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Customers Want Predictability in Usage-based Pricing. Here’s How to Help Them Get It.

Though many customers value paying only for what they consume in usage-based pricing, that flexibility also makes it very difficult to predict how much of your product they’ll use. Accurately predicting usage—and therefore cost—is a major sticking point for buyers of usage-based software. We’ve heard from plenty of leaders who opt to build instead of buy because it makes it significantly easier to forecast their costs. The good news is…

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Robert Rohrbaugh: Bringing Antiracist Tools to Clinical Practice

Howie and Harlan are joined by Robert Rohrbaugh, professor of psychiatry and deputy dean for professionalism and leadership at the Yale School of Medicine, to discuss his work training doctors in antiracist practices and ensuring the wellbeing of clinicians during the pandemic. Harlan reports on the problematic history of medical journals promoting eugenics; Howie highlights a cyberattack that has paralyzed Change Healthcare, the country’s largest payments processing hub. Links: Antiracist…

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SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: Tracee Davis and Grayson Moronta will Speak on Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Panel on the State of DE&I in Law Firms and Companies

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: Tracee Davis and Grayson Moronta will Speak on Coalition of Women's Initiatives in Law Panel on the State of DE&I in Law Firms and Companies | Employment Law Lookout Skip to content

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5 practical steps for making the most of a bonus or windfall

If you receive a bonus or a windfall, the temptation can be to spend a substantial chunk of it right away on something you’ve been eyeing for a while. However, unless the payment is truly life-changing, it can be wise to resist the urge to spend it on expensive non-essentials. Avoiding the lifestyle creep of gradually increasing your spending on non-essentials, and instead opting for more prudent financial choices, could…

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Why Your Reward System For Employees Can Fail Badly

Last week marked the celebration of Employee Appreciation Day! During this special time, many companies express their gratitude to their workforce, and one common way they do it is by giving out rewards.  Reward systems are a crucial aspect of employee motivation and engagement in any organization. However, when implemented incorrectly, they can lead not only to a lack of improvement in employee performance but can also actively demotivate and…

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‘Not Losing’ Is Not Enough – Europe and Ukraine

As we approach the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine this Saturday, ask yourself a simple question: is Europe at war? When I put this to a room full of participants at the Munich security conference last Sunday, most of them raised their hands to say yes, Europe is at war. But then I asked a second question: do you think most people in your own country have…

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Ask Sanyin: What Matters Most in Evaluating New Opportunities?

Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader Sanyin Siang March 06, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min  Topics Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader Leadership roles come with new personal and professional challenges — and Sanyin Siang, board and CEO coach, adviser, and author, is here to help with an advice column for top managers. More in this series I am considering new opportunities after recently stepping down from a leadership role. What used…

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Working Overtime: Is Publication of DOL’s OT Exemption Rule Imminent?

Seyfarth Synopsis: With DOL’s overtime exemption rule currently under White House review, we could see its publication sooner rather than later. We previously reported on the Biden Administration’s April 2024 target date to publish the DOL Wage and Hour Division’s (“WHD”) final rule on increasing the minimum salary level for white-collar exemptions, “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees.” An April release now…

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Webinar: Navigating Employer’s Responses to Employees’ Off-Duty Conduct

Wednesday, March 13, 202412:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Central10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Mountain9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Pacific About the Program Today’s polarized environment presents many challenges for employers.  One such challenge is how to respond to reports of employees’ off-duty conduct.  Off-duty conduct – particularly when captured or reported online -- may affect the workplace and other employees, threaten the company’s reputation, or…

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Medical Marijuana Usage Is Not Protected Under the ADA, Vermont Federal Court Rules

Quick Hits A federal district judge in Vermont ruled that the ADA does not protect medical marijuana usage. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana has “no currently accepted medical use” and therefore does not fall under the supervised use exception of the ADA. Marble Valley Regional Transit District terminated Ivo Skoric’s employment after he failed a random drug test. According to his lawsuit, Skoric has a medical marijuana prescription…

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ACA-Required Coverage of Contraceptive Care Remains Agency Focus

