#just in a practical. supply chain disruptions are probably going to increase going forward

[princehendir]

Idk. Probably plan on stockpiling dry food and maybe getting chickens and getting raised beds or a greenhouse up in spring. Idk.

[cryptoevent]

What DeFi needs to do next to keep institutional players interested

In recent months, the madness of institutional money flowing into Bitcoins (BTCs) has made cryptocurrences front-page news – at least as a novelty, at best as an indispensable attribute. There is certainly a trend in the market towards greater awareness and acceptance of digital assets as a new class of investable asset.

A June 2020 Fidelity Digital Assets report found that 80% of institutions in the US and Europe are at least interested in investing in cryptocurrents, while more than a third have already invested in some form of digital asset, with Bitcoin being the most popular investment choice.

A good starting point for institutional investors would be to distinguish between cryptocurrencies (especially Bitcoin) and decentralized financial products. So far, institutional interest has focused on simply holding Bitcoin (or Bitcoin futures), with a small number of players focusing on more exotic DeFi products.

There are many reasons for the recent Bitcoin craze. Some cite the relative maturity of the market and increased liquidity, which now allows for large trades to be executed without excessive market movement. Others point to the asset class’s unusually high volatility, high return, and positive excess volatility (i.e., higher probability of extreme situations compared to the stock market). He also pointed to Bitcoin’s history and limited supply, making it similar to digital gold, making it increasingly attractive in a world of inflated asset prices and misguided monetary and fiscal policies.

However, the main reason for the recent institutional interest in cryptography is much less philosophical and much more practical, and concerns the existing rules and infrastructure.

Financial institutions are old giants that manage billions of dollars of other people’s money. They are therefore legally obliged to comply with a plethora of rules regarding what assets they hold, where they hold them and how they hold them.

On the one hand, the supply chain and cryptocurrency sector has made a big leap forward in regulatory clarity over the past two years, at least in most developed markets. On the other hand, the development of a high-quality infrastructure that provides institutional players with a business model similar to that of the traditional securities world means that they can now invest in digital assets directly through custody or indirectly through derivatives and funds. Each of them represents a real driving force that gives institutional investors enough confidence to eventually dive into crypto knowledge.

Protection of institutional interests What about other DeFi products?

With 10-year Treasury bills yielding just over 1%, the next important step would be for institutions to consider investing in decentralized return products. This seems obvious when interest rates are at their lowest and DeFi protocols on US dollar stocks yield 2-12% APR – not to mention the more exotic protocols that yield 250% APR in the North.

However, DeFi is still in its infancy and liquidity is still too low compared to more established asset classes to encourage institutions to improve their knowledge, let alone their IT systems that invest capital in this asset class. There are also real and serious operational and regulatory risks related to the transparency, rules and governance of these products.

Much remains to be developed – most is already underway – to ensure institutional interest in theFiD products, whether at the settlement, asset, application or aggregation level.

The biggest challenge for agencies is to ensure that their DeFi partners are legitimate and compliant, both in terms of protocol and distribution.

One solution is a protocol that detects the ownership status of the portfolio or other protocol and alerts the counterparty if it meets its compliance, governance, accountability and code verification requirements, as the potential for abuse of the system is repeatedly demonstrated.

This solution should go hand in hand with the assurance process to reduce the risk of errors, for example during validation, for a third party. We are beginning to see the emergence of multiple insurance protocols and mutually beneficial insurance products, and the implementation and liquidity of the DeFi should be important enough to set aside investments of time, money and expertise for the full development of viable institutional insurance products.

There is also a need to improve the quality and integrity of data through robust oracles and to increase confidence in oracles to achieve a compliant level of reporting. This goes hand in hand with the need for sophisticated analyses to track investments and activities within the chain. And it goes without saying that some regulators who have not yet spoken out need to provide more clarity on accounting and taxes.

The other obvious problem is network costs and bandwidth, where requests can take anywhere from a few seconds to double-digit minutes depending on network congestion, and costs range from pennies to $20. However, this problem will be addressed in the development plans of Ethereum 2.0 over the next two years, and in the emergence of blockchains that are better suited for faster transactions and more stable costs.

A final, somewhat amusing point is the need to improve the user interface to transform complex protocols and code into a more user-friendly and familiar interface.

Regulatory matters

People like to compare the chain store revolution to the internet revolution. You don’t remember that the internet has disrupted the flow of information and data. These two elements were not regulated and had no existing infrastructure, and it is only in recent years that such regulations have been adopted.

However, the financial sector is highly regulated – even more so since 2008. In the United States, the financial sector is three times more regulated than health care. The Ministry of Finance has an outdated operating system and infrastructure, making the conversion process extremely complex and time-consuming.

Over the next decade, we are likely to see a dichotomy between fully decentralised, fully open and fully anonymous instruments and protocols, and instruments that must fit into the rigid framework of strict regulation and an archaic financial market infrastructure, which will gradually lose some of the characteristics mentioned above.

This will in no way slow down the fantastic pace of creativity and rapid, unrelenting innovation in the sector, with numerous new products expected in the field of WiFi – products that we had not even anticipated. And within a quarter of a century, when DeFi will have first adapted to and then incorporated into the capital markets, its potential will be fully exploited, leading to a homogeneous, decentralized and self-managed system.

The revolution is here to stay. The new technologies have undoubtedly transformed the financial sector from a socio-technical system governed by social relations to a techno-social system governed by autonomous technical mechanisms.

There is a delicate balance between fast-acting technical cryptosystems and outdated, regulated exhaust systems. Bridging the two would only benefit the system as a whole.

This article does not contain investment advice. There are risks associated with every investment and trading transaction, and readers should do their own research before making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Cointelegraph.

Amber Gaddar is the founder of AllianceBlock, a decentralized global capital marketplace. Amber has gained extensive experience in the capital markets industry over the past decade. She began her career at investment bank Goldman Sachs and then moved to JPMorgan Chase, where she held various positions in the areas of structured solutions, macro trading strategies and fixed income trading. Amber earned a B.Sc. in science and engineering, followed by three M.Sc.’s (in neuroscience, microelectronics and nanotechnology, and international risk management) and a Ph.D. at McGill University and the HEC in Paris.

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[architectnews]

Immediate impact of Brexit "quite minor" say architects

The immediate impact of Brexit has been limited according to UK-based architects, but they fear that winning work and recruiting staff in the European Union will now become harder.

The "immediate impact appears to be quite minor," said one of the 14 studios Dezeen approached for comment on how the UK's departure from the EU has affected them now the transition period has ended.

However, many firms believe that the biggest long-term impact will be on recruitment, with several studios reporting a loss of EU staff.

