Friday, April 3, 2020
Business Intelligence and Analytics 58
1 Coronavirus and technology supply chains: How to restart and rebuild
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/coronavirus-and-technology-supply-chains-how-to-restart-and-rebuild
For the technology industry, the effects of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19 disease, started to take hold in January when China—a critical link in the global technology chain—began reporting more cases. And while the country’s early lockdowns and quarantines are slowly beginning to lift, the pandemic’s international expansion is leading to new restrictions across the globe that are weighing on business activity. Consequently, the technology supply chain now faces a new set of challenges.
2 Spies, hijacks and export bans: the global battle for coronavirus equipment
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/global-battle-coronavirus-equipment-masks-tests
US buyers waving wads of cash managed to wrest control of a consignment of masks as it was about to be dispatched from China to one of the worst-hit coronavirus areas of France, according to two French officials.
The masks were on a plane at Shanghai airport that was ready to take off when the US buyers turned up and offered three times what their French counterparts were paying.
3 Triage in a Pandemic: Can AI Help Ration Access to Care?
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/triage-in-a-pandemic-can-ai-help-ration-access-to-care/
As media reports about shortages of ventilators and hospital beds show, the COVID-19 pandemic will most probably lead to rationing of care. In this opinion piece, Gregory P. Shea, Krzysztof “Kris” Laudanski and Cassie A. Solomon explore the likely impact of care rationing in the absence of the best possible information on decision quality, patients and care providers. They also consider the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in guiding decisions about how care can be rationed. Shea and Solomon are co-authors of Leading Successful Change, published by Wharton School Press. Laudanski is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on anesthesiology and critical care.
4 The CFO’s role in helping through the coronavirus crisis
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-cfos-role-in-helping-companies-navigate-the-coronavirus-crisis
The spread of the novel coronavirus has created a worldwide humanitarian and economic crisis. The events we are living through are in many ways unprecedented, with large-scale quarantines, border closings, school closings, and physical distancing. Governments and communities have been jolted into action to “flatten the curve.”
5 Projecting Leadership and Humanity in Crisis
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/projecting-leadership-and-humanity-in-crisis/
Effective leadership can make crises manageable instead of overwhelming. Leading through crisis typically involves adopting a systematic approach to problem-solving: Stages of crisis include issue detection, response, recovery, and learning. Key considerations that can reduce the panic people feel when the world seems to be spiraling often include enacting a more directive style of leadership to clarify priorities, instituting a frequent cadence of communication, and formulating team decision-making structures to help people digest uncertainty and focus their attention on pressing tasks.
6 When will U.S. economy bottom? Economists hunt for the right view
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-data-idUSKBN21L0I8
The economic crisis spawned by the coronavirus pandemic has produced a wave of grim U.S. data, with likely more to come as millions lose jobs, businesses shutter and spending stops.
But at some point, the bottom will be reached.
Given how fast the situation has developed, judging when that happens in real time will prove challenging for economists who usually depend on monthly, quarterly or yearly trends in data to judge the state of the business cycle.
7 Royal Dutch Shell reskills workers in AI, part of energy transition
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/royal-dutch-shell-reskills-workers-in-ai-part-of-energy-transition.html
Working at Royal Dutch Shell’s Deepwater division in New Orleans gives Barbara Waelde a front-row seat to how the right data can unlock crucial information for the oil giant. So when her supervisor asked her last year if she was interested in a program that could sharpen her digital and data science capabilities, Waelde, 55, jumped at the chance.
8 4 Tips From a Manager of Remote Workers
https://www.business2community.com/human-resources/4-tips-from-a-manager-of-remote-workers-02298354
Between 2005 and 2017, there was a 159% growth in remote work across the United States. Today, about 4.7 million US workers spend at least some of their workweek working remotely — a number that’s rising daily in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak (novel coronavirus 2019).
9 Best Free Epidemiology Courses for Data Scientists
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/04/epidemiology-data-scientists.html
The emergence of COVID-19 has made for a tempting pool of data for data scientists to dip their toes into. While much of the amateur analysis being done on existing COVID-19 data is benign, and makes for good practice and can actually do a good deal of help in painting a picture of reality for those who consume this analysis — visualizations of the numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, for example, has been a particular source of quality conveyance — there are tools that data scientists generally don’t possess when it comes to expertly forecastor explain the spread, distribution, and impact of infectious diseases. This is what the field of epidemiology is in part about.
