reforms. Manufacturing was moved from Denmark to a number of developing countries where production-related costs were significantly cheaper. LEGO’s oversized workforce was significantly reduced. LEGOland, the company’s collection of theme parks, was sold for some $460 million. Though painful, these actions streamlined a company which had lost its 'dynamism' and entrepreneurial feel during the preceding decade. As Wharton’s business analysis journal reported, they reduced losses and set the stage for a new period of rapid growth.

This growth mainly came from a healthy balance of going 'back to the basics' while simultaneously looking towards the future. Knudstorp reduced the number of components manufactured by LEGO to only about 3,000, therefore limiting the firm’s offerings to those products that had proved to be popular with clients in the past. At the same time, the Global Insights division was created, the purpose of which was to research market trends and find out what parents and children wanted to see. An entrepreneurial atmosphere was fostered by LEGO’s Future Lab, which brought together designers from around the world and encouraged them to experiment and, through a trial-anderror approach, create toys that were truly sought-after. As Jonathan Ringen says in his 2015 article on the firm’s revitalization, LEGO became 'the Apple of toys.'

The company threw itself into a variety of new ventures while still retaining its original products. In 2007, it paired up with Chicago-based architect Adam Reed Tucker, who had been constructing buildings out of LEGO bricks. What was born as a result was a new line of new products named LEGO

Architecture. World-famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and The Statue of Liberty could be replicated in miniature forms using LEGO’s colorful bricks. These were cleverly targeted at a more adultdominated demographic, and consequently sold at a premium price. While this line saw LEGO venture out of its typical product and audience range, the Architecture series nonetheless retained a distinctly-LEGO feel that played to people’s nostalgia. Its iconic brick remained central to the line, and thus LEGO fused innovation and experimentation with a throwback to the classics.

LEGO also learned from its past mistakes. Rather than relying on outside franchises to drive growth, like it did in the early 2000s with Star Wars and Harry Potter, LEGO decided to create its own series of blockbuster movies. In 2014, it released The LEGO Movie, which brought in some $500 million for the company, according to The CFO Center. This was widely seen as an attempt to appease an increasingly online and electronics-focused target audience. However, unlike its ventures into a more technologically-dominiated market in the early 2000s, this time around the central heros both on-screen and on store shelves remained its basic bricks and minifigures. LEGO’s venture into the film industry was yet another example of experimentation fused with the classics.

LEGO’s turnaround from its existential crisis in 2003 is remarkable. One of the world’s most recognized companies has seen exceptional growth over the past decade and a half. Through a mixture of old and new, LEGO has cherished the classics while embracing innovation, entrepreneurship, and technological change. LEGO demonstrates that companies that have grown large and cumbersome can adapt to rapid change and re-emerge as market leaders; by encouraging experimentation, listening to consumer desires, and staying true to their businesses’ foundations, LEGO has declared its intention to grow and deliver. By preserving this spirit of creativity and exploration, it has secured its place in our homes for years to come.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY SONIA MURTHY

BACK TO THE BASICS

Mark Shapiro President and CEO of Toronto Blue Jays WITH MOLLY MILLIGAN Business Today: Your dad was a respected agent in baseball. Did he play a role at all in inspiring you to get into the business side of the game?

Mark Shapiro: It's interesting. Informally, I would say yes, my deep roots and passion for the game were built around the fact that part of my relationship and bonding with my father was around the game of baseball. He didn't get even get involved professionally [in baseball] until I was a teenager, but more than anything, growing up, he was a passionate fan of the game. And so, a lot of our childhood experiences were around attending [Baltimore] Orioles games, or, playing catch, Wiffle Ball, playing stickball, and everything else surrounding the game.

BT: During your time at Princeton, you were on the football team. How did your experience as a student athlete prepare you for work in the world of sports and business?

MS: I think, whether it's sports or just learning to deal with adversity, setbacks, challenges, and failure, you gain a good understanding of what it means to succeed in any type of work. I learned how integral and important a growth mindset is.

But more than anything, probably just learning the value of determination and perseverance. And finally how to attack earning success in anything in life. And finally, it was a big part of instilling in me a passion for leadership - that desire to help build teams and be a part of special teams.

BT: You began your career with the Cleveland Indians in the 1992 and worked your way up the ladder there to becoming the general manager and then the president.

What did you learn along the way?

MS: I think the internally grown talent part gave me an appreciation for and the strong investment in culture there, along with a great deal of pride in that culture and appreciation for the people that I learned from. I also had a chance to help be a part of

the next generation of Indian leaders, who are now leading the Indians and five or six other franchises throughout Major League Baseball, including the Twins, the Pirates, the Diamondbacks and multiple others. It was a pretty incredible time, the 1990s and 2000s, for the Indians front office. There were so many potential future leaders all in one place. I was proud to be a part of that and we had a mutual commitment to helping develop people as well as compete and win and be a part of something special.

"It constantly takes calibrating to make sure that you’re happy in your element, with what is offered to you in a place, and to ensure that there’s an alignment with your values" other’s learning and growth. I think more than anything it was that responsibility to help develop others, to pay it forward. I took that away from the empowerment and belief in me as a very young leader that I felt from the leaders there and subsequently committed the same towards

BT: What was it like to be an internally grown talent? Was it an advantage or disadvantage?

MS: I don't think there were disadvantages.

I think I understood, and appreciated the

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

25

Shapiro was portrayed in 2011 blockbuster film Moneyball

by Reed Diamond

26 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

BACK TO THE BASICS landscape in the organization. I think, at times, one of the disadvantages that can occur from staying in one place for so long is you tend to overlook and underappreciate what a place has to offer and think that someplace else is going to be so much better. It's harder to appreciate the benefits and the advantages of a place you’re in when you don't have a comparison and aren’t seeing what else is out there. It is important to constantly calibrate to make sure that you are fulfilled and maintain perspective. Ultimately that happiness is tied the alignment of your personal values with the values of your leaders and organizational culture.

BT: You spent over 20 years with the Cleveland Indians. What kept you around that team?

MS: Probably the opportunity to continue to grow and learn. My roles changed a lot over that period of time, from entrylevel cubicle-dweller to Director of Player Development, to Assistant General Manager, to General Manager, to President.

So I was always being challenged to grow, learn, and develop. In addition, I would say there’s a unique culture in Cleveland which I recognized and appreciated. To have so many talented, smart, and motivated people in one place is in some sense is a microcosm of what makes places like Princeton special.

That special environment is what happens when you bring a group of incredibly talented, incredibly motivated people with high standards and expectations together and align them behind a common vision of doing something really challenging but really special. Also, the culture was centered upon empowerment and an incredible commitment to growth-oriented learning and that felt truly unique. That aligns with what's important to me, and it’s what I've tried to work to instill here in Toronto with the Blue Jays.

BT: At the top of the Indians organization, you oversaw some major projects, including the renovation of Progressive Field and two 90win teams. How did you make that a reality? What role did you play in managing those projects?

MS: Leadership is about building teams, putting people in the right roles, and ensuring your culture is one that is collaborative, respectful, trustful, and focused on getting better and improving. I think my role was to ensure the resources were there, and to ensure that we

expected to and were focused on hiring talented people, and that we never got complacent. I worked to ensure that our values were continually adhered to, and that they were at the core of everything we were doing. But often, I would say, my role was to get out of the way of really talented people and just to make sure they had the best resources possible.

BT: Just a few seasons ago, you made the transition from Cleveland to Toronto. Even though you serve in the same role, what's different about working with a new team?

MS: Well, the undertaking here was “let's focus on the challenge of modernizing an organization that was being run very differently than the Indians.” Culturally, it was more hierarchical and traditional in nature, and did not have a lot of the more modern resources that exist throughout the game. I've seen a massive evolution in the game of baseball in the way we make decisions in particular—from really anecdotal, gut-based decision making based upon subjective information to highly data-driven, informed decision.

In Toronto we have had to build out the resources that create the inputs for decision making on both the baseball and the business side and models that provide the structure for weighting and utilizing the improved information. As importantly, we have had to transform a culture into one that is receptive to and embraces informed decision making, at the heart of which is the essential acceptance of collaboration in all of our efforts. So, that's been a big undertaking, but I was excited about it. Additionally, the environment in the city of Toronto is very different from Cleveland. It’s actually really invigorating—it’s an incredibly diverse, vibrant city in a different country.

We’re the only team in Major League Baseball that represents the entire country, not just the city. That responsibility, that understanding is the backdrop for everything we're trying to do. It’s been energizing and also challenging, but it’s what I wanted at this juncture in my career.

BT: The Blue Jays are the only MLB franchise in Canada. Coming from the States, how did you seek to build a relationship with the community and the fans in Toronto?

MS: I wanted to be humble and open, and that is best achieved through listening and trying to understand the uniqueness of the

environment while continuing to work to earn respect. I didn’t expect to be treated any certain way just based upon what I, or any of our staff, had done prior in our careers. Ultimately, knowing that we still live in a results-driven industry if we work to build a sustainable winner and if we place the fans first in everything we do, people will be happy. I think that our approach is something that is common in generally successful efforts, but it’s particularly important when you walk into such a unique situation. I knew that coming in and I embraced that. Really, I think get outside of your comfort zone a bit is important.

The greatest growth happens when you step outside of your comfort zone.

BT: You’ve mentioned the transformation in baseball from subjective decision making to highly data-driven decision making.

In the movie Moneyball, there's even a character based on you.

What role did you play in the data revolution in baseball and why did you think that was the route to go?

MS: Well it's never been for me just about analytics and data. It's always been about that relentless pursuit of the best information, and then putting it in a framework that was most easily digestible and that you could most consistently gain competitive advantage from and use to make the best decisions.