Below, 14 architecture studios discuss how Brexit has affected them and how they are managing the changes.

"We plan to open a new studio in the EU" Andrew Waugh, director, Waugh Thistleton Architects

What impact have you seen so far? Firstly, leaving the EU is incredibly frustrating. It's pointless, narrow-minded, backward jingoistic populism at its cynical worst. It's important to get that off my chest!

Our team used to be about half UK and half from mainland Europe but over the last few years since the vote, this has dwindled to a stalwart few Europeans.

We've managed to keep working with a few of the people that returned home [to Europe] and now have fledgling offices in Madrid and Venice, but we miss the diversity and dynamism that having a more international home office gave us.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We're not sure. About half our work is in the EU and the ambition for sustainable construction is so much higher across the channel. We were certainly appointed with the knowledge that Brexit was going to happen so it hasn't affected our current work, but I'm concerned that as Europe refocuses and inevitably drifts away from the UK it will make those projects harder to come by.

Competing for OJEU projects will still be possible thankfully, although persuading clients that working with a UK practice will be as seamless as working with an EU practice will be a struggle.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Not yet but I'm nervous that some of the high-quality, low-carbon products that we use that are manufactured in Europe may become increasingly unaffordable.

We will have to see what happens to our currency and with import hassles! But when you're designing a building that will be built in a year or so and you want cost certainty then that makes it complex on our UK projects, again stifling innovation.

The only positive I can think of is that with the UK construction workforce vastly reduced by people returning to the EU perhaps this will give the industry the kick toward innovation that is so desperately needed!

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? This year we plan to open a new studio in the EU but we're just not sure where yet: Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Berlin…Thank goodness I'm an Irish citizen!

"Our ability to recruit from a pool of global talent will be greatly restricted" Sarah Wigglesworth, founder, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? As far as I'm aware it hasn't had any impact. We don't work outside the UK.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Our ability to recruit from a pool of global talent will be greatly restricted if they want to work in the UK. Qualifications are not mutually recognised anymore and work permits will be needed if we hire staff from abroad. The additional paperwork will cost us more.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Not yet. One member of staff is considering moving abroad as they dislike the current mood in the UK. They can probably operate as normal from a long distance, as someone is already doing. We'll see how that works out in the long term.

We don't have anything on site at present but everyone is predicting shortages of materials and rising prices. My guess is that this will affect a fair amount of products used in building because we don't manufacture much any more.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We're watching what is happening and seeing how it unfolds. We are reaching out to our contacts in Europe to try and strengthen our ties despite the ‘official' story. We exhibited in Copenhagen in 2019 and I'm visiting professor at Polimi Milan in June.

"EU colleagues feel affronted by the suggestion that they have to justify their presence in the UK" Ben Derbyshire, chair, HTA Design

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had your studio? The immediate impact of Brexit on HTA Design's four studios in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol, is dwarfed and completely obscured by the simultaneous effect of the pandemic and the most recent lockdown.

All of our studios are closed and our 230 staff are working from home, many struggling with the return to homeschooling. The implications for these families is grievous and we know from the previous lockdowns that it is so much harder to design collaboratively and deliver efficiently.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Many of our colleagues are from the European Union. They feel affronted by the suggestion that they have to justify their presence in the UK and some have already left to return to their home countries.

We hugely value the competence and diligence of team members trained in the European system and entirely refute the suggestion that the RIBA Part 3 delivers inherently greater competence than our European counterparts. Some of our staff are now working from EU countries – an interesting development we might never have contemplated had not the pandemic taught us that it is possible, though inevitably less productive, for people to work from home – wherever that may be!

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? It's a sad truth that many of the quality products that go into building homes are not made in the UK – most are made in Europe; heating systems from Belgium, windows from Germany and Scandinavia and so on. It may be that one of the arguments for Brexit is to stimulate domestic production but in the meantime, there are bound to be impacts on the supply chain caused by increased friction at the border.

We are already seeing news stories about EU companies refusing to supply the UK. When that happens, the sensitive business plans that support development will be disrupted, costs and programs will increase and projects will be delayed and disrupted.

"The industry is missing out on a large proportion of next-generation talent" Naila Yousuf, partner, Wright & Wright Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had your studio? New public projects will be procured in a different way. Things like OJEU are likely to disappear. What will replace it? Regulations across the board will need to be reinterpreted initially and then revised. For example, fire regulations have developed so that British Standards and European standards such as 'Euroclass' broadly align. In particular, Euroclass was originally introduced to harmonise standards across the EU.

Particular products currently specified by architects are manufactured in Europe and only have European certification, which means it is now down to architects and designers to interpret the legislation or change our approach to specifying materials and building systems.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We have had fewer European job applicants since the Brexit vote, though we have three European staff members who all studied in the UK. Students at undergraduate and master's level are suffering; we have received feedback from students that visas granted for study now expire almost as soon as students graduate, which means the industry is missing out on a large proportion of 'next generation' talent, including the top students from schools of architecture.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? On suppliers and materials, lead times on some products have increased. For example, mechanical & electrical systems (M&E), specialist light fittings made by companies like Iguzzini and specialist glazing systems made by companies like Schuco are all made in Europe and are typically architect's favourites due to the quality of product.

Whilst architects and designers can make enquiries on lead times during the design process, these are now prone to a greater degree of unpredictability. Is it likely that British industry will upskill in order to establish a base of expertise for specific types of construction or manufacturing currently done in Europe?

We have received feedback from staff that Brexit has impacted student loan repayments when payments are made from pounds to euros, which means that many architects paying off student loans were out of pocket almost overnight once the Brexit vote came through.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We are maintaining our relationships with schools of architecture and continue to offer support where possible. We offer sponsorship to Part I candidates who are not British nationals. We are constantly looking to expand our horizons by exploring new materials, products and methods of construction.

"Brexit will most directly impact us when it comes to recruitment" Directors at AHMM 

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? To date, thankfully, no noticeable impact. The majority of our projects are in the UK and the US and our clients for European projects (in the Republic of Ireland in particular) are international organisations.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Brexit will most directly impact us when it comes to recruitment. Approximately 35 per cent of our architectural team is from Europe – a proportion which was sustained throughout a three year period of growth and recruitment despite the referendum result. Following Brexit, we expect it will now be significantly more long-winded and hence more costly to recruit talented people from Europe.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? A small number of European employees have left us in the last six months, but we put this down to the impact of COVID-19 and the understandable impulse to move closer to home for some.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? For the time being our focus has been on seeing our way through the health crisis and preparing ourselves, as much as you ever can, for the economic fallout which may follow.

