Welcome, parents and grandparents of the Class of 2020. Hello also to their aunts, uncles and second cousins and the boyfriends of those cousins, to their mom’s friend Sheila from work and their dad’s friend Steve. To all their teachers from kindergarten to high school to Hebrew school, to every parent of every one of their friends, to every random lady who waves to them at the hardware store, welcome. So glad to see that every adult that the Class of 2020 has ever met is here today.

In the past week, universities have begun releasing yet more details about how they plan to bring students, staff, and faculty members back to campus in the coming weeks and months. College presidents have started to roll out the outlines of those plans, with many insisting that their final decisions will be guided by science and advice from public-health professionals.

Image: Nicolas Tavernier, REA, Redux - Anthony S. Fauci

Before the pandemic, there were no playbooks for how to convert a co-located team to 100% virtual in a matter of days and we’re finding in our research that the conversion process — and the results — has differed substantially from team to team, even within the same organization. This variability puts tremendous strain on individual employees who are now navigating not just one whole new way of working, but often several.

The chatter in our cafeterias and conference rooms is replaced by the disquiet we’re experiencing inside our socially-distanced bubbles. From general malaise to specific maladies, many employees are afflicted by stress and anxiety that make brushing teeth and cooking a meal feel like the day’s crowning achievements. My clients, executives in a variety of organizations, feel overworked, underappreciated, and cut off from their colleagues. While there’s no panacea for these current ills, regularly practicing gratitude can help.

In countries hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, customer-facing service businesses don’t just face a tough two to three months; they face a tough two to three years. Because people will still be nervous about catching the disease until a vaccine is widely available, demand is likely to be depressed, while costs — due to measures needed to keep employees and customers safe — will be higher.

Recently, Marc Andreessen, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the largest venture capital funds, called on the whole world to start building. To build in the broadest sense: from new cities and industries, to new educational programs that will enable millions to study at Harvard, or the learning institutions of their choice.

I miss smiling. I don’t miss it in the inspirational poster “the whole world smiles with me” way. I don’t miss it, as another poster says, because I can no longer “intimidate those who wish to destroy me.” I don’t miss it because “happiness looks gorgeous on me,” although I did put in three very formative years of hard time in the orthodontia trenches–20 months of braces and six retainers–so it looks at least marginally better than it used to.

Image: Illustration by Nathalie Lees for TIME

The coronavirus pandemic has placed extraordinary demands on leaders in business and beyond. The humanitarian toll taken by COVID-19 creates fear among employees and other stakeholders. The massive scale of the outbreak and its sheer unpredictability make it challenging for executives to respond. Indeed, the outbreak has the hallmarks of a “landscape scale” crisis: an unexpected event or sequence of events of enormous scale and overwhelming speed, resulting in a high degree of uncertainty that gives rise to disorientation, a feeling of lost control, and strong emotional disturbance.1

Don't have the time or money to get a bachelor's degree?

Don't fret.

There are plenty of high-paying jobs that require only a two-year associate degree, postsecondary nondegree certificate, or even just a high-school diploma — and a few that don't require a formal educational credential at all.

Image: https://www.businessinsider.com

One thing is clear: The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on small businesses. According to one estimate, more than 100,000 small businesses have closed for good because of the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, the U.S. economy is more dynamic than we often think. While many small businesses are struggling to meet payroll and other costs, many others are surviving and even thriving. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing small business owners to do what they do best: Adapt and innovate.

The era of stable lifetime jobs for business professionals within a single company are gone. Companies are rightsized quickly now as markets change rapidly, and business professionals are quick to jump to new opportunities for growth and survival, with no ties to special benefits or pension plans. Thus smart business professionals are rapidly becoming the new entrepreneurs.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

"Before corona the plan was to go and do a big fundraise at the end of the year," says Avi Meir, the co-founder and CEO of TravelPerk, from a lockdowned Barcelona.

However, those plans are now on hold. Seeking funding now "would look like a bargain for investors", he says. "I'm not interested in that. Why go and sell something at a lower price."

Image: Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of TravelPerk. TRAVELPERK

In 2017, Scott Galloway anticipated Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods a month before it was announced. Last year, he called WeWork on its “seriously loco” $47 billion valuation a month before the company’s IPO imploded. Now, Galloway, a Silicon Valley runaway who teaches marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, believes the pandemic has greased the wheels for big tech’s entrée into higher education. The post-pandemic future, he says,  will entail partnerships between the largest tech companies in the world and elite universities.

Image: https://nymag-com.cdn.ampproject.org

What’s next? That is the question everyone is asking. The future is not what we thought it would be only a few short months ago.

In a previous article, we discussed seven broad ideas that we thought would shape the global economy as it struggled to define the next normal. In this one, we set out seven actions that have come up repeatedly in our discussions with business leaders around the world. In each case, we discuss which attitudes or practices businesses should stop, which they should start, and which they should accelerate.

Being an entrepreneur is hard enough. In the best of times, it can feel like skydiving without a parachute. So just imagine what it’s like during continued lockdowns, economic uncertainty, and the news about the COVID-19 pandemic changing every day. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it—you’re probably living it.

I’m not only an entrepreneur myself, I’m also a wife and mother who is trying to balance running my business with taking care of my family during these difficult times. I’m here to tell you that I feel your pain, and as fellow entrepreneurs, we’re all in this together.

Image: https://www.forbes.com

Whether you're just getting started investing or are a seasoned stock picker, emulating the success of Warren Buffett is probably one of your dreams. After all, the Oracle of Omaha is widely considered one of the best investors of all time, and his investments have made him a billionaire.

The good news is that it's easy to see what Buffett's favorite stocks are, since he personally selects, or approves the purchase of, every stock in Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) portfolio. Most of Buffett's net worth is invested in Berkshire, and this conglomerate must list its holdings in periodic reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. The common reason given is that this prevents any competitor from stealing their idea and beating them to market. In my view, this paranoid approach costs them much more than the risk of being open.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Of all the venture funding flowing into the medtech industry, a lower proportion than ever is being invested in companies at the start-up stage, a new analysis by Evaluate Vantage shows. Less than 5% of venture cash has been put into seed funding and series A rounds so far this year.

This shifting of cash from early into later rounds is a continuation of a trend that has been clear for some time. What is somewhat unexpected, however, is the relative prominence of series D financings in 2020 so far. Granted, this year is hardly typical; perhaps the pressures of the pandemic have pushed investors to mid- as well as late-stage rounds.

With infectious-disease experts forecasting recurring waves of Covid-19 contagion, a number of colleges are coalescing around a plan to send students home by Thanksgiving this fall.

Hundreds of institutions have pledged to return to in-person classes in August, after the coronavirus forced them to move instruction online in the spring. While some of those colleges intend to return to normal operations, others have configured their calendars with earlier start and end dates.

Earlier this year, I announced that I was stepping down as CEO of Nav, a company I co-founded in 2012. I love Nav passionately, and it wasn’t an easy decision, but I knew it was the best thing for both me and the company. 

Under the leadership of its new CEO, Greg Ott, Nav moved forward without missing a beat. Watching it happen, I felt a peculiar feeling.