2020 Longbrake Letter
Bill Longbrake has extensive experience in finance and investments, macroeconomics and monetary policy, risk management, housing, and public policy. The 'Longbrake Letter' is his monthly economic newsletter.
COVID-19
The Trends That Will Shape Marketing in 2021
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Business and marketing in 2021 will be affected by trends in new technology, consumers’ concern over climate change, equity, diversity, and income inequality, and the pandemic and its economic and psychological aftermath.
Cold Chain
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Though creating a COVID-19 vaccine in record time was a breakthrough, the next step, distribution, will place extraordinary demand on key raw materials – specifically dry ice – and distribution channels. "There are always shortages. You always over-forecast, under-forecast, under-procure, over-procure.
WFH and Your Tax Return: A Guide
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – For many workers, the pandemic has meant working from home, often for months on end. But what does 10 months of remote work mean for your 2020 tax return?
It’s kind of a good news/bad news situation, says Maryland Smith’s Samuel Handwerger.
Retailer Survival and Success After COVID
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – COVID-19 arrived in what was already being called a “retail apocalypse,” and the cumulative effect has been daunting. It's also instructive, as providing online options for shopping and fulfillment remains a pillar of sustainability for conventional retailers, notes Maryland Smith’s P.K. Kannan.
Four Things We Miss When Working Remotely
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – This shift to remote work had already been growing before many of us abruptly started working from home eight months ago. The COVID-19 pandemic is just accelerating the process. Some companies – Twitter, Facebook, Zillow, Raytheon, Square – have already declared many employees will work remotely going forward.
After Vaccine Breakthrough, Eyes Turn to the COVID Supply Chain
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The announcement this week that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE was shown to be more than 90% effective and on track to potentially become widely available in 2021 is being hailed as a momentous breakthrough.
How to Manage Holiday Conversations Like a Boss
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – As we head into the holiday season, health officials are warning that family gatherings could fuel the pandemic. To be prudent, making – or breaking – plans with even close family and friends might require some difficult conversations.
Webinar: Rebooted - Forum on Strategic Retail Management
Open discussion with participants about the challenges and issues they face in the retail industry.
Facilitated by: Jie Zhang
Date
February 24, 2021 - 3:00pm
Webinar: Rebooted - Utilizing Data Analytics to Build A Winning Retail Business
Utilizing Data Analytics to Build A Winning Retail Business
This session will cover retail performance metrics and how to utilize them to diagnose problems and improve retail decisions. It will focus on those performance metrics that can be implemented using a retailer's existing inventory management and bookkeeping infrastructure (so that they can be easily adopted by SMR's). We will also discuss more advanced metrics and frameworks that have been utilized by sophisticated retail operations and the additional data/resources required.
Date
February 10, 2021 - 3:00pm
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