"The impact will not be immediate but it will lock us out of EU opportunities" Angela Brady, co-founder, Brady Mallalieu Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? It is hard to be positive with the Brexit and Covid double whammy but we try. Things are quiet because of Covid throughout our profession and construction industry.

We are hugely disappointed with Brexit turning UK backs on the biggest market business partner and neighbour. Many of our EU international clients may think twice about working with us due to red tape restrictions.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? The impact will not be immediate but it will lock us out of EU opportunities. It will be harder to work on projects in EU as so much red tape and recognition of qualification – something our RIAI London Forum spent years working on 25 years ago for recognition of our diploma and degrees from Ireland. So a backward step there. Procurement won't be easier or much different as UK adopted the same type of EU rules.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? No problems with staff as we are an SME and all UK-based and don't need visas to work here. I do think in larger offices, where students come to the UK for work experience, it will be difficult with visas and permits and this will in time lead to a lack of diversity and kill off opportunities for EU students to join UK uni experience, and [they] will have difficulties accessing the Erasmus Programme.

Our sites are mostly closed at the moment but the contractors did have issues with supplies to do with Covid delays and the tailbacks of supplies entering the UK in recent weeks. This is likely to be exacerbated and if importing an exhibition or goods there is still no clarity on any import tax/duty. It is too soon to tell about the supply chain. People are still not given enough information on costs of materials – which will go up and could affect the viability of projects from specification of materials to delivery of projects on cost and on time.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We are working on some feasibility studies for new housing projects so desperately needed in London, so that when we emerge from Covid and face Brexit at least they can be ready to go to the next stages. It also gives us more time as we are working remotely, to do some more research and development.

We are also seeking more work in Ireland as are also registered there, and there is still a special relationship between UK and Ireland. We have a great new project in Cork at pre-planning stage for a 'Centre of Excellence for Climate Action' being launched in two weeks time. This gives us great joy as it is the direction we as a profession need to go in, to help to mitigate Climate Change and give people the tools to get there. This will be an EU funded project, something not available for UK anymore – sadly.

On the positive side, I have more time to be creative and indulge myself with making fused glass in my home studio, which is more than just a hobby – it keeps me sane too.

"There is far more that brings us together than divides us" James Nelmes, director, Bennetts Associates

What impact have you seen so far? The uncertainty surrounding the potential impacts of Brexit cast a shadow for some time after the referendum. It is too soon to say what the actual impact of the transition on 1 January will be.

However, it is unlikely to make winning work in Europe any easier from the UK. Some potential clients in Europe have expressed concern around the additional cost of working with a UK team. Towards the end of last year, we were interviewed for a theatre project in Delfzijl, and the client's question to us then was – "How will Brexit affect our working relationship?"

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We recently revised our business plan and intend to continue targeting work abroad, building on our recent project for Importex in Athens and work further afield. We have a specific area of Europe for which we have an affinity, we have built relationships with local partners and we feel we can differentiate ourselves.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? We are being told by contractors to expect delays on lead-in times for some products and possible price fluctuations. Most surveyors will tell you any predictions are presently little more than guesswork. One of our large construction sites in London is facing a short-term issue with a number of agency staff being held at customs in France whilst awaiting clearance to return to work in the UK.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? The best mitigation is to keep designing the best architecture at the lowest environmental cost. Most of our European friends and peers share this goal. There is far more that brings us together than divides us. Our shortlisting for the Opera House in Ghent has given us confidence and we will continue to grow relationships, approach clients with targeted communications and be active Europeans.

"[Brexit has] huge number of potential opportunities" Elsie Owusu, principal, Elsie Owusu Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? I have gone from being a complete sceptic of Brexit to seeing it as having a huge number of potential opportunities. We are working in the UK, Nigeria, Ghana and China and before Covid we were trying to work out a way to develop digital ways of working and digital relationships.

When lockdown happened and all the existing systems fell apart, we realised we still had a 19th-century mindset – that to be a “real” architect you have to go into an office every day. Now we know that this is not true. Lockdown proved that we could distance work and this has improved our international relationships. Projects on the back burner have been reignited.

Our development company ArtistConstructor has lodged its first planning applications for eco-homes in Sussex. The original concept was to build live-work homes for artists, architects and creatives. With Covid, working from home has become the norm. With Brexit transition, I believe more successful sole and micro-practices, working locally, will challenge old-fashioned practices.

I think that actually if we get it right, architects in the UK and especially diverse architects can see this as a huge opportunity. Like many BAME architects, we have cultural links with non-European markets and can win work in these areas. Africa is said to be the largest growing market and as the UK turns its attention to the commonwealth and non-European market we can see huge opportunities in focusing on these markets.

We are already seeing an upswing in approaches. We now have a consultancy position with the Ghana museums and monuments board, who we have been talking to since 2000. We were appointed as consultants within 24 hours after the transition ended.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Brexit has helped in that a lot of the young BAME people who weren’t getting work due to discrimination and a ready-to-work white workforce are now being recognised for their talent. People are having to look at the "home" market. Of course with Covid and Brexit is happening at the same time and the situation is so interlocked. A lot of young BAME people are losing their jobs, but these young people are finding their feet as design entrepreneurs.

In response to so many BAME young people losing their jobs I have increased creative collaborations with the smaller studios that are being set up. We are now collaborating with six studios internationally – being digital really helps with these collaborations.

"Impacts of Brexit entirely conflated with those of the pandemic" Ben Marston, director, Jestico +Whiles

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? It's been so long coming, yet still seems too early to tell. The global pandemic creates a perfect storm in the UK. The impacts of Brexit have become entirely conflated with those of the pandemic. We are wrestling with the effects of both and will probably never discern which was which. Covid certainly provides a convenient cover story for the UK Government and the many disruptions and costs caused by Brexit. Nevertheless, our enquiry level has, thus far, remained reassuringly resilient.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We are a London-based international practice but are fortunate to have also had, for more than 20 years, a European studio in Prague, which, of course, remains inside the EU. This provides us with some reassurance.

That said, in London, a third of our studio are from the EU, a dozen nationalities in all. The cultural diversity of our team brings a richness to our studio and to our work. It is essential to what we do. It is not at all clear if, under the new points-based system, recruiting talented designers will be straightforward. We fear not. This could have a significant impact.

Are you seeing issues with staff and/or suppliers? Some colleagues have commented in recent years that they felt less welcome in the UK as a result of Brexit. But this is not an issue that has suddenly arisen. Our immediate challenges are, once again, the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on our practice rather than specifically Brexit. Creative professions, particularly architecture, thrive on human contact and interaction which has become so limited and constrained.

