fortune--2020-02-27--Bath & Body Works’ massive sanitizer business is a rare winner in the coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus outbreak is evolving into a serious threat to the global economy. But at least one major U.S. retailer is seeing a boost from the COVID-19 crisis: Bath & Body Works.
The beauty products chain, which sells products like highly scented lotions and candles, gets about 5% of its annual sales from hand sanitizers. That would translate to $260 million based on Bath & Body Works’ 2019 revenue of $5.34 billion. And that business is booming right now, Stuart Burgdoerfer, the chief financial officer of its parent company L Brands, told Wall Street analysts on Thursday.
“It is presently growing at a very high rate for reasons we would all understand,” Burgdoerfer said. According to an investor presentation last week, Bath & Body Works is the top U.S. retailer for hand sanitizers as well as products like shower gel and liquid hand soap.
There is much debate about whether hand sanitizers are effective against coronavirus. The Center for Disease Control advises people to wash their hands with soap and water as the first option for avoiding contagion. If those are not available, the CDC recommends a sanitizer high in alcohol.
Regardless of the medical merits, Bath & Body Works’ growth is under more scrutiny than usual at the moment. The chain’s health will become even more important to L Brands following the upcoming spin-off of its much larger sibling Victoria’s Secret. L Brands said last week it was selling a 55% stake in the struggling lingerie chain to a private equity firm.
Once that is done, Bath & Body Works will be L Brands’ only major business. Andrew Meslow, Bath & Body Works’ operations chief, will become L Brands’ new CEO, replacing Lex Wexner.
Bath & Body Works’ financial performance has shielded L Brands to a large degree from Victoria’s Secret’s staggering implosion since 2015. The retailer, which operates 1,700 North American stores (including under its White Barn banner) and 260 overseas, had an operating income of $1.1 billion last fiscal year. Meanwhile, Victoria’s Secret lost $877 million on sales of $7.5 billion. (The brand’s peak came in 2016, when it rang up sales of $8.26 billion.)
L Brands’ stock market value at its apex in 2015 was $29 billion; on Thursday was around $6 billion.
On Thursday Burgdoerfer CFO talked up Bath & Body Works prospects. One key opportunity: more international expansion, given sales outside North America rose 30% in 2019 over the previous year.
Another key are for growth: new stores that will be located in strip malls, rather than the traditional malls where most of its stores are located, and where Victoria’s Secret has long been a fixture. Those stores will also help the chain compete more directly with rivals like Target and Ulta.
Burgdoerfer said off-mall Bath & Body Works stores were more successful than those inside malls at getting shoppers to actually make purchases and not just browse. And with a lower cost structure, those off-mall stores are far more financially attractive. “The off-mall opportunity is a big one,” he said.
What’s more, Burgdoerfer said, Bath & Body Works has “a lot of flexibility” with landlords to get the locations it wants and negotiate leases, including getting out of poor locations earlier. And with that, it hopes, avoid some of the problems that have brought low its soon-to-be-former sibling, Victoria’s Secret.
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fortune--2020-02-27--Here’s what’s next for a self-driving car startup that’s poised to make history

The top issues in fintech , according to the industry ’ s biggest players

Houston residents are about to get home delivery that doesn’t require tipping the driver—because there isn’t one.
Startup Nuro, which has been testing autonomous delivery vehicles in the city for the past two years—albeit with safety drivers on board—has begun to build new, fully robotic models that don’t even have a driver’s seat, much less steering wheels or pedals to deliver pizza, groceries, and other goods. It plans to begin rolling out the new R2 robotic vehicles in the city in the next few months.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently granted Nuro the first permit for a self-driving car that can operate in any state without a safety driver. The first 5,000 of R2s are already being built by Roush, a contract manufacturer based in Farmington, Mich.
For now, these cars will only operate in Houston, replacing older self-driving Priuses with safety drivers that operated in a test program. With the new approval, the driverless R2s will be able to operate commercially anywhere in the country, without special local permits.
The “cars” will serve as delivery shuttles in partnership with Kroger grocery stores, Walmart, and Domino’s Pizza, says David Estrada, the company’s head of policy and legal affairs. Slog through traffic on your way home after a long day, find the cupboard bare, and you can go on Dominos’ website to order a pizza, and this automated delivery car will show up in front of your house within a half hour.
The system sends your phone a text with a code that you can use on the touch screen on the side of the vehicle to open one of the bay doors to a heated compartment where orders are kept (Ice cream from Kroger or Walmart will come in a cooled compartment). If there’s something you forgot to order, Nuro has patented an access system that will let customers buy add-ons, such as soda or garlic sticks that come in a separate compartment, once the new R2s go into service.
Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, has some of the nation’s worst traffic congestion and one of the highest rates of vehicle fatalities. Estrada says he hopes the cars will eventually help reduce congestion in the city.
Remote safety “drivers” will still monitor the cars from afar and, in theory, take control when necessary. If the R2 violates traffic laws or has another problem, police can also interact with it through a touch screen.
Any stores filling customer orderswill have to be nearby though, because Nuro’s R2 vehicles are limited to traveling at 25 mph as part of its agreement with regulators. The government required a low speed limit as a safety precaution.
The first exemption from federal motor vehicle safety standards for a commercial vehicle is a big step for the NHTSA. Companies such as Uber, Tesla, Alphabet, and GM have been pushing NTHSA to revise some of the 75 different federal motor vehicle safety standards that the agency imposes, many of which came into existence decades ago and haven’t been updated since.
Nuro only needed exemptions from three of the requirements—a windshield, side mirrors, and a reverse camera that shuts off when the car moves forward—to put the R2s into commercial service. Since the completely robotic cars “see” through conventional and thermal cameras, radar, and lidar (like radars that use light), they don’t need a windshield or mirrors for drivers. In an accident, additional protrusions like mirrors could increase the danger to pedestrians, Estrada says. And why shut off a rearview camera at all if there’s no driver to be distracted by the view?
“If we were forced to comply [with those rules],” Estrada said, “it would compromise safety and not be useful.”
NHTSA Administrator Elaine Chao issued a statement about the exemption, saying those regulations “made no sense” in an era of self-driving cars.
To keep other cars from crashing into it, the R2 uses the same types of head and taillights and turn signals as normal cars.
Until now, governments have required safety drivers for autonomous vehicles as a precaution—a system that famously failed when a distracted driver failed to take over before an Uber autonomous vehicle hit a pedestrian in Arizona, in 2018.
To make up for whatever safety may be perceived to be lost by not having a safety driver, the R2 is classified as a Low Speed Vehicle, a construct NHTSA approved in the late 1990s for operating specially-equipped golf carts in gated communities. Under federal law, the cars can travel on any roads with a speed limit up to 35 mph, although some states and cities limit them to even slower roads.
At half the width and slightly less length than a Smart car, the R2 is also unlikely to cause a lot of damage if one did hit anything.
For now, Nuro has no plans to expand beyond Houston, Estrada says. “We and others have spent a lot of time developing [the self-driving] technology,” he says. Now the focus is on getting to customers’ homes on time and listening to customer feedback, before scaling the service to other cities.
The next step for the company will come after NHTSA implements another expected round of streamlining of its regulations to let Nuro and other companies operate autonomous vehicles at full speed, Estrada says. Any regulations designed only to protect vehicle occupants, such as seat belts for example, are irrelevant to driverless delivery vehicles.
Corporations aren’t the only ones interested in benefitting from driverless technology. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told transportation efficiency advocates at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2015 that he’s counting on autonomous taxis to double or triple taxi ridership by lowering ride prices by 70% compared to conventional taxis. Robot taxis, he says, also won’t refuse to shuttle passengers in poorer areas, unlike some human drivers who avoid such areas because of limited tips and fear of crime.
Safety advocates are cautiously optimistic about the prospects for driverless cars. “Low-speed autonomous vehicles like the Nuro could help us learn more about how to safely implement autonomy in vehicles that can carry passengers in the future,” says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “Although the timeline to have consumer-level autonomous vehicles is going to be long, we are seeing crash reductions today for many of the collision prevention systems available on new vehicles, which are the building blocks for full autonomy.”
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fortune--2020-02-27--Facebook cancels F8 developer conference over coronavirus concerns

