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In an executive order Monday, President Donald Trump demanded a full-scale review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and requested a report proposing structural changes within the next 180 days. The move comes after he made repeated calls for getting rid of the nations backstop against natural disasters during his first few days as president. “FEMA has turned out to be a disaster, Trump said in North Carolina on Friday while on a multistate tour to areas still recovering from the effects of last years Hurricane Helene and the ongoing wildfires near Los Angeles. I think we recommend that FEMA go away.” Inside the agency, FEMAs staff is bracing for the worst. We all got PTSD here in Puerto Rico the first time around. [We’re] just praying we dont get so much as a bad rain in the next four years, says Denise, a FEMA employee who requested to be identified only by her middle name. I was expecting BS, but not this fast. Residents of Watsonville temporarily living in FEMA trailers a year after the Loma Prieta earthquake in California, circa 1990 [Photo: Eric Luse/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images] FEMA was established in 1979 in its current form, but traces its roots back to 1803 with congressional authorization of aid to the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, following a severe fire that threatened the national economy. Today, FEMA aid is available only after local jurisdictions have depleted their own ability to respond to an emergency and specifically request it. Even then, the request must be approved by Congress. FEMA is currently managing the response and recovery for at least 192 disaster declarationsincluding fires, floods, landslides, tornadoes, hurricanes, and winter storms. In 2023, FEMAs budget totaled nearly $30 billion, including activities in every state, tribal entity, and Puerto Rico. Trumps moves to limit FEMAs scope appear to be rooted in political retribution. His executive order alleges FEMA staff have selectively administered hurricane aid based on political affiliationa false rumor that the president himself helped spread during the Helene aftermath, and which the agency has worked hard to debunk. That same allegation resulted in multiple physical threats to FEMA workers last year in North Carolina and Tennessee. The chairman of the Republican National Committee was one of the first people named as a member of the FEMA review panel that Trump tasked with deciding the agencys future. Routing FEMA funds directly through the White House, as Trump suggested over the weekend, would further politicize federal disaster aid, especially since states that historically have received the most FEMA funds are those along the Gulf Coast that supported him in the last election. Trump has also threatened conditioning federal wildfire aid to California on the state passing more restrictive voter ID laws. Moves like this are unheard of in recent U.S. history, and have prompted bipartisan anger in response. California has given more to the recovery of other states than any other state in the union, said Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. You do not want to go down this road. A civilian search and rescue team member, left, gives a hand to a member of NY Task Force One, a FEMA urban search and rescue team, as they hike along the Broad River in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. [Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images] Shifting to the states While on his trips to North Carolina and California last week, Trump speculated that he could ultimately abolish FEMA entirely and turn disaster management directly over to the states, which would then be able to delegate response and recovery efforts to nonprofits. According to an analysis by Samantha Montano, an emergency management professor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, this would result in “a less effective, less efficient, and less equitable emergency management system, which means it makes all of us less safe. Without question, we would see higher death tolls, greater physical damage, and immense economic impacts.” Even if Trump and Congress maintain current levels of federal disaster aid, without FEMA states wouldn’t have adequate infrastructure to administer that aid to affected households. Multistate disasterslike most hurricaneswould likely have a haphazard response without FEMAs coordination and could completely overwhelm small states, territories, and tribal nations. Workers for FEMA put a temporary roof on a home damaged by Hurricane Katrina in Waveland, Mississippi. [Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images] Emergency management experts consulted by Fast Company said a diminished federally coordinated disaster response would compound the growing risks that Americans already face from climate change. Even adjusting for inflation, the annual number of billion-dollar disasters in the United States has doubled in just the past 10 years. That will continue to grow for the foreseeable future as rising temperatures fuel stronger storms. Withholding federal aid could deal a crushing blow to any area that has suffered a severe disaster, says Edie Schaffer, a retired emergency planning manager for the city and county of San Francisco. It would also prolong recovery, which in some instances could have consequences far beyond the area where the disaster occurred. A case in point: Reporting from the Tampa Bay Times indicates that the twin 2024 hurricane disasters of Helene and Milton generated $247 million of additional expenses for debris collection and disposal in the St. Petersburg area aloneabout 30% of the citys annual operating budget. FEMA has already committed to covering $200 million of those expenses, but reimbursements could now be delayed. A state or local area left to address the impacts of disasters alone would likely have to shift funding from other projects to help with response and recovery efforts, says Schaffer, noting that as a last resort, cities and states may need to turn to selling bonds to cover any expense shortfalls. President Trump throws paper towels into a crowd at a food and supply distribution event following Hurricane Maria in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, in 2017. [Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images] Trump and FEMA The interim FEMA administrator, Cameron Hamilton, is a former Navy SEAL with no previous disaster management experience, but he is a Trump loyalista further sign that the president is likely to politicize federal disaster response in his second term. Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, the botched federal response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017 was one of Trumps largest first-term failures, according to emergency response experts. Studies show that Marias impact was worsened by the slow response. A Biden-era report issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that the initial aid package to Puerto Rico was 16 times smaller than aid to Texas after Hurricane Harveywhich happened a few weeks before Maria. A 2018 report from George Washington University found that delays in disaster response likely elevated mortality rates in Puerto Rico after Maria. Theres also evidence that a similar effect happened in North Carolina during Trumps first term, with Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. In both cases, bureaucratic delays in federal aid made subsequent disasters worse. While in office, Trump accused George Washington University researchers of being part of a ploy by Democrats to make him look as bad as possible, and he repeatedly falsely inflated the amount of aid he had distributed to Puerto Rico. A deeper issue is that FEMA also coordinates with states and local governments on disaster prevention and works to maintain and update planning documents for dozens of disaster typesfrom hazmat spills to nuclear warthat use the best available science. Should that work also be curtailed, it would greatly magnify the burden of future disasters. A report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that every dollar invested in disaster prevention yields $13 of avoided damages and improved economic activity. A FEMA disaster recovery center in Pasadena, California, on January 17, 2025 [Photo: Jill Connelly/Bloomberg/Getty Images] If the U.S. fixed its infrastructure, building codes, and [addressed] climate change, [FEMA] might not be as necessary, says Denise. A lot of us who [do] work facing the public are survivors from previous large disasters who were hired to work locally and then stayed at the agency. Fortunately, a potential FEMA backup is already in place should Trump ultimately disband or dramatically downsize the agency. The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is a nationwide mutual aid agreement among all 50 states and territories that was formed in 1996. California Governor Gavin Newsom used the agreement to send response staff to Florida even before Hurricane Helene made landfall there. Cooperation among states wont free up any federal funding, but could help reduce the chances that any one state gets overwhelmed.
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E-Commerce
Digital transformation is the most important investment that organizations can make to drive enterprise value. Thats according to 68% of 1,600 business leaders surveyed by Deloitte. And while I largely agree with their thinking, I would take things one very important step further. In my six years as CEO of Argyle, a technology company whose existence hinges on other organizations willingness to digitally transform their income verification process, I have learned this: A transformation that prioritizes the needs, skills, and experiences of the humans operating the technology being adopted is the key to long-term success. Consider the users Some call it taking a human-centered approach. I call it common sense. The point of automating business processes is to improve performance and drive efficiencies that allow humans to focus on tasks they do best. So it stands to reason that setting a digital transformation strategy in a vacuum and imposing technology on employees will fail at best, and backfire at worst. I say this with experience. In our earliest days at Argyle, we were heads down building out an infrastructure that didnt previously exist. We focused on the functionality of our platform and its output because we had to get to market and prove we had a viable product. In the process, we considered the needs of the businesses that would buy our products, but lacked the resources or bandwidth to prioritize every potential users experience. As a result, we managed to successfully sell our technology, but struggled to attain the adoption rates we considered indicative of true success. As we matured, we learned better and amassed the resources we needed to do something about it. Now we know that widespread digital transformation only happens when people value and trust new technologies enough to change their behavior. And change is hard. Prioritize people in your digital transformation According to Accenture research, 80% of organizations intend to implement transformational change in the future. Meanwhile, 95% of organizations have undergone at least two or more transformations in the past three years. At the same time, most organizations arent exactly optimistic about the transformation process or its projected outcomes. Only 30% feel confident about their change capabilities, and 30% anticipate their transformation efforts having a significant impact on performance. Thats depressing. But its not unsolvable. McKinsey research has shown that prioritizing people is one thing organizations that have undergone successful digital transformations have in common. They dont lose sight of the fact that their efforts are in service of their employees performance and that success depends on their enthusiastic adoption of any new technologies introduced. 4 ways to put people first In practice, putting people first means taking employees into consideration at every stage of a digital transformation journey. Here are four ways to do that. Tedious work: When deciding where to focus your efforts, for example, you could start with the tasks and processes that employees find the most tedious or frustratingthe ones that stand most in the way of them getting to do the work they enjoy or derive value from. It also entails being realistic about the extent of technological change your team can reasonably handle in its current state. Solicit input: When evaluating solutions, a human-centered approach could mean inviting employees to participate in a pilot program and soliciting their input. And it should mean working with technology vendors that proactively anticipate your employees’ needs in their solutions design. Beyond that, vendors should also be willing, able, and agile enough to customize their solution to further meet your operational demands and team preferences. This goes a long way in eliminating or minimizing the disruptions and frustrations that could breed confusion among employees or trigger their resistance. Communications: At implementation, prioritizing people means devising a concerted rollout strategy that effectively communicates the change being instituted, why its being instituted, and its timelineerring on the side of overcommunication, if theres any doubt. McKinseys research showed that companies that proved successful at their automation efforts were seven times more likely to formally engage their communications team at the implementation stage. Thoughtful, team-wide training is also key and should be deeply supported, if not actively co-managed, by the technology vendor. Track and evaluate: And finally, digital transformation ought not to be a set-it-and-forget-it initiative. You should plan on regularly evaluating technology solutions with employee input in order to quickly identify and fix issues affecting adoption and performance. This will also allow you to successfully absorb, communicate, and provide training on upgrades as they become available. At Argyle, in order for us to lead our own slice of the digital transformation, we now consider and account for the human element of transformation as much as the technology itself. We know that our collective progress depends on the receptivity of the people operating our productsand that depends on our willingness to see them, hear them, and account for them in all of our decisions. We encourage all technology leaders to follow suit. Shmulik Fishman is founder and CEO of Argyle.