One underlying consideration is that the greatest part of sports is that we're still dealing with human beings, and that human beings are innately unquantifiable because they have flaws. So, it's that pursuit of something you know you're never going to be able to achieve because you're never gonna get perfect information on an imperfect subject. Within that effort there is an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. In Cleveland that effort was driven by the reality that we were a small market team and the nature of revenue sharing in the Major League Baseball system has inherent challenges for smaller markets as local revenues are not shared evenly. Exacerbating the challenge of uneven resources is the lack of a salary cap which then allows team to use those revenues disproportionately. Thus, teams with extreme resources, two of which we now have to compete against each season in the AL East (Red Sox and the Yankees).

So, unlike in the NFL [with a salary cap and greater sharing of revenue], Cleveland had to compete with New York, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, and Boston, which is

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

27

extremely challenging because they’re going to have double or more the resources.

It’s a similar challenge in Toronto, where we have a different currency and compete in a division [the American League East] with two of the behemoths.

Basically, in both those places, we have to outperform objective expectations.

That's not going to come from one decision or one player or one leader, it's usually going to be from hundreds of incremental efficiencies, informed decision making and an exceptional organizational culture.

Once that culture and that drive for outperforming expectations is scaled, those things can start to make a difference in bridging those extreme resource gaps.

BT: Within the team and the organization, how does the influence of data affect decision making? What does it look like when you’re sitting in the room, trying to decide?

MS: The easiest way to summarize that is that data has helped to regress out bias. In the past in our industry, and as decision makers in the industry, we've been highly subject to bias, whether it’s contextual bias, recency bias or others. We tended

28 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

to be impacted by a set of experiences or perspectives that was unique to our situation or particularly current. So, using data and decision making models, much like behavioral economics, I think has helped us to better understand what those biases are in order to challenge us to more objectively frame our decision making.

BT: The data revolution is such a frequently covered topic in the sports world. We’ve seen the movies; we read the books. Do you think at all that the influence of data is overblown? Is the press running out of things to write about?

MS:I think in movies, in books, and in mass media they tend to oversimplify. They point out a very necessary and important adjustment that we had to make in the business that was made almost 20 years ago.

I think some of the greatest opportunity to gain competitive advantage today lies not as much in analytics and objective decision making—now, you have do that just to keep up—but with more shifting back to the human side and thinking about how we coach our players. And I

think you find more and more resources, energy, and time and effort being put in to how we develop, coach, and teach or manage people—the human side.

BT: You’ve also worked in player development and have had to work with a variety of managers and other GMs. How do you communicate with other leaders on your team?

MS: I would say our culture is built upon a constant flow or commitment to collaborate. We live with a basic understanding that our collective intellect, our collective skill sets, and our collective experiences have a better chance to lead us to a good outcome and a good decision than any one leader’s knowledge or wisdom. So, free flow of ideas and the flow of input and perspective and experiences is something that is an underpinning of this culture in Toronto, and was with the Indians as well. We tend to move as an organization collectively to where the highest leverage opportunities are. We don't silo or focus on one individual area.

We collectively move to the draft when it’s draft time. Or, we will focus on the very differently me may focus on the renovation

BACK TO THE BASICS of a training facility down here when that is the highest-leverage opportunity, or on a trade or free agency when those opportunities come up. This culture is being built upon the understanding that we just must work to collectively arrive at the right decision with no focus on credit or blame, and just a continual focus on openness, learning and getting better.

BT: A lot of people, even if they don’t know a lot about baseball, probably heard about Manny Machado and Bryce Harper this offseason. It took months and months for both of them to reach deals even as they secured two monster contracts. In the time that you’ve been in the game, how have you seen the economy of baseball change?

MS: It's changed dramatically. I think we have a better ability to value the contribution and impact that a player can make and model it over the length of a career or length of a contract. So, in the past, at the very simplest level a decade ago we largely paid a premium for the name on the back of the jersey. We paid a premium for what the player had accomplished prior in his career. At the simplest level, there's much more focus now on what a player is projected to contribute going forward in his career, with a better understanding of how to quantify that, and then compare that to what the alternatives, who are not necessarily big names, could offer as an alternative. There’s still as much value attributed to players in the game, it’s just attributed to different players and not just to superstar players who are largely heralded for their past performances, not their future performance.

BT: What do you think shifts like that mean for the league? All the teams have to adjust to this—how have people taken on this change?

MS :In general, there was something of an ‘arms race’ to build up analytics, but there wasn’t a consistent understanding by everyone about how to apply it. I think there's still some very inconsistent application of data and analytics and their contributions, as well as how technology contributes to such a human sport. There's also some challenge with a business where you're judged on short-term results. Taking more of a long-term approach, a processfocused approach, also continues to be somewhat of a challenge. But I think, in the end, where the game has really ultimately evolved to is to how we value players, and

while there is as much value of players it’s just placed differently. Ultimately that change will probably have to be reflected in the next collective bargaining agreement—the underlying agreement for labor and how players get paid.

support services and resources and that has to do with not just athletic training and medical but the mental performance side, strength and conditioning side, nutrition, sleep, hydration, and all the corresponding performance opportunities.

BT: We also see in the press all the time that baseball’s fans are getting older. But in 2018, youth participation numbers in baseball grew compared to soccer and football.

What have you done from the team/ organization level to promote the sport and to welcome new fans?

BT: The season quickly approaching and spring training is getting under way. What’s in store for the Blue Jays this year?

MS: There are multiple reasons for the importance of being committed to youth baseball. The Blue Jays have one of the most extensive programs, because it's responsible for promoting youth baseball across all of Canada. Youth baseball uses sports and baseball in order to motivate and help develop at-risk and underprivileged kids by tying the game to education, work habits and success. In addition, youth baseball helps to develop a love and a passion for the game of baseball thereby cultivating future fans by just getting them to play and understand and appreciate the game at any level. Finally, there is the effort to nurture the elite levels of the game and help to foster baseball at the highest levels in order to develop more Major League players or college players from the area that you work in and play in. Thus, it's a multiple-tiered effort, but we're all working hard to grow the youth game and it's clear that when you look at the statistics that commitment to youth baseball will lead to future fans.

MS: It's an interesting time of our evolution. We largely have turned over our entire roster, along with much of our coaching staff. So, I think our team this year will take a major step forward in establishing a culture that will be at the foundation of future championship teams.

We’re transitioning a lot of young players, and with that comes volatility – both on the positive and challenging side. I think we're cognizant of the objective realities of what the A.L. [American League] East represents— but we’re focused on doing the best against the well-funded teams that play in our division. I don’t think we’ll ever go into a season accepting the fact that we're not going to win a title. But we recognize, objectively, our challenges and what we have to work on.

Our focus is on competing, developing, and taking the next step toward building a sustainable championship team.

Some of the best prospects in the game are here. Right now, there's a process in transitioning those guys to the Major League level. After 162 games—all data points—I predict we’ll be able to pull back and look at a lot of positive progress made this year.

BT: Looking at the big picture, what do you think is the next big thing in baseball?

Photograph courtesy of Mark Shapiro

MS: I think that continuing to understand and think about technology, analytics and their uses, understanding how human beings learn and apply information, and properly deploying technology and analytics into actual gameplay probably represent some of the greatest opportunities in the game going forward.

On the medical side, quantifying risk is an area that we are currently very imprecise at and could develop.

The high performance area being built-up has also made a big difference.

It’s more than just your standard athletic trainer. We look at the high performance area as the being athlete centered. We have a way of looking at delivering performance

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

29

SECTION

FALL SPRING 2018 2019 2019 BUSINESS BUSINESS BUSINESS TODAY TODAY TODAY 30 30 SPRING

BACK TO THE BASICS

The Power of Music: Amplified Messages

BY EMILY CHESTON

M

usic, the perennial time capsule of culture, has historically been a partner of social change. The freedom for musical artists to express their support or disdain for current or past social circumstances has allowed for increased circulation and acknowledgment of a variety of perspectives, even if unusually progressive or radical for their temporal context. Mass mobilizations such as the Civil Rights Movement and the antiVietnam War Movement demonstrated how the power of music, through politicallycharged anthems like 'A Change Is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke and 'Blowin’ In

"Music was the language through which advocacy was communicated" The Wind' by Bob Dylan, could unite the masses through a common thought and a common sound. Today’s music has no less of a potential to make a revolutionary change. The ever-increasing acceptability of taboo topics that would have been hushed even just a handful of decades ago, such as mental health, police brutality, and gender equality, has allowed for even more

commentary and protest than in the past.

While the profitability of music, especially with respect to widespread violation of intellectual property laws and the advent of streaming music, has in some ways recently become disputed, the moneymaking opportunities for artists—especially those who articulate political positions and express struggles which resonate with a wide swath of listeners—have transformed dramatically since the '60s and '70s. Today, full-blown music festivals such as Coachella, Hangout Fest, Lollapalooza, and Governor’s Ball have created opportunities for additional exposure and profitability which differentiate them from older concepts such as the Monterey Pop Festival, The Altamont Speedway Free Festival, and the legendary Woodstock.

The anthems that accompanied activism during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s were largely uplifting, optimistic, and proudly Black even as they articulated many of the common struggles felt by African-Americans across the United States.

The positivity of many of these powerful ballads often struck a poignant contrast with the pain expressed in their words; for example, 'A Change Is Gonna Come' discusses the current state of living under an oppressive society while expressing the hope and determination that AfricanAmericans would have the power to rise above the fray. From a business perspective, Motown Records was a huge facilitator of these messages gaining credibility.