Quick Hits Despite repeated clarification regarding what the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury consider to be reasonable medical management techniques, the departments continue to identify plans that are out of compliance, creating barriers to contraceptive coverage. Medical management techniques within a specific contraceptive category will be considered reasonable if the plan covers, without cost sharing, all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and drug-led devices, other than…

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All the winners and losers from the 2024 Spring Budget

With one eye on a forthcoming general election, the chancellor has announced a Budget aimed at generating long-term growth, with “more investment, more jobs, better public services and lower taxes”. While the headlines will inevitably focus on Jeremy Hunt’s cut in National Insurance contributions (NICs), many less headline-grabbing messages will affect millions of families and businesses. Read on to find out who were the winners and losers from the 2024…

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Your Spring Budget update – the key news from the chancellor’s statement

The 2024/25 tax year is just a month away, and chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delivered his 2024 Spring Budget, outlining the government’s plans for the next fiscal year and beyond. With a general election looming – prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he will call it before the end of the year – the chancellor claimed that the government had met the prime minister’s three economic priorities laid out at…

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Genetic mutation in a quarter of all Labradors hard-wires them for obesity

This obesity-driving combination means that dog owners must be particularly strict with feeding and exercising their Labradors to keep them slim.The mutation is in a gene called POMC, which plays a critical role in hunger and energy use. Around 25% of Labradors and 66% of flatcoated retriever dogs have the POMC mutation, which researchers previously showed causes increased interest in food and risk of obesity. The new study reveals how…

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Astronomers spot oldest ‘dead’ galaxy yet observed

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge have spotted a ‘dead’ galaxy when the universe was just 700 million years old, the oldest such galaxy ever observed.This galaxy appears to have lived fast and died young: star formation happened quickly and stopped almost as quickly, which is unexpected for so early in the universe’s evolution. However, it is unclear whether…

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Now Available! Seyfarth Resource – 2023 FLSA Litigation Metrics & Trends

As the FLSA landscape continues to evolve, Seyfarth’s national Wage and Hour Litigation practice group is pleased to share our observations and analysis of the 2023 FLSA litigation trends as well as our forward-looking predictions for 2024. Wage and hour litigation and enforcement actions continued as a hot-button concern in 2023, as plaintiffs’ lawyers advanced novel and creative claims and Supreme Court and appellate-level battles took place over long-accepted standards—for…

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CDC Trims COVID-19 Isolation Guidance: COVID-Positive Individuals Need Only Isolate for 24 Hours After Being Fever-Free

By Adam R. Young, A. Scott Hecker, Patrick D. Joyce, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is shifting its COVID-19 isolation guidance, advising that COVID-positive individuals no longer need to isolate once they have been fever-free for 24 hours and their symptoms are mild or improving. After weeks of rumors, the CDC revised its COVID-19 guidance to eliminate its five-day isolation recommendation and…

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Can you exclude liability for dishonesty?

A High Court judge has construed the limitation of liability provisions in a research agreement as effective to limit a party's liability for dishonesty in the performance of the contract by their employee. Here, we look at the drafting implications of the decision. In Innovate Pharmaceuticals Ltd v University of Portsmouth Higher Education Corporation [2024] EWHC 35 (TCC), Roger Ter Haar KC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) held…

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Keeping Innovative Projects Aligned With Strategy

Topics Innovation Innovation Strategy Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Growth-oriented companies that seek to foster a culture of innovation have no shortage of good project ideas. However, many of them will fall outside the control of existing business lines or the organization’s formal structures for managing innovation, such as the R&D department. As a result, potentially valuable programs can suffer from a lack of oversight while others risk misalignment…

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Employers, Beware: California Regulators Are Actively Enforcing the California Consumer Privacy Act

Quick Hits The California Office of the Attorney General has been actively enforcing the CCPA since July 2023, and the California Privacy Protection Agency has indicated that it will take a very active role in CCPA enforcement. Covered businesses may be subjected to civil penalties or administrative fines of $2,500 for each violation of the CCPA and $7,500 for each intentional violation, with penalties up to $7,500 for privacy violations…

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National Brands Hate Private Labels (But Make Them Anyway)…

