Special COVID-19 August Newsletter

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the electric car maker will have fully self-driving vehicles on the road by the end of the year.

During an earnings call with investors on Wednesday, the serial entrepreneur revealed that he is already testing an updated version of the firm’s Autopilot software on his commute to work in Los Angeles.

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Nic Marks is our inspiring guest today and here to teach us a thing or two about the Science of Well-being. Nic was once described as a “Statistician with a Soul” because of his unusual combination of ‘hard’ statistical skills and ‘soft’ people skills, he draws on scientific evidence to show that everyone benefits when businesses take happiness seriously. Nic founded Friday Pulse an innovative tech business based in London to be the catalyst in changing the world of work for the better.

Listen to his podcasts here.

While the coronavirus crisis has impacted certain sectors more than others, one industry that is always recognized as being recession-proof is home repair and property maintenance. In the US software developer for business solutions, Jungleworks, reports that the on-demand home repair industry is worth a considerable $600bn.

Read more here.

With all these businesses scaling back, there’ll be a huge gap open-up in the market – and buyouts,mergers and quality staff available.
Add to that the increasing demand for new businesses and franchises.

The latest ABS survey on Business Impacts of COVID-19 showed that more than half of medium businesses (53 per cent) are accessing support measures, compared to 42 per cent of small businesses and 38 per cent of large businesses. Sue-Ellen Luke, Director of Technology, Innovation and Business Characteristics Statistics said: “Businesses were asked how they expect to respond when these measures are no longer available. ” More information available from the ABS here.

Could a brain scan be the best way to tell a top-notch surgeon? Well, kind of. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University at Buffalo have developed Brain-NET, a deep learning A.I. tool that can accurately predict a surgeon’s certification scores based on their neuroimaging data.

Read more.

In even the most digitally-advanced, tech-driven of organizations, if your computer were to have a spontaneous meltdown, there’s often very little you can do about it besides contacting the IT services desk…and waiting.

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Closes at 12 noon on Monday 24 August 2020.
This program will assist small businesses across a number of sectors to sustain themselves, recover, re-open, build capacity and innovate whilst continuing to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To view the program guidelines, determine your eligibility, and make your application, click here.

While regular, effective communication is everyone’s business, field managers can make a huge difference to franchisees feeling connected and informed.

Because virtual meetings are now the cornerstone of most communications, we recently asked 50 field managers to work in groups to capture the strategies they use to improve their virtual meetings with franchisees.
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