On our construction sites, we have witnessed many contractors forward-ordering materials in anticipation of disruption. The supply chain has for decades become completely integrated on a pan-European basis, and we have seen everything from windows to flooring being ordered and delivered to site well in advance of when they would normally be to avoid short-term challenges. We are also seeing contractors try to switch to UK-based suppliers, and this places limits on range, material quality and performance of certain products.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We anticipate potentially more EU business running through our Prague studio, but in reality, much of our international work, particularly in hospitality and education, is actually outside of the EU.

"We are concerned that talented potential employees might be dissuaded from applying" Deborah Saunt, director, DSDHA

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? We are an international studio drawn and fortunately, all our European staff have settled status and it seems quite simple to achieve.

However, with more projects in the pipeline and the continual need to attract the brightest and the best, we are concerned that talented potential employees might be dissuaded from applying due to the fundamentally off-putting message that Brexit broadcasts.

Besides the valuable research and ideas exchange that teaching architecture abroad offers, for me teaching at Yale School of Architecture and the University of Navarra in Spain demonstrates my personal commitment to maintaining international discourse as well as hopefully attracting potential future-employees from all over the world.

"We do expect a degree more friction" Nenad Manasijevic, principal director, TP Bennett

What impact has Brexit had on your studio? The real impact of Brexit is yet to be seen. Right now, the biggest impact is psychological: concern about whether the UK will still be able to attract – and employ – the best talent. How do we continue to compete on a global stage?

TP Bennett's projects in Europe are still running and we're not experiencing much slow down as the majority of our international clients are used to working across the globe. There has never been a single "European" working style; working in Paris or Berlin has always been different to working in Rome; but we do expect a degree more friction when it comes to qualification equivalents and the finer details of working visas, for example, as neither were defined succinctly for services in the Brexit agreement.

"Difficult to separate Brexit issue from the impacts of Covid" Katie Atkinson, HR manager, Grimshaw

What impact have you seen so far? It has been difficult to separate out the Brexit issue from the impacts of Covid. We were anticipating a large amount of job applications in the last quarter of 2020 to enable EU citizens to be eligible for settled status. However due to travel restrictions or an unwillingness to travel this never materialised.

We are looking forward to the clarification around rules for working from other countries and hope that with the increasing availability of digital nomad visas, we can still attract and retain staff from all over the world.

"It's early days and we are monitoring it closely" Oliver Bayliss, director, Buckley Gray Yeoman

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? Considering we already do a lot of work in Europe, we haven't seen any impact yet. In fact, we have recently been appointed on a large residential scheme in Madrid and have opportunities in Milan and Rome, which is encouraging. That said it's early days and we are monitoring it closely.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Obviously, there are logistical issues related to travel that we need to overcome, however, it is still unclear how we will be affected in the long term. One implication will no doubt be fewer Europeans applying for jobs or university places in the UK – which will be a great loss not only to our business but also to the industry as a whole.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Not yet but it's too soon to say.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We are looking at a variety of ways to mitigate the implications of Brexit. One is to create a European hub, most likely in Spain, that eases the travel issues and allows us to have a more permanent footing there.

"Immediate impact appears to be quite minor" Jerry Tate, partner, Tate Harmer

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had your studio? To be completely honest the immediate impact appears to be quite minor, although it is hard to know if we might be pursuing more opportunities in Europe right now under different circumstances.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? There are two aspects which may impact us, but which I hope we can mitigate against. Firstly, we have an incredibly talented team at Tate Harmer, many of whom come from outside the UK. I hope that, despite Brexit, London remains an international beacon for great architecture and that we can continue to recruit such amazing people.

Secondly, like all ambitious studios, we would like to design work internationally. Europe has a mature and sophisticated architecture scene and I hope that being outside the EU does not create an additional barrier to us working with our immediate international neighbours.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? In terms of staff, we have made sure all our team have the correct status in terms of working in the UK. In terms of suppliers, there does seem to be slightly random shortages of materials at the moment which could be related to the pandemic as well as Brexit. For example at one point Larch cladding was in very short supply, and lead-in times for some more sophisticated European items, such as windows, do seem to be increasing.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? In the immediate sense, I think that keeping flexible is the key to working with uncertainty. However, in the long term, I think that the best mitigation strategy is to help ensure London remains a key part of the international architectural community.

This involves working on inclusivity and diversity, being deeply involved with educating the next generation of architects (we love teaching at the Bartlett UCL), and making sure we keep reaching out to our international friends and neighbours.

The post Immediate impact of Brexit "quite minor" say architects appeared first on Dezeen.

[concrete-molds-blog1]

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Eliminating line shafts freed factories of format constraints and allowed manufacturing unit layout to be extra environment friendly. Between 1770 and 1850 mechanized factories supplanted conventional artisan retailers as the predominant type of manufacturing establishment, because the bigger-scale factories loved a significant technological and supervision advantage over the small artisan outlets. The earliest factories developed in the cotton and wool textiles business. Later generations of factories included mechanized shoe manufacturing and manufacturing of machinery, including machine tools.

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<h2>Warehouse Space, Batumi</h2>

Just you speak to father about it, and get him dismissed from the manufacturing facility. For the current, he could not do higher than to retain his place within the manufacturing unit. Mrs. Rushton and her son occupied slightly cottage, not removed from the manufacturing facility. But he had been reduce out, and by Robert Rushton—one of his father's manufacturing unit hands. Meanwhile, fortune had improved with Mr. Davis, the superintendent of the factory.

A shadow manufacturing facility is a term given to dispersed manufacturing websites in times of war to scale back the danger of disruption due to enemy air-raids and sometimes with the dual objective of increasing manufacturing capability. Much of administration concept developed in response to the need to management manufacturing unit processes. The subsequent blow to the traditional factories came from globalization. Manufacturing processes in the late twentieth century re-focussed in lots of cases on Special Economic Zones in creating countries or on maquiladoras simply across the national boundaries of industrialized states. Further re-location to the least industrialized nations appears possible as the benefits of out-sourcing and the lessons of flexible location apply sooner or later.

Highly specialized laborers situated alongside a collection of rolling ramps would build up a product similar to (in Ford's case) an vehicle. This concept dramatically decreased production costs for just about all manufactured items and introduced in regards to the age of consumerism.

This program can even prepare a factory for the VAP assessment by offering assistance, prioritization and oversight. The Why Factory launches the Fall 2017 design studio “OnTheGo” for TUDelft MSc1 and IIT Chicago Students. On July three, the results of the Planet Maker design studio by The Why Factory in collaboration with RMIT and UTS will be introduced at the orange tribune.

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Factories that provided the railroad business included rolling mills, foundries and locomotive works. Agricultural-tools factories produced cast-metal plows and reapers.

Josiah Wedgwood in Staffordshire and Matthew Boulton at his Soho Manufactory were other distinguished early industrialists, who employed the factory system. The Venice Arsenal also offers one of the first examples of a manufacturing unit within the fashionable sense of the word. Founded in 1104 in Venice, Republic of Venice, several hundred years earlier than the Industrial Revolution, it mass-produced ships on meeting traces using manufactured parts. The Venice Arsenal apparently produced practically one ship daily and, at its height, employed sixteen,000 people.

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[holytheoristtastemaker]

The scale of change has overtaken the methodologies not just the forecasts

“There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen” – Lenin

The Covid lockdown has demonstrated the potential of Educational Technology to support remote learning and workplace training but the focus on “free” access threatens to destroy the revenue streams of most on-line course and content providers.

We have learned much about what does and what does not work, from:

re-learning old lessons about working at home  (as opposed to “from” home), to

the organisation and support of education in the home, and

why home-work clubs and safe study centres are so important for so many children.

So how could/should we help a near bankrupt education and training sector reskill that quarter of the current workforce now furloughed or unemployed?

at the same time as helping the next generation (whose education has been disrupted) to acquire the skills needed to rebuild the economy,

at a time of global economic collapse, unemployment and starvation,

while previous forecasts  of the skills in long term demand have been overtaken by the scale of change now in prospect

Contents

The Potential for short term responses to get in the way of sustainable “solutions”

What should be the role of Government: centrally driven planning/leadership or support frameworks for local initiative?

The structure of Education, Training and Skills Markets is changing

Your Action Plan

Background Analysis

Possible Actions include

1) The Potential for short term responses to get in the way of sustainable “solutions”

We have seen schools, colleges, universities and commercial/professional training providers accelerate the provision of on-line courses and content on-line, leading to variations in access  to learning which threaten to dramatically increased social inequality.  The limitations of purely on-line delivery have also been demonstrated at the same as its potential to help overcome resource constraints in transforming educational experiences.

The Department for Education has brought forward action to help schools and pupils with access to technology including via the Education Technology programme  supported by London Grid for Learning . But the accompanying focus on “free” tools threatens to undermine the economic viability of the UK educational technology sector. The initiatives promoted via trade associations, professional bodies and others to make introductory entrepreneurial, digital and cybersecurity courses “freely” available are welcome. But these endanger the commercial viability of those innovative training providers who moved their technical and professional  courses on-line for remote access, only to find that their customers have furloughed their training staff, after postponing delivery and/or cancelling contracts and freezing plans and budgets. The backlog, let alone the new demand from those with no job to go back to, will require targeted vocational training on a scale not seen since the early days of World War2 1939. But in what skills? Most current forecasts are no longer valid. Nor are most current forecasting methodologies.

2) What should be the role of Government: centrally driven planning/leadership or support frameworks for local initiative?

Wartime analogies leading to comparisons with post war nationalisation, planning and debt repayment are put forward by those who forget that rationing was more severe in 1946/7 than in 1942/3. Centralised planning was such a success that rationing continued until 1953 and currency controls continued for another 25 years.  Public sector finances were not balanced until 1997. The incoming Labour Government then changed the policy and returned to a belief in top down planning from the centre. There are many ideas about how to address the problems/opportunities, from:

changing apprentice funding rules (to enable employers to use their own funds to bring forward on-line training for furloughed staff), through

targeted public procurement (using social values legislation), to

reviving individual learning accounts, (this time tied to vouchers for accredited courses, with employer driven quality control of both course and provider).

But which are worth working up into policy proposals for central and/or local government?

3) The structure of Education, Training and Skills Markets is changing

 The fragmentation of global supply chains, sharp reductions in physical travel and the hassle of getting those educated/trained elsewhere through immigration/quarantine will change the “market” for world-class skills. The focus will shift from moving people round the world to acquire and practice skills> employers will come under increasing pressure to, instead, train the “locals” to international standards to work, increasingly on- line, with “experts” who may be anywhere in the world. Central Government and its Agencies will therefore need to give priority to ensuring that UK employers, trade associations, unions, technical/professional bodies and education/training providers help lead the consortia setting those standards – ensuring not only that they meet our needs but are piloted in the UK and rolled out faster here than there. That will be a challenge to those whose mind sets have been constrained by the creeping extension of the Haldane Principle. This was originally intended only for University-based research but has come to dominate the UK education and training system. We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater – but until the economy has recovered we have to better balance our priorities. Those serving on our hierarchies of funding and approval committees should be re-tasked to improve information sharing on who is doing what, with what success. They should no longer tasked to try to agree what is best and should be done by all, whether or not in receipt of public funds. One size does not fit all. By the time the committees have agreed on a compromise, it will almost certainly no longer be suitable for most, if it ever was. Local skills partnerships (bringing together Private and Public Sector employers, employment agencies and training providers alongside Universities, Colleges and Schools) are likely to be very much more successful in getting large numbers of school-leavers and unemployed into the jobs of the future than nationally planned, co-ordinated, standardised initiatives.  Those partnerships are likely, however, to be very different given the variety of local  socio-political and economic structures, including but not “just” metropolitan, urban, rural. The population of Plymouth is similar to that of Salford . Both have strong traditions of local partnership. But the similarities probably stop there.  The Plymouth tradition of local and global partnerships puts it in a very different place to Salford, which is part of the Greater Manchester regional metropolis. Given such variety, the promotion of locally led partnerships will require changing the role of Central Government and national agencies from setting targets, standards and mandating compliance to facilitating and supporting local participation in national and international consortia, with priorities and provision tailored to local travel to fit work/training areas. Those “areas” will increasingly be determined by access to broadband rather than physical accommodation or public transport. That could lead to painful transitions for Towns and Cities whose economies have come to depend on large numbers of resident students or inflows of commuters. Some (like Bristol) are already using the University data centre and educational networks and facilities as hubs for smart city pilots in partnership with local industry. Others have been working with players like City Fibre to pull forward the creation of dark fibre infrastructures to compete with the proprietary networks of BT and Virgin. Meanwhile the Joint Academic Network, linking UK Universities, Research Centres, Science Parks, Colleges and the schools served by members of  the National Education Network  provides the UK with a unique “future proof” communications utility which already supports the protocols of the future, like IPV6 and the test beds for 5G. The pieces are in place for the UK to leapfrog into the future, with local initiatives having easy access to partners and resources around the world as well as to joined-up local and national markets, giving them the necessary critical mass to achieve scale for their own offerings. Of course  they will need support, including preferential purchasing using social values legislation, to protect them from the predatory behaviour of dominant players and those supported by their own governments. But the biggest need will probably be protection from the howls in the media about “post code lotteries”, alias local variations to meet local needs.

4) Your Action Plan

 Join and Support one or more of the groups organising co-operation to not only produce ideas to put to Central and Local Government, but also to pilot and test them, locally and/or nationally. Those understood to working on proposals and/or events at the time of this blog include: (I intend to assemble and update the list to be inserted here over time. Please e-mail virgo.philip@outlook.com with details of those who you think should be added)

5) Background Analysis

5.1) Education and training have moved on-line, opening up a gulf between those with supported on-line access and those without.

A report by the Sutton Trust indicated both the speed with which schools went on-line and the gaps that opened up. They found that only a third of children were signed up to on-line learning. Pupils at independent schools were twice as likely to do so. There was another gap between schools in affluent area and the rest. When it came to parental support there was a similar gap between those with higher level qualifications  and those without.  There was also the gap between those with laptops and bedrooms of their own and those who had to share with siblings and/or parents. Since that report was published it is apparent that the gaps have widened, not narrowed, with many parents finding it ever harder to help educate their children. Those with specials needs have  suffered particularly badly. The Department for Education brought forward action to help schools and pupils with technology including via the Education Technology programme  supported by London Grid for Learning (which had upgraded broadband connections to over a thousand schools in the six months before the outbreak) and Sheffield Hallam University. Such actions help address the immediate problem but highlight the longer term divide between schools with and without full fibre broadband connections, including for remote access by teachers and pupils. There is also the problem of pupils who will still not have access to safe study areas after their school has re-opened. Until all these issues are addressed we will see a growing gulf between digital haves and have-nots:

schools where teachers can focus on education (including social behaviour and interaction) with pupils using technology to acquire/demonstrate knowledge/competence at their own pace

and

schools where teachers struggle to keep order and achieve basic literacy/numeracy for all, unable to use technology to help occupy/educate those outside the mainstream.

The closure of home-work clubs and support activities for those excluded from mainstream education further increases problems of isolation and deprivation and increases the risk of outbreaks of disorder/violence among those with neither jobs nor education opportunities.

5.2 The new normal also be very different for Colleges and Universities

Colleges and Universities face similar problems with the added risk of financial implosion among those unable/unwilling to move their students and courses on-line .  Those already in difficulty will face the stresses of re-opening and “getting back to normal” after the lock down lifts. These  problems will be exacerbated by falls in the number of new students   from home and abroad. If the joys of “undistanced” social life will not form part of the “new normal” we can expect many more potential students to prefer less expensive, local, access to higher education, including on-line via the Open University and/or graduate apprenticeships, to incurring debts they may never repay.  The fall in full-time student numbers, predicted as evidence began to emerge that Graduate Apprenticeships were a better financial option for most, has been expedited. So how can the resultant “spare capacity” be “redeployed” to help prevent the return of mass unemployment (including those in with no job to go back to) by providing flexible, innovative, blended learning programmes? How do we avoid the need to make large numbers of academic and support staff redundant by redeploying them to help run the education and training programmes of the future?. How do we enable Colleges and Universities to respond to the opportunity to instead help employers move staff from dead and dying jobs to growing industries requiring skills that (even before Covid) were changing faster than the timescales for academic funding agencies to agree a new course or curriculum? The headline answer is “to build on what some are them were already doing”. We can expect an acceleration of the pursuit of other income sources, from

training and consultancy for local employers, (including to upgrade and renew the skills of former graduates and professionals), through

the off-the-job component of graduate- and post graduate- apprenticeships to

learning for leisure – e.g. residential culture courses for pensioners no longer willing to risk a cruise or overseas tour.

We have also seen what can be done as Universities worked with Local Enterprise Partnerships and Resilience Forums , to respond to the needs of the Hospitals and Care homes that serve their communities, at the same time as working with global consortia, looking collectively to find better ways of addressing similar challenges around the world. The issue is to give the Universities, Colleges, Schools, Employers, Trades Unions and Local Government the freedom and motivation to organize similarly positive and constructive responses to the longer term challenges ahead. Here the role of groups like the Committee for the Defence of British Universities will be critical. I would like to think their priority will be to defend the Universities from attempts to constrain their freedom to experiment with new ways of surviving as hubs of independent learning and creativity into the decade after next (not just the year after next).     

5.3 Importing skills instead of retraining the local unemployed will be politically unacceptable.

The importation of skills in short supply around the world will no longer be politically unacceptable. Those calling for visas and quarantine bypasses risk seriously adverse publicity unless they provide evidence as to how these will open up jobs and training opportunities for the new UK unemployed. We need, instead, to rapidly expand the frameworks for organising short order programmes to retrain large numbers made redundant as whole sectors, from hospitality to aerospace, shrink. That should include learning from past exercises when Trades Union learning representatives and Recruitment and Employment agencies worked together to organize retraining and placement programmes after major employers have had to “retrench” to avoid going down completely. This time the problems are on a larger scale, in parallel, across many industries and employers. But the principles are the same.

5.4  We should begin with those whose skills are atrophying in furlough or will no longer be needed when they emerge.

UK economic recovery after lockdown will require remotivating and reskilling several million shell-shocked and/or angry unemployed/furloughed men and women whose brains have atrophied except for decorating, gardening and binge-watching box sets, or become frazzled looking after children and vulnerable relatives.   According to Ipsos Mori barely 9% have been using their new found leisure to acquire new skills and 6% to acquire new languages. The free sites and services from Future Learn (part of the Open University,   Google Digital Training, Microsoft Digital Literacy, BT (Skills for Tomorrow), the Huawei Academy, Lloyds Bank Academy, Natwest Dream Bigger , Good Things Learn My Way   and others are invaluable in helping get those in furlough onto the first rungs of a new career. But the focus on what is available “at no charge “risks undermining the economics of those programmes that lead further up the careers ladder. Most of the providers of higher level, on-line, technical and professional content and courses have seen a collapse in revenues as in-house and external corporate training has collapsed. Those working from home are too busy while the HR and training departments, which might have been organising training for those in furlough, are overloaded – supporting home-based workers, or are themselves in furlough. The government guidance states that furloughed employees can take part in volunteer work or training.  Other articles (e.g. here and here) reference Government advice that “Furloughed employees can engage in training, as long as an undertaking the training the employee does not provide services or generate revenue for, or on behalf of their organisation.  Furloughed employees should be encouraged to undertake training”. An unfortunate side effect of such advice  is that the corporate e-mails addresses giving access to on-house programmes have commonly been suspended for those in furlough, lest they be used to   “provide services or generate revenue” and the employer be accused of fraud.