10 Canada facing ‘major’ medical gear shortage as 68 countries restrict exports
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/exporting-and-importing/canada-facing-major-medical-gear-shortage-as-68-countries-restrict-exports-250359/
Scores of countries have moved to restrict the export of face masks, gloves and other medical supplies critical for front-line workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Canada and others scrambling to source products that now have higher price tags.
11 9 Tips for Running a Great Virtual Business Meeting
https://www.business2community.com/strategy/9-tips-for-running-a-great-virtual-business-meeting-02298051
Virtual meetings have become a staple in the professional workplace, allowing for a simulated face-to-face experience that serves as a viable substitute for the real thing.
With recent events surrounding COVID-19, many businesses find themselves utterly dependent on virtual meetings to conduct business, keep projects moving forward and communicate with remote staff and clients. And while nothing can fully replace an in-person meeting, taking the right approach can ensure a successful outcome. Here are 9 tips for running a great virtual business meeting.
12 Introduction to the K-nearest Neighbour Algorithm Using Examples
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/04/introduction-k-nearest-neighbour-algorithm-using-examples.html
KNN also known as K-nearest neighbour is a supervised and pattern classification learning algorithm which helps us find which class the new input(test value) belongs to when k nearest neighbours are chosen and distance is calculated between them.
It attempts to estimate the conditional distribution of Y given X, and classify a given observation(test value) to the class with highest estimated probability.
It first identifies the k points in the training data that are closest to the test value and calculates the distance between all those categories. The test value will belong to the category whose distance is the least.
13 U.S. factory activity contracts in March; orders tumble to 11-year low: ISM
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-manufacturing-idUSKBN21J5S5
U.S. manufacturing activity contracted less than expected in March, but disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic pushed new orders received by factories to an 11-year low, reinforcing economists’ views that the economy was in recession.
14 Traders Scramble To Be First In Line To Ditch Crude Oil
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Traders-Scramble-To-Be-First-In-Line-To-Ditch-Crude-Oil.html
While oil futures hit an 18-year-low on Monday, the prices of physical barrels from Europe to North America slumped to record discounts to benchmarks and trade in the teens and single digits, with traders scrambling to place physical crude barrels amid an unprecedented demand loss and growing global glut.
15 Long-range Correlations in Time Series: Modeling, Testing, Case Study
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/long-range-correlation-in-time-series-tutorial-and-case-study
We investigate a large class of auto-correlated, stationary time series, proposing a new statistical test to measure departure from the base model, known as Brownian motion. We also discuss a methodology to deconstruct these time series, in order to identify the root mechanism that generates the observations. The time series studied here can be discrete or continuous in time, they can have various degrees of smoothness (typically measured using the Hurst exponent) as well as long-range or short-range correlations between successive values
16 Fascinating New Results in the Theory of Randomness
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/fascinating-new-results-in-the-theory-of-randomness
I present here some innovative results from my most recent research on stochastic processes. chaos modeling, and dynamical systems, with applications to Fintech, cryptography, number theory, and random number generators. While covering advanced topics, this article is accessible to professionals with limited knowledge in statistical or mathematical theory. It introduces new material not covered in my recent book (available here) on applied stochastic processes. You don’t need to read my book to understand this article, but the book is a nice complement and introduction to the concepts discussed here.
17 Enterprise AI Goes Mainstream, but Maturity Must Wait
https://www.informationweek.com/big-data/ai-machine-learning/enterprise-ai-goes-mainstream-but-maturity-must-wait/a/d-id/1337428
An O’Reilly survey illustrates how enterprise groups are moving more applications into production, but also how companies face cultural and talent focused barriers.
Artificial intelligence’s emergence into the mainstream of enterprise computing raises significant issues — strategic, cultural, and operational — for businesses everywhere.
18 6 Measures to Instill a Positive Work Ethic in an Office
https://www.business2community.com/workplace-culture/6-measures-to-instill-a-positive-work-ethic-in-an-office-02297009
When establishing a new company, it’s vital that the employees you recruit are both comfortable and productive in their working environment.
Sadly, for some business owners, the task of building a workplace that’s ripe for productivity is easier said than done, and some workers can struggle to hit their stride for a range of reasons in a new job.
