Commentary
Turning Back to Timber
Look to Washington’s history to tackle the climate crisis
We can thank lumber for the success of Seattle and many of the towns that have sprung up across the Puget Sound region. From the logs that rolled across Skid Road in the early days of Pioneer Square to the mills that supplied the country’s hunger for Washington’s wood, nothing is more quintessentially Pacific Northwest…
Building Back Better
In the two decades that preceded the Covid-19 pandemic, downtown Seattle outperformed nearly every major urban center in the country in job and residential growth and overall investment. To find a comparable period of transformation, you must go back to the early 1900s when Seattle benefited as the provisioning city for those heading north to…
Make DE&I a Priority. Your Future Depends on it.
Why every business needs a plan for diversity, equity and inclusion
Last summers social justice uprisings, spurred on in large part by police killings and the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on communities of color, shed a light on what businesses should be doing to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in their operations. The ROI on DE&I is not new, of course. Research from McKinsey, released…
Rebuild, Don’t Fix: Too many DEI efforts in the workplace completely miss the point
The murder of George Floyd during a global pandemic, when people had time to witness and sit with a race crime that mirrored many before it, changed everything. People began to seek accountability from everyone, including those at the helm of companies and organizations. A surge of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives was born. …
We All Need to Step Up to Stem the Economic Carnage of the Coronavirus Crisis
Its time to have a national conversation about the path forward for our way of life
At Gravity Payments, we process $10 billion a year in credit card transactions, and we just finished going through the data on how COVID-19 (the coronavirus) has affected businesses. In Washington state (mostly the Seattle area) the epicenter of the outbreak total revenue for all businesses is down 10% just in the last 3 weeks….
Seattle Is Now the Laboratory of This Nations Future
Prepare for more sacrifice ahead in the battle against the coronavirus, but dont let dread of the future paralyze you in the present
Washington Gov. Jay Inslees emergency proclamation temporarily shutting down restaurants, bars and recreational facilities statewide and prohibiting all gatherings of more than 50 people is part of an escalating social-distancing effort that also is drastically constricting economic activity. Its a public-health response aimed at limiting the deadly reach of the coronavirus (COVID-19). So, it seems…
Working Remotely Is Becoming the New Normal in the Coronavirus Era
Maximizing productivity and collaboration in a work-from-home environment requires preparation, communication and smart use of technology
With many businesses in the Seattle area mandating work-from-home policies in the face of a rapidly evolving coronavirus outbreak, now is a good time to revisit best practices that can make working remotely as productive as possible. Many of the key ingredients of effective remote work are not new concepts to most people, but they…
5 Things to Do Right Now to Keep Your Business Moving Forward During the Coronavirus Onslaught
Flex work is a best practice during epidemics and disasters, but it takes planning to get it right
As the coronavirus spreads across the globe with a spike in cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea in recent days the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) is urging organizations to create contingency plans should the disease continue to spread. Nestle SA told more than 290,000 employees to suspend all international business travel until…
Microsoft Addresses Seattle’s Housing Crisis
Microsoft strives to succeed where others have failed
This article appears in print in the April 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. Microsoft is back. It never went away, but some missteps in the consumer electronics market and the ascendance of social media, search, device and retailing competitors rendered the Redmond company almost an afterthought in an industry it helped create and once…
Companies Must Pay Women the Same as Men
Companies face legal risks if they rely on salary history rather than equal pay
Today, April 2, is Equal Pay Day, which symbolizes how far into 2019 women, on average, must work to earn what men earned in 2018. The Seattle tech community, like many others across the country, has stated a commitment to increase diversity overall, including increasing the percentage of female employees throughout the ranks. Women accounted…
Seattle Business: Change Brings Fresh Ideas and Perspectives
'At its core, business journalism is all about covering growth and growth companies'
This article appears in print in the April 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. Theres a brand-new team at Seattle Business magazine. You may know that longtime editor Leslie Helm left the publication in October after 10 years as executive editor. You also may have heard that John Levesque recently retired as managing editor after…