Having a Black-owned record company

behind the scenes of the operation meant that the music behind the Civil Rights movement was self-contained and fully dedicated to the cause at hand. The venues where these songs were performed

"The lyrics of the music were inseperable from the messages of the social movement" were often hand-picked and revolved around events of social importance. At the March on Washington, artists like Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson, and Bob Dylan performed for the sole purpose of supporting a common cause. Attendees were in the audience for that same cause: music was the language through which advocacy was communicated. Principles of accessibility were central to the spirit of the March on Washington, and its music was no exception. If you could physically get yourself to Washington, D.C., you too could be a part of history and hear from the most prominent Black artists yourself.

Another undeniable demonstration of the power of music can be found

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

31

BACK TO THE BASICS

at Woodstock, which tapped into the nonconforming passions of the late 60s-70s. Widespread anti-war critiques of the era’s Presidential administrations and anxieties about the war’s seemingly endless perpetuation were woven into anthems like 'I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag' by Country Joe and the Fish which energized their listeners. Similar to the Civil Rights Movement, the lyrics of the music were inseparable from the messages of the social movement. Prominent artists such as John Lennon, Jimmy Cliff, and Edwin Starr were transformed into quasi-activists who championed protests through their chart-topping pieces. There also existed remarkably little concern, among artists and organizers of protest events, about profiting off of the entertaining aspects of social change. The creators of Woodstock were actually indebted after hosting the event. This 'music-first' mentality showed just how central to the purpose the artists and their messages were.

Fast-forward to the music festivals of today. The conglomeration of artists at these extremely popular events is astounding. Here, the organizers of the concerts capitalize on Instagramready images of carefree good times, where music fans from all over can hear vastly different artists in one place. In a Huffington Post article, writer Pete Mason states that the 2010s festival culture represents 'a calculated approach by large scale promoters and music industry corporations that results in [cutbacks] to the community aspect and familial quality of festivals and increases marketability while ticket prices [rise] year after year.'

While Mason’s critique touches upon an obvious disadvantage to festival attendees, it begs the question of whether or not this

32 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

is simply a result of rational, loss-avoiding strategy or of the intense demand and relatively little supply of space at the events. Although pricey for the consumer, these festivals have an egalitarian element, as they can have a huge impact on lesserknown artists’ careers. While many festival-goers might be at a high-profile festival to see Childish Gambino, they could easily find themselves wandering into a set with much less exposure, like

"Though today’s music festivals are not as politicallycharged as their predecessors, they have the ability to democratize access to the music industry" Vulfpeck or Riz La Vie. In this situation, just landing a spot as a performer at one of these events can be a jumping off point for many. In this sense, though today’s music festivals are not as politically-charged as their predecessors, they have the ability to democratize access to the music industry—

and thus to a life-changing platform for social change—like never before.

The evolution of the way we engage with music is forever changing. Not only do streaming services make for on-demand listening experiences, but live concerts are also not as 'once in a lifetime' as they used to be. While this has certainly evoked some disdain in the music community that yearns for a more nostalgic appreciation for the role music has played, the ability to spread messages and influence minds is as vibrant as ever.

As accessibility continues to become more and more prevalent, perhaps the ability of music to transform individuals into activists has now become more transferable between artists and fans than ever.

The evolution of the way we engage with music is forever changing. Not only do streaming services make for on-demand listening experiences, but live concerts are also not as 'once in a lifetime' as they used to be. While this has certainly evoked some disdain in the music community that yearns for a more nostalgic appreciation for the role music has played, the ability to spread messages and influence minds is as vibrant as ever.

As accessibility continues to become more and more prevalent, perhaps the ability of music to transform individuals into activists has now become more transferable between artists and fans than ever.

Illustrations by Eloise Schrier

We Ca do it!

#BLA MAKE No C n K a LI B

VES

SECTION

We Can do it!

LOVE O N l MA W l NOt a e d ER o CaWSTAND WAR it n with #BLA ! RMAKE W E E S I S S TA C N D IN G T No on m yL .

K W N’T I V LOVE R O thei s M E C K S B E W mo A NOt Muslim r e e I # n G o D A P N L R d E E P D R C O o T a tha S BAn! WAR i n t E n T !

A

M D I L C N E h A No on M G my I T t R i C S w DIN the K N is m L C A P T or Muslim O A S e RESISRT oLD . tha n o BAn! #W veD n insN h A P G T t O ST ATE S wi NDIN K L C A P CLIM E T S O DA

MAKE LOVE NOt WAR

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 2018

33

Before heading up National Geographic, Knell served as CEO of NPR and Sesame Workshop

2018 BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY 34 FALL 34

BACK TO THE BASICS

Gary Knell

Chairman of National Geographic Partners On the evolution of media alongside the rise of social media and the importance of nonprofit work WITH GRACE HONG Business Today: National Geographic has been known as a print magazine at its very start, and now it’s evolved into multiple programs, such as its expeditions and documentaries.

How have you managed to balance the iconic magazine with these newer programs over time?

which puts us in a slightly better position to withstand some of the storms that have existed in today’s media world.

Gary Knell: First of all, National Geographic is 131 years old, and there’s not too many magazines that have been around for that long. Part of it is just being evolved, and my predecessors were smart to figure out ways in which we could decentralize our work, so we were more cushioned against downturns. We were able to be less reliant on print advertising and more built as a subscription-based enterprise. That helped weather a lot of storms when advertising went up and down. Now, advertising is abandoning print media in a lot of ways,

GK: National Geographic is one of those brands that is trusted by viewers and media, not just in America, but around the world. We’re viewed as an organization that has grown from different generations, and I think people trust our content, so this gave us an ability to expand into documentary films in a serious way, and just two years ago, we launched our National Geographic Documentary Films with movies like Jane, about Jane Goodall, directed by Brett Morgen and got a ton of awards last year.

This year, we had Free Solo, which not only

BT: Congrats on the Free Solo win at the Oscars! As National Geographic enters into the documentaries space, what gives it a unique edge?

got nominated but won the BAFTA and Academy Awards—it was pretty amazing. In a very short amount of time, we’ve created shorter films, such as LA 92, which was also shortlisted from an Oscar. We’re really pushing the boundaries using National Geographic’s legacy of exploration, science, conservation, and education, to engage quality producers and directors who really want to work with us. So far, it’s been pretty remarkable in a very short time.

BT: I’m looking forward to The Hot Zone coming out on National Geographic as a television show, too.

GK: The show looks awesome. Julianna Margulies is a great actress; it’s got an incredible cast. We’re really proud to present with the unfortunate rise of Ebola again, rearing its ugly head. It brings this issue into a reality space that gives us a

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

35

BACK TO THE BASICS

learning moment to not only have a series engaging people but also have people learning about infectious diseases. Through our journalism, we can use it as a platform to engage people around us and the issues there. I’m really excited about it too!

American, the vast number of these audiences are international. We have a huge Instagram following in India—we have 10 million followers in India alone.

We want to understand that a bit better, and I’m traveling to India this week, not

"A lot of people in your generation are looking for meaning in their jobs and don’t want to just make money as a goal" BT: At the end of February, National Geographic became the first brand to surpass 100 million followers on Instagram and received almost 95,000 submissions for its Photo contest. What is the significance of this milestone as it speaks to how National Geographic has capitalized on the rise of social media?

GK: There’s one simple answer: we’re more popular than Nicki Minaj, and we’re very close to Justin Bieber—we’re gonna catch Justin, I think. We get 100,000 followers a day on Instagram. I think Instagram, in some ways, is made for National Geographic in the sense that it’s a visual platform, and over 130 of our best photographers post on our National Geographic account.

People engage with that, and they can achieve this beauty and amazing creativity several times per day through the magic of these platforms; audiences around the world can go in there. What’s interesting is that not only are these audiences

36 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

just for that, but to launch more things in internationally for National Geographic.

We’re really excited about that. The last thing I would say is that we see National Geographic as a lifetime of engagement: from cradle to cane. Whether you’re a little kid who reads National Geographic Kids magazine or an older kid who engages in a game or a Millennial who follows us on Snapchat or Instagram or an adult who watches the television network or goes on a trip with us—we feel like we have a really strong lifetime engagement strategy that a lot of other media enterprises don’t have.

That makes us optimistic about our future.

BT: You’ve lead companies that produce media through vastly different mediums: National Geographic being a magazine, NPR being radio stations, and Sesame Workshop being television. How has a medium’s significance in defining a company’s brand changed over time?

GK: I think all of those entities have had

to expand. It’s interesting because I gave a presentation to Sesame Workshop in 2005, almost 15 years ago, and I talked about how The New York Times got into video and ABC News got into text. I thought it was really important that Sesame had its own platform to the web where it could do lots of work that expanded beyond the television show, and I think that’s exactly what’s happened. That’s a unique spot, but you need to have a 360 approach to people’s engagement. NPR can’t just tie someone into a radio station—they’ve got to have podcasts, newsletters, etc.; they have a very robust future presence. Sesame’s engaged all over the place, on HBO, on CBS, with games, with live events. All of these things follow a pattern which has a 360 approach to media and do not just rely on one thing. One of the things we have found with National Geographic is that some people will go into a portal of television and not read the magazine or go to the live event. They don’t necessarily crossfertilize; they don’t necessarily jump across to become a subscriber to the magazine if they watch the channel. That’s what we’re trying to work on now—it’s to make sure everyone we know that reads National Geographic knows that Free Solo was on last night, commercial-free—as one example.

BT: There are a lot of students interested in non-profit work, but there’s not a clear pathway to entry, and a lot of students buy in to the myth that it’s not easy to make it profitable. What advice would you give to these students?1 GK: A lot of people in your generation are looking for meaning in their jobs and don’t want to just make money as a goal.

Part of it is about making an impact. I’ve always thought that way, distinctively.

Whatever I wanted to do I wanted to do something that was making an impact.