Facebook has cancelled its annual developer conference, F8, amid rising concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
The company made the announcement on Thursday, saying in lieu of the event that typically draws thousands, it would host a combination of locally hosted events, videos, and live-streamed content.
“This was a tough call to make—F8 is an incredibly important event for Facebook and it’s one of our favorite ways to celebrate all of you from around the world—but we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on,” reads a blog post by Facebook’s director of platform partnerships Konstantinos Papamiltiadis.
The news comes as tech companies continue to grapple with whether to host and attend international events as the virus worsens globally. This week, the Center for Disease Control warned that the spread of the disease in the U.S. was only a matter of time and confirmed the first U.S. case of unknown origin in Northern California on Wednesday. Facebook had already cancelled its Global Marketing Summit scheduled for March, pulled out of the Game Developer Conference, and restricted its employees from traveling to China.
The F8 conference is one of Facebook’s most anticipated events of the year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team of executives use the annual event to map out their vision for the future, disclose priorities for the year, and announce major product updates and new services. The event was scheduled for May 5 and 6 in San Jose.
Last year at F8, Facebook pushed its new focus on privacy, boasting upcoming developments like encryption and ephemeral content. It also revealed the redesign of Facebook’s core service, updates to Instagram, and an upcoming rebuilt Messenger app.
Facebook normally donates $250,000 from F8 ticket sales to an organization that aims to diversify the tech industry. Following the cancellation, the company says it will double that donation and prioritize organizations that serve San Jose residents. It also said in lieu of hosting local students at the event, the company plans to provide an “F8-inspired experience” for them instead.
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fortune--2020-02-27--How women’s co-working startup The Wing fell to Earth

This is the web version of raceAhead, Fortune’s daily newsletter on race, culture, and inclusive leadership. To get it delivered daily to your inbox, sign up here.
Not so long ago, Audrey Gelman, the CEO and co-founder of The Wing, a women’s co-working startup, was a happy harbinger of a new wave of woke and ready “girlbosses.”
“Last fall, I was the first visibly pregnant CEO on the cover of a business magazine—a powerful symbol in a climate in which women-founded startups attracted less than 3% of venture dollars,” she writes in Fast Company. That buzzy cover story, which was published by Inc, felt good at the time, but looking back she says it contributed to the myth that women really can have it all. “When we started our company three years ago, it was to build a community where women could gather, connect, and feel safe and supported,” says Gelman. “The myth doesn’t account for the reality that running a company is messy, terrifying, and often chaotic, especially in the early years.”
What follows is Gelman’s attempt to address the persistent critique that has tarnished The Wing’s shine: That she and her team, either by accident or design, had created a culture that was hostile to women of color.
Tangible problems first became public last summer, when The Wing member Asha Grant and a guest, both Black, were harangued by a white member over a parking spot. The harassment, alleges Grant, continued inside. Wing staffers were unprepared to mediate, and the aggressor was allowed to stay while the Black women did not feel safe enough to stay. The incident got enough traction that it prompted The Wing to issue a statement published by Zora, the Medium magazine for women of color:
“In this specific incident, we struggled to get it right and we are deeply sorry. We know how important it is to build an environment and team that reflects the diversity of our membership and the cities we inhabit, especially considering the historical and systemic marginalization of women of color in the context of women’s spaces. This was a humbling experience for our team and we are currently putting measures in place to make sure we handle incidents like this one much more thoughtfully in the future.”
At its core, The Wing is an elite private women’s club, offering high-tone gatherings along with co-working—a self-proclaimed “accelerator of the [feminist] revolution,” served daily with rose, scented candles, and breastfeeding spaces. But to many, it was also a poster child for out-of-touch white feminism. Or something like that. “The Wing has been the subject of seemingly endless criticism—accused of being too rich, too white, too cis-gendered, too feminist, not feminist enough, too liberal and not liberal enough,” writes Linda Kistler in this searing deep dive.
But as a high-priced antidote to bro-ish career clubs, it felt doomed from the start.
“There’s an interesting (but not surprising) juxtaposition between their mission of professional, civic, social, and economic advancement and the reality that women of color in the workforce face,” wrote Kaitlyn Ram Bo on The Melanin Collective blog shortly after The Wing launched. “Namely, that on the whole, women of color just couldn’t afford access into this so-called space of ‘economic advancement.’”
Writing in Zora, Char Adams calls for more workspaces designed for Black women, “instead of forcing us into largely White spaces that fail to cater to our needs,” and that allow bias to run unchecked, the kind “that often moves White and non-Black people in these spaces to view Black women as inherently dangerous and threatening.”
Gelman’s piece contains a post-mortem describing where she thinks she went wrong—a rush to build a community business at scale led to problematic shortcuts.
“We didn’t dedicate adequate attention to building inclusive recruiting practices,” she begins. “Employees were required to attend diversity and antibias trainings, but it was a one-time requirement and didn’t go deep enough.”
More to the point, they didn’t listen to their employees or community members. “Rather than creating a healthy feedback loop and addressing with urgency the issues that members and employees identified, we prioritized business growth over cultural growth.”
I’ll leave you with this Fortune Commentary piece by Trudy Bourgeoies, the founder of the Center for Workforce Excellence and Julia Taylor Kennedy, the executive vice president at the Center for Talent Innovation.
Their advice begins and ends with one core principle: believe Black people.
“Workplace racism can end only when employees who are not Black see, hear, and accept the truth about what their Black colleagues have experienced and continue to experience,” they say. Citing data conducted by a research group at the Center for Talent Innovation, 58% of black professionals have experienced racial prejudice at work—a higher percentage than any other racial or ethnic group surveyed.
Worse, while 65% of Black professionals responded that Black employees must work harder to advance in the workplace, only 16% of white professionals agreed.
To address this, difficult conversations are ahead, and Bourgeoies and Kennedy offer all the right tips: Gather representation data on the jobs held by Black professionals throughout the organization. Look at employee survey data. Then, create a safe space for company leaders and talent experts to face any facts and create accountable systems.
But at some point, people in charge will have to meet with Black (and other marginalized) employees.
“Don’t be surprised if you unearth some surprising stories,” they warn, a tactful way to say upsetting. “You don’t have to have all the answers. You simply have to have the courage to create an environment that can promote a meaningful conversation, learning, and understanding.”
Until these conversations become commonplace, companies like The Wing will never fully take flight.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is passed by the House Yesterday’s historic vote makes the bill, which classifies lynching as a hate crime, the first to make it through Congress since 1900. "Today, we send a strong message that violence—and race-based violence, in particular—has no place in America," said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who introduced the bill in January 2019, in a statement. The bill was named for Till, the 14-year-old boy who was kidnapped, beaten, and lynched in 1955; his death galvanized the nascent Civil Rights Movement. The vote was 410 to 4; the holdouts were Independent Rep. Justin Amash and Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert, Thomas Massie, and Ted Yoho.
ABC News
Someone in every state but Vermont had complaints about the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show Not sure that’s the big takeaway here, but plenty of people across the country thought the show was just too sexy for families who simply wanted to watch politically neutral but highly compensated gladiators risk traumatic brain injury in peace. The Federal Communications Commission is reporting more than 1300 complaints from viewers, but some may have been duplicates to better make sure they got the manager’s attention. "I am disgusted that these performances were not censored beforehand…I feel bad for my daughters who think that type of behavior is acceptable and that they should dress and perform inappropriate acts," said one complaint. By comparison, the 2004 halftime show with Justin Timberlake’s betrayal of Janet Jackson received a record 540,000 complaints. Adam Levine’s 2019 exposure of his bony chest barely got a blip.
NBC News
The Department of Justice creates a new “denaturalization” section In a statement, the Department says the section is preparing to build on the work they already do revoking citizenship from people like “terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization.” They are signaling an escalation of these efforts, citing “the growing number of referrals anticipated from law enforcement agencies motivated the creation of a standalone section dedicated to this important work.” The announcement chilled legal experts. “And do not think they will stop just with naturalized citizens,” tweeted Sherrilyn Ifill, President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The paranoia abt dissent, the denigration of the humanity of ‘others’—they will try to find ways to challenge the status of ‘disfavored’ citizens.”
Justice.gov
Producers of new Malcolm X documentary under fire for not including any women scholars Who Killed Malcolm X? is a six-part series that recently debuted on Netflix to widespread acclaim—at first. Now, directors Phil Bertelsen and Rachel Dretzin, and producers Shayla Harris and Nailah Ife Sims, are under fire for their erasure of female scholars and producers. “The exclusion of women scholars in the series is not only deeply problematic, but also presents a very skewed (and inaccurate) portrayal of this history,” write historians Jeanne Theoharis, Keisha N. Blain, and Ashley Farmer in this opinion piece. And then they give a lengthy and impressive list. The series has also prompted the Manhattan district attorney to re-open the case.
MsMagazine
On Background
A rich American tried to turn Myanmar into his CBD empire. Guess what happened next Through a traditional lens, this is the story of enterprising entrepreneur-millionaire John Todoroki, who tried to create a second act as a mogul running a vaguely sustainable enterprise focused on high-quality, all-natural CBD. But through a colonialist lens, it’s a cautionary tale of hubris. To turn himself into a trailblazing hemp farmer, he chose to develop his extensive operation in Myanmar, a politically complex and desperately poor part of the world that would lower his production costs to near nothing…and, he figured, who would greet him as a liberator. “People, planet, profit,” Todoroki was known to say. “I know, it’s a cheap phrase that people throw around loosely, but that was the idea.” He thought it was the start of an empire until he ended up in a 108-degree communal prison cell. But that’s not the worst part.
GEN on Medium
A now a word from a “posh white bloke” about poverty Ben Phillips, the campaigns and policy director at Oxfam, a global poverty alleviation nonprofit, says that a self-identified posh white bloke, he exemplifies the problem. “Posh white blokes aren't just over-represented in the world of power and money – we're over-represented in the leadership of the movements challenging that world.” As a result, equality initiatives are run by people who lack the authentic, lived experiences of people who were born into systemic poverty. It’s a moral failure that is impeding progress. “A lot of money was spent teaching me how to spin a line and frame an argument and look like I know what I'm talking about,” he says. “[I]n the toughest times I've been aware at my core that my British passport, my connections, the colour of my skin and being a man are insulators from the worst.” These blokes have their hearts in the right place, right? Now what?
The Guardian
Leader pro tip: If you’re managing a jerk, make them drive a junker car for awhile Researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that drivers of expensive cars are less likely to stop and let pedestrians cross the street. Worse, the likelihood decreases by 3% for every “extra $1,000” that their vehicle is worth. The researchers attribute the jerk behavior to a lack of empathy and "a sense of superiority over other road users." They further tested the theory by race and gender, using volunteer pedestrians. Drivers stopped 31% of the time for both the women and white volunteer pedestrians, compared with 24% of the time for men and 25% of the time for black volunteer pedestrians. And lest you think this is all fun and games, know this: “Pedestrian crashes are not equitably distributed; people of color and males are overburdened.” There’s a growing body of work that finds a relationship between high-status car drivers and jerk behavior.
CNN
Quote
“True feminist solidarity across racial lines means being willing to protect each other, speaking up when the missing women are not from your community, and calling out ways that predatory violence can span multiple communities."
—Mikki Kendall, author of Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot


fortune--2020-02-27--‘Emma.’ star and director on updating Jane Austen’s text through blood and tears

Emma, Jane Austen’s beloved comedy of manners, gets a decadent update in the form of Emma. (with a period), now in theaters.
The use of punctuation in a film’s title can often be seen as showy and overindulgent on the part of a filmmaker (mother!, Everybody Wants Some!!). But in the case of Emma., that stylization actually serves a few critical purposes, setting up an in-on-the-joke “period piece” while delivering a take on its source material that’s as intentionally opulent and bracingly self-possessed as Austen’s protagonist herself would have insisted upon.
As helmed by rock-and-roll photographer Autumn de Wilde and top-lined by Anya Taylor-Joy, who brings a chillier edge to the character, this Emma. feels like Emma’s, period.
The story remains largely traditional, as the wealthy and self-centered Emma Woodhouse (Taylor-Joy) passes her days meddling in the romantic affairs of others in the small British town of Highbury. Be it orphan Harriet (Mia Goth), whom Emma is determined to set up with a local pastor (Josh O’Connor) despite Harriet’s affections for a farmer (Connor Swindells), or longtime family friend George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), who might just realize his feelings for Emma if he can stop scolding her for long enough, the residents of Highbury are but Emma’s game pieces, to be moved around the board in any arrangement she sees fit, from the cozy comfort of her lavish family estate.
What’s notedly nontraditional is the spirit and style de Wilde applies to Emma., her feature film debut. Bonnets, spencers, and decorative reticules abound, with a stunning amount of attention paid to extravagant makeup and costuming. But the most knowingly arch touch de Wilde brings to the proceedings is a knack for perfect visual symmetry, an eye for knowing exactly how to position actors within each elegantly composed shot.
While promoting the film in Boston this week, de Wilde and Taylor-Joy talked to Fortune about adapting Austen’s classic and making it their own through blood, sweat, and tears—sometimes quite literally.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Emma. isn’t a modernization of Jane Austen’s book, like Clueless, but a lavish, Regency-era comedy that’s at once satirizing its time period and fully committing to it. What appealed to you both about the idea of putting your own spin on this story?
Anya Taylor-Joy: Autumn pitched the movie to Working Title as “humanized, not modernized.” She got the movie, and then, the next day, she flew out to meet me. I’d only heard the movie was happening, and that she wanted me, the day before.
Autumn de Wilde: She was part of my original pitch, her and Johnny Flynn and Mia Goth.
Taylor-Joy: We joke, but we didn’t exchange niceties. Our first meeting was the first meeting working on the film, from the first second we were in each other’s faces.
De Wilde: She still hadn’t agreed to make the movie.
At that point, Anya hadn’t said yes to it.
Taylor-Joy: No, still! I still haven’t. I never said yes to Emma., but we were just immediately there and possessed by it. Personally, as an artist, I was never excited about the idea of showing up to a film and being charming for two hours whilst frolicking in a field and never really going anywhere with it. I wasn’t excited by that. But we immediately discussed the fact that Austen herself said, with Emma, she’d written a character that no one but herself would much like. And I asked whether Autumn would be down for me really going there.
De Wilde: And I was.
Taylor-Joy: Also, weirdly enough, people don’t seem to associate Jane Austen with the word “funny.” And it is so funny. If you’re a fan of the book, you’ll understand she’s brilliant at satirizing characters and people. We all know a Mr. Churchill, an Emma, and we have bits of them within. It’s why Clueless worked so well. If you were to take this story and put it anywhere else, you wouldn’t have to change that much to make it relatable.
De Wilde: Right. And I’ll also say the decision to stay in the time period wasn’t fear-based. And if I’d decided to modernize it, I wouldn’t have done it just out of fear of not connecting with people. I just really love time travel. I’m a fan of fashion history, in general. I’ve always used it to inform other ideas. I’d use it in my rock photography a lot. “Okay, you pretend to be in this painting.” Pretending to be people in other time periods, that’s so rock ’n’ roll. That’s the Rolling Stones. That’s David Bowie on the cover of Hunky Dory, [where] he’s pretending to be Marlene Dietrich. That was the basis of my style in general. Getting this film, I had permission to go deep into that rabbit hole.
There’s also this quality to the period that heightens the romantic tension, where no one can touch and everyone’s styled in this impossibly extravagant fashion.
Taylor-Joy: Autumn, at the beginning, when we were discussing how we were going to do it, she was like, “We’re going to really stick to the rules. There will be no touching.” We have two hugs in the movie, and I’m so grateful for my two hugs. As Emma, I was a doll. I was not allowed to be touched. People would come up to me, and you’d hear Autumn from the other end of the house, yelling, “Don’t touch her!”
I’ve really enjoyed hearing about everyone saying, “This dance scene, it’s so sexy.” That’s because nobody touches in the movie. When you see these two hands touch, everyone gasps, because it’s scandalous.
De Wilde: There’s this obsession with modernizing. We’ve all seen sex scenes that aren’t sexy, even if they go all the way. I’ve been fascinated by kissing scenes in general, and what makes them work. Because it’s not like they didn’t look good enough, go far enough, weren’t naked enough … It’s just one of the hardest things to do well in a movie, I think, is a good kiss. In daily life, if you think about the person you had the best chemistry with, that starts before you touch. That’s across the room, while you’re both talking to somebody else, and then it’s like, “Whoa. Holy crap.” We talked a lot about the sexual tension between her and Knightley. Also, with her and Harriet, we talked about the sensuality of that first friendship.
Taylor-Joy: Before either of them have kissed anybody! It’s the closest they’ve ever been to anybody.
De Wilde: It’s very sensual. And it’s another kind of love. One of the biggest love stories in this book is between Harriet and Emma.
Taylor-Joy (left) as Emma Woodhouse and Johnny Flynn (right) as George Knightley in “Emma.” Focus Features—Courtesy of Box Hill Films
So many period dramas feature lavish costuming, that stately and buttoned-up regalia, but they don’t explore the psychology of what wearing all that excess does to someone. In terms of approaching this story, how did you convey character through costuming?
