Competition in the Age of Online Giants | Meet The Former Insurance Executive Who Built A $350 Million Cannabis Edibles Empire | 5 Ways to Stop Your Smartphone Addiction From Paralyzing Your Effectiveness - StartUp Mindset | The Two Things Killing Your Ability to Focus

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Competition in the Age of Online Giants - Harvard Business Review

A small number of digital superpowers—Alibaba, Amazon, Microsoft, and others—have become “hub firms” because they control access to billions of mobile customers coveted by all kinds of product and service providers. These hubs drive increasing returns to scale and claim a disproportionate share of the value being created in the global economy.

The authors argue that the hub economy will continue to spread across more industries, concentrating more power in the hands of a few. As an example, they take an in-depth look at the auto industry and how Apple and Alphabet/Google are poised to become the main beneficiaries as cars turn into digitally connected spaces for work, entertainment, and shopping.

As hubs proliferate and expand their reach, the danger is that they will exacerbate economic inequality and threaten social stability. It is thus incumbent on all stakeholders—traditional companies, start-ups, institutions, and communities—to make certain changes in the ways they do business. Moreover, hub firms themselves must lead responsibly for the good of all, not just creating and capturing value but doing more to sustain other players in the ecosystem.

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Meet The Former Insurance Executive Who Built A $350 Million Cannabis Edibles Empire - Forbes

On a recent Saturday morning, Nancy Whiteman found herself stoned in a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket.

Whiteman, 64, who cofounded the Boulder-based cannabis edibles company Wana Brands in 2010, was testing a new gummy her company had developed, and her product team asked her to identify what effects it had on her, specifically on her physical or mental energy. She took the edible shortly before a Pilates class and two hours later found herself captivated by the labels and products in her local King Soopers.

“I’m always the guinea pig,” says Whiteman, who tests every product Wana creates, including gummies engineered to make users feel calm, fall asleep or stay focused. “I wasn’t especially hungry,” she says of her grocery experience. “It wasn’t a munchies-driven thing; it was more cognitive. I said to myself: ‘Oh, my God, look at the packaging. Who knew that there is tuna fish in glass jars packed in extra virgin olive oil?’ But all of a sudden, this became very intriguing to me with this particular formulation.”

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5 Ways to Stop Your Smartphone Addiction From Paralyzing Your Effectiveness - StartUp Mindset - StartUp Mindset

Our world has a new addiction. This addiction is one that is highly accepted in most restaurants, homes, hospitals, or while we are visiting friends or family. There has been tragedy by its hand, and many conversations have been avoided due to this addictive phenomenon. The newer generation sees it as a best friend, while older generations are coming to love or hate it, as there seems to be no in-between. This addictive and socially accepted trend I am referring to is our smartphones.

As I once heard a fellow writer once say, “smartphones are the new cigarettes,” and I couldn’t agree more. Where once the sidewalks were packed with smokers surrounded by puffs of nicotine and tobacco filled air, those benches now sit groups of people staring into the screen of social media platforms that really don’t make us “social” at all. While smoking is at an all time low for teenagers, it seems to have been replaced by another handheld device that isn’t hazardous to our physical health, but one can’t say much about emotional health just yet.

The smartphone craze hasn’t just impacted teenagers, as many young adults, business professionals, and leaders are also heavily connected to this handheld device. In many cases, the social media platform has only grown more popular, and made businesses boom due to the ease of their access because of smartphone technology. We can post pictures, write a tweet, and promote a product, all at the same time, regardless of our location. In a huge world, we have grown so connected and so close, that it doesn’t seem that there is much separating us anymore.

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The Two Things Killing Your Ability to Focus - Harvard Business Review

I used to wake up, stumble over to my phone, and immediately get lost in a stream of pointless notifications. This digital haze continued throughout the day, keeping me from accomplishing important tasks. I was distracted, anxious, and ineffective as a leader. I knew I had to change but could not seem to break free from the behaviors that kept me locked into the same cycle.

This problem is not unusual. Executives across the world stumble through each day in much the same way. Two major challenges are destroying our ability to focus.

First, we increasingly are overwhelmed with distractions flying at us from various connected devices. Smartphone and tablet use is spiking, and we now use digital media for an average of over 12 hours per day. This hyperconnected state does not allow us to process, recharge, and refocus.

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