I decided that the best way to educate people was through media, which is a very powerful teacher. As Joan Cooney, the

BACK TO THE BASICS

founder of Sesame Street, would always say, 'television was the greatest teacher that was ever invented,' and it’s not a question of whether it was teaching but what it was teaching. I think that’s true now about all media, and certainly, getting people who understand and are consumers of media is essential but using it for educational purposes is just as important. I don’t think there’s a more important thing you can do as a career. These places you’ve mentioned and [National Geographic] are committed to doing just that.

BT: What have you valued the most about leading National Geographic?

GK: I think being around these incredibly talented people: photographers, explorers, the Jimmy Chins, Alex Honnolds, and Chai Vasarhelyis of the world. I think these people are incredibly talented, and I’ve always felt that my job has been to provide them with resources and promotion.

They’re the ones who really have the talent and the ability to shine. That’s the most fun part of the job—not just meeting them, but to help them do their work.

BT: What are some of the lessons you’ve seen carry over from your time at NPR and Sesame Workshop to National Geographic?

GK: In a business sense, I think it is to disrupt yourself because there’s someone else who’s going to disrupt you. You can’t rest on your laurels. All these companies you’ve mentioned are legacy media companies with big long reputations, and they have been very well-respected and successful. The problem is you can fall in love with your success and forget what made you great. You have to continuously bring in fresh ideas because these organizations can get very stale. If you look around all the magazine publishers and other places that have fallen on hard times, a lot of is because they weren’t creative enough, they lost their hunger—that’s what

I try to bring to each of these organizations.

BT: What has been the change and continuity in National Geographic’s mission?

GK: We’ve been able to design the enterprise here to have a real natural process focusing on grant-making and on doing programmatic activities like marine-protected areas and conservation projects and education to kids who are geographically illiterate. On the other hand, we’ve had a big impact on our media properties. We’re winning an Academy Award, we have a hundred million Instagram followers, and we have a robust editorial agenda for the journalistic side of the publication. These things, living together on one campus, create quite a river of success that we need to continue to go down. I don’t think we

it’s usually divided into physical and human geography, and those are different disciplines. As we try to define our work, human geography has become a very important part of our work. That has to do with the evolution of human behavior, it has to do with conflict, it has to do with all kinds of things. It’s a very important part of our remix. The March issue of the magazine, for instance, has a couple of related stories. One is on the El Salvador violence culture and the other is on Carnaval rituals. These are ways in which National Geographic covers the human journey, not necessarily covering the dayto-day China trade talks, but it’s going to have a snapshot of the world that gives a longer-term perspective on culture and on conflict that we need to continue to have front-and-center at the top of our work.

"You can fall in love with your success and forget what made you great. You have to continuously bring in fresh ideas" need to switch directions rapidly, but it’s more about how we maximize the work and create more impact-driven pieces for consumption and engagement.

BT: National Geographic focuses on a lot of research and exploration, but there’s also a lot of problems humanity faces as well. How do you balance ecological-facing problems with the human-facing problems of today?2

Adapted from a question submitted

by Milagros Roson of Universidad Argentina de la Empresa 2 Adapted from a question submitted

by Anurag Agarwal of IIT Madras 1

Photograph courtesy of Gary Knell

GK: If you look at geography and the way it’s taught at the university level,

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

37

FACING THE FUTURE

, VOL. LI

PRINCETON, FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1968

No. 101

$0.00

they are a changin’

BY MOLLY MILLIGAN

A

mericans have grown tired of watching commercials. Consumers’ frustration with commercials was first channeled into widespread adoption of recording devices like TiVo and DVRs, which made their way into seemingly every home in the U.S. But every year, on the first Sunday in February, perhaps paradoxically, millions of viewers turn on their TVs during the Super Bowl— sometimes, just to see the ads.

This year’s Super Bowl featured the usual slate of promoters, like mainstays Budweiser, Chevrolet, and Doritos. One commercial, though, came as a surprise to many: a minute-long television ad voiced by Tom Hanks for The Washington Post. Yes, the newspaper. It’s not the first time a newspaper has resorted to advertising itself, though, as The New York Times debuted a similar campaign during the 2017 Academy Awards, but for many viewers it was jarring nonetheless.

The ad did not aim to sell subscriptions.

Instead, it focused on the value of journalism. Slogans such as 'Knowing empowers us. Knowing helps us decide.

Knowing keeps us free.' and then The Post’s trademark saying: 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' appeared on the screen. With CBS charging up to $5.25

38 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

million for a thirty-second spot this year, many Super Bowl watchers likely wondered how The Post could even afford to air its message. The resurgence of legacy news organizations—press clubs which existed before the rise of internet news—reveals how.

Around the turn of the century, many newspapers started began a protracted collapse. With the rise of the internet, classified ads began to shift online to crowd-sourced pages like craigslist, placing the once-lucrative paper ad industry on its last legs. Without ads, newspaper companies began to suffer financially. Many daily papers were faced with possible bankruptcy as the Great Recession hit in 2008 and 2009. Over the course of just three months in 2009, 33 daily papers were threatened as their publishers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That list included the Journal Register Company, publishers of the New Haven Register; The Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, publishers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News; the oncetitanic Tribune Company, publishers of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune; and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

No paper, no matter how large or influential, went truly unaffected.

Cities and metropolitan areas with two major daily papers saw many of those publications close their doors or merge with regional papers. Even the nation’s three most widely circulated papers—The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post— felt the crunch.

According to the Pew Research Center, the total revenue of U.S. newspapers as garnered from advertisements and circulation peaked at $49.2 billion in 2006.

By 2012, that number had been cut in half to $25.8 billion. The New York Times reported similar numbers: a drop from $3.2 billion in 2006 to $1.5 billion in 2012. In 2009, the paper’s weekday circulation fell below 1 million for the first time since the 1980s. Print journalism was indisputably in a deep hole. But The Times and other large publications have since seen their numbers rebound. In 2017, The New York Times reported $1.7 billion in annual revenue, an 8% increase over the prior year.

So, how did The New York Times dig itself out from the hole threatening to consume the entire newspaper industry?

Cost-cutting began with the physical changes a reader could feel when holding the paper in their hands. In 2007, The Times began to print on paper was that is 12 inches in width, rather than the

SECTION

Revenue of U.S. newspapers from advertisements and circulation $49.2B

$25.8B

Total New York Times

2006

2012

Revenue of The New York Times $3.2B

2006

$1.5B

$1.7B

2012

2017

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 2018

39

FACING THE FUTURE

original 13.5 inches. The Metropolitan section was merged with the main national and international news sections. Sports and Business also consolidated, save for on Saturdays and Sundays when sports gets its own insert. Cutting the page size saved the paper $12 million annually.

The New York Times succeeded in making money online as well. The Times set the standard for feature digital reporting in December of 2012 when it published 'Snow Fall,' a six-part series covering the 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche that occurred in the state of Washington. The story featured videos, photography, and interactive maps available online that allowed readers to experience the story more viscerally and completely than they could in newsprint.

The Times, realizing the potential for success in this model, produced a whole section called The Upshot. While The Upshot undoubtedly delivers pertinent stories and worthwhile reads, its its use of interactive maps is what makes it most notable. With this section, The Times aimed largely not for the eyes of its older readers, but instead those of Millennials and younger readers who understand and enjoy navigating technology.

However, they did not stop there. The Times now offers digital-only subscriptions for an audiences that do not want or need a paper to land on their doorstep. Over 3.3 million individuals pay for these digitalonly subscriptions, which and produced $400 million in revenue in 2018. In the first quarter alone, 30% of the paper’s total new subscribers came from digital products like their daily crossword and cooking apps. In

40 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

total, the paper has 4.3 million subscribers across digital and print—meaning that over three-forth of all readership is taking advantage of the online-only option.

'Retention of our core digital news product remains a very encouraging

"The story featured videos, photography, and interactive maps available online that allowed readers to experience the story more viscerally and completely than they could in newsprint"

cohorts, some of whom are now well over a year into their subscriptions at least, as well as earlier cohorts.'

The Times has also found success with trendy audio products like its podcasts.

'The Daily,' a twenty minute piece pushed each weekday which covers topical news, has become a smash hit. Thompson, in expounding on the successes of the paper, has described podcasts as an excellent method for 'getting Times journalism in front of new audiences and further[ing] the reputation of The New York Times.'

Big bucks still do exist in advertising, too. The New York Times saw digital advertising rise 8.6% in 2018. Digital advertising also surpassed print advertising for the first time in the fourth quarter, jumping 23% to $103 million. Over the last year, print ads revenue fell 10% to $88 million.

Armed with these positive numbers, Mr. Thompson has set one more lofty goal for the Times: 'to grow our subscription business to more than 10 million subscriptions by 2025.' For now, America’s most iconic paper is just under half-way to that mark. So, expect to see more prime-time TV ads for newspapers sprinkled in with Bud Light and Burger King through Super Bowl LX. Illustrations by Serena Ren

story,' Mark Thompson, The New York Times Company’s chief executive, said during an earnings call with investors in the spring of 2018. 'We continue to retain the postelection

Subscriptions of The New York Times before and after digital was introduced 4M

After offering digital-only subscriptions, the paper has 4.3 million subscribers across digital and print in 2018.

1M

In 2009, the paper’s weekday circulation fell below 1 million for the first time since the 1980s.

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

41

Merrill looks to grow video games into a global sport

Marc Merrill Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Riot Games WITH QUANG TRINH

2018 BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY 42 42 FALL

FACING THE FUTURE

On maintaining a commitment to quality as the gaming industry rapidly evolves Business Today: 2019 is the 10th year anniversary of the release of League of Legends. What do you think has changed the most in the world of gaming for the past decade, and how have you and Riot Games reacted to it?

Marc Merrill: There have been some impactful changes in gaming. One is the proliferation of the philosophy and approach towards the game as a service.

