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Topic: Well-being
Podcast: Rapid Response

Redesigning work in a crisis

Upwork’s Hayden Brown
Most future of work conversations revolve around the “where,” but Upwork CEO Hayden Brown says it’s more important to focus on the “who.” 10% of the workforce at Upwork, the global tech platform for millions of freelance workers, was directly impacted by the war in Ukraine. Hayden’s people-focused approach to the difficult decision of how to manage remote employees there and in Russia is the same mindset she applies to meet the needs of all workers, from people feeling conflict to working mothers.
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Podcast: Episode 111: Masters of Scale

Extraordinary leaps need solid foundations, part 2

Moderna’s Stéphane Bancel
A diverse network of collaborators is key when making scale leaps. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel has cultivated a wide network of scientists, business leaders, and government officials across his career. When COVID-19 struck, Bancel called upon this nexus of experts to aid the warp-speed development of the mRNA-based vaccine in the race to save millions of lives.
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Podcast: Rapid Response

Inside a $2.4 billion bet on talent

PwC’s Tim Ryan
With the workplace in historic flux, consulting firm PwC is committing a whopping $2.4 billion to create an employee engagement platform offering a radically new level of choice. PwC’s U.S. chair, Tim Ryan, shares why the bold initiative is necessary in the face of the Great Resignation. It's just one of several evolving crises, Ryan says, that has made leading a business more complex and demanding than ever.
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Podcast: Rapid Response

Lessons from an entrepreneur in Ukraine

Fuelfinance’s Alyona Mysko
Alyona Mysko, the CEO of a B2B startup in Ukraine called Fuelfinance, walks us through the lessons she’s learned while leading her company in wartime — sometimes working with her team from bomb shelters during the day. All of Ukraine is running like a startup now, she says: Each citizen takes the initiative to pick up what needs to be done.
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Podcast: Rapid Response

Supporting Ukraine’s tech workers

Emburse’s Eric Friedrichsen
Eric Friedrichsen, the CEO of Emburse, a B2B software provider, has navigated risks and costs to meet the needs of their tech contractors based in Ukraine — like offering to relocate families, and funding housing costs for colleagues taking refuge in Poland. These choices haven’t come without obstacles. But the benefits are moral, communal, and quantifiable.
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Podcast: Rapid Response

Putting an end to hustle culture

Girls Who Code’s Reshma Saujani
“It’s not about fixing women. It’s about fixing the system,” says Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code and Marshall Plan for Moms. As the author of Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work, Reshma pushes the discourse around the “future of work” to include flexibility, childcare, and an end to the hustle culture — for all of us.
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Podcast: Episode 94: Masters of Scale

No data, no scale

Care.com’s Sheila Lirio Marcelo
No matter what phase of growth you’re in, you need useful, cost-effective data. Data is essential to scale. Take it from Sheila Lirio Marcelo, the founder and former CEO of Care.com, the two-sided marketplace connecting working families with care providers. Marcelo scaled her business past the competition by getting the right data at the right time. As she says: "Something I coach a lot of entrepreneurs: You can have a great vision and idea, but start with a lot of data and testing.”
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Podcast: Rapid Response

When you should require vaccinations

Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer
“You have to preserve your energy; this year has been about pace,” says restaurateur Danny Meyer, as he catches us up on the past seven-plus months of operating in the midst of pandemic. In the beginning of summer 2021, when Covid rates were plummeting in New York City, he was full of optimism: His restaurants were back to indoor dining, and despite a limited workforce, “progress is progress.” Then came the Delta variant.
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Podcast: Rapid Response

Why we need to think again

Wharton’s Adam Grant
As we grapple with change in business and as a society, we've become more fractured, more divisive, more vulnerable. Adam Grant, best-selling author and professor at Wharton, says that recognizing what we don't know is the key step on the road to insight, competitive advantage, and community peace. In his book "Think Again," Grant shares why taking a fresh look at our assumptions, about others and about ourselves, is such a powerful tool.
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Podcast: Episode 73: Masters of Scale

The secret power of onboarding

Canva’s Melanie Perkins
Onboarding isn't just for employees. The step-by-step process to join a product or company lays the foundation for everything that follows. No one knows this better than Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva. From the moment she started the Australia-based graphic design platform, she knew she had to engage newcomers with simplicity and speed. First, onboard early users to her product; then, onboard investors and employees to help her build her values and her vision.
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