De Wilde: When you first visit a city, you can’t tell where you are. And then, all of a sudden, you can see it from above. We started seeing this story from above, and we saw that the sexual tension of the story could be built by so many different characters in different ways. Clothing played a big part in that. We decided that Mr. Knightley has panic attacks. In the beginning, he has this dressing scene that’s there for a lot of reasons, but to especially show the control he has over his life.
I also wanted to make it clear that Mr. Knightley was the love interest from the beginning of the movie. You get to fall in love with him in that dressing scene, to see that he’s human and that there’s a real man underneath. Then, his armor goes on. And it makes his bossing around Emma a little more comical, the elegance. Later, when he’s panicking about not having told Emma he loves her, he’s tearing his clothes off. Suddenly, the clothes that felt like a necessary part of him are his enemy. We’ve all felt that, where clothing symbolizes a breakup or you have to throw a jacket away because she cried on it.
Taylor-Joy: I was so involved in the fitting process that I must have spent 49 or 50 hours getting the clothes made on me. We wanted to build a wardrobe. Like, with the proposal dress, I wanted it to be this white one with these little green hearts, and Autumn was like, “Yes, with the hearts!” There was always a hair story and a costume story. At the beginning, Emma starts off not human, in the way her curls are almost stitched into her head and seen as satellite wires. Her shoulders are spiky. She’s very constructed. And as the story goes along, and as we get into the crying suite of the movie‚ different tears for different people, in different locations—it was wonderful to get to be in there and to have Emma’s hair be like, “Oh, babe, you have not recurled.”
I feel like you have different crying approaches for every one of your characters.
Taylor-Joy: Thank you so much. No, that’s really important to me. Thank you for that.
De Wilde: No, she does. And with the costuming, Marese Langan, who did the hair and makeup design, is incredible, and she’d work closely with Alexandra Byrne, our costume designer. They’d share information, so the collar would go to a certain height, and Marese would make the curls land right above. It was amazing because I didn’t want to do this softened, ’90s version.
Taylor-Joy: Some of the hairstyles aren’t that beautiful.
De Wilde: But they become beautiful, once you accept the world.
From left: Bill Nighy, who plays Emma’s father, Taylor-Joy, and de Wilde attend a special screening of “Emma.” at the Whitby Hotel on Feb. 4 in New York City. Sean Zanni—Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Anya, we spoke on the press tour for Thoroughbreds, and you talked about playing characters trapped in these bubbles of privilege. And for you, Autumn, coming from the rock photography world, you were surrounded by people at these incredible heights of privilege. For both of you, how did you make a movie about this elite enclave of rich people without making them entirely alien?
Taylor-Joy: With Emma, what I always started with is that she’s so smart. She’s so intelligent. But she’s almost plagued by that intelligence, because she lives in a world where women don’t have agency. With that intelligence, she’s found a very clever loophole where, because she doesn’t have a mother and her father is a valetudinarian relying on her so much, she really is the mistress of her own house. However, that also means she’s ostracized herself.
When you first meet Emma, she’s taking her first steps into meeting people she doesn’t know. Previously, she’s been surrounded by old people who, when she says something rude, let her off the hook and know she didn’t mean it. When she meets Harriet and tries to play grownup, she falls into mistakes and into lessons that have been taught to her, because she’s never known anything different. She’s trying to figure out her own moral code in a wider world than Hartfield [her estate], than people who have been paid to be there and her father who adores her.
She’s also so young. That was helpful in being empathetic. And I think, through Emma, I became more empathetic toward myself at a younger age, because you don’t know yourself until you go out, mess up, and realize it made you feel bad.
De Wilde: Privilege is always interesting to explore, because it never means that you don’t have real problems. It just means you’ve been spared a whole list of other problems. The musicians I’ve photographed, there’s this impression it’s easy for them because they have the success somebody else wants, but they get their feelings hurt and hearts broken. We’re all human. It’s good to check your privilege, for sure, but there’s always someone who’s suffered more than you. It’s interesting to look at these stories through the point of view of what the biggest tragedy is in this person’s life.
Jane Austen’s novel is a satire of the class system and small-town life. I’m really pointing my finger at the class system. Everyone in the film is participating in it, but she’s not the only one establishing the rules. Everyone’s been raised to accept these positions. And they are all trapped by those rules.
From left: Amber Anderson, Tanya Reynolds, Josh O’Connor, de Wilde, and Flynn on the set of “Emma.” Liam Daniel—Focus Features
The film’s climax comes in this proposal scene, where Knightley asks Emma to marry him, and she breaks down so violently that her nose starts bleeding. What was it like to film that, and to show the messiness of her emotions breaking through the decadence showcased through the rest of the film?
Taylor-Joy: One of the things Autumn and I bonded over is that we’d both get nosebleeds, and I used to get them a lot as a kid. But I hadn’t really had one in 10 to 11 years. And we were doing the scene, and my nose just started bleeding. It just happened. That’s the take we used. That’s my blood, on-screen.
So, this is your next evolution of the technique, then?
Taylor-Joy: Yes! [Laughs] I will never be able to do it again. We’d done scenes leading up to it, and I’d been crying for a while. And then Johnny asked me to marry him, and I just exploded. [Laughs] I’m very proud that’s my blood. Because Johnny was freaking out, and Autumn—as somebody who deals with blood the same way I do—was just there, like “Block her here, and here.” And I’m like, “Keep rolling,” while Johnny’s there, like, “Ah, ah, ah!” We flustered him, I think.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Netflix and Disney+ prepare to do battle in Europe
—Disney’s new CEO Bob Chapek has big shoes to fill
—No, A.I. isn’t deciding which movies to green-light
—Breaking Bad ended six years ago—but Better Call Saul and merchandise keep gaining steam
—Contagion writer, scientific adviser reflect on film’s newfound relevance amid coronavirus crisis
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-02-28--It’s awkward to talk salary at work—but here’s how to start

