Mid-May marks the start of the annual business school graduation season. Over the next few weeks, schools from Anderson and Booth to Wharton and Yale will graduate some of the top new business talent, who all feel “ready to lead organizations into the future.” I put that in quotes – why? Because that’s the mindset coming out of business school, of the graduates themselves…but the reality is that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

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Most of us wouldn’t think of Walmart as a premiere shopping destination for ethnic foods, but walk through one of the company’s supercenters in certain neighborhoods today and you might be surprised. Mangoes and papaya are stocked next to Chinese eggplant, and the next aisle over might feature imported foods from South America – all carefully curated to appeal to growing local Hispanic and Asian populations.

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The annual convergence of the end of NCAA basketball season, the onset of the NHL and NBA playoffs, the lead-up to the NFL draft, and the kickoff of the major league baseball season have player stats and sports analytics front of mind for many fans and data nuts – myself included. But rumbles of discontent portend a possible storm on the horizon. It seems not everyone’s a convert to the data-driven future of sports (or business).

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The recent scandal over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email address and host server for all of her email correspondence while serving as Secretary of State certainly provided fodder for political pundits. But the scandal also highlights an important strategic issue for organizations – the rise of consumer-friendly cloud technologies that have the ability to make work more efficient, but exist outside the control of corporate IT departments.

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On your last major in-store shopping outing, how often did you pull out your phone? Did an earlier email or online search lead you there? If you’re like the vast majority of shoppers, you probably tapped into digital channels before and/or during your shopping experience. Today there is no one, predictable path for consumers’ interaction with a brand.

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My father had a certain expectation of the workplace – he expected to be able to leave the house every morning, work uninterrupted throughout the day and be home in time for dinner, the evening news and Rukeyser’s Wall $treet Week. For many of us – and I’m guessing nearly everyone reading this article – it feels like there’s no such thing as a balance between work and life. When it comes to your career, you’re either all in or all out.

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Crises, be they natural or man-made are an ever present threat to business. So what are companies doing to prepare for disruptions, not just those that can be addressed through disaster planning and business continuity strategies, but those truly unknown scenarios that it seems only the most resilient organizations survive?

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Thanks for stopping by HighPoint Associates’ new HighLights blog. My colleagues and I will be using this space to share our views on the day’s biggest business issues and the critical challenges our customers face. We’ll also spend time discussing disruption, highlighting the new approaches companies are taking to solving their business challenges.

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