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Better times ahead
Back in the early 1980s, a co-worker of mine and his wife became first-time homeowners. They felt pretty good about getting their new house and signing a mortgage note at a whopping 18% interest rate! By today’s standards, that’s pretty unthinkable. While much time has passed since those days, we’ve had only six new presidents
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35 years of storytelling
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My favorite day every month comes when a new issue of Virginia Business lands on my desk. Each magazine tracks emerging economic trends and the ongoing evolution of business leadership in the commonwealth. But for me, the impact is much more than just a good read about important business topics. Each issue of this magazine
The Mailroom: Day of reckoning
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In December, Virginia Business kindly published my letter calling for bipartisan cooperation to seek solutions to key issues facing the commonwealth — COVID, preparing our future workforce, universal broadband and providing better public safety services. I also said business leaders must demand that those seeking political office in 2021 should articulate how they will rise
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A moment for change
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Growing up in 1960s and ’70s Virginia, racism was always present, in forms direct and subtle. Each experience carried a message: to “know your place” and stay there. During my years as a student at Dinwiddie County High School, I remember being in the crowd when we hosted majority-Black Petersburg High School for a football
5 ways Va. can put people back to work and transform higher education
Common-sense policy reforms and investments in community colleges will support economic recovery efforts
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It’s tempting these days to believe that once COVID-19 is contained, the U.S. economy will bounce back quickly, replenishing jobs and incomes lost in the pandemic. Yet there are early warning signs that when the labor market fully reopens, some high-demand jobs may be hard to fill even with millions of Americans looking for work.
Let’s make business cool again
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Back in my high school days, I recall longing to be one of the “cool kids.” Guys with names like Matt or Jim. This was a time of jocks and cheerleaders. I wasn’t great at sports, but I liked cheerleaders. I tried following in my older brother’s footsteps by being a yearbook photographer. Maybe I
The Mailroom
A time for unity
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Thanks for inviting me to participate in the 2020 Virginia Business Political Roundtable. It was a very stimulating and thought-provoking discussion. One loud message came through following the Nov. 3 election — America is a nation divided. The results showed that the path forward must address that divide, or we will never achieve the unity
OurView: How did it get so late so soon?
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On the subject of time, the much-beloved children’s book author Dr. Seuss once wrote, “How did it get so late so soon?” With December here, that’s an almost perfect description of 2020. How did it get so late, so soon? Most of the past 8 to 9 months have been characterized by an almost immutable
Walking around
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Back in 1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. co-authored a business book titled, “In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies.” Among many topics popularized by this bestseller was a concept called “management by walking around.” This wasn’t an entirely new idea. It was practiced in the 1970s at Hewlett-Packard and had roots
The Mailroom
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A deserving legend Congratulations on the Virginia 500 Power List issue. It is thorough and very well-researched. It will be on lots of people’s desks. You in my opinion picked the appropriate person to lead off the living legends section. Bill Goodwin has been incredibly successful and generous. I have had the pleasure of representing