Managing the Future of Work project co-chair and podcast co-host, Joe Fuller joins Aassia Haq on MBO Partners’ State of Independence. What does the post-COVID workforce look like, and what are the biggest challenges facing CEOs and CHROs as they compete to marshal talent and transform their workforces?

Companies have experienced a surge of online orders during the pandemic. As the crisis eases, leaders need to decide whether the dramatic shift to e-commerce is permanent — and allocate investments accordingly.

Michael Toffel discusses how the coronavirus pandemic has renewed concerns about how suppliers treat employees, and how a new online resource can help.

Companies are increasingly blending full-time staff with skilled on-demand talent. The problem: Few companies have developed cultures that accommodate gig workers, says Joseph B. Fuller.

The restaurant industry has been especially hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants quickly shifted from indoor dining to a greater reliance on online ordering, curbside pick-up, outdoor dining, and delivery. Toast, a restaurant management services company, provides tools for all facets of running a restaurant. CEO Chris Comparato talks about the future of dining and explains how the company helped its clients adapt to the new normal, facilitated access to capital, and advocated for restaurant relief.

The COVID-19 crisis makes it more difficult for small, young firms to attract talent as higher-quality candidates turn to more mature firms. Such “flight to safety” leads to a deterioration in the quality of human capital available for startups.

For small businesses that have survived the coronavirus so far, what's next? Karen Mills outlines steps that business owners and government should take immediately.

While adapting to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, fast food chain Chipotle is looking to emerge stronger by maintaining commitments to its workforce. As Chipotle’s chief diversity, inclusion, and people officer, Marissa Andrada, explains the company anticipates long-term returns on its investment in employee education benefits and its flexible scheduling for shift workers.

This study of 16 cities is the first large-scale analysis of how digital communication patterns have changed in the early stages of the pandemic. The overall pattern of more meetings and more emails points to a spillover of virtual communication beyond normal working hours.

Six months ago, on-demand home delivery was far from mainstream — a luxury for those willing to pay for convenience, skewing towards young professionals in major cities. The COVID-19 crisis changed that, almost overnight. Now everyone is ordering everything from household staples to ice cream on-demand. This upheaval, and the windfall it has brought to certain companies, also presents a novel business challenge: delivery service marketplaces have inverted from demand-constrained to supply-constrained almost overnight.

As economies reopen after forced shutdowns caused by COVID-19, managers around the world are faced with a dual challenge: keeping the workforce safe while at the same time preserving business viability in an evolving and volatile market. How should businesses start to design their “new normal” at this time of heightened uncertainty? While we are still far from knowing what constitutes a “best practice”, there is already a great deal of experimentation emerging all over the world. To provide an early report of these emerging approaches, over the past month we (virtually) travelled around the globe and talked with more than 50 “resilient” businesses across a variety of countries and sectors.

The coronavirus makes your customers less able and less willing to spend than before. How should you re-engage with them? Advice from Rohit Deshpandé and colleagues.

"Cloud kitchens" are restaurants built around food delivery rather than sit-down service, and they are increasing in popularity as the COVID pandemic disrupts the industry. Research by Lena Ye and Geoffrey Jones.

Amazon's usually strong retail performance has been threatened by the pandemic, opening the doors for competitors. Does the online giant need a strategy overhaul? asks James Heskett.

Commerce expert Dan O’Connor rejoins the podcast for a special Dispatch episode. Dan draws on his experience advising leading retailers and his ongoing research on global digital platforms to offer a glimpse of a post-COVID retail landscape. He also counsels those small businesses able to weather the crisis to take the opportunity to refocus. Across categories, the “at-home,” budget- and safety-conscious, consumer is an essential constituency.

What happens when a video conferencing company has to rely on its own products for its day-to-day operations? The pandemic turned Austin, Texas-based Lifesize’s commute-to-work culture into a virtual organization overnight. CEO Craig Malloy talks about the fast-forwarding of many enterprises’ long-range plans and the implications of the new normal.

At this time of crisis, America risks signaling to global innovators and entrepreneurs that they have no future here, says William R. Kerr.

The pandemic has increased demand for online, remote freelance and contract work. Digital labor platform Toptal provides a market for highly skilled freelancers and contractors working in such fields as software engineering, artificial intelligence, design, and project management. Not surprisingly, the downturn has sent more workers to the platform. In some cases, employers have turned to the platform to find temporary work for their idled employees. CEO, Taso Du Val, joins the podcast.

Businesses are starting to plan their re-entry into the market, but how do you know what that market will look like? Frank V. Cespedes warns against putting too much trust in forecasters.

