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As Ive coached CEOs over the years, Ive often been struck by how little they think about the way they deploy one of the companys most valuable assetstheir time. CEOs face unique time pressures. They have enormous responsibilities and a multitude of issues that need their attention. The way they allocate their time has major ramifications for the success of the business. However big and important your previous job may have been, as a CEO, you will confront a seemingly limitless array of new and varied stakeholders, each demanding (and often warranting) a place on your calendar. And each constituent groupthe board, employees, customers, investors, governments, the mediaincludes within it numerous and distinct individuals and institutions, each with their own unique needs and goals. Over the years, Ive learned (often the hard way) the importance of CEOs keeping control of their agenda in addition to the companys. Along the way, Ive identified three steps that help CEOs ensure that their priorities dont get sidelined by the constant pull of stakeholder management. 1. Define your CEO agenda The CEO agenda is not a laundry list of every important initiative in the company; it is not the goals and objectives used for determining your bonus (although there can be overlap); it is not even necessarily something you share with anyone else. It is an expression of your personal priorities for some stated period. It determines how you will deploy to maximum effect a significant amount of that crucial and finite corporate asset: your time. Realistically, very few objectives are both achievable over a foreseeable horizon and important enough to warrant the CEOs personal engagement. So, when working with new CEOs, I advise them to start by listing their top 10 priorities for the yearand then lopping the bottom six or seven off the list. Together, we pressure test what remains and ask: Does it move the needle? Will this goal meaningfully affect the success trajectory of the business as a whole? Is it non-delegable? Does achievement require the CEOs personal engagement (as distinguished from periodic oversight of others)? Some examples: a major transaction, addressing a significant governmental threat or opportunity, shaping (or reshaping) the companys mix of businesses or assets. For instance, during my tenure as CEO of Pfizer, two of my most significant priorities were completing a $70 billion acquisition that fundamentally reshaped the company, andtogether with some of my industry colleaguesnegotiating features of the Affordable Care Act, parts of which, as originally proposed, posed significant threats and opportunities for our business model. Both projects required my direct and ongoing personal involvement and neither could be fully delegated, although, of course, numerous leaders and teams within and outside the company provided essential support. The counterpartiessuch as other CEOs and members of Congressunderstandably wanted to deal with the top decision maker. 2. Give yourself a reality check Once youve defined your agenda, its time for a reality check. Examine how youre spending your time and compare it to your stated priorities. You may be surprised to find a significant mismatch. I often advise CEOs to have their assistants analyze their calendars retrospectively. Look at the past month or quarter and categorize the way your time was allocated. Were you truly focused on your top priorities, or did your days get consumed by routine meetings and stakeholder management? This isnt a one-time exercise. Make it a habit to evaluate your calendar against your priorities frequently. You should regularly ask yourself: Am I deploying a significant amount of my time to accomplish things that only I can do and that will materially contribute to the companys success? As CEO, you should devote substantial time to providing visibility and accessibility to key constituencies. This includes town halls with employees, meetings with investors, engaging with government officials, and much more. Each of these groupsand the various subgroups and individuals within themwant and deserve your attention and your guidance. Often, they will want you to make decisions (and sometimes you should). But, while crucial, these activities can easily consume your entire schedule if left unchecked. 3. Manage your time proactively Once youve audited your time and you understand how youre spending it, be proactive about planning your schedule. Heres how: Allocate a specific percentage of your time for stakeholder managementperhaps 30 to 40%and distribute this time among your stakeholders. Establish a regular cadence for internal meetings, but recognize that not all direct reports need the same frequency of face time. Set clear expectations about what each stakeholder will get from you. For example: tell your investor relations team about how many conferences and non-deal roadshows youll attend annually; tell your head of Asia operations they get two weeks of your time each year to distribute as they see fit across the region. Carve out space for unstructured thinking and planning. This might mean blocking off your calendar from 7 to 9 a.m. each day or reserving Friday afternoons for strategic reflection. Make time for self-care. Do a far better job than I ever did of taking care of yourself, your family, and other sources of personal growth and satisfaction. The benefits of control Maintaining control of your agenda requires effective delegation. Ensure you have the right people in place and that they feel empowered to make decisions. If routine matters are constantly escalating to your desk, its a sign that either your team isnt properly equipped, or they dont feel authorized to act independently. While its important to guard your time zealously, you should, of course, maintain flexibility for true emergencies and unexpected opportunities. The key is to distinguish between genuine crises that require your involvement and routine fires that your team should handle. By rigorously defining your priorities, regularly evaluating the way you spend your time, and proactively managing stakeholder demands, you can ensure that your agenda as CEO doesnt get derailed. Remember that the truest reflection of your priorities is how you spend your time. Make sure it aligns with what you believe is most critical for leading your organization forward.
