Subscriber Only

Management guru Peter Drucker once said culture eats strategy for breakfast. Drucker wasn’t suggesting strategy is unimportant. He was noting no strategy, however strong, would succeed if executed in an environment of a weakened or failed culture.

Quickly picking up on technology has become a necessary skill these days for museums more accustomed to bringing in crowds to see artwork, watch and hear animals in their habitats, or experience first-hand the wonders of science.

Savvy Central Mass. social media managers all seem to report the same phenomenon, which is a business owner’s dream: post a product online and see it fly off the shelves.

Central Massachusetts was already facing deep-rooted challenges with poverty. Add a pandemic forcing more than 800,000 Massachusetts residents to file for unemployment, and Central Massachusetts human services have been sent into overdrive.

This new way of life has rearranged the real estate and construction industries, just like practically every other part of the economy.

While we try to fix all that has gone wrong in the world, we should take a moment to examine the opportunities the pandemic has forced upon us, and then decide how to incorporate any improvements into our post-pandemic lives.

Melissa Cote had planned to expand her beauty salon, but as the construction was wrapping up on her new Shrewsbury location, Gov. Charlie Baker put out his order on March 24 for non-essential businesses in Massachusetts to shut down in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Now we find ourselves in hunker down mode, facing a much higher unemployment rate on the other side of this crisis. But does that mean we should shut off that engine of growth for the region? We don’t think so.

Immediately, as our pandemic unfolded I found myself in a frenzied search for information! What would this mean for family or my business, already in a challenging position this year?

Whether inspired by a crisis like the COVID-19 outbreak or not, more companies are investing in corporate social responsibility efforts.