We asked experts from the HBS Business and Environment Initiative how the coronavirus crisis might change the way companies think about sustainability.  The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change.

While the COVID-19 pandemic hits and reshapes companies, industries, national economies, and our society in previously unthinkable ways, business leaders need to think beyond survival to the opportunities this crisis might create, not only for their own organizations but the greater good. Chief among these is a chance to hire talented people at a time when they might have trouble finding or keeping jobs elsewhere.

Hey brands! This is NOT the time to go dark—your customers want (and need) to hear from you now more than ever. During this make or break time for brands, Professor Jill Avery and CEO of Edelman CEO Richard Edelman, share what consumers want from brands during the pandemic and what marketers can do to successfully connect and educate customers.

Tackling one of the biggest crises of our time—climate change—requires leaders to embrace a new vision of business, argues Rebecca Henderson.

Unilever was several years into a company-wide plan to revamp its workforce when the coronavirus flared into a pandemic. The multinational entered the crisis braced for change. Executive vice president Nick Dalton discusses how that flexibility has helped Unilever maintain business continuity, provide for worker safety, and coordinate remote work. With the disruption of global supply chains and ordinary life largely locked down, all eyes are on the consumer goods business.

Keynote Speaker Mr. Ken Chenault, CEO of General Catalyst, and HBS Senior Fellow Professor Karen Mills discuss how to unlock the collective potential of US businesses to catalyze action and bolster the public sector in response to COVID-19.

COVID-19 has turned many companies into federations of remote workplaces, but without guidance on how their onboarding of new employees must change, says Boris Groysberg.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be accelerating the global workforce shift toward freelance and contract work, as it makes remote work a more attractive option. For many, the traditional employment model is being replaced by digital labor platforms like Freelancer.com, which touts skills outsourcing and innovation crowdsourcing. What’s in it for enterprises and freelance workers? Vice President Sarah Tang explains.

The pandemic has magnified Amazon’s role as household supply line and pushed the company to quickly adjust how it does business. The retail giant has revised scores of operating processes in response to customer demand, workplace safety requirements, and public health directives. For an enterprise with half a million employees in the US, implementing these changes has been a mammoth management challenge. Ardine Williams, the company’s vice president of workforce development discusses how the coronavirus has changed business as usual.

It will be years before we fully understand the economic impact of the coronavirus, but one thing is painfully clear right now: Small businesses across the country are facing an existential threat.

Many brands have turned off their marketing efforts during the pandemic, but Jill Avery and Richard Edelman argue that now is the time when customers need to hear from you most. But what do you say?

In this special episode of Cold Call, Brian Kenny speaks with Harvard Business School professor Srikant Datar about how Harvard Business School brought 1,800 MBA students and 200 faculty online in under two weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Creating strategy under conditions of uncertainty is not easy, so many managers rely on a single analogy to past experience to guide their decisions. This paper argues, by contrast, that imagining multiple possible futures can be a more useful guide to uncertainty, improving judgment and adaptability in the face of change.

Millions of Americans — especially those who have been most impoverished by the forced shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic — want to return to work. But with the Trump administration now urging Americans to stay at home until May 1 and the likelihood that a vaccine against the disease won’t be widely available for 12 to 18 months, how can we safely make that happen?

The way large companies respond to the COVID-19 crisis is a defining moment that will be remembered for decades. A great many large companies talk about having a social purpose and set of values, or about how much they care for their employees and other stakeholders. Now is the time for major corporations to make good on their commitments.

In addition to its impact on public health, COVID-19 has had a major impact on the economy. To shed light on how COVID-19 is affecting small businesses, and on the likely impact of the recent stimulus bill, this study conducted a survey of more than 5,800 small businesses. The results help to illustrate the impact of the pandemic on layoffs, business closures and expenses, emergency funding, and more.

Companies can manage known risks by reducing their likelihood and impact. But such routine risk management often prevents them from recognizing and responding rapidly to novel risks, those not envisioned or seen before. Setting up teams, processes, and capabilities in advance for dealing with unexpected circumstances can protect against their severe consequences.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to talk about her new book “Think Outside the Building” and courageous leadership in times of crisis.

The founder of Working Daughter points out that it’s not just working parents who are challenged during this unprecedented moment in history. Workers with aging parents are under tremendous amounts of stress and employers should take notice and action.

As policymakers around the world struggle to combat the rapidly escalating COVID-19 pandemic, they find themselves in COVID-19 will put many small businesses on life support. Karen G. Mills, who has been advising policymakers on aid options, offers guidance to owners on the brink of ruin.

We asked Harvard Business School experts how the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to change business practice.