In other words, there are a lot more companies that are building a direct relationship with their audience and improving the game over time based on what that audience wants to see and what is working. I think it is a very positive thing for gamers and for the world.

Number two is the proliferation of great technology, whether it is an engine such as Unity and Unreal or the proliferation of cloud-based computing and technology.

There has never been a better time for great content creators to create higher quality games for lower cost than ever and to be able to publish it and reach an audience, whether it is on mobile or PC or on console, Xbox and Playstation. Companies like Valve with Steam have done a good job in writing developer tools, using the cloud. Overall, these are exciting developments for developers, which then of course benefits players because they get more content with a wider variety of genre and experience.

The third thing is, of course, the rise of streaming and broadcasting of games, whether it is esports or community content, which helps foster celebrity and gives very high value entertainment to players all over the world to build community, to find people that they can connect with, and to entertain themselves and each other in really compelling ways.

BT: You mention the development of the gaming industry really allows developers to expand the ways that games are designed. I’m really surprised to find out in 2016, Riot Games introduced Mechs vs. Minions, a board game. The game has enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success. In what ways do you think that expanding into this new type of game have impacted your business or your mission? Do you believe that it has expanded your audience in any way?

MM: There are two main reasons we created Mech vs. Minions and expanded into board games.

One and most importantly, internally there are many Riot developers who love board games in general. There are a lot of creative muscles and energy that Riot has and wants to express in different ways. Sometimes, a big game like League of Legends will not necessarily allow for us to go forth and enable teams and individuals to pursue their passion projects that will also delight our players.

The second thing about it is that we don’t think the goal is to extend our audience at all. It was much more about players who love board games and also LoL players, where we want to share the passion that a lot of Riot developers have for a game that is really fun to play.

We hope that in the long term, there are a lot more opportunities for fun expression of Riot’s passion that hopefully connects with different gamers, whether it is board game or other forms of video games. We just want to be a company that can facilitate that type of passion.

BT: You mentioned earlier this expansion into streaming, and how streaming really changes the way people perceive gaming. In recent years, there has been a huge trend for streamers to stream the most popular games, like PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends. How do you think this nature of streaming can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to LoL? MM: There are a lot of advantages for

sure. At the end of the day, players want to play great games, and so as long as LoL remains an incredible experience, people will be playing it and streaming it, and it will be a great channel for the game to generate awareness and exposure to new audiences and keep people engaged.

I think in emerging genres, such as the Battle Royale genre, one of the things that we see with PUBG, and then Fortnite and Apex Legends, is essentially that when new a genre or sub-genre emerges, there are a lot of ways to express that gameplay through different games. These games are good for each other from a core experience standpoint, as they all expand the audience of who participates in Battle Royale, but they are also competing with each other fairly directly, and the way that Apex Legends attracted a huge audience in a short amount of time, in our view validates part of the Riot Games long-term approach. We want to create games across different genres, and when we do a good job in elevating a genre or improving it in some particular way, as Apex Legends, Fortnite, or PUBG did, we believe that we can find an audience.

Riot aspires to be the type of company where players are going to be really excited when we potentially create a game in a genre that they may be obsessed with, and so we hope to prove that out over time. A lot of what we see with emerging streaming and proliferation of gaming services help that approach. Then it always comes down to can we build a great game and great experience. That is what matters at the end of the day.

BT: Talking about having a great experience with the game, I was really excited when LoL expanded into emerging markets such as Turkey and Vietnam. Do you think this expansion into these markets change the way you approach LoL or the way you advertise it?

MM: With reference to Turkey and Vietnam specifically, the change is incremental. Part of how we think about it philosophically from the company level is that we believe

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

43

FACING THE FUTURE

the game has to be the same worldwide.

We believe that we cannot build a global esport without that. For example, chess is chess around the world. LoL should be LoL around the world. However, in different regions, the way you get into the game or the way you experience it should be different. And so, in Korea for example, where we partner closely with PC Bang owners and do a lot to help drive traffic in PC Bangs, we try to make LoL a great PC Bang experience. That is something that can help LoL be relevant and authentic to the audience in Korea. And we try to take that mindset in other markets, whether it is North America, Latin America, Europe, Turkey, Vietnam, or China. It is about how we can do justice to the local culture, how

Dota 2, help demonstrate to the gaming industry that if you consistently deliver great value to players over time and can keep them engaged with great content and great experiences, then you can build a long-term business around even one game.

The beauty of this service approach is that it aligns the incentive of what players are looking for with what developers and companies would need to do to keep players engaged. Players don’t spend any money on LoL unless we are developing great value.

I think that is a great thing for gamers.

On the esports side, one of the things that has created a positive outcome has been how other stakeholders and audiences outside of gaming have taken notice of how relevant the impact and high quality games

"One of the positive outcomes of esports contributing to the community is that a lot of people are trying to change their minds about gaming" we treat the context of each environment with respect and authentically connect to the players that are there. Hopefully, some people in each area will love it.

BT: Last year was the 8th iteration of the World Championship. It is one of the hallmark events of the esports calendar. From your point of view, how has the evolution of games into a competitive and global sport changed the way that companies produce games, and how has it changed the way people view games in general?

MM: I think the impact has been two-fold.

LoL and other long-running successful esports games, whether it is CS:GO or

44 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

have become. Competition, viewership numbers, and the production value of the events, which then help generate respect and appreciation, ultimately helps gamers.

When we all have a particular passion such as gaming, and face stigma from parents or peers or teachers or celebrities or the media, you might feel bad because people are criticizing what you love. So, one of the positive outcomes of esports contributing to the community is that a lot of people are trying to change their minds about gaming, thinking that, hey, this gaming thing is kinda cool. Even if it is not for them, or they are not into it, at least they can respect what people are doing. And I think that continues to be a positive

thing: whether it is visas being granted for esports athletes from government or college scholarships existing for esports, the emergence of competition legitimizes gaming and I think that is great for gamers.

BT: Mainstream media has not been kind to esports in general in their depictions and their narrative about the craft. In the future, do you believe this narrative is going to change, and do you think there is anywhere the gaming industry has to adapt in order to become more mainstream?

MM: A thing that we are starting to see, and that we are going to see a lot more in the future, is the emergence of other media entertainment with games and the cultural impact that games can have on other broader popular culture, whether it was the France team doing the Fortnite dance at the World Cup, or the LoL World Championship opening with a virtual performances from LoL characters. Those types of cool genrebending experiences, like Drake playing Fortnite with Ninja, are just really cool, and help with legitimizing gaming. In a couple decades in the future, more and more people will be gamers, and ours are going to be the type of game that you play.

Hopefully, it will be like a movie that you like to watch or a sport that you are into—it would be an anomaly to not be into games.

BT: You have mentioned Riot Games’ commitment to quality and to provide the best experience possible for gamers. There are a lot of optimization issues when it came to gaming, whether it is introducing a new champion or a new map. How does Riot Games address this issue? And, what’s the community role in this process of improving the game?

MM: Obviously, despite our best intentions, which is to always improve the quality of our game across every dimension and the players’ experience, it can sometimes be hard to do. The value-chain is large from intellectual property creation to

FACING THE FUTURE

the creation of the game itself, and then to the distribution and publishing of the game and to players around the world. Including the management and infrastructure, there are so many aspects of complex execution that need to go well, and that requires a great organization and great people, and constant learning.

The high stakes are inevitable when the surface area is increasing so dramatically in such a short period of time. That’s where the community can be so helpful to Riot and to other similar companies, where the community points out what is working and what is not working, and points out any flaws and expresses concerns or suggestions on how we can improve. We really appreciate that.

Oftentimes, players want LoL to be successful and they want Riot to be successful and so part of our challenge as an organization is how can we synthesize feedback and criticisms to understand where we need to improve, and where we can prioritize, and what are great ideas versus what is not as important to improve upon. Part of the challenge of managing a company like Riot is a real-time strategy game of resource allocation and managing constraints, whether it is financial or human resources and great expertise, and making sure to focus on solving the right problems.

Also, in a way we are building a sport. In the early days, we talked to companies about helping us execute events. They did not want to support the broadcast of video game events, so we had to build that capacity ourselves.

We couldn’t go on LinkedIn and type in ‘esports’ and find many people with a lot of expertise, so again the challenge is about training people in all necessary aspects of how to organize esports well. That is a hard problem. So, time is really beneficial for the maturation of an organization, maturation of talent, and the maturation of the ecosystem, and what we try to do is nurture these various ecosystems overtime, whether it is the organization, whether it is esports,

or whether it is the global community.

I like the word nurture, because it captures the phenomenon of needing to grow something that is often fragile.

Plants suffer from different weather conditions, or challenges like the soil not being optimal, and in order for the plant to grow the right way, you need to ensure that all the critical elements are there.

Likewise, in gaming, that is a hard thing to do over time. Over the evolution of the Championship Series, we were initially not ready to have a permanent partnership with a lot of our team owners in the early stage. As things started to evolve, those interactions became more appropriate as the context of the League changed. We think of that as the right type of approach: to nurture something and help some thing in a long-term. So, we are blessed that we can take a long-term approach, while I think many companies suffer from market pressure because they are public.

BT: More and more college students are looking to join the gaming industry in various positions, as game designers, advertisers, or other positions. What advice would you give to college students who are looking for these opportunities?

organizations. You need to have the skills sets and attitude and professionalism in order to eventually get involved. The best way to learn in parallel to your education is by really diving in and getting involved.

The second thing that I would say is to take a long-term view. Even if you are going to work in a different industry, the gaming industry is unlikely to shrink in the 21st century, and there are so many positions that are going to be more and more relevant for gaming as the world continues to shift from the physical to the virtual. The blending of the two is going to be more and more important. If you are an economist, that is incredibly relevant for online games or for education of the virtual world; if you are a psychologist, that is incredibly relevant for how you improve the behavior of people participating in the community.