After the markets ’ worst week since 2008 , Wall Street takes a deep breath and braces for Monday

This is the web version of The Broadside, a monthly newsletter on careers advancement for women. Click here to get it in your inbox.
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Broadside writer Kristine Gill offers advice from HR professionals and finance experts about whether sharing your salary with coworkers is a good or bad idea. Then, scroll on for job opportunities from Opendoor, Lucasfilm, Nestle, and more.
***
I earned $40,000 a year during my first full-time job out of college. This was in 2011 when the journalism market was at a low point, so I thought I was absolutely rolling in it.
When I mentioned my pay to a friend at the same newspaper, she went slack-jawed at the number. She was making far less than me and our male colleagues, it turned out, even though she had a master’s degree and we didn’t. She and I both felt empowered when she demanded and received a raise from the higher ups. I like to think we were ahead of our time considering that reporters are now sharing what they earn in widely circulated spreadsheets.
I’ve always believed that, as women, sharing what we earn can help level the playing field for everyone. But sharing what you earn isn’t as easy as spitting out a number to random coworkers at the water cooler. I spoke to HR professionals, who say there’s a time and a place, and that doing so is not without its pitfalls.
Before you spill the beans on your paycheck, consider the following tips.
“This is awkward, but…” ☕
If you’re nervous about discussing a suspected pay discrepancy with a coworker, Ashley Feinstein Gerstley suggests naming that awkwardness. Feinstein Gerstley is CEO and founder of The Fiscal Femme, which helps women manage their finances and navigate careers.
“We can bring it up by saying, you know, this is awkward but I think it’s important that we discuss it,” she says.
And if you’re worried about discussing pay with current employees, Feinstein Gerstley suggests reaching out to someone who used to work for the company, since it may be easier to speak with someone who has less of a personal investment.
“It’s funny how engrained this idea of not being able to share our salary is,” she adds. “But it’s completely legal, and the more we do it the less taboo it will become.”
Chatting over coffee or outside of work can help make the conversation less awkward too.
Apples to oranges 🍎🍊
Let’s say you learn pretty quickly that some of your colleagues are earning more than you. Before you do anything else, first consider that compensation is based on a variety of factors.
Some employees, for example, make less money in exchange for other benefits, such as work-from-home flexibility and extra paid time off, says Rhiannon Staples, CMO of Hibob, an online HR platform.
Compensation is a reflection of a bunch of things: your work history, your education level, circumstances at the time of your hiring—say, if you were offered more to counter a competing job offer. If you want a fuller picture of what you could be earning, try using Glassdoor’s Know Your Worth tool. Its data covers base pay estimates for about 77 percent of the workforce in the U.S., according to Glassdoor career trends expert Alison Sullivan. And ask HR, of course.
In some states, employers can’t ask you about your salary history. Those laws could affect your offer.
The good news is those laws are intended to force the employers to be more forthcoming, Michelle Armer, chief people officer at CareerBuilder.com, says. “Basing salary off of compensation history has created a bias against women and other diverse groups.”
Don’t hesitate, negotiate ⚖
If a male colleague in your same position is making more than you, it could be that he simply asked for more money when he was hired.
“It’s important that women feel comfortable doing that right out of the gate,” Armer says, “because if you start your compensation history a little under someone that can be magnified over your career.”
A lot of women do negotiate from the start. In fact, according to one Harvard study, women negotiate for raises just as much as men do, but they’re denied these raises more often than men, perhaps because they can be less confident about negotiating than men who might have better access to negotiation training. That, or they’re simply treated differently in the negotiation process.
Want to improve your own negotiation techniques? My Fortune colleagues have you covered. Check out this, this, and this for practical advice.
Know your rights 📜
Of course, learning what your coworker makes, or revealing your own pay, can sometimes feel bitter.
“It can also foster a sense of unnecessary and nasty competition between co-workers that may result in resentment against one another and disrupt company culture and morale, even if the pay differences are valid,” Staples says.
While some workplaces might discourage salary sharing for these reasons, there are laws preserving your right to do so, Armer says. And more often than not, pay transparency benefits everyone by closing the wage gap and actually creating an atmosphere of trust.
The National Labor and Relations Act says your employer can’t ban the discussion of salaries. Paycheck Fairness Act is also again making its way through government. First introduced in 1997, the law would make it illegal for employers to retaliate against employees for sharing their wages or asking coworkers about theirs. Supporters call it a critical step toward narrowing the gender pay gap.
Talk data to me 📈
“Don’t be afraid to have honest conversations with your manager and getting all of the information you need to understand it,” Armer says, if you’re not being paid fairly.
Staples says that once you have a meeting set up, you can advocate for yourself by preparing a pitch as to why you deserve that raise. She suggests jotting down your accomplishments and any ongoing projects that speak to your value and responsibilities at the company.
“Also, make sure you come with data and specifics by compiling market research that backs your expectations and bolsters your claims for a raise,” she says. Glassdoor’s Know Your Worth tool is helpful. You can also try LinkedIn Salary: By inputting your location, current pay, and years of experience, you can see what others in your field and situation are making.
Then, if the conversation isn’t productive at that level, take it to HR.
— Kristine Gill
Making money moves
Bath & Body Works is hiring a Senior Financial Analyst based in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
Chewy is hiring a Senior Product Designer based in Boston, Mass.
Lucasfilm is hiring an Animation Production Coordinator based in San Francisco, Calif.
Nestle is hiring a Director of Data & Analytics Technology based in Stamford, Conn.
Opendoor is hiring a Head of Operations for Customer Experience based in San Francisco, Calif.
Radiotopia is hiring a Network Operations Manager based in Boston, Mass.
Ripple is hiring a VP of Business Development based in San Francisco, Calif.
Sonoco is hiring a Business Development Manager based in Chicago.
The Patron Spirits Company is hiring a Southeast Regional Director based in Miami, Florida.
Yeti is hiring a Manager of E-commerce Testing and Optimization based in Austin, Texas.
Events and other opportunities
March 5: The Women Impact Tech event will be held in San Francisco.
March 5-8: The Women of Power Summit for executive women of color will be held in Las Vegas.
March 9: Nasdaq, Houzz, and WEACT will hold an International Women's Day Event in New York.
March 24: The Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit will be held in Singapore.
April 20-23: TedFEST 2020 will be held in New York City.
April 21-22: Fortune will hold its Brainstorm Health event in Marina Del Rey.
May 4-5: The Women of Silicon Valley Tech Event Series will take place in Santa Clara, Calif.
May 13: The annual Women in Negotiation Summit will be held in New York City. The day long event empowers women through negotiation skills building.
June 1: Gallup’s conference called How Millennials Want to Work and Live will be held in Omaha.
June 26: The Ellevate Network is hosting its annual Mobilize Women Summit in NYC. This year’s event will provide a space for leaders with diverse perspectives to share their take on how to build more equity in business.
Want to share a hiring or networking opportunity from your organization or elsewhere, or just have feedback about The Broadside? Email Kristine Gill.