5.5 Many of the  building blocks are already in place

In London, providers like Digital Skills Solutions  (the digital arm of Newham College which also runs  apprenticeship programmes for player O2) , not only moved their apprenticeship programmes on-line but have also moved other, previously classroom-based courses, on-line. Further west, Bluescreen IT  (which runs the cyberskills incubator in Plymouth) not only put its entire course  portfolio online, with any unbooked places on offer free to those living locally (Devon and Somerset only) it has begun running on-line careers events with Comptia for target audiences  for whom Government funding is available e.g.  Veterans . Government should start building on such initiatives now, i.e. before lockdown is over, to help get some of the eight million now unemployed or in furlough on the path back to gainful employment, not just living on benefits and/or volunteering, as soon as we begin to come out of lockdown, however hesitant, partial and drawn out the process.

5.6 The needs go far wider than Digital

Such initiatives should not be confined to Digital or Cyber Skills. Apparently over 50,000 of those stuck at home, educating their children, have enquired about careers in teaching . Where are the programmes to recruit them as apprentice teachers – beginning by helping with the socially distanced summer schools, overflowing into village halls and community centres, that will be needed to help “recover” the education of our children? Relying on immigrants for the NHS and care sectors will soon be politically unacceptable if large numbers of Britons, some with high level skills whose employer or industry has imploded, are out of work. Apparently over 26,000 student nurse, doctors and other NHS staff have been redeployed to front line roles to help cope with Covid. After the lockdown there will be a massive waiting list for non-Covid medical treatment, some of it increasingly urgent. Programmes like the NHS Nursing apprenticeships will need rapid overhaul, e.g. making use of on-the-job blended learning in place of the unpopular academic off-the-job modules, to help overcome the known recruitment and retention problems. The pressures to revive local production (from agriculture and food to automotive and pharmaceutical, let alone medical equipment and supplies) and reduce reliance on vulnerable supply chains will similarly require expansion of vocational training capacity across the UK. Once again we should be looking to use technology-assisted blended learning to make best use of scarce teaching skills and get students productive and/or revenue earning as soon as practical. A particular need will be to rapidly expand the UK supply of the construction skills to build and maintain full fibre and wireless communications. In this context it is good to see that some network maintenance and construction training providers, like CNET Training, have already re-opened their training operations. This links to the need to open up a massive expansion of UK construction industry skills in general as we can no longer rely on importing these through across immigration and quarantine barriers, even if this was politically acceptable at a time of mass unemployment. There will not be time to allow such programmes to grind though Haldane-like research programme, curriculum planning, funding approval and other committees. Short-order, Industry strength market research should take the place of lengthy consultation processes. This will be much easier if we, once again, build in what already exists. Many of the former Sector Skills Councils joined forces with the National Skills Academies to form FISSS, a collective of employer funded quality control consortia, organising and accrediting programmes. Another  employer led consortium, TP Degrees rescued the ITMB, now offered by a dozen Universities. This consortium also accredits undergraduate degree level apprenticeships with two dozen Universities and post-graduate apprenticeships with a dozen. Meanwhile somewhere over 10% of SMEs are in the supply/distribution chains of large employers or are in franchises which include training and support as part of the package. Before the Covid lockdown the necessary employer-driven frameworks were evolving alongside those driven by trade associations and professional bodies. The need is to recognise them and require anyone bidding for public funding to have their support and/or that of an equivalent critical mass of employers, public and/or private sector. There is also a need to engage with the Trades Unions and their learning officers, including to help provide pastoral care and support for apprentices, particularly those in organisations too small to have effective in-house processes.

6) Possible Actions include

1) A furlough training voucher programme which makes it easier for employers to ensure their employees are following courses with reputable providers (e.g. those already used by the organization or accredited for existing government programmes) without running the risk of being accused of fraud if the access is organized via corporate e-mails. 2) Require ALL those planning public sector procurements to use UK  Social Values legislation to include local employment, job creation and reskilling/training in their OJEU notices – not just nominal lowest price. It is the failure to do so which has led, inter alia, to our dependence on high risk pan-EU, let alone global, supply chains for PPE etc. 3) Enable/encourage Universities, Colleges and Local Authorities to “co-host” local skills partnerships (in partnership with LEPs, Local Resilience Forums etc.) which bring together commercial training providers, recruitment and employment agencies, trades unions and employers (public and private, large and small) to provide the furloughed and unemployed, as well as school leavers and NEETs, with skills needed locally – beginning by offering existing international, employer-recognised, qualifications for skills already in short supply around the world. 4) Devolve the implementation of an “apprenticeship guarantee programme” to such partnerships, with joined up guidance on the support available to  businesses  and to education providers and children’s social care . This needs to include how to identify whether the training has been procured under Policy Note 02/20 , which can  limit further Government support to the provider(s). 5) Put full-fibre broadband before roads and railways in infrastructure investment. Add a programme to enable networked community access to the skills of future via community learning centres (local schools, libraries, pubs and clubs) for those who cannot readily learn at home or workplace – because they have to share their bedroom, let alone kitchen/diner with parents and siblings. 6) Use JANET, the Open University and the Grids for Learning (which provide broadband and content to schools) to create the world’s largest seamless, on-line market for world-class education and training content, skills/aptitude assessment and careers advice driven by skills “vouchers” for the newly unemployed. 7) Adopt in full the House of Lords recommendations for the reform of IR35, particularly its restrictions on offsetting training to acquire new skills against current tax,  to facilitate recovery around flexible and portfolio employment. 8) Abolish VAT on property improvement and update the relevant building regulations as necessary to encourage renovation and conversion programmes, large and small, linked to construction industry apprenticeships, instead of current rip-down and replace programmes.

[ladystylestores]

How will we build the city of the future? – TechCrunch

Editor’s note: Get this weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7am PT), just subscribe here.

Commercial real estate, the traditional heart of most cities, may have lost its reason to exist in the last few months. The world is about to find out what the situation is as more locations start to reopen.

First up in our ongoing coverage of the topic, Connie Loizos caught up with a couple proptech investors this week for TechCrunch, who saw existing trends accelerating — with many medically focused additions.

Brendan Wallace of Fifth Wall is looking for more aggressive pickup of smart tech in general, along the lines of what you already see in some other countries. “He notes sensors that can determine how many people are in a room or pass through a turnstile. He points to facial recognition tech that can help keep points of physical contact to a minimum. He imagines that more companies might embrace robots to patrol buildings and, possibly, to clean them, too.”

