Business Unusual

Is understanding the numbers in a pandemic a puzzle or a mystery? Knowing if something should be treated like a puzzle or a mystery was the subject of a previous edition of Business Unusual and used the example of the US CIA in working with the intelligence they collect.   In a puzzle scenario, you need all the pieces of information to make a picture and typically some are missing. Finding the missing info allows you to solve the problem...

Can Uber and Airbnb survive being disrupted themselves? Two companies that defined the creation of the sharing/trust/gig economy are Uber and Airbnb. Both were founded during the peak of innovation for this century in 2008/9. Both grew out of real frustration to try rent something, for Uber founders it was a limousine, for Airbnb it was was a place to stay during a popular conference...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If the picture is of you, it may say even more. Machine learning related to facial recognition may overtake the risk to privacy that is currently centred on cookies that track your browsing. Image credit: pxhere See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two million infections, over 125 000 deaths and still climbing; it is fair to say that none of the terrorist threats this century can rival the impact a new virus is having on humanity. So, given the lengths countries were willing to go to counter terrorism, surely nothing should be spared to fight this pandemic? The lessons from fighting terrorism are that once we give up civil liberty, the chances of getting it back diminish.   Image credit: 123rf.com See omnystudio...

Colin Cullis | Business Unusual Correspondent at Money Show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Live performances are possibly one of the first industries that were not involved with feeding or sheltering us. From the earliest cave paintings which some speculate were actually sites chosen for musical performances to the TikTok clip you watched today, humans have always sought to entertain. Those with the gift of storytelling transporting those who otherwise would never hear about distant places and grand adventures to balance a life of work and child-rearing...

A business tool for older generations, a staple for younger ones Video conferencing began as a way to make it easier to have people who far apart to still meet and discuss important business issues. Some meetings require long trips and even air travel. In the late 90s companies working with the growing internet saw the potential of allowing those connecting on email to be able to connect in person. Image credit: Zoom See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio...

Here is a collection of stories about how to do business in very unusual times This segment usually looks at how business can disrupt our normal routines, this time it is business trying to deal with the disruption caused by a pandemic. Rather than resign themselves to shutting down their business and waiting for the virus to run its course, these businesses and individuals have opted to do something about it. Image credit: 123rf.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

Tech companies are looking to take data collection to a new level and it’s not to sell ads. Alphabet owner of Google also owns a company called Verily that plans to use in technology, software, machine learning and the skills of biologists, geneticists and psychologists and even philosophers to model what makes for a healthy human. In their own words, they plan to map humans the way they have mapped the world...

SpaceX is looking to fund its trips to Mars by building an internet company Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX’s vision is to make humans multi-planetary. His goal is to establish a colony on Mars. It will not only be very difficult, it will also be expensive. In 2015 SpaceX announced their plans to build a constellation of satellites to provide high-speed low-latency internet access to most of the inhabited world.  Image credit: Starlink See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...