fortune--2020-02-28--Google cancels major Las Vegas conference over coronavirus concerns

Google canceled a major internal gathering over concerns about the spread of coronavirus, the latest in a wave of events and conferences being called off around the world.
The internet giant’s sales and marketing event was set to take place in Las Vegas in March, a Google spokesman said. “In light of the evolving coronavirus situation we made the decision to cancel an internal event that would have brought thousands of employees together from across two continents,” the spokesman said.
Companies and event organizers are scrapping large gatherings of people out of fear they could foster the spread of the respiratory virus known as Covid-19, which has killed more than 2,800 people and spread to 55 countries and territories. Switzerland has banned any gathering of more than 1,000 people; a massive trade fair in Berlin was canceled last-minute; and Facebook on Thursday called off its May event for developers. The Game Developers Conference, set to open March 16 in San Fransisco, is also at risk after Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Sony all pulled out. Google’s biggest annual event—I/O—is still set for early May.
Google, a unit of Alphabet, also said on Friday that one of its employees had been diagnosed with the virus. The worker had spent time in the company’s Zurich office before showing symptoms, the spokesman said. The staffer contracted coronavirus after traveling to an affected area, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. Google will also ban employee travel to and from South Korea and Japan starting on Mar. 2, according to the memo.
The broader impact of the virus on Google’s business is unclear. The company’s advertising revenue could be affected by a general economic slowdown, particularly as the thousands of small businesses that buy ads on its websites have trouble importing products from China. The Google spokesman declined to comment beyond confirming the event cancellation.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—New tech-centric Mastercard CEO has his eyes on the fintech prize
—Did the ‘techlash’ kill Alphabet’s city of the future?
—How technology is changing how we volunteer
—Credit Karma was acquired rather than pursuing an IPO. Will more companies follow suit in 2020?
—Half of U.S. local government offices haven’t upgraded their ransomware defenses since 2019’s online crime spree
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-28--After the markets’ worst week since 2008, Wall Street takes a deep breath and braces for Monday

The oil industry is finally talking climate crisis , but don ’ t expect change to come easily

Today was another bad one for markets and tallied up the worst week to hit equities since 2008 and the kickoff to the Great Recession. And at this point, traders and investors are looking forward to a weekend break to steel themselves for Monday.
“I was a young broker with PaineWebber back in October of 1987,” noted registered investment advisor Stephen Akin. “There are a number of similarities in the market over the past few months. Yes, the weekend will be a wonderful respite.”
Most of the indexes were down: S&P 500 (24.52, -0.8%), Dow Jones Industrials (356.88, -1.4%), and Russell 2000 (21.44, -1.4%). The bright spot, using the term loosely, was the Nasdaq, which ended flat.
Over the last week there have been cumulative drops of 11.5% for the S&P, 12.4% for the Dow, Nasdaq’s 10.5%, and 12% on the Russell 2000. That’s the kind of experience for investors and people in finance where it’s hard to do anything other than wait for it to be over.
Doug Butler, a senior vice president at Rockland Trust and director of research services for its investment management group, called it “one of the most punishing weeks in the market” he had experienced. Thinking back to 2008 to 2009, he did think these types of events develop a similar rhythm: “Calamity, Worst Case Scenario Projections, Panic Induced Market Decline, Passage of Time and Resolution of Uncertainty, and, finally, Market Recovery.”
Like the five stages of market grief.
A number of stock investment sites faced customer access issues. A Vanguard spokesperson wrote that some of its clients “experienced intermittent website unavailability for a period this morning.” The company also saw an increase in trading this week: “Approximately 1% of U.S. Vanguard households traded on Monday and Tuesday; a typical day is 0.4%,” the spokesperson noted. The majority were net buyers of stocks, particularly index funds, which Vanguard took as people seeing the drop as a buying opportunity.
Fidelity Investments noted that customers “experienced intermittent issues when accessing their accounts online this past week,” the result of system issues. That could point to an underlying problem or a system reaction to handling more traffic than it was designed to.
And TD Ameritrade sent the following in a statement: “While client access was not impacted, we did experience some slowness in the reporting of trade confirmations this morning related to heavy trade volumes. The issue has been resolved.”
As far as what the weekend, and week after, will bring, there’s some hope, but little certainty. “I look forward to seeing the market bottoming next week,” Stoyan Panayotov, founder of Babylon Wealth Management, said in a note to Fortune. “Even though indices have fallen again today, we are seeing signs of buyers coming back to the market and buying selectively.”
Specifically, Panayotov noted shares of some cruise, travel, and energy companies—all of which have been hit hard by COVID-19—were trading higher today. “Even Microsoft is moderately high,” he said. “To me, this is a sign that investors are looking for a bottom.”
Others thought it was too soon to assume that fear, and further losses, have passed. “Mere weeks ago, many on Wall Street opined that the market would not feel the effects of COVID-19,” observed Sarah Bauder, a senior market analyst at SophisticatedInvestor.com. “However, given the turmoil of this week, that sentiment was erroneous, to say the least.”
Retail investors often rekindle their worries over weekends when not so distracted by work and life. “We not only have the potential for weekend panic but month-end panic,” according to Charles Self, chief investment officer at iSectors. “Many retail investors either receive paper statements or email notifications. When they see how much money they lost in a month, there could be another panic out of stocks.”
Then there’s the ongoing election process. Concern over a Democratic candidate and his or her relationship to Wall Street might cause additional anxiety. “This weekend offers little to no hope that we will be closer to turning the corner on all the uncertainty,” wrote Jason R. Escamilla, CEO of ImpactAdvisor. “Best to keep praying through Super Tuesday.”
Until the start of the week, then, what’s the best course of action? Huddle down in a financial fallout bunker?
“In essence, yes,” Bauder joked. “Stock up on the ol’ non-perishables.”
And maybe shares of the companies that sell them.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—New tech-centric Mastercard CEO has his eyes on the fintech prize
—Investors shouldn’t underestimate election volatility, warns UBS
—You can now buy a fractional share of Amazon stock
—These cities have the most jobs with six-figure salaries
—Credit Karma was acquired rather than pursuing an IPO. Will more companies follow suit in 2020?
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-02-28--U.S. stocks tumble 11% in worst week since 2008 crisis