No matter one’s educational background, if they have a passion for games, and they are connected to the content experience, they can find a career in a long term.

Don’t assume that just because you are an engineer or an artist that you cannot find a job in games. Follow your passion.

Photograph courtesy of Marc Merrill

MM: The best advice I would give is to get involved, during school. Play games, be a part of the community, and try to do something. If you want to go into game design, try to design a game. Be a dungeon master and build a campaign, or make board games and get modding tools, or work on Unity and create a game there. Go code, get on student projects. If you want to be a writer and cover esports, go do it. Go build your own channel or write content.

The great thing for someone that aspires a career in a game industry is being connected to the content and knowing what’s happening. These are incredibly important for large companies that are doing a lot of things. The challenge for the individual, then, is about how you build your professional competency necessary to effectively contribute to the

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

45

SECTION

Edward discusses the role of upskilling and human talents amidst AI development

2018 BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY 46 46 FALL

FACING THE FUTURE

Chuck Edward Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Microsoft WITH MALLORY WILLIAMSON

On the importance of growth-oriented company culture in the technology sector Business Today: Our magazine is really about adapting to change, and within the talent-search world, one of the biggest changes we’re seeing is automation. To what degree does Microsoft use automation in its hiring process, and is this something you predict will change further in the future? In your view, what are the perks of automated hiring, and what parts of picking the perfect employees require a human touch?

Chuck Edward: The tricky part [of AI] is that you allow for the right amount of objectivity, judgement, and ethics because AI is great at taking data and becoming predictive, but if your data isn’t clean, systematized, or predictable, there’s a lot of processes in which AI won’t be able to help anyone. This notion of 'AI for good' also comes into play. Currently, the areas where we use it the most would be administrative processes and areas that we believe we can continue to simplify, but we don’t take it all the way to making hiring decisions. This is going to continue to evolve, and we’re going to continue to evaluate how automation will help our recruiting process, so we’ll experiment and decide where it will help.

BT: At Microsoft, is there a place for students with non-STEM academic training, but who are moved by Microsoft’s mission and by a desire to work with technology?

If so, how might they contribute to the company’s larger goals?

CE: I like this question a lot because the question in and of itself is the answer.

We’re looking for people that are excited by what technology can help with, to speak back to the mission of empowering

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

47

FACING THE FUTURE

every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. We’re leveraging technology to empower others, so we want employees and students who are intrigued by the possibilities of how to make others better and how technology enables that.

As long as somebody has an aptitude to learn and problem solve and make others better with technology, we’re definitely interested in talking with them. They don’t need to be an expert in [technology], but they need to be very curious for what the possibilities are. Once you open it up to the discussion of people that are open to the possibilities and are curious, then our pool of candidates expands.

BT: What sorts of perspectives and backgrounds are critically underrepresented in the technology sector? How has Microsoft worked to ameliorate such deficits?

CE: For us, it’s that delicate balance between hiring people that know things and hiring people that are willing to learn. A big part of our culture is pivoting off of learners and not 'know-ers.' If we become too focused on hiring people who only know specific

We have to hire for future versatility rather than a current status quo.

Whenever you’re in the technology sector, obviously there are a lot of people who will go to the space of 'Is your workforce diverse and inclusive enough?' or 'Are you looking at the makeup of your workforce?' We’re looking at that very closely and making sure that our workforce matches our customer base and matches the people who use Microsoft.

BT: You’ve talked about the culture of learners and how Microsoft wants to expand its user base. During your time, have you seen large scale shifts in Microsoft’s company culture, and do you think the types of workers that Microsoft seeks, or seek Microsoft, have changed over the years?

CE: In the last five years, we’ve taken a cultural refresh approach to Microsoft.

We’ve looked at the type of culture we require to achieve our mission. It turns out, the idea of a growth mindset is the strongest underpinning of our culture. It’s a mindset that’s okay with not knowing everything, and taking risks because

"We won’t become a machinedominated industry without the need for human touch. You’re still going to need empathy, judgement, compassion—that won’t go away" technologies and only know current ways of doing things, it will limit us in the future. What might be underrepresented is having enough learners: people who are resilient, flexible, and continue to grow.

48 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

there’s no judgement towards failure; we’re leaning on each other for support and risk-taking. Diversity and inclusion is another pillar of our culture, with specific emphasis on inclusion. We talk about

customer obsession, truly wanting to dive in and understand our customers’ needs.

We talk about One Microsoft: how do we align our products and services across our entire company, so our customers can have an end-to-end experience with a lot of connective tissue. If we do all of those things well, then we know we’ll make a difference. There’s a point I’d like to make upfront about how we’re hiring people that I didn’t mention earlier, and that’s the point of screening people in. You were asking questions about non-traditional profiles—what if I’m a person that’s not an expert in STEM? My answer is that we’re trying to screen people in for the possibilities, not screen them out just because they missed one or two boxes on our list. We’re trying to build a mantra, or energy, on looking at the different possibilities.

BT: As certain professions shift to being largely AI-driven, how can today’s college students best position themselves to succeed in a machine-dominated industry?

CE: I’m going to call out curiosity again.

Every student should seek the opportunity to understand the world around them, in different industries, technologies, populations, and customer bases. That’s the beauty of being in school—you’re in the mindset of learning already. Just be really expansive in where your curiosity takes you. All of the technology has to work within the construct of the context— what’s happening in the business models to workforces to societies. That, plus curiosity, helps you list out the world’s problems that people want to help with.

I would just say that students should let their minds run free on exploration mode. With all that said and done, we won’t become a machine-dominated industry without the need for human touch. You’re still going to need empathy, judgement, compassion—that won’t go away. Have a broad learning approach so you’re very well-versed and versatile.

FACING THE FUTURE

BT: Given the rise of automation that has taken place in the computing industry, reskilling is a large part of the future for companies like Microsoft. To what degree is reskilling possible, and when is it most and least practical?

CE: I think reskilling is not only possible, but critical. Given how exponential the change in technology can be, you could fall behind if you don’t upskill. Reskill is a term you’ll commonly hear; upskill is this idea of adding on to what you currently have on the base—it’s a little more positive. We all need to look at how we’re going to upskill.

Companies that can upskill their workforces in critical mass will stay very relevant. AI is the best current example. We just released an announcement called Microsoft AI Business School, an online course in which our executives open up a dialogue across industries and across the world on how to transform your business and processes to be more ready for AI. It’s a collective way of upskilling the workforce right now. It’s possible if you start by being very specific on what skills you need to upskill. The world is being broken down into a skills economy in which you can list all the skills that somebody has, all the skills that they need to get to, and you can look at the delta. If you can’t break it down to the specificity of what your business needs, it’s hard to know where to upskill. Step one is identifying critical skills and identifying the delta. Then, in a systematic way, provide the right culture in which people want to learn and pick up more skills, and in the end, you’ll get the ROI out from that.

BT: What are the best qualities a young job applicant can have that don’t show up on a résumé? How, if at all, has this changed with time, and how might it continue to evolve?

CE: It’s a hard question because this is the tricky part. My answer would be, hopefully, there are a lot of ways that you can list your qualities on your resume.

Nowadays, recruiters and companies are searching resumes based off keywords,

search functionalities, and other tools.

Words matter a lot; semantics matter a lot. I think the key is to have a very wellrounded resume. You’re trying to have leadership show up, how did you progress, how have you made others better, how have you created a followership, how have you collaborated, how are you involved in

because you will come out successfully on the other side. This will make you stronger. Whether you’re a year out, or 25 years out, you’re still going to be confronted with these uncomfortable moments. As soon as you learn to embrace that, that’s how you get better.

"If you can’t break it down to the specificity of what your business needs, it’s hard to know where to upskill" different activities. A well-rounded curious thinker who can lead and have others follow is important. If you add all those things up, you really start to stand out.

And I’d say this advice is true regardless of where someone is in his or her career.

In terms of what has changed over time, it’s learning agility. Years ago, it was literally about all you knew, and you were trying to impress people with a long list of accomplishments on what you’ve done. Now it’s about the idea of how will you get things done, how you convey confidence, how you will continue to be a problem solver, to learn, and continue on the journey. It’s a little bit more nuanced, and you’re inviting others to see your progress versus you proving that you know everything.

Learning agility is the biggest change that I’ve seen in the last several years.

BT: What advice would you give a college student today?

CE: Be comfortable being uncomfortable.

The majority of your learning will come from your openness to taking risks, trying things that you’re not good at, giving yourself grace to admit you’re not good at it, but leaning into that

BT: What’s the best advice you received as you began your career?

CE: There are two things I remember from one of my early managers. One of these was related to what I said: being okay with being scared. Not being afraid of having butterflies in your stomach and leaning in to being scared—she was encouraging me to do that, and I appreciated it. The other part is never being afraid to hire somebody who’s better than you. They’re going to make you better. I never forgot that.

BT: Is there anything you’d like to add?

CE: The energy around AI and machine learning is on everybody’s mind, but if there’s good news in that, it only can work if the human-enabled part of the world still works. In other words, it only matters if you have the right culture, the right judgement, the right assets, and machines for good and AI for good. The beauty of having the right culture is that AI will take you to the next place. At Microsoft, we talk about that: spend the right time on the people side of the business and then technology will enable it. It’s not in the reverse order.

