Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul><li>While <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">Covid-19</keyword> is sure to transform the way the world learns and works, business leaders must remember that this is not a one-off crisis, writes <keyword id="198964" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Suvodeep-Das">Suvodeep Das</keyword>, Vice President – Sales &amp; Marketing, <keyword id="6409110" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sodexo">Sodexo</keyword> Benefits &amp; Rewards India. </li><li>He further shares a few ways in which technology can be the unlikely saviour for entrepreneurs.</li></ul> Epidemics, on the other side of the world, are a threat to us all. No epidemic is just local. -Peter Piot, Belgian Microbiologist 2020 – a new year, a new decade, marking the beginning of a much-anticipated new era in technology and digitalization! Little did we know what was about to unfurl, not in the distant future, but a brief span. What started as flu in China has spread faster than any disease in the modern era, WHO declared it a <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020">pandemic</a> on 11th March. Within two days, WHO had also come up with guidelines to control the transmission of the disease. Quarantines of suspected cases and social isolation of the general public are topmost on the list of ‘things to do.’ As of date, more than 50+ countries have implemented a nationwide shutdown. In India itself, the central government has laid down the <a href="https://www.mohfw.gov.in/SocialDistancingAdvisorybyMOHFW.pdf">guidelines</a>, and most states are in a state of partial shutdown. Educational institutions, malls, movie houses, stores except those selling essential commodities – all have been closed. People have been advised to stay home and venture out only when they must. The economy is much more fragile than we realize. The result has been deadly for the global economy as well, not because of the virus itself, but because of its consequences. Quarantines and isolation mean no travel, no stepping out, no eating out, and no outside entertainment, i.e., no spending. Already wobbling from the impact of a prolonged recession, entire industries are on the brink of collapse. The stock markets are seeing new depths every single day; the Sensex, for example, has gone down by 10,000 points in just one month. While the most obvious impact has been on the travel and hospitality sector, almost all industries are reeling from the continuing shock. Restaurants, malls, shops, gyms, and even factories are shutting down. Technology is the unlikely savior. In this time of mandated social distancing, the only way out for businesses is to transfer their services to the internet; after all, this is one virus that can’t spread online. The digital economy is the best way out for a world that is becoming more and more threatened every day. Organizations that have chosen to go digital for their day-to-day activities are the ones that can maintain some semblance of normalcy and help reduce the ‘spread’ of the disease. <ol><li>Physical currency is one of the most common modes of catching or passing on any virus, using digital payments will go a long way in limiting the spread as people will not need to touch any currency.</li><li>Digital employee benefits like gift cards, meal cards, etc. have worked as an alternative to currency as well, ensuring that even when people are working from home, they can use their benefits, be it for food, groceries or online shopping.</li><li>Quite a few organizations in the country have advocated Working from Home (WFH) using Video conferencing, choosing to conduct business as usual, albeit in a different mode. A lot of schools and colleges have also refused to bow down to the virus; using the remote classroom concept instead. </li><li>A lot of companies have invested in shared drives so that it doesn’t put additional pressure on email infrastructure; even more so for teams used to working with massive files.</li><li>Since companies need to take some extra steps to motivate teams working remotely, especially for ones who are used to only working together, instant, digital rewards programs that can be given remotely, every day will be a powerful tool.</li></ol>While Covid-19 is sure to transform the way the world learns and works, business leaders must remember that this is not a one-off crisis. In a world with rapidly shrinking boundaries, an epidemic/crisis in even the furthest corner of the world is likely to have an adverse impact on ours. Learning from the current crisis and staying prepared for the next one is the only way to overcome any disaster of this magnitude. - By Suvodeep Das, Vice President – Sales &amp; Marketing, Sodexo Benefits &amp; Rewards India.