The spread of the coronavirus rattled global financial markets, sending U.S. stocks to their worst week since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Demand spiked for safe assets from Treasuries to the yen.
The S&P 500 plunged 11% in the five days and the Dow Jones Industrial Average careened to the lowest since June, wiping out almost $3 trillion in value from American equities. Treasuires surged, pushing yields on the 10- and 30-year notes to record lows during the period. Oil plunged toward $45 a barrel in its biggest weekly rout since 2008.
“Investors are selling stocks first and asking questions later,” Keith Lerner, SunTrust’s chief market strategist, wrote in a note. “We are seeing signs of pure liquidation. ‘Get me out at any cost’ seems to be the prevailing mood. There is little doubt the coronavirus will continue to weigh on the global economy, and the U.S. will not be immune. There is much we do not know. However, it is also premature to suggest the base case for the U.S. economy is recession.”
Battered bulls got a boost Friday when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is monitoring the virus and will act as appropriate, adding that the “fundamentals of the economy remain strong.” Bank of America strategists now expect the Fed to cut rates by 50 basis points at its March meeting. White House Economic Adivser Larry Kudlow suggested investors “buy the dip.”
The S&P 500 fell 0.8% in the final day of the week, rallying back in the final 15 minutes of trading from losses that topped 3%. The index still dropped for a seventh day, its longest slide since 2016. The Cboe Volatility Index hit the highest in two years. The Nasdaq indexes ended higher.
Banks led Friday’s drop, with JPMorgan sinking 4%, as travel restrictions took hold and trading floors scrambled for contingency plans if offices are required to close. Airlines tumbled after Lufthansa curbed short-haul flights and United pared back travel in Asia.
U.S. equity markets shuddered as the World Health Organization raised its global risk level for the virus and a White House official suggested some schools could close. More major companies warned that disruptions could upend sales and profit forecasts. Germany said it will intensify border checks and Switzerland banned large events, leading to the Geneva car show being canceled. Iran and South Korea revealed more infections while the first cases appeared in Mexico and Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
Downgrades to the global outlook keep rolling in and money markets now see three Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts this year. Bank of America predicted that the global economy will see its weakest year since the financial crisis as the virus damages demand in China and beyond.
“Asset prices diverged significantly from growth in the past year, in part because of central bank policy, but also because passive investment’s main signal is price action,” reckons James McCormick, global head of desk strategy at NatWest Markets. “The COVID-19 escalation runs a real risk of virtuous cycle turning to a vicious one. Either way, given where growth estimates are heading for the next few months, I’d expect more downside.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Trump budget cuts could become a big problem as coronavirus spreads
—China cracking down on VPNs in coronavirus crisis
—China tries to restart economy as outbreak slows. Is it heading back to work too soon?
—5 reasons coronavirus statistics seem inconsistent
—Coronavirus may be the straw that breaks the back of oil fracking
Subscribe to Fortune’s Brainstorm Health newsletter for daily updates on biopharma and health care.


fortune--2020-02-28--The oil industry is finally talking climate crisis, but don’t expect change to come easily

It took approximately one hour for someone to mention Greta Thunberg.
Standing onstage at a Monday morning event at the start of the annual International Petroleum Week in London, Chris Midgley, the global head of analytics at S&P Global Platts, flipped to the next slide on his Powerpoint presentation, and an illustration of the Swedish climate activist loomed over a ballroom full of oil and gas executives.
“This young lady, Greta Thunberg, has had a huge impact,” he said.
Thunberg, who has launched to global fame in the months since her “Fridays for Future” protest movement spread worldwide, was not present at the oil industry’s annual event, a weeklong mash up of conferences and parties in London that operates as a temperature-taking for the industry.
But her presence was clearly felt, as the face of the growing public pressure on the oil and gas sector to act on climate change. This year, that pressure was a major theme for the oil industry, bringing environmental questions to a business that has often been accused of looking the other way; presenting difficult questions about the possibility of meeting increasing energy demand while also decarbonizing; and frequently drawing assurances that the world—regardless of environmental commitments—would still need oil for many years to come.
‘Obsolescence and destruction’
By the following day, that pressure was increasingly obvious, even as climate protestors themselves were nowhere to be seen. (Last year, Extinction Rebellion protestors glued themselves to the venue’s doors.)
Also conspicuously absent at the official International Petroleum Week event, which began on Tuesday, were the usual keynotes from CEOs of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. In their place were two sets of speakers: experts, some from within the sector, who offered the industry sharp rebukes on its record on climate change—and executives charged with the awkward task of defending their companies’ records on the environment.
“Many oil and gas companies are facing a major challenge,” said Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, speaking at the event. “On the one hand, short-term profits. On the other hand, having a social license [to operate]. How are they going to balance these things?”
So far, not well. Claims that the industry was investing in clean energy did not bear out scrutiny, Birol said: an IEA analysis showed that 99% of investment by major oil and gas companies worldwide was in fossil fuels, with just the remaining 1% in clean energy. Meanwhile, oil companies’ own operations contributed 15% to their emissions, with the majority of that in the form of methane.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these methane emissions can be reduced with existing technology, and at no or low cost,” he said. “We need companies not to be greedy here.”
The industry must take “immediate action”, and work with the other sectors it serves in order to stay relevant, said Andrew Smart, Global Energy Lead at Accenture.
“We’re clearly confronted with the fact that many other industries and sectors have embraced the circular economies, are driving the circular economies, far quicker and more effectively than we have today,” Smart said. “And that there is a massive opportunity for us if we step in and embrace that.”
The industry has the background and the capability to play a major role in the energy transition, particularly in developing carbon capture and storage technology, Bob Ward, from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
But the lack of investment in clean energy gives the impression of a sector “invested in its own obsolescence and destruction”, he said, while climate denial is still being allowed to continue.
“The oil and gas industry has a track record of dragging its feet on this issue,” Ward said. “There are those within the industry that have in the past—and continue to—promote climate change denial. Every time somebody from within the industry promotes climate change denial, it damages the whole industry. And you’re going to have to call them out on it. It’s bad science, it’s bad economics, it’s bad politics, it’s bad ethics.”
‘Nothing less than a complete change in the economic model.’
For energy companies, it was a tense act to follow. Speaking after the other panelists, executives at Shell and Equinor, the Norwegian national energy company, made statements recognizing the severity of the impact of climate change, while also defending their own companies’ efforts.
Sinead Lynch, U.K. Country Chair for Shell, said the company had set ambitious emissions goals for 2050—which, until BP committed to net zero emissions in 2050 earlier this month, were broadly viewed as the most aggressive among the world’s largest oil majors—and was backing solar and wind projects, while supporting the creation of a government carbon tax in every market they operate in.
But she also argued that the shift was going to be more difficult if all the players on the energy sector were not working together with “unprecedented” levels of collaboration.
“One of the challenges of that deep collaboration that we need is that the public debate on climate change is becoming increasingly polarized,” she said.
Rising populations and the search for better living standards would inevitably raise energy demand, Lynch said, “and as much of that energy as possible needs to be clean. But oil and gas will also need to play a role, and so society’s use of oil and gas will not necessarily reduce at the pace many might like.”
Echoing Lynch’s comments, Al Cook, executive vice president of Global Strategy and Business Development at Equinor, pointed out the company’s investments in carbon capture and storage near Norway, and a wind energy project offshore Scotland. The impact of climate change was clear, he noted.
“Even in Norway, at the beginning of January, we saw a temperature 19 degrees [celcius],” or 66 degrees Fahrenheit, he said. “If you’ve been to Norway, you’ll know that that is not normal for the beginning of January.”
But he, too, said that the industry needed more collaboration, including with governments and investors.
“We’re working together for nothing less than a complete change in the global economic model,” he said. “For 200 years, we’ve made the environment the servant of the economy, extracting resources to drive wealth, and it has benefited billions.”
Now, Cook said, it was time “to make economies the servant of the environment.”
If it felt like a mediated confrontation between the tensions of public pressure over climate change, and what the future of energy companies will look like, it was still a notable shift.
Reflecting on the discussions of climate change dominating this year’s event (alongside another crisis: the coronavirus outbreak), Paola Rodrigues-Masiu, an analyst at energy consultancy Rystad, said the needle had finally shifted from “if” the energy transition was happening—to what that transition would actually look like.
It was a shift that was “unthinkable” just a couple years ago, she said—and meant two traditionally divided actors on climate change would finally be forced to meaningfully interact.
“Oil companies and environmentalists: they can no longer ignore each other,” she said. “I think that’s the slogan of 2020.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—In China, oil won’t be the only sector battered by the coronavirus
—Energy emissions plateaued in 2019
—Oil demand was set to rise in 2020, then the coronavirus outbreak hit
—Can Germany phase out nuclear energy and coal?
—Coronavirus may be the straw that breaks the back of oil fracking
Subscribe to The Loop, a weekly look at the revolutions in energy, tech, and sustainability.


