When it comes to workplace amenities, industrial is starting to catch up with office. Facing  increasing labor challenges, many companies are searching for ways to make warehouse and manufacturing jobs more attractive to workers.  We surveyed our Industrial Real Estate experts across the county to find out what amenities workers want the most. Here are a few ways companies are improving the work environment:

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We all have greatness inside us—we just need to find it and give it life.

Todd Herman, author of The Alter Ego Effect, tells us exactly how to do that. As a high-performance coach to ambitious entrepreneurs, athletes, and leaders, Herman for two decades has been helping clients tap their inner greatness. His advice for those who feel “blocked” in some way is to find an alter ego that represents their “best self.” We can find alter egos in mythology, movies, TV, family members, or the workplace.

In a recent interview with Herman, I learned about five steps–marked by five questions—that will enable you to “uncap your best self.”

Image: Aiony Haust/Unsplash

Some entrepreneurs believe travel to be nice but unnecessary. Or, a waste of their time, when they could be in their office, nurturing leads or making sales calls. The other half knows that it's important, but don't feel like it could benefit them or their business, even if it is a working vacation.

I've been traveling around the world for over 20 years, both for business and personal reasons, and I'm 100 percent positive that traveling has made me a better person and businessmen in numerous ways. So, to help you see what so many of us traveling entrepreneurs already know, I've gathered a few reasons why traveling alone or with colleagues should be one of your top priorities in your business.

CEOs are quickly derailed without a sense of community.

Recently, I was listening to the CFO of a large industrial firm who complained non-stop about her CEO. At the start of his tenure, the CEO regularly interacted with his top team, but now seemed to spend most of his time brooding in his office. In meetings, he would often lose focus, have fits of anger and harass people. The CEO’s mercurial style was impacting morale and, increasingly, sales. Some subordinates wondered whether their CEO was falling apart in front of their eyes.

Fundraising is brutal. Actually, according to Paul Graham of Y-Combinator fame, “Raising money is the second hardest part of starting a startup. The hardest part is making something people want.” More startups may fail for that reason, but a close second is the difficulty of raising money.

A while back, I outlined “The 10 Best Sources of Cash to Start Your Business” for startups, listing angel investors as alternative six. I still get a lot of questions on these mysterious and often invisible investors, so here is another attempt to bring them out of the ether.

China will cut its time needed for patent reviews by at least 15 percent, according to Gan Shaoning, deputy head of the Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). In a state media release, Shaoning revealed that patent review times would be reduced, and the review times for trademarks will also be reduced within five months.

Flipkart, once India’s most valued startup is now giving back to the ecosystem. Walmart-owned and Amazon India’s arch-rival Flipkart has set up its own corporate venture capital (CVC) fund to invest in early-stage startups in India. Globally, organisations such as Google (Google Ventures), Intel (Intel Capital), Qualcomm (Qualcomm Ventures), Microsoft (Microsoft Ventures) too run such funds to back startups across the world.

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Cisco on Tuesday launched Decibel, a new, early-stage venture capital firm that will run independently from the San Jose-based networking giant.

Successful people tend to have very positive inner dialogues.

They know how to nurture their own personal growth. They believe they can do whatever it is they set their mind to. But most of all, they believe in themselves.

If you look at the differences between those who achieve their goals and those who fail, what you'll usually find is a lack of self belief. Those who fail tend to plan for failure.

Image: Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design/flickr

Microsoft’s Zune might have been a decent media player, but it wasn’t what many would consider innovative.

The portable media device was meant to be Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s iPod. In reality, it was a “too little, too late” copycat. Shortly before its discontinuation in June 2012, Robbie Bach, then-leader of Microsoft’s home entertainment and mobile business, admitted that his leadership had a lot to do with the flop.

A shared, connected future built by scalable innovative solutions could be the answer to some of the most pressing global issues, including how citizens and communities can create shared prosperity and how cities can help promote their inhabitants’ health.

It is commonly understood that pushing for systemic change, scaling solutions proven to be effective, and expanding public-private partnerships are all key prerequisites for making progress on these global issues.

Image: Nigerain start-up ColdHubs is using solar power to reduce food waste and boost suppliers' profits - Image: ColdHubs

On the subject of the migration of college freshmen, two things are clear: Most stay within their home state's borders, and the rest tend to go to private colleges in neighboring states. It’s already known that more than a third of freshmen stay within 50 miles of home, but what the interactive map clearly shows is that even those who stray beyond tend to stay in the region.

From autonomous pickers which can pick twice fast as humans to drones which can precisely pick up weeds and spray pesticides, these are some of the innovations which is being deployed to feed the burgeoning human population, which would reach 10 billion in 2050.

Image: https://nextbigwhat.com

Firaz was recently appointed CEO of a $1 billion company where he had held various roles over the past nine years. He had coveted this position for two years, but, now that he had it, Firaz was far from happy.

You can’t avoid stress. But consider the many contributing factors. Where you live proves to be one of them. So if your business makes its home in one of these stressful areas, watch out. Keeping your employees stress free should figure high on your priority list. With that in mind, Zippia set out to find the most stressed out cities in each of the 50 states in the U.S.A. The list has some little known and very recognizable cities, which goes to show you won’t be able to escape stress no matter where you live.

Next-generation wheelchairs could incorporate brain-controlled robotic arms and rentable add-on motors in order to help people with disabilities more easily carry out daily tasks or get around a city.

Professor Nicolás García-Aracil from the Universidad Miguel Hernández (UMH) in Elche, Spain, has developed an automated wheelchair with an exoskeleton robotic arm to use at home, as part of a project called AIDE.

Image: https://horizon.scienceblog.com

There is a whole stream of new private equity investments happening in health care— PricewaterhouseCoopers reports $624 billion in private equity invested in health care (see Private Equity: Healthcare’s New Growth Accelerator). Historically, many of the for-profit investments in the field have been in the private pay, non-public side of the field. But now these investments are crossing over into Medicaid and Medicare services—in the sectors affecting consumer with complex needs like behavioral health, autism, and developmental disabilities.

Image: https://www.openminds.com

Far from a luxury, thought leadership is about capturing the future.

Is your enterprise dominated by passive thinking and prescribed routines? Or is it one that generates fresh thinking and unlocks insights into the future?

The viral popularity of TED Talks – with over a billion views to date – highlights the innate hunger we have for discovering breakthrough ideas.

When it comes to making that high-stakes decision or tackling the most pressing challenges facing your firm, whose experience, inspiration and insights do you seek? Just as importantly, why do you look up to those particular individuals or organisations? What do they possess that draws your attention?

DUBLIN and SHANGHAI - March 25, 2019 -Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT), the global leader in medical technology, today announced the launch of the Medtronic MedTech Innovation Accelerator in Pujiang International Science and Technology City at Minhang District, Shanghai. The new collaborative innovation platform will provide services for MedTech start-ups worldwide, address unmet clinical needs in China, and welcome its initial roster of portfolio companies. Through this new accelerator, Medtronic is committed to empowering early-stage MedTech innovations that aim to improve patient outcomes and convert ideas into valuable medical products and solutions.

A lot of innovators that I have met are impatient people. By the time we start working together, they are already fed up with their company. They know something needs to be done and they just want to jump in and get started. So they will take whatever opportunity they get and run with it. I believe that this is the wrong approach. As much as we are keen to get started, it is also important to ensure that we are working on the right things. While I agree that we have to start somewhere with innovation, this does not necessarily mean we have to start anywhere. There is a difference.