Technology: The way out for businesses during Coronavirus outbreak

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-of-inequity-how-inequity-persists-in-american-daily-life-2021-6"></a><div type="image" title="Rachel J Robasciotti circle" height="337" width="450" msid="83989225" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Racial inequity in <keyword id="35175" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="investing">investing</keyword> is a multi-faceted problem, says Angelique Brunner.</li><li>We talked with business founders Brunner and Rachel Robasciotti on how they're directing change.</li><li>Robasciotti is an asset manager and Brunner runs a real estate investment firm.</li></ul>Rachel Robasciotti understood from a young age the systemic issues that had led to her growing up poor in northern California.Three men in Robasciotti's family were killed by police officers. She lived in a rural, racially segregated area, which at one point was in danger of being wiped out by a dam break."When I came into finance, I came in as a person who knew very directly the impacts of racial, gender, and economic climate justice issues," Robasciotti told Insider. "I could see how they all wove together, because I lived it."When Robasciotti graduated from high school at 15 and attended the University of California at Berkeley to study political economy, she set out to make a difference in financial advising, helping people from disenfranchised communities improve their situations.But eventually she realized her time would be better spent in asset management, where she thought she could create more significant change. She cofounded<a href="https://robasciotti.com"> Robasciotti &amp; Philipson</a> in 2014 and later<a href="https://adasina.com"> Adasina Social Capital</a>, both of which invest with a focus on social justice."From the very beginning I thought what I would do was help individuals - like women, people of color, queer folks - which I did for many years as a wealth manager," she said. "What I realized, though, is you can only change things only one person at a time or one family at a time. What we really needed to do was be more in the space of asset management and directing the wealth."Everybody's, like, 'Yes, racial justice!,' and I'm, like, 'We could start with who owns and directs the wealth in this country, because that fuels everything,'" she added.Representation is a broader problem in the investment space. This is problematic because it leads to things like groupthink in an industry, where a shared perspective leads to a reinforcement of prior biases, and can leave other groups' needs unmet.Representation is also an issue in the greater business world. For example, only two Black women have ever been chairs of S&amp;P 500 firms. This lack of diversity has arguably hurt performance, data shows. Bank of America found that firms with an above-average racial and ethnically diverse workforce outperform less diverse peers in return on <keyword id="6391506" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Equity">equity</keyword> by 8% in a year.<h2 dir="ltr">More than representation</h2>But beyond representation, there are other ways that change can be directed. For one, there is asset allocation.Robasciotti and her team at Adasina have created a <a href="https://adasina.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Adasina-Racial-Justice-Exclusion-List.pdf">list of firms</a> that they exclude from their portfolios because, in their view, they engage in activities that propagate racial injustice. For example, Adasina's exclusion list as of September 2020 features <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/sdxof-stock" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sodexo</a> and cites the company's <a href="https://investigate.afsc.org/company/sodexo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">provision of catering services to prisons</a> in Australia and the UK. It also includes <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/ba-stock" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boeing</a> because of their involvements in making <a href="https://investigate.afsc.org/company/boeing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">surveillance equipment</a>."Sodexo only provides services where we can make a positive impact on prisoner's lives and will not work in countries with capital punishment," a spokesperson said, adding that the death penalty in many US states did not match its ethical principles. Boeing did not respond to Insider's request for comment.This approach matters because if investors increasingly decline to allocate money to certain firms for these reasons, their share-price performance will suffer. Therefore, if companies and their executives wish not to endure poor stock performance or miss out on gains, they will correct behavior that isn't in line with what investors want.Known under the umbrella term as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, this style of allocating money is becoming more popular:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-esg-investing-4-companies-to-profit-from-2020-8"> Investor flows into ESG-focused exchange-traded funds jumped 700%</a> last year.Further, there are structural elements of the investing process that can change, like due diligence, Robasciotti said. Many investors choose to give money to fund managers who meet criteria like having over $200 million in assets under management and a three-year track record. This puts a lot of minority fund managers at a disadvantage from the start and keeps money with those who are already the wealthiest and most powerful, Robasciotti said.<h2 dir="ltr">Inequity beyond equities</h2>But inequity in investing isn't only an issue to be dealt with in and through equity <keyword id="31671" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="markets">markets</keyword>. It rears its head in other areas, too, like real estate and business investment.For example, banks are less likely to invest in entrepreneurs who are people of color, or in businesses in minority neighborhoods, according to Angelique Brunner, the founder and CEO of<a href="https://www.eb5capital.com"> EB5 Capital</a>, a real estate investment firm. And even if they do, it's often less that the entrepreneur would need.In other words, people who want to invest in a business of their own to grow wealth often can't because they have less access to capital.Some businesses have tried to address the problem. Marriott, for instance, started to provide credit enhancement - essentially supporting the underwriting of a deal - to increase the chances of a person of color accessing credit to start a hotel licensed under their name, Brunner said.<div type="image" title="Angelique Brunner" height="240" width="320" msid="83989227" hostid="261"></div>Brunner founded EB5 Capital to address this. The firm helps connect immigrant investors with projects that need funding in underserved areas, where US banks are less likely to provide backing.But racial inequity, when it comes to investing and all its implications, is a broad and difficult issue to fix. Robasciotti says better representation in an industry alone isn't enough. Brunner says the behavior of numerous parties needs to change."This is a multifaceted problem, and it's going to be a multifaceted solution," Brunner said. "It's not on corporations alone, it's not on capital markets alone, it's not on municipalities alone. "The history of how we got to now involved bad actors on every side of the equation. And so the history of how we get to where we want to be will involve intentionality from every actor in the equation."

Racial inequity in investing is robbing everyone of handsome financial returns. 2 founders break down the specific ways they're shaking up the industry and making it more equitable.

You Searched For "sodexo marketing head" and got 2 results

Technology: The way out for businesses during Coronavirus outbreak

Guest Author

Racial inequity in investing is robbing everyone of handsome financial returns. 2 founders break down the specific ways they're shaking up the industry and making it more equitable.

William Edwards

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides