Your Next American Airlines Flight Could Be a Bus Ride – Travel Market Report

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Photo: Landline/American Airlines

Your next flight could be a bus ride.
American Airlines has collaborated with bus company Landline to connect passengers between Philadelphia and two other local airports starting on June 3.
American says the connections, which go to Lehigh Valley Airport (ABE) and Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), will be a “time-saver” for its passengers.
“Our partnership with Landline is one more way we’re making it easy for customers to connect to American’s premier trans-Atlantic gateway in Philadelphia,” said Brian Znotins, American’s Vice President of Network Planning.
“Customers can start and end their journey at their local airport, relax on a comfortable Landline vehicle, and leave the driving to someone else while they work or start their vacation early. From road to runway, we’re excited to welcome customers on board.”
The partnership allows guests to arrive at Lehigh or Atlantic City, check in with American and clear security, an easier task at smaller, regional airports. Then, just as guests would board their flights, they would board a Landline bus and head to Philadelphia.
The positive for guests is that they will not have to go through security again in Philadelphia; instead, they would head directly to their connecting flight.
The same process would occur on the way—heading home, passengers would board a Landline vehicle in Philadelphia after their flight and head to their local airport.
Aside from the obvious, the bus ride would operate much like another leg of a connecting flight—American will transfer checked bags from the bus to the aircraft and vice versa, AAdvantage members will be able to earn miles and points when traveling on the Landline buses, and WiFi and power will be available in-seat during the bus ride.
Landline markets itself as “the airport of the future” with an aim to make travel “more affordable, efficient, and sustainable by creating a seamless travel system.” The aim is, it says, to “bring the airport to you.”
Aside from the new Philadelphia routes, Landline also operates in Colorado with United Airlines and in Minnesota and Wisconsin with Sun Country Airlines.
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How to Develop a Winning Go-To-Market Strategy for Reaching Your Business Goals – RisMedia.com

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This month, Real Estate magazine spoke with Regis Hadiaris, vice president of product marketing at Rocket Central, who discussed the right way to develop a successful go-to-market strategy that will help real estate professionals fulfill their goals and reach new levels of success.
Paige Brown: Tell us how you got started with Rocket Mortgage®, how it led to your current role and what exactly that role is.
Regis Hadiaris: I joined the organization in 2004 as a founding member of our award-winning digital marketing team. We dramatically grew the organization through integrated performance, brand and digital marketing. In 2012, I moved into digital product development to lead a top-secret project that ultimately became the revolutionary Rocket Mortgage experience, widely recognized as reinventing the mortgage industry. For the last three years, I’ve built our product marketing discipline, which drives adoption of our consumer and partner experiences.
PB: As vice president of product marketing, what are your primary roles and responsibilities?
RH: Our product marketers are the key to effectively and efficiently bringing things to market: new digital product experiences for financial services, innovative mortgage products and so much more. We are the best at handling life’s most complex moments so that our clients—and the clients of our Rocket ProSM partners—can live their dreams. We put the client at the center of everything we do by understanding deeply through research and analytics, defining a go-to-market strategy with crystal clarity and activating omnichannel marketing with a strong sense of urgency.
PB: What is your favorite part of your job?
RH: My passion for making financial services radically simple has helped me take on a wide variety of roles at Rocket Companies®. In all of my experience, seeing our extremely talented team members grow their skills and accomplishments, our partners expand their businesses and our clients reach their dreams has been a tremendous honor for me. In my current role, we’re ensuring that everything we do in our Rocket Pro partnerships is a win for our partner and their clients.
PB: What are your goals and objectives when it comes to developing a go-to-market strategy?
RH: A go-to-market strategy must clearly outline the opportunity. What’s going on in the market? Who are your target audiences? What jobs are they trying to do? How can you be the best at helping them with those jobs?
From there, a successful go-to-market strategy will clarify your distinct competencies, value proposition(s), places you will market, communications strategy, how you will promote and how you will enable teams like sales, customer support, etc. When all these things are defined, you can prospect, onboard and nurture effectively to reach your business goals.
PB: Why is a strong go-to-market strategy important for today’s real estate professionals?
RH: Clients have more choice in real estate agents than ever before. Whether you are a real estate agent or own a real estate brokerage, you have similar goals. You want people to know you, like you, want to work with you and, ultimately, transact. Clients expect that you are incredibly dialed into what is going on in the local market. You must find ways to stand out from other agents and make your marketing efforts work harder…and a strong go-to-market strategy achieves this.
PB: Please give us some insight on the go-to-market strategies that you have helped develop.
RH: My team and I have developed go-to-market strategies across all our consumer and professional businesses and products, including Rocket Mortgage, Rocket HomesSM, Rocket Pro TPO, Rocket Pro Insight, Rocket SolarSM, Rocket Money and more. Our work is used by our award-winning sales, marketing, training and communications teams to align and execute at the highest level.
PB: What are some tried-and-true strategies that real estate professionals can implement into their brands today? Why are these so important for finding success?
RH: The speed of the game keeps getting faster. Client expectations about what you deliver keep increasing. Standing out among other real estate professionals is a challenge. The way to win is through the experience you deliver to your clients and the word-of-mouth it generates.
Here are three strategies real estate professionals can implement to attract new clients, save time, increase the percentage of winning offers, ensure timely closings and generate more business:
Once you have these experiences in place, you can deploy marketing tactics in your local market for effective prospecting, onboarding and nurturing to help more clients than you dreamed possible.
The above article is sponsored content. For more information, visit
www.RocketProInsight.com.
Paige Brown is RISMedia’s Managing Editor, Social Media/Blog.
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Walmart Partners With WALDO To Offer Affordable Contact Lens – Walmart Corporate

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July 26, 2022
BENTONVILLE, Ark., July 26, 2022 — Walmart and WALDO are partnering to make eyecare more accessible and affordable. Walmart is the first exclusive retailer to offer WALDO, an innovative and accessible eyecare brand that believes in the power of positive vision. These first-of-their-kind lenses are enriched with essential vitamins, including B12, to help refresh and rejuvenate eyes.
At $23.86 for a 30-pack of the Hydra Boost Daily Lenses, customers can save 13%-84% off the cash price of comparable branded daily disposable contact lenses at Walmart, which translates into a savings of up to $552 a year at Walmart.1
“We are thrilled to partner with Walmart to expand access to affordable eyecare options across the country,” says Ashleigh Hinde, Founder and CEO at WALDO. “Partnering with Walmart allows us to grow our community and help foster much larger conversation around the importance of eye health and the need for accessible options for eyecare.”
WALDO is committed to making eye care an essential part of everyday life through accessible, high-quality products, trustworthy expert service and a platform to elevate the vision of their customers.
“Walmart is continuously looking for ways to bring our customers brands they already use and love to our stores, making it even more convenient to prioritize their health during their weekly shopping trips,” says Tabitha Watkins, Divisional Merchandising Manager – Specialty Healthcare at Walmart. “We are so pleased to be the first retailer to carry WALDO, a brand that is delivering innovative eyecare products at a great value for our customers.”
Routine eye exams are an important part of taking care of your whole health. Walmart operates more than 3,000 vision centers nationwide, allowing customers to easily fill prescriptions for prescription eyewear, sunglasses, reading glasses and contact lenses2. Walmart Vision Centers across the country are being transformed into state-of-the-art facilities with an all-new customer experience that features family tables and full-length mirrors for a functional try-on atmosphere. The remodeled centers will have newly designed and interactive shelving, semi-private spaces for associate consultations and more.
WALDO products will be available nationwide beginning July 26. Shop WALDO now at WalmartContacts.com
1 The out-of-pocket costs customers pay for daily disposable contact lenses depend on a variety of factors. These savings have been calculated based on customers purchasing contact lenses without vision insurance.
2 Contact lenses are not available from Walmart Vision Centers in Arkansas, Rhode Island and Delaware.
About Walmart
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better — anytime and anywhere — in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit more than 10,500 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2022 revenue of $573 billion, Walmart employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at twitter.com/walmart.
About Waldo
WALDO is an innovative and accessible eyecare brand that champions positive vision for all through high quality products and service. Founded by Ashleigh Hinde in 2017, WALDO is leading the movement in making eyecare an essential part of everyday life. Challenging industry perceptions by removing alienating jargon and investing in product innovation and services that are always centered around the customer. Since launch, WALDO lenses have been worn by over 200,000 customers and the company has expanded its eyecare product range and services to reach the EU and USA. Through innovative products, an insightful and thoughtful business philosophy and courage to push boundaries – WALDO strives to lead industry evolution. For more information, please visit hiwaldo.com.

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BBC's technology evolution shown at National Museum of Computing – BBC

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A new exhibition looking at the evolution of technology at the BBC has opened to mark the corporation's 100th anniversary.
"BBC through the decades" is at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes.
It showcases the analogue and digital technology used by the BBC since its inception and the innovations it contributed towards.
Museum director Jacqui Garrad said it was an "epochal British institution".
The exhibition looks at how the BBC began broadcasting, the first television broadcast in 1932 and the move to colour in 1967.
It also features the launch of the BBC website in 1997 and the digital switchover that began in 2007.
The museum also recognises the contribution to computing and technology made by the BBC, with innovations such as Ceefax, BBC Micro and the BBC Domesday Project.
Visitors can also be hands-on with exhibitions, including playing retro games on a 1980s BBC computer.
Ms Garrad said: "The BBC is an iconic British institution, with global reach, respect and recognition.
"We are very excited to showcase this history."
The exhibition was launched at the weekend by former BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, who said the BBC was "a key part of my family history".
He said: "I worked there for 40 years, and before me my mother joined the corporation in wartime Bristol and left TV Centre in London in 1974.
"By the time I was made technology correspondent, the BBC's R&D teams had already pioneered everything from mobile recording, as used on D-Day, to an online news service.
"Then as I reported the rise of the smartphone and AI, I watched the BBC adapt to this new era."
He said the exhibition "honours the remarkable technological evolution at the BBC across its 100-year history".
The exhibition is at the museum until 20 November.
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The Science of Ross Business: Healthcare Management At The Ross School – Poets&Quants

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Doctor working in hospital writing prescription clipboard, working an Laptop on desk in hospital with report analysis, Healthcare and medical concept, selective focus
Coming into business school, my long-term goal was to become a leader in the healthcare space. Besides my own prior experience in the field, I was motivated by strong growth opportunities that came from the increasingly high demand for experienced managers with knowledge of the healthcare industry.
When considering which MBA programs to apply to, I looked for schools with strong healthcare offerings. The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan has provided me with many opportunities to explore healthcare management through academic courses, club activities, and internship recruiting FACT groups – all of which were crucial in developing my skills in this area.
TACKLING THE BIG ISSUES
Vaishnavi Sitarama
Out of the various healthcare-focused courses, one class I consider particularly essential for all aspiring healthcare managers is “The Commercialization of Biomedicine”. This course dove deep into different subcategories within the healthcare space – biotech, medical devices, pharma, payers, and providers – and demonstrated ways how products are taken from conception to actualization. The course is intended to be an introduction to key issues faced by companies as they merge science with business to bring products to market.
One such issue that we discussed was how companies classify products for FDA approval – should a product be classified as a medical device, a biologic, or a drug? Certain classifications lead to lower regulation, while others require stringent clinical trials. Beyond regulatory considerations, these different classifications present differences in risk and potential payoffs. For example, medical devices are significantly more loosely regulated, but also sell for lower prices and therefore have lower profit margins. Hence, we explored questions like the best conditions to operating in this space. The course also presents current practices, rationales behind company decisions, and analytic frameworks by which to understand regulation, financing, risk, alliances, and organizational configurations in the life sciences space. Given that many managers in these industries operate in product-focused roles, this course provides a window into the topics that we as future healthcare managers may be expected to tackle in our post-MBA full-time roles.
The course is also interdisciplinary and welcomes students from other schools at U-M, such as life sciences, engineering, pharmacy, and public health. I really appreciated this aspect of the course because it allowed me to learn from the experiences of peers in complementary fields. One discussion topic that proved particularly applicable to my path in healthcare consulting involved the adoption and marketing of new products. Considering drug and device marketing, we explored different methods to enter healthcare markets, such as by working with physicians during the development process and obtaining pre-market insurance coverage. The diversity within the class led to deeper exploration of this topic as members from different backgrounds all had different viewpoints. Students with medical backgrounds strongly advocated for involving physicians from the early stages of the development process, whereas others with pharma backgrounds supported distancing from the medical field in the initial stages to allow for unconstrained creativity and exploration.

2020 Ross MBA MAP Reveal
JUST THE FACT(S)
In addition to academic courses, Michigan Ross provided opportunities to interact directly with the healthcare space through the Healthcare and Life Sciences Club. HLS caters to people switching into the healthcare field and offers speaker series and informational sessions on various healthcare subindustries. In particular, the HLS Bootcamp at the beginning of the academic year and the HLS Symposium are great opportunities to learn about the field and interact with Ross alums working in healthcare positions. These events offer informational sessions, discussion forums, and networking opportunities. Together, they provide real world exposure to the healthcare field and help many career switchers understand the differences between the subindustries. At the HLS Symposium this year, panelists from various life sciences companies spoke about the advent of digital health. As a future consultant with a focus in health technology, I found this an incredible opportunity to network with professionals working in the field and analyzing trends in the industry. I hope to take the connections I formed and grow them further as I enter the workforce post Ross.
The Career Development Office’s (CDO) FACT groups are small CDO Peer Coach-led groups that help MBA1s with internship recruiting. CDO and Peer Coaches collaborate on the weekly curriculum, and these also play a large role in understanding the healthcare-specific post-MBA paths. Although the primary focus of CDO FACT groups is recruiting, many groups have informal journal club-like series designed to introduce MBA students to new developments in the field and speak knowledgeably on related topics. My CDO FACT group was healthcare-consulting specific, and many of the topics we spoke about related to management practices when working with doctors, engineers, scientists, and people from highly technical backgrounds. One such topic that we explored in my CDO FACT group was being able to translate highly technical jargon into layman terms that were understandable to not only scientists and engineers but also executive level and non-technical staff. By learning to simplify our own prior career experiences and by practicing translating external technical documents, we were able to develop communication skills specific to technical fields. This skill proved incredibly useful during my internship last summer as I was able to help translate some of the client jargon into more easily communicable concepts.
The overall Michigan Ross healthcare MBA program, and particularly the healthcare management concentration, gives students a strong base in healthcare topics and prepares students to tackle specific issues healthcare managers may face as hospital administrators, medical practice managers, insurance executives, pharma and biotech leaders, medical device product managers, and more. Ross helped me develop as a business leader in the healthcare space and I can’t wait to put my new skills to use as a healthcare consultant after graduation.

Bio: My name is Vaishnavi Sitarama and I am a second-year MBA student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. A Californian and Silicon Valley native, I received my degrees in Molecular Biology and Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.  With prior experience in metastatic breast cancer research and afterwards in artificial DNA design, I am now pursuing my MBA to gain knowledge in scientific management and the business of healthcare. This past summer, I interned with Strategy& (part of the PwC network) as a Strategy Consultant in their Healthcare vertical. Aside from work, I am a flautist (I even played with Beyonce, Coldplay, and Bruno Mars in the 2016 Halftime Show!), an avid reader, and an amateur DIY crafter. Follow my Linkedin and Instagram to learn more about me and my time at Ross!
DON’T MISS: THE SCIENCE OF ROSS BUSINESS: FROM THE LAB TO B-SCHOOL
 
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Bollywood actor Imran Khan keeps getting mistaken for politician Imran Khan – images.dawn.com

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Images Staff
Desk Report
He shared on Instagram that he’s going to start drafting some policy outlines so we guess he’s decided to embrace it!
PTI chairman Imran Khan is a popular man; he didn’t just become 1 of the most followed world leaders on Twitter for nothing!
Just ask his namesake, Bollywood actor Imran Khan who keeps getting emails meant for the future Pakistan PM. He shared a screenshot of an email he received clearly meant for Khan sahib:

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The stock market's 'horror story' first half of 2022 – Fortune

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Good morning,
Welcome to the second half of 2022.
When looking in the rearview mirror, a mix of high inflation, interest rate hikes, the onset of crypto winter, and more made the stock market’s first half of this year pretty tumultuous. 
In the Fortune piece, ‘A horror story’. These 3 charts show just how historically bad markets performed in the first half of 2022, my colleague Bernhard Warner notes that “nearly every asset class finished deep in the red.” Warner refers to a July 1 note Jim Reid, part of Deutsche Bank’s thematic research team, sent clients: “It’s a bit of a horror story. The S&P 500 has now seen its worst H1 total return performance in 60 years. And also, in total return terms, it’s fallen for two consecutive quarters for the first time since the [global financial crisis]. Meanwhile, 10-year Treasuries look set…to have recorded their worst H1 since 1788, just before George Washington became President.”
Warner writes: “If you are long safe-haven dollar and crude, your portfolio is outperforming the pack. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate is up 39% on the year, and the greenback is far outperforming the world’s currencies so far. Congratulations. But if you’re heavily invested in Bitcoin, tech stocks, blue-chips, Asian shares, you name it—it’s been a first half to forget.” He provides an in-depth analysis of the worst performance in 60 years. (You can read the complete report here.)
As for the next six months, many finance chiefs have a bearish market outlook. The “CFO view of the stock market’s next leg: it will be lower,” according to a recent CNBC survey. About 77% of CFOs said they “expect the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall below 30,000 before ever setting a new high,” CNBC found. At the end of day July 1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 31,097.26. And 55% of CFOs said over the next six months, energy will show the most growth among all sectors in the economy. Energy shares are up more than 30% in 2022, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
CFOs in the energy and resources sector have the highest net optimism (+14) for the financial prospects of their companies, Deloitte’s Q2 2002 CFO survey found. In comparison, CFOs in financial services (including insurance, banking and securities, investment management, real estate, and private equity) had one of the lowest net optimism scores (-38). 
How are finance chiefs preparing for the road ahead? “From our interactions with CFOs, we understand that many are working to reduce debt, increase margins, and seek efficiencies, including through technology,” Steve Gallucci, the global and U.S. leader of Deloitte’s CFO Program, recently told me. 
The first half of 2022 was a “horror story.” And it doesn’t seem like the next six months will be a fairy tale. In preparation, what are you focusing on? Let me know.
See you tomorrow.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade released data on July 1 from its monthly sector rotation study. The top three sectors in May and June were consumer discretionary (nonessential goods and services, like cars and entertainment), industrials and energy. All three sectors increased in June, with consumer discretionary reaching 15.22%, according to the findings. The results are based on the trading platform’s customer notional net percentage buy/sell behavior for stocks that comprise the S&P 500 sectors.

Courtesy of Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade 
Adjusting Your Strategy in a Tight Market, a report in Harvard Business Review, suggests that companies must stop prioritizing growth above all else as the business environment adjusts to high inflation and less abundant capital. Companies should recognize that innovation remains essential. "They will need better thought-through strategies that pay attention to costs as well as necessary changes to technologies and business models," according to the report.
Donna Blackman was promoted to CFO at Stride, Inc. (NYSE: LRN), a provider of itech-enabled education solutions. Blackman has served as Stride’s chief accounting officer and treasurer for the past two years. She will replace outgoing CFO Timothy Medina, who is retiring. Before joining Stride in 2020, Blackman served as the SVP of business operations at BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom. During her tenure at BET, Blackman also held roles as SVP and head of finance, SVP of financial planning and analysis, and SVP of finance and controller. Earlier in her career, Blackman worked for both Marriott International and KPMG in various leadership roles in accounting and finance positions.
Jillian B. Thomsen was promoted to SVP and CFO at Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR). Gil Labrucherie, the company's current COO and CFO, will be departing the company to pursue another opportunity at a private biotechnology company. In April 2008, Thomsen was appointed chief accounting officer at Nektar. She has over 30 years of finance and accounting experience. From 2006 to 2008, she served as VP of finance and controller of Nektar. Before joining Nektar in 2006, Thomsen was deputy controller of Calpine Corporation. She started her career serving twelve years in Arthur Andersen LLP's audit and business advisory services practice.
"It's either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics."
—Amazon founder Jeff Bezos posted on Twitter in response to U.S. President Joe Biden's tweet calling on gas companies to lower prices at the pump, as reported by Fortune.
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Confronting The Risks Of Innovation And Technology – Forbes

