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The Morning Download: Pandemic Sparks Closer Collaboration Between CIOs, CEOS
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Good morning, CIOs. As companies see investments in technology and workforce productivity pay off, IT chiefs are riding high. “All their IT decisions have been appreciated and underscored more than any other point in history,” Aaron Levie, chief executive of software maker Box Inc., said at a WSJ CIO Network virtual conference Tuesday.
Take a bow. Chief information officers are more important to their chief executives than ever before, he said, as they navigate remote work needs and economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As such they need to work in collaboration with their CEOs, communicating often, he said.
But with great power ... comes new metrics. CIOs are being measured by CEOs based on whether their company’s workforce is fully productive while working remotely, and whether the company is able to serve its customers entirely digitally, Mr. Levie said. And they must execute with speed, favoring projects that can help the business deliver a profit on a quarterly basis over initiatives with years-long timelines. “Those days are over no matter what. Nobody has that time scale available.”
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Managing the modern workforce. Many businesses have proven they operate with a remote workforce. But what's lost by not being able to interact directly, and how sustainable is doing so long term? At CIO Network's virtual conference Tuesday, two experts weighed in on the matter--Jacqueline M. Welch, chief human resources officer and chief diversity officer at Freddie Mac; and Laszlo Bock, former head of People Operations at Google and now chief executive and co-founder of software company Humu Inc.
Mr. Bock on sentiment: "People don't really want to go back. So across organizations we work with, what we're typically seeing is about 70 to 90% of employees actually prefer some combination of work from home."
Mr. Bock on emerging questions: "It's been amazing watching how resilient people are and how they respond. But we've kind of been living off adrenaline and kind of making it work. And now people are starting to ask the second-order questions about how do we get promoted? How do I move ahead? What's fair and what's not?"
Ms. Welch on workers wearing thin: "[Epidemiologists] all predict a resurgence of the virus come fall. And that may or may not be true; we'll see it. But what I definitely think we should be more mindful of is between now and the fall, we will have been in this altered state for several months. And I do think that people are starting to wind down in terms of their resilience and their grit. And as organizational leaders, CIOs are elsewhere in the C suite, I think we have to be very mindful of the degree to which we are providing mental health and well-being resources to our folks because we're going to eventually hit this wall that's not solvable just by technology, whether or not we're remote versus meeting inside the four walls."
Ms. Welch on the impact on culture: "Certainly, there is something to be said about the loss of culture, when you have a culture that has that drive by stop by a desk, etc, that's impossible to replicate. And so when I think about Freddie Mac, you know, since March 13, which is when we went remote to now, we have onboarded 300-plus new employees who have never stepped foot inside of a Freddie Mac property. And so you start to think about what are the culture implications of that. And so those folks are having no issue with the virtual version of the drop by because it's all they know. And if that number continues to grow, it will migrate to the majority culture and, our best hope [is] those things will meet in a way that makes sense when we're all back in some quasi mixture of home versus being in the office."
-- Jared Council
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Silicon Valley criticizes Trump’s Visa Restrictions. Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith said Monday that now was “not the time to cut our nation off from the world’s talent or create uncertainty and anxiety. Immigrants play a vital role at our company and support our country’s critical infrastructure.” The temporary ban, announced Monday, includes the H-1B type of visa for high-skilled workers many tech companies employ. (WSJ)
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Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would begin jettisoning Intel processors from its Mac computers later this year as the tech giant moves away from outsourcing. PHOTO: BROOKS KRAFT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The initiative—called insourcing by some suppliers and analysts—can give Apple a two-year jump on competitors in device performance because Apple can plan how multiple chips work together to limit power consumption and free up space inside iPhones and iPads for other components, analysts said.
It also reduces potential leaks of its product plans.
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Analysis by the WSJ's Tripp Mickle
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Startups like Carvana that focus on internet-only auto sales are drawing interest from Wall Street. Its vehicles are housed in giant vending machines, like this one Westminster, Calif. PHOTO: PATRICK T. FALLON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Pandemic pushes car buying online. As the pandemic spread, U.S. auto dealerships went pedal to the metal in moving their car-buying process online. The WSJ's Nora Naughton reports that many have no plans in slowing down, even as their dealerships reopen. Managers and owners say they are rethinking how they staff locations, including cutting traditional sales roles and shifting more employees into digital operations,
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“I truly believe we sold more cars last month because we’re finally utilizing technology more efficiently,” said Ryan LaFontaine, owner of LaFontaine Chevrolet in southeast Michigan.
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Dell’s options for VMware include buying the rest of the cloud-software giant. PHOTO: RICHARD B. LEVINE/ZUMA PRESS
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Dell Explores spinoff of $50 billion stake in VMware. Dell Technologies Inc. recently kicked off a process to explore the possibility of unloading the stake or taking other steps that could include buying the rest of VMWare Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The review is at an early stage and no decision is imminent and it is possible Dell will choose to do nothing.(WSJ)
Amazon to launch $2 billion VC fund to invest in clean energy. The new fund, which will be called The Climate Pledge Fund, will invest in companies across a number of industries, including transportation, energy generation, battery storage, manufacturing and food and agriculture, according to the company. The aim is to help Amazon and other companies reach a goal of “net zero” carbon emissions by 2040. (WSJ)
Microsoft pledges to back racial-justice efforts. The company plans to double the number of black managers and senior leaders in the U.S. over the next five years and double the number of black-owned approved suppliers over the next three years. In addition, senior executives would be judged for promotion and rewards on their progress advancing diversity and inclusion. Black workers represented about 4.5% of U.S. workers in the most recent year. (WSJ)
Justice Department, state attorneys general to confer Friday on Google antitrust challenge. Both the Justice Department and a group of states are likely to sue Google on allegations that the company is using its dominant position to suppress competition. One focal point has been Google’s online advertising business, where the company owns the dominant tool at every link in the complex chain between online publishers and advertisers. (WSJ)
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Everything Else You Need to Know
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Latin America is the new center of the pandemic, accounting for nearly half the world’s Covid-19 deaths in the past two weeks. The pandemic is sending poverty rates skyrocketing and eroding the social gains the region made in the past two decades. (WSJ)
New coronavirus cases spiked in several states, with Arizona, Texas and California reporting new daily records of infections, prompting elected officials to tighten rules on gatherings and strongly urge people to stay home and follow social-distancing guidelines. (WSJ)
The Louisville, Ky., police chief has fired one of the three police officers involved in the March killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman. (WSJ)
Fireworks have been bursting over New York City for nights now, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would ferret out the source of the illegal explosives. (WSJ)
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