Photograph courtesy of Chuck Edward

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

49

SECTION

y r u e t n c e a r t s c s 1 m 2 r a eep a

I E

>

pe

a t d p e r to g n n i l o t t S a b eU th .

m a y

w y

b FALL 2018 2019BUSINESS BUSINESSTODAY TODAY 5050 SPRING

g n a

k o t

|

'

’

\

FACING THE FUTURE

S

mart prioritization within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is perhaps more crucial today than ever before. Although the United States has consistently outspent China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, United Kingdom, and Japan combined on national defense, our country faces an imminent threat from China and Russia with regards to the development of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

Only last year, Aaron Gregg’s Washington Post report revealed that a Government Accountability Office audit of US defense technologies in the Army, Navy, and Air Force found that there were 'mission critical cyber vulnerabilities in nearly all weapons systems that were under development,' likely as a result of 'military agencies [rushing] to computerize new weapons systems without prioritizing cybersecurity.'

This new brand of technological warfare marks the evolution of a new heavy artillery much different than those seen in the world wars.

Given that China and Russia have made it clear that they are hungry to exploit any sort of weakness in the US’ digital infrastructure, it is of paramount importance for current Department of Defense spending and innovation to concentrate on cybersecurity and AI. Russian and Chinese AI developments already pose a grave threat to American military dominance, something which—if the U.S. does not act—will only increase with time. According to a Belfer Center Study performed in 2014, the Russian Military Industrial Committee approved a plan that would have 30% of Russian combat power consist of entirely remotecontrolled and autonomous robotic platforms by 2030. Moreover, a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies highlighted not only details of China’s advanced AI Development plan originally released in July of 2017, but also

the unique technological ecosystem in the world’s most populous country. The AI Development plan promises that 'China will be the world’s primary AI innovation center' by 2030, and seeks to cultivate a domestic AI industry valued at $150 billion. Given the Chinese government’s oversized—and growing—influence in the Chinese private sector, new technologies are often developed in close coordination with government goals and objectives, allowing the government to direct the prioritization of AI through its influence on companies and research facilities. China’s unique political landscape and the commitments both Russia and China have made mean that it is high time the U.S. makes a similar investment to keep competitive.

The United States hasn’t completely neglected AI, however. According to the Jackie Snow of the MIT Technology Review, American 'spending on AI, big data, and cloud services reached $7.4 billion in the 2017 fiscal year,' a marked increase since 2012. While spending is indeed rising, many studies still project that the US will fall behind competing countries in AI. To this end, during an Armed Services Committee hearing in 2017, the late Senator John McCain warned that 'the DoD’s relationship with Silicon Valley,' which he considered to be lacking, would ‘be one of these disgraceful chapters that will be written about. [Silicon Valley is] where the innovators are, sir.' In underscoring the problems of the DoD, McCain also makes explicit one of the greatest assets unique to the innovation ecosystem in the US: its talented civilian base. This would include research universities, private and commercial businesses, and start-ups.

This isn’t a completely new concept— in fact, returning emphasis on the contributions that civilians can make perhaps would return the Department of Defense to the roots of its success.

Stanford professor and Army veteran

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

51

SECTION

AI

, 0 5 , 1 $ 00 , 0 0 0 % 0 0 0 0 3 0 try

al go

SPRING 2018 2019 BUSINESS BUSINESS TODAY TODAY 52 52 FALL

us

ind

m o c er f o w po

us mo no

to

au

t a b

0

FACING THESECTION FUTURE

Jeff Decker assesses in 2018 War on the Rocks article 'Renewing Defense Innovation' that the Department of Defense has historically relied on and sourced innovation from the non-defense world: 'During World War II, when the U.S. government realized it needed an external innovation pipeline … it hired civilian scientists to work on defense-related problems … The establishment of Vannevar Bush’s Office of Scientific Research and Development was the first formalized effort to inject civilian scientist technological know-how into the Defense Department.

Civilian scientists were so successful in helping the government achieve its objectives that the Office of Scientific Research and Development became the National Science Foundation in 1950. Later, during the Cold War, the government once again sourced outside innovation by mobilizing commercial industry to develop satellites and precision-guided munitions enabling the United States to see and accurately hit targets beyond the horizon.'

The historical lessons from Decker’s characterization are clear. The Department of Defense needs to turn to back to the civilian populace, which contains thriving innovative potential and talent. Indeed, there have been early efforts to integrate civilians into national defense advisory boards. Take, for example, the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) that was established in 2016. Its board boasts the membership of Eric Schmidt, former executive Chairman of Alphabet, Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton studying work and innovation, and Walter Isaacson, the former president and CEO of the Aspen Institute. Given the diverse representation of various civilian groups, the DIB functions, according to its website, as 'part of the larger, emerging innovation ecosystem at DoD … to bring innovation and entrepreneurship to the Department.'

The DIB is already beginning to recognize some of the systemic challenges to innovation in the defense sector. In a House Armed Services Committee testimony, Schmidt and Michael Griffin, the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, complained about the red tape imposed by government regulations which was difficult for public-private partnerships to navigate. Under current regulations, money has to be appropriated for narrow and tailored purposes, making it difficult to sponsor research that is needed as new problems and challenges quickly arise. Carten Cordell in a FedScoop article characterizes that, in confronting these issues, the DIB is looking to form 'more partnerships with public universities to leverage laboratories and research facilities to foster technology development.'

In recent months, there has been a great deal of movement and restructuring within the Department of Defense. As a result, there are more groups that work specifically to foster defense innovation.

For example, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental team, DIUx, became a permanent group within the Defense Department in August 2018.

Issues of cybersecurity and AI remains at the forefront of challenges for the Department of Defense. Luckily, in recent months we have seen a pivot back to previous successes within the Pentagon, in integrating civilians into the defense work and allowing for greater innovation.

While the establishment of groups such as DIUx and DIB are still nascent, the work that they have in front of them is critical to US security now and into the future.

Illustrations by Ilene E

BUSINESS BUSINESS TODAY TODAY SPRING FALL 2019 2018

53

FACING THE FUTURE

Intel and Esports: STAYING ON TOP

BY QUANG TRINH

F

rom February 13th to March 3rd, 2019, the major world Counter Strike event occured in Katowice, Poland.

Outside of the gaming world, this event is far from being anticipated; Counter Strike is an esport that targets a niche market of gamers. However, it clearly meant enough to Intel, because that event bears the name 'Intel Extreme Masters.'

For many, it would be difficult to tell the last time they have seen a laptop or personal computer (PC) without an Intel processor, and there is a good reason for that. Since the turn of the century, Intel has achieved a position of undisputed market dominance in semiconductors.

While the company just makes the top ten most valuable tech companies, the other nine are all in some ways competitors to each other (think Apple vs. Samsung or Alphabet vs. Microsoft).

Yet, competition never ceases to exist and nothing can be taken for granted.

In the final quarter of 2018, Intel saw a growing challenge from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the central processing unit (CPU) market. In other sub-category of semiconductors, the pressure from competitors like NVIDIA and Qualcomm are always present.

The fierce competition means one thing: every opportunity counts.

The gaming market has typically been seen as a niche market, but its scale should not be underestimated. According to Newzoo, in 2018, global spending on games alone amounted to nearly $138 billion. That means an even greater amount spending on gaming gears, including PCs, Consoles, CPUs and other accessories.

Intel has been comparatively late in

54 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

joining the party. The two most popular consoles on the market, XBox and PlayStation, both run on AMD processors.

In other markets like graphic processing units (GPU), Intel’s Celeron is also behind the duo-race between NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon. While these markets are unlikely to offset Intel’s dominance in a foreseeable future, Intel cannot turn a blind eye to a burgeoning industry which impact is yet to reach full potential.

"Intel is not only taking the right step, it is ensuring that its monopoly power translates to the gaming battle well" The challenges for Intel were AMD’s long term contracts with XBox and PlayStation, and NVIDIA’s technological supremacy in GPU, which brings in Esports.

There are many who game, but there are even more who watch. The growth of Esports means that there is an increasing number of people who follow the games without actually playing it, similar to other traditional sports. The event in Katowice had an average viewership of 300,000 per game, which translates to 300,000 pairs of eyes consuming Intel commercials.

This unique advantage of esports to

Gamescom and other gaming conferences means that Intel opens itself to a much greater audience from a seemingly unique context. Some might argue that what is even more important is the fact that the Chinese demographic happens to also enjoy gaming. With the Chinese control over the Internet and the exclusion of Facebook and Youtube, Western firms face critical challenges in penetrating the market. Esports events provide an unique opportunity for Intel to access Chinese consumers without conventional means.

The other side of gaming event is undoubtedly the gamers. People might watch a game because they play it, or because they simply follow famous gamers.

By supporting the right team at the right time, Intel or any other companies can access fandoms that can be as committed as any traditional sports ones. Last year, the Intel-sponsored Invictus Gaming won the World Championship in League of Legends, a $6.5 million dollar event.

Intel is not only taking the right step, it is ensuring that its monopoly power translates to the gaming battle well.

The Counter Strike event is part of a $100 million dollar deal that Intel signed with ESL, a major gaming tournament organizer. Apart from Invictus Gaming, Intel also sponsors Edward Gaming, a Chinese gaming powerhouse. These efforts ensure that Intel will remain relevant in the gaming industry despite its setbacks.

As gamers and viewers around the globe turn their attention to Katowice, Intel also shows how in this game, it can stay on top.

Illustrations by Wendi Yan

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

55

HIGHLIGHTS

Design Nation 2019: A Recap

BY GRACE HONG

O

n Friday, March 8th, Business Today held the 3rd iteration of Design Nation, an expenses-paid conference that explores the impact of design within career, business, and industry. For the first time, Design Nation had a theme centered around “The First Touch,” how designers use the consumer experience to create unique and groundbreaking products.

The conference brought together over 80 students from across the nation to the NeueHouse in New York for a day filled with keynotes, panels, workshops, and seminars.

The day kicked off with a keynote by Melissa Dalrymple, a Partner at McKinsey & Company. Her work focuses on leveraging McKinsey’s design arm in transforming the businesses with which they collaborate.