Darren Bechtel of Brick and Mortar saw tech remaking the construction site, with growing practices like using large-scale pre-fabricated components: “If you’re limited by how many people can work in the field, and you have to put in controls for people not working on top of each other, the question becomes: how can you do the work in a more controlled environment, with a next-gen HVAC system [to purify the air] and markings on the floor?…. People are now saying, ‘How much can we prepare off-site?’”

Buildings are also going to be focused on health features, Connie wrote. “[B]oth Wallace and Bechtel mentioned advanced air purifiers and air handling units used to recondition and circulate air as part of a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning plan. Both say it will likely become a growing area of interest for building owners and developers.”

What about beyond the buildings? A few writers here put together some thoughts in a post for Extra Crunch. Here’s Danny Crichton’s view from Brooklyn:

Few of us can live in the dreary confines of a suburban enclave our entire workweek. And so I expect to see a revitalization of the classic Main Street clusters that once dotted towns across America as people appreciate the close proximity of amenities that they need throughout their day and remote work makes it possible to skip the commute to the central business district.

It’s not going to be a simple transition, of course. The built environment alone will probably take decades to fully transition. But the spirit of Jane Jacobs lives on and will move beyond the downtown core neighborhoods she observed to spread to medium and perhaps even small towns across the country and throughout the world.

If you want more on the topic, check out our recent investor survey with six other top proptech investors from late March (for subscribers).

Just want to settle down at home and get to work? Check out Darrell Etherington’s TechCrunch guide to setting up a pro-grade videoconference studio.

The $100M ARR club continues to grow, despite everything

When Alex Wilhelm rejoined TechCrunch late last year, he kicked things off with a list of companies that he called “the $100M ARR club” to signify unicorns that were also generating a lot of revenue. It was a clever way of organizing which of the hundreds of highly valued companies heading towards IPOs were most set up for success, and our readers agreed.

But, with entire market categories whipsawed by the pandemic, it has been hard to find companies willing to share numbers lately. He still found a few, as he wrote up for Extra Crunch this week: ActiveCampaign, Recorded Future and ON24. Here’s a vignette from the CEO of ActiveCampaign:

While we had the CEO’s attention, TechCrunch wanted to know if ActiveCampaign was taking incoming fire from COVID-19 and its related economic and labor disruptions. As some other SMB-focused software companies have told us, the answer is no. Here’s [Jason] VandeBoom:

We anticipate continued growth in 2020 and are already seeing further acceleration to support this. The past four months have been the best in company history and we’ve seen monthly trials double in that timeframe and new customer acquisition numbers at 4500, 5500, 6000 and 7000 respectively from January to April.

He did hedge those results a little, adding that while his firm has “seen some acceleration from COVID-19 and the digital transformation that it is inspiring,” the CEO is more convinced that “the need for customer experience is what is fueling the majority of this growth.”

This week in China trade news….

The already basic trade agreement between the Trump administration and the Chinese government from last year looks ready to blow up; the administration banned selling more tech to Huawei; TSMC plans to open a factory in Arizona following urging from the US government; Foxconn profits crashed… Danny Crichton has a clear takeaway on TechCrunch for startups about the latest headlines:

[T]he world of semiconductors, of internet infrastructure, of the tech ties that have bound the U.S. and China together for decades — they are frayed and are almost gone. It’s a new era in supply chains and trade, and an open world for new approaches to these huge existing industries.

If your company is not already planning for a more chaotic, multi-polar world than what most of us can remember living through, it may already be too late.

(Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)

Investor survey: hospitals to increase tech focus after pandemic

Sarah Buhr talked to top investors in the healthcare B2B and infrastructure businesses for one of our investor surveys this week on Extra Crunch. They generally seemed to agree that the pandemic was going to push the system wholesale towards better technology. Here’s Bilal Zuberi of Lux Capital:

While a lot of our healthcare infrastructure will take a little bit of time recovering from the stress COVID placed on it, we anticipate this to provide a push to the system to adopt new technologies that enable distributed health, build resiliency in our delivery networks and deploy data-enabled healthcare. Hospital balance sheets might struggle in the short term to buy new technologies, but payers as well as large businesses might participate in infrastructure development and deployment in a bigger way. We anticipate selling to hospitals to be difficult in the short term, as they try to recover from the revenue shortfall they experienced during COVID-19, but will generally emerge more interested in adopting new technologies, digital and remote health solutions and automation in various functions. Needless to say, a wide-scale digital transformation of our healthcare industry is underway, and there is no looking back.

Don’t miss our other survey this week, on how the mobility investors are viewing the pandemic.

Protecting your equity as a startup employee

Wouter Witvoet of fintech startup SecFi wrote a guest post for TechCrunch going over some key points for anyone working at a startup right now (or recently). As an occasional startup founder and/or employee myself, I’d like to recommend this one for special consideration: “Negotiate for equity during a pay cut or furlough.”

Startups typically offer equity as a means of deferred compensation and as a way to incentivize employees to own a piece of the company they are building. The compensation is deferred as most startups are cash-strapped and cannot afford to pay you what a larger company may be able to.

If your company is now asking you to take a pay cut, or even take no pay during this time, you should consider asking for additional equity to make up for the lost compensation. While not all companies may be amenable to offering more equity, there is no cash outlay from the company’s standpoint, so it’s an efficient way for your company to compensate you for your sacrifice while preserving their cash.

In addition, offering more equity shows a commitment from management to their employees during this difficult time. It may be the win-win scenario for your company and yourself in the long-run so it’s worth having the conversation with management to discuss if this is available for you.

At first it seems weird when you consider typical venture dynamics. The founders have probably already lost leverage against the company’s investors. These investors have probably already lost leverage against their LPs. So nobody is naturally included to give up even more. And the employees were already last in line on the cap table and first to go, so why should founders do anything different?

Tactically, the best employees will be attracted go work at bigger more stable companies as the pandemic recession stretches on — and you might not have the cash to afford the effort to rehire. Strategically, now is the time to build the esprit de corp that will carry your company forward into better times… a few extra basis points for the team now could help deliver a priceless return.  

Across the week

TechCrunch

COVID-19 shows we need Universal Basic Internet now

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From Alex:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

Are you a regular Equity listener? Take our survey here! We talk about it on the show.

From home once again this week, Danny, Natasha, Alex and Chris got together to pull the show together. But unlike last week’s episode (catch up here if you are behind), this week’s show features a game that actually worked. It’s at the end, as you’ll see.

But before that piece of the puzzle, there was a bunch of news to go over. We had to leave SaaS valuations, the Liftoff List, Brex and FalconX on the floor, but there was still so much good stuff to cover:

Then we played our game. Please hold us to account. And if you have listened to the show for a while, take our survey! It’s right after this next sentence.

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

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