Did you ever wonder who makes those store brand “toaster pastries” that look just like Pop Tarts but cost a whole lot less? Kusum Ailawadi, the Charles Jordan 1911, TU'12 Professor of Marketing, teaches Marketing Research and Multichannel Route-to-Market Strategy in the Tuck MBA program. It’s a fair question. The identity of the manufacturers of “private label” brands—such as Kirkland Signature (sold at Costco), Great Value (Walmart), and Good &…

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The Future of AI Is Amazing

In this presentation from the American Dynamism Summit, a16z General Partner Martin Casado lays out the case for AI as a driving force behind incredible advancements in technology, creativity, and the human experience — not to mention efficiency improvements on par with, if not greater than, those delivered by the internet and the microchip. Here is a transcript of his presentation: I’m going to be covering this AI stuff everybody…

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Rebuilding the California Dream with Jan Sramek

California has long been ground zero for the new: new technologies, new frontiers, new arts and culture. In this session from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, moderated by a16z General Partner Katherine Boyle, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek discusses building an ambitious new city between San Francisco and Sacramento, why he firmly believes California’s best days are still ahead, and what he and his team are doing to realize that…

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Neon sign identified by JWST gives clue to planet formation

Planetary systems like our Solar System seem to contain more rocky objects than gas-rich ones. Around our sun, these include the inner planets, the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. But scientists have known for a long time that planet-forming discs start with 100 times more mass in gas than in solids, which leads to a pressing question; when and how does most of the gas leave the disc/system?JWST is…

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Regulating Crypto in the Name of National Competitiveness with Emilie Choi

In this talk with a16z General Partner Ben Horowitz, from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, Coinbase President and Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi discusses, among other things, crypto’s potential to power the next-generation internet and bolster individual freedoms — two major reasons why America should not only embrace crypto, but take charge in shaping its future. Here is a transcript of their conversation: Ben Horowitz: So, I’ve got Emilie, who…

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The China Threat: Silicon Valley and the Great Uncoupling

In this session from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) discuss why the United States must strengthen its technological advantage in areas like AI, develop next-generation manufacturing capabilities domestically, and rethink how Silicon Valley does business with China. Gallagher is Chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, on which Auchincloss also serves. Here is a transcript of their conversation: Katherine Boyle:…

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Securing America’s Future: How Technology Companies and Washington Are Building A Safer World

Technology companies have rediscovered their roots as innovators in national security and as critical partners to the Department of Defense. In this session from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, moderated by CNBC anchor Morgan Brennan, Anduril Cofounder and CEO Brian Schimpf lays out the case for how and why technology plays a critical role in helping ensure a safer world. Here is a transcript of their conversation: Morgan Brennan: It’s…

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Collaborative Disruption at the DoD with Kathleen Hicks and Sharon Weinberger

At January’s American Dynamism Summit, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks discussed the Department of Defense’s renewed commitment to innovation and the department’s new Replicator initiative, which is accelerating how the DoD procures and delivers capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale. (Read her full remarks here.) Following her keynote remarks, Dep. Sec. Hicks sat down for an interview with Wall Street Journal national security and foreign policy…

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How to optimise your subscription business model

Welcome to our Drive to Subscribe blog series, created to provide readers with insight into the world of subscriptions while drawing parallels with the world of Formula 1. In this, part three, we look at the parallel between a subscription business model and how F1 teams operate. You can find part one here which explores the approach to a successful subscription, and part two here which delves into successful subscription…

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Do People Want to Work Anymore?