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E-Commerce
A heated debate has recently erupted between two groups of supporters of President Donald Trump. The dispute concerns the H-1B visa system, the program that allows U.S. employers to hire skilled foreign workers in specialty occupationsmostly in the tech industry. On the one hand, there are people like Trumps former strategist Steve Bannon, who has called the H-1B program a total and complete scam. On the other, there are tech tycoons like Elon Musk who think skilled foreign workers are crucial to the U.S. tech sector. The H-1B visa program is subject to an annual limit of new visas it can issue, which sits at 65,000 per fiscal year. There is also an additional annual quota of 20,000 H-1B visas for highly skilled international students who have a proven ability to succeed academically in the U.S. The H-1B program is the primary vehicle for international graduate students at U.S. universities to stay and work in the United States after graduation. At Rice University, where I work, much of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research is carried out by international graduate students. The same goes for most American research-intensive universities. As a computer science professorand an immigrantwho studies the interaction between computing and society, I believe the debate over H-1B overlooks some important questions: Why does the U.S. rely so heavily on foreign workers for the tech industry, and why is it not able to develop a homegrown tech workforce? The U.S. as a global talent magnet The U.S. has been a magnet for global scientific talent since before World War II. Many of the scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb were European refugees. After World War II, U.S. policies such as the Fulbright Program expanded opportunities for international educational exchange. Attracting international students to the U.S. has had positive results. Among Americans who have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, medicine or physics since 2000, 40% have been immigrants. Tech industry giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google were all founded by first- or second-generation immigrants. Furthermore, immigrants have founded more than half of the nations billion-dollar startups since 2018. Stemming the inflow of students Restricting foreign graduate students path to U.S. employment, as some prominent Trump supporters have called for, could significantly reduce the number of international graduate students in U.S. universities. About 80% of graduate students in American computer science and engineering programs (roughly 18,000 students in 2023) are international students. The loss of international doctoral students would significantly diminish the research capability of graduate programs in science and engineering. After all, doctoral students, supervised by principal investigators, carry out the bulk of research in science and engineering in U.S. universities. It must be emphasized that international students make a significant contribution to U.S. research output. For example, scientists born outside the U.S. played key roles in the development of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. So making the U.S. less attractive to international graduate students in science and engineering would hurt U.S. research competitiveness. Computing PhD graduates are in high demand. The economy needs them, so the lack of an adequate domestic pipeline seems puzzling. Where have U.S. students gone? So, why is there such a reliance on foreign students for U.S. science and engineering? And why hasnt America created an adequate pipeline of U.S.-born students for its technical workforce? After discussions with many colleagues, I have found that there are simply not enough qualified domestic doctoral applicants to fill the needs of their doctoral programs. In 2023, for example, U.S. computer science doctoral programs admitted about 3,400 new students, 63% of whom were foreign. It seems as if the doctoral career track is simply not attractive enough to many U.S. undergrad computer science students. But why? The top annual salary in Silicon Valley for new computer science graduates can reach $115,000. Bachelors degree holders in computing from Rice University have told me that until recentlybefore economic uncertainty shook the industrythey were getting starting annual salaries as high as $150,000 in Silicon Valley. Doctoral students in research universities, in contrast, do not receive a salary. Instead, they get a stipend. These vary slightly from school to school, but they typically pay less than $40,000 annually. The opportunity cost of pursuing a doctorate is, thus, up to $100,000 per year. And obtaining a doctorate typically takes six years. So, pursuing a doctorate is