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Additional food regulations can help curb diabetes

Bambi Majumdar Food & Beverage

According to the "National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014," about 9.3 percent of Americans, or 29.1 million people, have diabetes. This is quite an alarming figure, and has been on the rise. Despite increasing awareness of diabetes, obesity, and the importance of healthy diet and lifestyle choices, much needs to be done to prevent these figures from causing more havoc in our lives.

‘Gray Bird 333’ comes through during Ebola epidemic

Mark Huber Medical & Allied Healthcare

Concern over the recent Ebola virus epidemic recently focused the global media spotlight on obscure Cartersville, Georgia, aircraft charter company Phoenix Air, and to a larger extent, the global air ambulance business. Phoenix evacuated medical aid workers Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol from Liberia last month on separate 14-hour flights in a specially modified 32-year-old Gulfstream III, call sign Gray Bird 333, which had once done duty with the Royal Dutch Air Force and was still painted in its gray military livery.

The top 5 emerging technologies in oil and gas

Lucy Wallwork Natural Resources

Despite the common misconception, innovative technologies are not confined to renewable energy. They are driving changes in dirty hydrocarbons, too, indeed often making them far less dirty and far more efficient ways of supplying our energy needs. The pace of technological change is quickening. This is in part because the low-hanging fruit in the oil and gas sector, the so-called era of easy oil, is gone. Many of the newest technologies are focused on getting every last drop out of mature fields, or on accessing hydrocarbons in hostile and complex environments.

7 steps employers should take now to prevent workplace bullying

D. Albert Brannen Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Workplace bullying is becoming a bigger problem than harassment. Twenty-seven percent of U.S. workers report experiencing abusive conduct at work, and 21 percent report witnessing such conduct. Bullying can be physical or psychological. Simply put, bullying is a form of violence. Workplace bullying does not just affect the target. It affects others in the workplace, and can cause reduced productivity, interfere with the free flow of communications within the organization and lead to higher turnover, all of which significantly increase an employer’s operating costs.

Is personal space disappearing from the travel industry?

Danielle Manley Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

Over the past couple of weeks, three different planes have been diverted from their original flight plans because of unruly passengers. These disruptive individuals weren’t threatening the safety of the other passengers. While each flight disruption was different, the cause of the problems were all the same: an invasion of personal space.

Church phone systems vulnerable to costly hacking

Robert C. Foreman Religious Community

Most churches with multiline small-business phone systems are unaware of the potential for their phones to be hacked by international criminals. This can be a very costly problem, as we discovered when our phone system was hacked over a weekend from outside and used to make tens of thousands of international calls to various foreign countries. The numbers called were "premium" numbers, well-known by phone security experts.

View from Europe: Sainsbury’s marches on

Andrew Gaved Manufacturing

In the cooling industry in the United Kingdom, perhaps more than in any country in Europe, it is the supermarkets that are in the forefront of technology change. For instance, most U.K. supermarkets are not particularly fazed by the increased emphasis on low-GWP refrigerants that is being prompted by the EU’s forthcoming F-Gas regulation, because they are already pretty well advanced on their own natural refrigerant strategies. Among the U.K.'s Big Six supermarket brands, Sainsbury's has stood out for its sustainability initiatives and achievements.

The case for complexity

Anne Rose Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

Go easy. Take it easy. Easy does it. Nice and easy. We are constantly exhorted to do things the easy way. But is the easy way the best way? When designing your next client itinerary, why not consider the harder, more complex and more comprehensive path? There are multiple benefits to this approach as a travel agent, despite being more time-intensive.

Embracing change in business

Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Regardless of industry or title, the one thing we all have to understand is the nature of change. In government, defense and law enforcement, sometimes it feels that change happens too slowly and we blame the bureaucracy and red tape. Oddly though, if something big happens externally, somehow our previously bureaucratic organizations seem to be able to respond quickly with new initiatives. Conversely, in the private sector, waves of words like entrepreneurial and innovation have inspired our CEOs to want organizational cultures that support and even create change. What skills and characteristics can we learn or embrace to be ready of the many faces of change?

Machines serving people: A continuous debate

Linchi Kwok Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

Every time when a machine replaced labors in an assembly line, we gave a big round of applause. Now, when machines are replacing the service staff in hotels, shall we make a big toast to celebrate a new revolution? Or shall we mark it the beginning of "the end of humanized service" in the hospitality industry? As customers, we probably have had enough negative experience with those automatic services provided by machines, such as calling the cable or telephone companies. Now that Starwood is introducing a "Botlr," or robotic butler to the Aloft Hotels, will the hospitality industry follow the same path of other businesses, offering more "cold" automatic services?

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