Weekend Briefing No. 110
Welcome To The Weekend
Drone Delivery Could Give Africa’s HIV-positive Babies A Fighting Chance At Survival
Quartz | 5 minutes
A small white drone programmed to go back and forth between hospital labs and rural health clinics in Malawi could drastically cut down on the cost and waiting time of testing African children for HIV. The main goal of the pilot (pun intended) program, is seeing how the cost of using drones compares to traditional delivery methods. The current method requires fuel and drivers, while the drone’s main costs are electricity for charging its battery and the hardware.
The Responsive Leader
August | 16 minutes
If change is the new normal, how do you develop your organization’s ability to continually sense and adapt? August (a client of mine) gives compelling guidance in their latest whitepaper. A responsive leader: 1) Communicates the organization’s overarching purpose clearly and repeatedly. A good purpose statement is clear, concise and ambitious. 2) Makes your people your most valuable competitive advantage. 3) Optimizes for agility over certainty. 3) Lowers the barriers to collaboration and make information easily accessible. Thanks to Brad Grossman for sharing this with me in his Ripouts weekly email. You should check it out!
Adam Neumann's $16 Billion Neo-Utopian Play To Turn WeWork Into WeWorld
Fast Company | 12 minutes
WeWork, which now has 77 locations and more than 50,000 members, with 60% profit margins, says its ultimate potential is much bigger—and investors agree. In February 2014, WeWork’s backers valued the company at $1.5 billion; by last week, its valuation had jumped to $16 billion, making WeWork, on paper, the world’s 6th most valuable private startup. How does a real estate company get Silicon Valley valuations? A part of it is the plan to move beyond real estate to small business services (health care, payroll, and shipping) but the secret sauce seems to be community.
Even As The Global Economy Grew Last Year, Carbon Emissions Didn’t
Quartz | 3 minutes
The International Energy Agency announced that in 2015 the global economy grew while carbon emissions remained flat for the second year in a row. There have been other pauses in emissions growth, but they were associated with economic downturns. One big driver of emissions reductions has been the increase in renewable energy. China and the US, the world’s largest emitters of carbon, both pumped out less last year.
The Importance And Art Of The Intro In Silicon Valley
Gigster | 5 minutes
In Silicon Valley introductions happen far more often than they do in the corporate world and there’s a prevailing etiquette for the right way to do introductions. Violate this etiquette and you can end up leaving a bad impression, burning contacts and not building a network as efficiently as you otherwise could. 1) Make sure the intro adds value to both sides, and make sure you explain that value in the email. 2) Always double opt-in. Always check with both sides if they would like to be introduced to each other. Only make the intro if both sides say yes. 3) After you have been introduced, circle back to the person who did the introduction to thank them and let them know how it went.
Alexander Hamilton
YouTube | 4 minute
My current obsession is the musical Hamilton. Though I haven’t been able to snag the hottest Broadway ticket in town (which are going for $2500). I’ve been listening to 2 hour and 22 minute soundtrack on Spotify nonstop the last week. If you haven’t caught the bug yet, check out this performance at the White House.
2016 March Madness Predictions
FiveThirtyEight | 1 minute
Want to know if your bracket’s about to bust? Check out this interactive graphic that shows the score and time remaining in every game as it’s played, as well as the chance that each team will win that game. The model incorporates: 1) Time remaining in the game. 2) Score difference. 3) Pre-game win probabilities. 4) Possession.
Americans Bought More Legal Pot Than Girl Scout Cookies in 2015
Quartz | 3 minutes
$3.4 billion in revenue in 2015. Last year, medical and recreational pot stores had $3.4 billion in revenue compared to the Girl Scouts, which posted a paltry $776 million in cookie sales.
About The Weekend Briefing
The Weekend Briefing is a selection of this week’s top stories on innovation and society, curated by Kyle Westaway – author of Profit & Purpose and Managing Partner of Westaway. Thanks for making the Weekend Briefing to be a part of your Saturday morning routine. Have a restful and thoughtful weekend.