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Recent Articles from Bernie Niemeier
Are big tech firms more like nations?
Roughly two years ago, Facebook announced plans to lead a consortium of companies creating a new digital token currency called Libra. The partners were to include major payment processors Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe, among others. However, strong opposition from financial regulators around the world led to its shelving. Fast-forward to 2021, as global acceptance […]
A supersized lesson
In late March, the shipping industry almost went sideways. In darkness and buffeted by sandstorm winds, the supersized 1,312-foot Ever Given container ship’s bow snagged a sandbar on a bank of the Suez Canal. Its stern drifted toward the other bank, leaving the ship diagonally blocking one of the world’s busiest waterways. For days, it […]
The future is now
One of the biggest and yet to be fully felt impacts of the global pandemic is the way it has accelerated trends, many of which were less apparent before the COVID crisis than they are today. Even as public health concerns might begin to subside, the impact of many business trends will remain. Much of […]
Better times ahead
Back in the early 1980s, a co-worker of mine and his wife became first-time homeowners. They felt pretty good about getting their new house and signing a mortgage note at a whopping 18% interest rate! By today’s standards, that’s pretty unthinkable. While much time has passed since those days, we’ve had only six new presidents […]
35 years of storytelling
My favorite day every month comes when a new issue of Virginia Business lands on my desk. Each magazine tracks emerging economic trends and the ongoing evolution of business leadership in the commonwealth. But for me, the impact is much more than just a good read about important business topics. Each issue of this magazine […]
Let’s make business cool again
Back in my high school days, I recall longing to be one of the “cool kids.” Guys with names like Matt or Jim. This was a time of jocks and cheerleaders. I wasn’t great at sports, but I liked cheerleaders. I tried following in my older brother’s footsteps by being a yearbook photographer. Maybe I […]
OurView: How did it get so late so soon?
On the subject of time, the much-beloved children’s book author Dr. Seuss once wrote, “How did it get so late so soon?” With December here, that’s an almost perfect description of 2020. How did it get so late, so soon? Most of the past 8 to 9 months have been characterized by an almost immutable […]
Walking around
Back in 1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. co-authored a business book titled, “In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies.” Among many topics popularized by this bestseller was a concept called “management by walking around.” This wasn’t an entirely new idea. It was practiced in the 1970s at Hewlett-Packard and had roots […]
Privacy matters
That unintended consequences come with innovation should be no surprise. Today, technology and social media are global cultural obsessions with a tremendous impact on business. Not that long ago, who would have thought a wallet-sized object like a smart phone would replace nearly every piece of office equipment — telephones, typewriters, copiers, cameras and, to […]
Big accomplishments
The motto of Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. (HII) is “Hard Stuff, Done Right.” That easily fits the work of HII, parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia’s largest industrial employer. Its projects — including the construction of U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers — are huge, require complex engineering and are vital to our national […]
