future

The future of work is a ‘work anywhere, live anywhere environment’ that’s all digital

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Salesforce (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff said on Friday that employees will adopt to a future that’s increasingly digital, as the COVID-19 pandemic shifts the dynamic between companies and their workers.

As coronavirus lockdowns forced businesses and schools to rely on technology to replace in-person work and meetings, it accelerated already existing trends around the future of the workplace.

Weighing in on an increasingly hot topic, the billionaire tech chief — who disrupted the enterprise software space over two decades ago with Salesforce’s cloud-based enterprise software-as-a-service (Saas) — told Yahoo Finance that he’s been asked a lot lately about what the future of work looks like post-COVID-19. 

Benioff said that “we’re in this all-digital environment. Here we are, you know, using this technology to communicate and to do this interview,” he said in a wide-ranging interview.

“And that looks a lot like what the future of work is. It’s a work

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New F-150 pickup truck essential to carmaker’s future

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Ford (F) wants to make one thing perfectly clear about the all-new F-150: it’s tough, damn tough.

The automaker revealed the hotly anticipated redesigned F-150 during a livestream Thursday night with an accompanying press release describing the truck as “tough” seven times. Indeed, the F-150 with its enlarged front grille (it has 12 grille options to choose from), larger diameter tires and ginormous infotainment system (12 inches) has all the outward cues of a truck ready to run roughshod over a job site or up the side of a mountain.

But there are some other clever upgrades to the F-150 that don’t necessarily quantify as tough, but rather very useful to shoppers being tempted by competing offerings by Dodge, Chevrolet and Toyota:

  • Optional interior work surface to help with signing documents or working on a laptop. The car or truck has turned into an out of home workspace during COVID-19,

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‘This is where the future is going:’ Amazon Executive on $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Amazon (AMZN) launched a $2 billion venture capital fund Tuesday to invest in technologies and services aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Amazon’s Head of Worldwide Sustainability Kara Hurst said the move was yet another step to use the e-commerce giant’s “scale for good” as it sets aggressive targets to become carbon neutral by 2040.  

“This is where the future is going, this is where our products and services are needed, and the fund is another signal on the investment that we’re willing to make,” said Hurst, on Yahoo Finance’s Ticker. 

The Climate Pledge Fund will invest in companies across multiple sectors, though its initial focus will be on transportation and logistics; energy generation, storage, and utilization; manufacturing and materials; circular economy; and food and agriculture, Amazon said.

The fund is the latest step by the Seattle-based company to reduce its carbon footprint amid explosive growth

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Macy’s may not exist in the future: former Sears exec

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

A brutal year for Macy’s could mean an even more brutal future, perhaps one where it no longer exists, says retail veteran Mark Cohen.

“The reason I am so damn critical of Macy’s is I ask the question, what does Macy’s represent? And what does it represent in the heart, minds and wallets of the customer? What’s their real operating strategy. The magic of Macy’s was a hollow claim, and the polaris strategy that they hatched during the pandemic, it doesn’t have much there,” Cohen, the former CEO of Sears Canada and long-term department store executive said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.

Cohen — now a professor at Columbia Business School —said he isn’t sure if Macy’s (M) has a place in the future of retail. “So after they closed hundreds of stores and refocused their efforts, what exactly does it take to the marketplace? I don’t have a

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‘I can’t see anybody agreeing to reopen arenas in the foreseeable future’

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

The NBA set off a domino effect when it was the first U.S. sports league to halt its season on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now the league, along with the NHL, MLS, and MLB, is actively exploring a plan to return to play this summer.

But even if the NBA is able to return, it is unlikely fans will be allowed at the games. And even beyond this summer, L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who just bought The Forum in March with plans to move the team there in 2024, thinks it will be a very long time before fans are in arenas.

“I can’t see anybody agreeing to reopen arenas or concert venues in the foreseeable future,” Ballmer told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer on this week’s episode of “Influencers.” “So, I have to say that things will be fan-less, which, who knows what kind of

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