When comparing companies that invested in design with those that did not, along with graphs illuminating the drastic difference in returns, Dalrymple furthered the notion that design has grown increasingly prominent in driving success for today’s businesses. Her piece of advice to the attendees was to start thinking about how to best communicate the value of what you’re doing to the table.

The next event was a panel, themed “Design in the Era of Innovation,” bringing together design executives from Google Creative Labs (Heather Luipold, Creative Lead), IBM (Amber Atkins, Strategic Global Offerings), Spotify (Dan Sormaz, VP of Design), and Code and Theory (Matthieu Mingasson, Group Director of Product).

One of the first concerns that precipitated from the discussion was the challenge of

56 SPRING 2018 BUSINESS TODAY

automation to design. As more and more systems undergo automation, it becomes important to reorient design such that it remains an inherently creative and human process. Likewise, panelists touched upon design with regards to customers and the product. For instance, product design intersects heavily with accessibility as businesses attempt to create products that can serve the greatest audience. In another vein, Sormaz mentioned that experience has trumped other aspects of design; the term “design” no longer refers solely to visuals, but reflects an all-encompassing experience that includes sound and communication.

After these two presentations, the attendees then began their first workshop, lead by Brian Bimschleger, Head of Strategy at Arthur, a design studio based in California. After an energetic rendition of the wave with attendees, Bimschleger lead students through an exercise based off of the Six Thinking Hats. Each hat represents a different subject; the black hat, for instance, represents challenges that could be faced. In this workshop, attendees pitched new products they would like to create and applied each hat to critically assess their idea.

Attendees then listened to a fireside chat with Debbie Millman, Host of Design Matters podcast, and Robert Brunner, Founder and Partner at Ammunition Group.

Brunner’s history in design began with work in several technology companies, notably Apple Computer. Now the head of a leading design studio, Brunner explained, “When two people look at something and have

the same gut feeling, that is branding.” On the opposite end, Debbie Millman never studied design formally, but once she made the commitment to learn it herself, she never compromised her ambitions. Millman recounted choosing to live in NYC as a non-negotiable that was most important to her at the time. Though she lived in a 4th floor walkup where she had to get through someone else's room to get to hers, Millman emphasized that she was able to come so far because she stuck to her goal.

The second keynote of the day featured Tim Riley, Senior Director of Experience Design at Warby Parker. Riley spoke to Warby Parker’s unique advertising and marketing techniques. One marketing campaign they used was having models wear their eyewear and hold up blue books with the names of the particular glasses.

Another, Warby Barker, featured dogs of all ages and sizes donning Warby Parker glasses and became extremely popular in a matter of hours once it was launched.

Riley didn’t neglect to speak to how Warby Parker addresses user experience. Aside from allowing customers to try on glasses from their home before purchasing, Warby Parker has launched in-store experiences for people to survey glasses as they see fit.

Moving on to the second workshop, Doug Melville, Chief Diversity Officer at TBWA, an international advertising agency, spoke to diversity in marketing.

As a leader of diversity within TBWA, Melville mentioned that students need to reframe diversity relative to location.

In America, race tends to represent

HIGHLIGHTS

diversity while around the world, diversity centers more on gender differences.

Melville also provided seven tips for success, as outlined below:

1. Build trust and consistency (blogging is one way to do it) - define one thing in your life for this rule 2. Reputation precedes you when you walk into a room 3. Be comfortable with the uncomfortable 4. Know the people you are with everyday 5. Know your strengths and weaknesses and capitalize on this knowledge 6. Get better at telling your story 7. Find a mentor, advocate, and coach As he began his workshop, Melville, passionately advocating for idea disruption, challenged students to present thirty second stories about themselves. The workshop aptly ended with several presentations from attendees, showcasing their own disruptive nature; one attendee,

Jason Yuan, spoke to receiving rejections from a whole host of companies, only to take the lead and redesign Apple Music through his own case study.

After a recruiting reception and executive seminar, students settled down to listen to a fireside chat with Bryan O’Neil Hughes, the Director of Product Management at Adobe. Hughes touched upon how Adobe has taken advantage of innovations, such as AI, to facilitate design.

For instance, Photoshop has introduced tools, such as content aware fill, that users didn’t even know they’d want; these have become staples of the Photoshop workflow. Within Adobe, Hughes also has been pushing for Project Gemini, Adobe’s in-development app specifically for drawing. Though he admits he used to be a professional photographer, not a great drawing artist, Hughes argues that drawing reflects one of our very first touches with creativity, and for Adobe to overlook this project would seem foolish. Finally, Hughes’ story, like Debbie Millman’s, started with him finding a person/product (for him, it was Photoshop and its original creator), then placing that goal as a non-negotiable thing he wanted to follow. To Hughes, if you find one of those things in your own life, it’s absolutely worth chasing it and allowing life to work around that core decision.

The next panel, which was all female, aligning with International Women’s Day, discussed “Ethics and Purpose within Design.” With Ifeoma Ebo, Director of Strategic Design Initiatives at NYC Mayor’s

Office, Deva Pardue, Senior Creative Designer at the Wing, and Sarah Welch, Vice President at ideas42, panelists examined design’s relevance in organizations and objects outside of corporate businesses.

Being at the center of human experiences, design has a powerful emotional effect that allows it to push forth social causes.

The panel also sought to expand the idea of design to encompass posters, systems, urban networks, the criminal justice system, co-working spaces, and more.

The day ended with one last keynote by two executives from Postmates.

Ario Jafarzadeh, Head of Design, and Marc Greenberg, Leader of Product and UX, talked about creating a robot for Postmates’ food delivery business. Speaking to the versatile applications of design, Jafarzadeh and Greenberg explained how there was much thought put into the design of their autonomous robot, Serve.

It was heavily tested on its appearance in the streets, and they decided upon a grocery cart-like design to symbolize both food delivery and technology.

All in all, DN19 helped bridge the gap between undergraduates interested in design and design as a potential career pathway. From thinking about how design interacts with various products to considering how design can convey social impact, it’s inevitable that design be given attention in today’s business world. It’s here to stay.

Photograph by Vincent Po

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2018

57

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE 45TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Dear Reader, Since the beginning of time, humans have sought to globalize, constantly looking to settle new territories and trade with neighbors. The Silk Road was a perfect example of an early form of globalization: countries jockeying to develop influence and interact with one other. Following World War II, globalization has inextricably intertwined the world’s major economies with international trade, the rise of multinational corporations, and the surge of international investments. More recently, however, globalization has slowed as international trade has plateaued, global GDP growth has slid to the single digits, and nationalist sentiments have taken hold worldwide.

But globalization is not over: instead, it is undergoing a fascinating redefinition. The World Economic Forum, McKinsey & Company Global Institute, and Boston Consulting Group Henderson Institute have all begun to examine this new phase of globalization. With the fourth industrial revolution at its helm, the world’s digital integration will be defined by data and information flow serving as the new form of global trade.

Business Today’s 45th International Conference seeks to explore the impact of this new wave of globalization on affected businesses and industries worldwide. Over our three day conference, we will examine issues ranging from the impact of this changing globalization on the service sector to how global digitization expands market opportunities for small companies and developing countries.

Business Today’s conferences provide attendees with the opportunity to benefit from exposure to diverse mindsets, not only from many industries and companies, but also from students of different countries, universities, and backgrounds.

True to our mission, the Business Today conference team connects influential business executives and leaders with top undergraduate executives to in order educate and develop the next generation of leaders. Our generation will enter the workforce in the midst of this new era of globalization, and we must be ready to deal with its impact. How will digital platforms change the organizational structure of businesses? Do businesses have the innovative strategies necessary to compete in this new wave of globalization? How will professional and service-sector workers be affected? At the 45th International Conference, we aspire to facilitate the thoughtful and open exchange between students and executives necessary to engage with the approaching transformation. I urge you to apply and to become an active part of the conversation and the Business Today family. Together, we will forge the new era of globalization.

Warm regards,

ROGER CHEN DIRECTOR OF THE 45TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

58 SPRING 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

Sponsors LEGACY

VENTURE

PATRONS

Aman Kapadia

SPONSORS JBG Smith Navigators Insurance Company

Canning Foundation NRG Energy General Dynamics

Nantahala Capital Partners Saliie Mae

Siemens Corporation Rosenthal & Rosenthal FONA International

Netspend Tommy Bahama

Abaxis Inc. Clint Severson Charitable The Genesis Prize Foundation The Hersh Foundation Berkshire Partners Oak Investment Partners Penn National Gaming

STRATIS IoT Axial Bank of America Digital Remedy Mitsubishi International Corporation The Scheetz Group Training the Street

Yext Abbott Downing Avant Emile Karafiol Smithfield Trust Alkami Technology Whim Hospitality Chegg

Full Cirlce Insights iPass The Spur Group WideOrbit

Symantec Armstrong Shaw Association Melville Mummert James Soldano Sterling Investment Partners Stephen Williams New Mountain Capital

Schwarzman Scholars Strock & Strock Open Arms Health Care Peter George Austin Saypol Turner Smith C.H. Douglas & Gray

BackBay Communication William Haynes Jim Roccas Canusa Corporation Evergreen Fibres, Inc. Kaity Kratsios Scott Seegers

Adriana Rios Welton Steve Wunker Tom Perlmutter Nicholas Cajocaru-Durand Timothy Lyons

CONTRIBUTORS Analysis Group Bose Corporation Integra Life Scienc REX Shares, LLC Terex Corporation Federated Investors Foundation SonicWall

DONORS Wawa Wendell Family Foundation Cooley LLP 52 Capital Partners SGH Macro Advisors CWS Capital Partners TengoInternet

BUSINESS TODAY SPRING 2019

59

Want to read more? Visit the

journal.businesstoday.org Apply to the Business Today Journalism Fellowship today!