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E-Commerce
Decades of research show the benefits of women in leadership are invaluable. Females embody a more transformational leadership style fostering mission-driven cultures. Female presence also improves team dynamics, with better collaboration and collective intelligence; the greater the ratio of women, the greater equality is seen in conversations, thus capitalizing on the teams full knowledge and skillsets. All this translates into measurable results: meta-analyses link female leadership with improved sales, and their representation on the board of directors is also directly associated with financial performance. The largest study of women in corporate America marked its 10th anniversary and has found gains fragile, especially for women of color. The Women in the Workplace 2024 report from McKinsey and Lean In shows representation of women has improved at every level of management, but equity is still decades away. Despite the gains still to be made, corporate Americas prioritization of gender diversity has declined. Yet there would be a 22% increase in global human capital wealth if there was equal participation of women in just the healthcare industry alone! A trailblazing example The recipient of the nutraceutical industrys first female leadership award, Trailblazing Woman of the Year Yasmeen Nkrumah-Elie, PhD, exemplifies the transformative leadership that women bring to the table. Recognized for pioneering groundbreaking industry-academia collaborations, Nkrumah-Elie was selected by the Council of Responsible Nutrition and my company, Radicle Science, for her passion for “advancing science, promoting diversity, and mentoring the next generation of female leaders.” The global director for external research at ChromaDex spearheaded the companys industry-leading collaborative research program which has resulted in approximately $100 million in third-party funded research with 300 research collaborations, including Harvard, Mayo Clinic, and National Institute on Aging. When Nkrumah-Elie received her award, she used the moment to celebrate another trailblazer: Chioma Ikonte, PhD, the first Black woman to become a chief scientific officer in the nutraceutical industry. This type of championing and community building also helps address one of the biggest challenges women face in business: limited access to resources and networks. Evidence-based interventions Nkrumah-Elies experiences align closely with the best practices highlighted in McKinseys report surveying 280 organizations, as well as a meta-analysis published in the medical journal The Lancet reviewing 91 studies across six continents. These sources converge on four evidence-backed interventions to advance women in leadership: Structured processes for awareness and engagement Intentional leadership accountability and equitable policies are essential for addressing systemic barriers. McKinsey identifies bias tracking and bias reminders in hiring and performance reviews as among the most effective practices. Nkrumah-Elie reflects on her experiences: I walked into my interview with 100% my authentic self, and Ive been accepted for who I am and what I stand for every single day that Ive been in the company. Its wonderful to be somewhere where Im celebrated, not just tolerated. Mentoring and networking Mentorship is critical for fostering womens leadership. The benefits are not just seen in individual career advancement, but across the entire organization, including better employee retention, engagement, and knowledge-sharing. Nkrumah-Elie emphasizes mentorship as a cornerstone of her philosophy: Being a mentor is one of the greatest gifts, whether it is formal or informalIn our supplement industry, that means we are joining organizations like Women in Nutraceuticals that are helping elevate women in the industry. Leadership development programs Effective programs address systemic barriers while simultaneously building womens leadership skills. Co-designing these initiatives with stakeholders ensures alignment with organizational and individual needs. Nkrumah-Elie shares how she was encouraged to grow as an industry leader: When things were happening around 2020 and I started to present myself as a voice, as a voice for women, for intentionally marginalized groups, I was so worried I would lose my position. My mentor said, You can say this at the NBJ meeting [the nutrition industrys C-suite summit] and have these conversations and be listened to. I think thats unique to our industry. I question how many industries are continuing to take that perspective and hearing that voice, but their employees and consumers are the beauty of that diversity in America. Support tools When integrated within broader strategies, support tools can identify and address gender inequities. Training managers to support employee well-being is among McKinseys best practices. Interventions, such as menopause support, with a strong focus on measurable impact, are also key differentiators in high-performing organizations.Understanding women have different needs, Nkrumah-Elie calls for integrating women into all parts of research and development in her industry: That means we are advancing the science thats studying and including women in all stages of lifewe should not be excluding women because of differences in our biology, which has been done for hundreds of years. Now it’s time to say there is a right for women to be included in all aspects of this process. Sustaining progress Most importantly, for any intervention to be effective and sustainable, there must be organizational support across all levels. Echoing the Lancet meta-analysis, McKinsey found that commitment and engagement, specifically with gender and racial diversity being a strategic priority, were among the top differentiators for the best performing companies. The science is clear. Companies committed to investing in structured processes, mentorship, leadership development programs, and tailored support tools are not just advancing equity in female leadershiptheyre positioning themselves for better performance and long-term growth. As we celebrate the incredible women who are changing the world, we remember that each of us has a role to play. Whether its through mentorship, alyship, or simply amplifying womens voices, together we can build a future where everyones potential is recognized and celebrated. Jeff Chen, MD, MBA is cofounder and CEO of Radicle Science.
Category:
E-Commerce
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