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While technology is critical and necessary for businesses, it often is challenging to effectively … [+] implement and apply.
Innovation and technology are at the top of nearly every business agenda. Technology is critical to innovation, and it also serves as the accelerator for many parts of businesses’ growth plans, from manufacturing to distribution to marketing to finance. As the last decade has increasingly shown, companies that are unable to adopt new technologies quickly and effectively or don’t have the right mix of talent run the risk of being outpaced, outsmarted, and otherwise disrupted. In many cases, the willingness and ability to adopt technology determines a company’s very survival.
In fact, our research showed that leading companies that amplified their technology investments during the pandemic significantly extended their growth advantage over competitors, growing revenue at five times the rate of laggards, exceptionally higher than the two times rate of growth they enjoyed a few years prior.
While technology is critical and necessary for businesses, it often is challenging to effectively implement and apply. To make the right technological shifts, companies need to have the right organization, people, and skills in place. This is a fine line; organizations sometimes move too quickly, which could lead to unintended consequences like operations glitches, security and risk concerns, or a poor customer experience, while firms that move too cautiously run the risk of being outmaneuvered as they find it harder to satisfy customers, attract needed talent and ultimately lose market share.
Technology transformation is necessary, but successful transformation depends on solving two key issues.
First, companies need to make not only the right investments but the right amounts of investment, in people, training and technology infrastructure. And, importantly, this needs to be done across the technology spectrum. For example, at one level, technology automates simple processes and lowers costs. At a higher level, it provides insight leading to better business decisions and ways of working, enabling people to be more effective in their roles. Companies need to address both levels, integrating technology to lower costs but also to support and encourage innovation.
Second, companies need to figure out the right pace of adoption. This can be tricky, as innovation does not often move at a predictable pace. Rather, it moves in fits and starts, with frustration and stagnation often preceding periods of rapid progress. Bill Gates was quoted as saying back in 1996 that “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” This remains as sage advice today.
We have seen this cycle play out many times including recently with the global COVID-19 vaccine project, which saw cross-competitor collaboration leading to a vaccine developed in a shorter period than once previously thought possible. In parallel, every industry has seen the rapid adoption of cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning – changing dramatically how they work in both process and pace. And change will continue to bring new opportunities, with everything from electric vehicles to the metaverse to quantum computing. Companies need to get used to the idea that linear planning won’t work as well as it has in the past; there won’t be straight line gains each quarter, but rather flat periods followed by bursts of growth.
Companies’ risk management functions need to be in a position to help keep the risks of innovation and technology adoption under control. Risk managers can serve as impartial advocates for the right balance of investment and the right pace of adoption. And they can explore the benefits of new technologies while helping identify the risks associated with these technologies. Quantum computing provides a good example of a technology with great promise but with new security risks, in this case related to quantum computing’s ability to overwhelm current encryption protocols.
Risk management has a major ongoing responsibility to address the risks involved in digital transformation but it needs the confidence and skills to effectively do so. For example, consider that only 49 percent of respondents in our 2021 risk study said they were “fully capable” of assessing risks associated with the cloud, with even smaller numbers reporting readiness for AI, blockchain and other new technologies.
As organizations move faster and change more often, technology will become even more critical and integrated to achieving strategic outcomes. To keep pace with the heightened level of transformation, risk has to increase its technology skills, awareness and acumen, as well as more proactively and frequently engage with the business around technology risk. Those who do so can help their organizations advance their technology agendas with the right investments at the right speed and tackle the transformation roadblocks as they emerge along the way.

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