(AdobeStock/Halfpoint)Sometimes we experience what Yogi Berra described as “déjà vu all over again.” It happened to me several weeks ago and left me wondering whether it’s déjà vu or whether things really have changed. Years ago, my colleague at Harvard Business School, Len Schlesinger, and I published an article that laid out two human resource strategies that we labeled the “cycle of success” and the “cycle of failure.” Our late…

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Want to Make Diversity Stick? Break the Cycle of Sameness

When US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Edward Chang noticed something interesting: To fill the vacancy, then-President Donald Trump replaced Ginsburg with another woman, Amy Coney Barrett, even though he had previously added two men to the bench.“There was plenty of evidence showing Trump wasn’t particularly pro-diversity,” says Chang, noting that Trump had issued a memo telling federal agencies to halt…

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Porter’s Hypothesis – Regulating AI

Regulation does not necessarily stifle innovation, as many tech firms claim, but can in fact encourage a more sustainable, ethical side of proceedings, says Chirantan Chatterjee of University of Sussex Business School As we arrive in the last quarter of 2023, there is a general impression globally that while the AI genie is out of the bottle, the genie needs to be regulated, otherwise there may be unanticipated consequences. An…

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The guilty project

California’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, which passed in 1994, was one of the tough-on-crime measures that swept the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, as the prisons were overflowing, the stories started to come out: A man sent to prison for life for stealing a pair of shoes. Another sentenced to life for breaking into a soup kitchen. Michael Romano, JD ’03, is the founder…

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Will Large Language Models Really Change How Work Is Done?

1. “Beyond the Buzz: A Look at Large Language Models in Production,” PDF (San Francisco: Predibase, 2023), https://go.predibase.com. 2. A. Rosenbaum, S. Soltan, and W. Hamza, “Using Large Language Models (LLMs) to Synthesize Training Data,” Amazon Science, Jan. 20, 2023, www.amazon.science. 3. “Storm Reply Launches RAG-Based AI Chatbot for Audi, Revolutionising Internal Documentation,” Business Wire, Dec. 21, 2023, www.businesswire.com. 4. “Beyond the Buzz.” 5. P. Vaithilingam, T. Zhang, and E.L.…

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Massachusetts Superior Court Finds Incentive Payment Under Profit-Sharing Scheme Is Not a Commission Under Wage Act

Quick Hits In a recent decision, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge held that a percent-of-profit incentive payment under a profit-sharing scheme is not a commission subject to the Wage Act. The court reasoned that an executive’s profit-sharing incentive was tied to the company’s profits, but not to revenue that he personally generated, and therefore he did not have a viable claim under the Wage Act. The decision clarifies that, although…

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Solving a Problem for the Used Electronics Market

Did you ever wonder what happens to your old smartphone when you trade it in for a new one? At Tuck, Laurens Debo, professor of operations management, teaches the Management of Service Operations elective in the MBA program. Most likely, it’s sold by your cell phone carrier to a phone remanufacturer who refurbishes it and sells it to a price-sensitive consumer who doesn’t want to buy a new one. The…

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Tuna Sandwich Sparks Legal Battle (with Law firm…)

After being dismissed for eating a leftover sandwich, a cleaner is taking legal action against a London law firm, Devonshires Solicitors, alleging indirect race discrimination. Gabriela Rodriguez, an Ecuadorian national employed by Total Clean, was contracted to clean the law firm. The United Voices of the World union (UVW), advocating for migrant workers, has taken up her case, claiming that Ms Rodriguez’s termination stemmed from discriminatory motives. Background Ms Rodriguez…

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Low iron levels resulting from infection could be key trigger of long COVID

The discovery not only points to possible ways to prevent or treat the condition, but could help explain why symptoms similar to those of long COVID are also commonly seen in a number of post-viral conditions and chronic inflammation.Although estimates are highly variable, as many as three in 10 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 could go on to develop long COVID, with symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle aches and…

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Exhausting exhaustion – where does trade mark protection end?

Trade marks grant their owner the exclusive right to offer the goods for which the trade mark is registered. Once the original goods are placed on the market within the European Economic Area (“EEA”), this right is however exhausted, meaning that the trade mark owner cannot oppose the further distribution of its products based on trade mark rights. This principle of exhaustion, stipulated in Art. 15 (1) EUTMR, has an…

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Do “Whole Child” Education Models Work?

This interview focuses on a chapter from A Nation at Risk +40, a report by the Hoover Education Success Initiative (HESI) that looks back at the birth, struggles, and future of the modern school reform movement. Maria D. Fitzpatrick is professor of economics and public policy in the Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. (Download her  chapter here and the full publication here.)   Q. How would you…

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