not an economically viable decision for many Americans. The reality is that a doctoral degree opens new career options to its holder, but most bachelors degree holders do not see beyond the econmics. Yet academic computing research is crucial to the success of Silicon Valley. A 2016 analysis of the information technology sectors with a large economic impact shows that academic research plays an instrumental role in their development. Why so little? The U.S. is locked in a cold war with China focused mostly on technological dominance. So maintaining its R&D edge is in the national interest. Yet the U.S. has declined to make the requisite investment in research. For example, the National Science Foundations annual budget for computer and information science and engineering is around $1 billion. In contrast, annual R&D expenses for Alphabet, Googles parent company, have been close to $50 billion for the past decade. Universities are paying doctoral students so little because they cannot afford to pay more. But instead of acknowledging the existence of this problem and trying to address it, the U.S. has found a way to meet its academic research needs by recruiting and admitting international students. The steady stream of highly qualified international applicants has allowed the U.S. to ignore the inadequacy of the domestic doctoral pipeline. The current debate about the H-1B visa system provides the U.S. with an opportunity for introspection. Yet the news from Washington, D.C., about massive budget cuts coming to the National Science Foundation seems to suggest the federal government is about to take an acute problem and turn it into a crisis. Moshe Y. Vardi is a professor of computer science at Rice University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
Shoppers at Uniqlo in New York City can now purchase a matcha and a cold brew alongside their new pair of work trousers. As of March 14, Uniqlos Midtown store is the first North American location of the Japanese-owned fashion brand to open a Uniqlo Coffee. The cafe, owned by Uniqlo, serves a standard beverage menu including coffee, espresso beverages, cold brew, and matcha, as well as hot chocolate and orange juice. Its located inside the store itself, with the same sleek, monochromatic branding as the retail sections. Uniqlo is one of several other everyday luxury retailerslike Muji, Aritzia, and Ralph Laurenthat have likewise opened their own branded coffee shops. Its the modern-day, status-signaling version of a Starbucks inside a Barnes & Noble; turning the store itself into a kind of third place for shoppers to gather in an attempt to earn the coveted reputation of a lifestyle brand rather than merely a clothing store. View this post on Instagram A post shared by UNIQLO USA (@uniqlousa) Why every retailer has a coffee shop now Uniqlo Coffee may be new in the U.S., but its already a staple at Uniqlo locations in Asia, including in Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Malaysia. These locations tend to have extended menus that also offer small snack foods with local touches. At the Manila global flagship store, for example, shoppers can find melon buns, hojicha gelato, strawberry mint tea, and a cookie butter cheesecake on top of the standard coffee offerings. Brands within Uniqlos niche of elevated basics have already found success in North America with starting their own coffee shops. Artizias A-OK Cafe, which serves coffee, tea, and pastries, has expanded to 11 locations in Canada and recently opened two new stores in Chicago and New York City. Ralph Laurens Ralphs Coffee can be found in multiple New York locations as well as both Europe and Asia, where it sells sweet treats alongside merch like a Ralphs-branded tumbler or a ball cap. And the Japanese retailer Muji recently opened a full-on food hall inside NYCs Chelsea Market, where a robot barista named Jarvis will bring you a black sesame latte on wheels. The coffee shop trend is just another expression of many trendy retailers desire to become known as a lifestyle brand, or a brand that transcends its actual products to encompass a whole vibe or aestheticthink Erewhon releasing a $335 sweatsuit, or Sweetgreen starting its own merch-based loyalty program. An added bonus to the physical coffee shop concept is that it plays into Gen Zs desire to gather in third places post-pandemic, a trend that formerly DTC-only brands like Chamberlain Coffee have also embraced by debuting an actual in-person shop. Market calculation aside, its a well-known fact that shopping is simply more enjoyable with an ice-cold beverage in hand (and it might even keep you browsing those aisles a bit longer.) The A-OK Cafe website spells it out pretty clearly: Don’t let snack-free shopping happen to you.
Category:
E-Commerce
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