fortune--2020-02-28--Apple’s Tim Cook says coronavirus-driven supply chain changes are temporary

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook suggested the iPhone maker wouldn’t make any quick moves out of China in light of interruptions due to the coronavirus and called the situation a “temporary condition.”
“We’re talking about adjusting some knobs, not some sort of wholesale, fundamental change,” he said in an interview aired Friday on Fox Business.
Apple’s China-focused supply chain is facing two major tests—first from a trade war between the U.S. and China and more recently from manufacturing outages spurred by the spread of the virus across the world’s most populous nation.
Apple scrapped its March quarter revenue guidance recently, citing iPhone production constraints and closed stores in China due to the coronavirus. On Friday, Cook was asked if the disruption would bleed into the June quarter. “We’re still in February, there’s reason for optimism, but we’ll see,” he said.
The Apple supply chain is “relatively more important in China,” he said, but noted that he’ll be watching the coronavirus situation unfold in Korea and Italy since Apple has suppliers and businesses there as well. “It’s very important to see what happens there,” he added.
Cook also defended a supply-chain strategy that he has led for years. “We’ve worked through earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, floods, tsunamis, SARS, so we’ve had a long list of things, and the operational team is very deep at working through these,” the CEO said. “So the question for us after we get to the other side, was the resilience there or not and will we need to make some changes?”
“It will take some time, but by and large, I think this is a temporary condition, not a long term kind of thing,” he added.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—New tech-centric Mastercard CEO has his eyes on the fintech prize
—Did the ‘techlash’ kill Alphabet’s city of the future?
—How technology is changing how we volunteer
—Credit Karma was acquired rather than pursuing an IPO. Will more companies follow suit in 2020?
—Half of U.S. local government offices haven’t upgraded their ransomware defenses since 2019’s online crime spree
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-28--How to think about COVID-19

How to think about COVID-19

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus, recently named COVID-19, a public health emergency of international concern. In the U.S., the Secretary for Health and Human Services declared it a public health emergency for the country.
Since it was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei, China, COVID-19 has been found in about 40 countries. Over 80,000 cases have been identified globally, including nearly 3,000 deaths, a death toll higher than that of the 2003 SARS epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just announced the US can expect to see new cases within its borders.
Inevitably, there is much fear about COVID-19. This has been reflected in the global economy, as markets react to the disease. Last Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined over 1,000 points, then slipped more than 800 points the next day. The London-based bank HSBC Holding PLC has lowered expectations for growth in its Asia markets, and Apple has announced the virus will stop the company from reaching its first quarter revenue targets.
Anxieties about COVID-19 have led to many responses, from the precautionary—such as the widespread purchasing of respiratory masks—to the cruelly counterproductive; namely, a willingness to scapegoat people of Chinese descent.
Such scapegoating is, sadly, an old story. When unexpected, large-scale health challenges strike, especially infectious health challenges, the climate of fear and uncertainty can lead to a belief that some people are especially at fault for creating or spreading the disease. This stigmatization can produce new outbreaks—outbreaks of racism, xenophobia, hate.
Often, these outbreaks target groups which are already marginalized and treated as “the other.” When the Black Death struck Europe in the 14th century, for example, ignorance of the disease’s true cause led to increased persecution of Jews, beggars, and foreigners.
The past also teaches that when health challenges like COVID-19 occur, it is not uncommon for pseudoscience and misinformation about disease to spread, as anxiety clouds our judgment about the soundness of the information we consume.
Earlier eras brought quack cures like the belief that drinking vinegar could ward off the Black Death, or the mistaken conviction that cholera was caused by miasma, or “bad air.” Misinformation is hardly less prevalent in the era of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” where the basic standards of truth itself have become, to some, open to debate.
We now see misinformation about COVID-19 infection rates, and conspiracy theories about its cause. In this context, it is important that we take a measured approach to COVID-19, hewing closely to what we know about the disease, rejecting unfounded speculation, and not letting fear eclipse our common sense.
So, here is what we know. COVID-19 is an infectious respiratory disease, not unlike the flu. It spreads mainly through coughing and sneezing. Risk of infection remains low for anyone not in direct contact with a patient. Preventing the disease means embracing the same precautions used against other communicable diseases—hand washing, covering one’s mouth when one coughs, reaching out to a health care provider when feeling sick, and avoiding others if one is infected.
For an up-to-date look at the disease’s symptoms, how COVID-19 spreads, and steps for remaining healthy, visit the CDC’s website. Or join us at the Boston University School of Public Health on March 12, for a seminar on the disease, an event which will also be available via online livestream.
And what are we to do to respond to COVID-19? What can workplaces and institutions do?
First of all, the epidemiology of the epidemic is evolving and this answer will change as we know more, as patterns of disease become clearer in the US. But broadly speaking measures of control are those that make sense for other common respiratory illness.
Common sense precautions that may extend to limiting large assemblies of people and using distance working tools until the epidemic passes. We are not at that place yet in the U.S., and the next few days and weeks will be telling.
But we do know some things that we should do that will not change. Faced with sudden, large-scale diseases, there is a temptation to divide ourselves into “us” and “them,” to build barriers between the healthy and the sick, or those assumed to be at greater risk of infection.
Part of this comes from the reasonable necessity of quarantine and social distancing, which can indeed help control the spread of disease. But this approach assumes that there are groups that are likelier at risk and who are “dangerous” to others.
Such assumptions are simply wrong. Infectious disease know no boundaries and do not stop with personal identities. Even worse, such approaches result in a climate of fear stoking bigotry and divisiveness. These attitudes are dangerous. Not only do they not keep us healthy, they actively make us sicker.
COVID-19 is a public health threat, worthy of international concern. As individuals, we can take prudent steps to protect ourselves. As communities and nations, we can refuse to embrace stigma, and instead work collectively towards better health for all.
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, is Professor and Dean at the Boston University School of Public Health. His recent book is, Well: What we need to talk about when we talk about health. Follow him on Twitter: @sandrogalea


fortune--2020-02-28--Court temporarily halts Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted a Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts.
The same court decided to keep another major change on hold, one that denies asylum to anyone who enters the U.S. illegally from Mexico.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the two policies that are central to President Donald Trump’s asylum crackdown, dealing the administration a major setback, even if it proves temporary.
The question before the judges was whether to let the policies take effect during legal challenges.
The Trump administration has made asylum an increasingly remote possibility at a time when claims have soared. By 2017, the United States had become the world’s top destination for people seeking asylum.
The “Remain in Mexico” measure took effect in January 2019 and nearly 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings. The court declared the policy invalid, but acknowledged the ruling only applied to California and Arizona, the only border states in their jurisdiction.
The other measure with far-reaching consequences denies asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. border with Mexico without seeking protection there first. That policy took effect in September and is being challenged in a separate lawsuit.
Justice Department lawyers asserted that Trump was within his rights to impose the policies without Congress’ approval and that they would help deter asylum claims that lack merit.
Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that the administration violated U.S. law and obligations to international treaties by turning back people who will likely be persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality or political beliefs.
Judges William Fletcher and Richard Paez, who were both appointed by President Bill Clinton, sharply questioned government attorneys on “Remain in Mexico” during arguments Oct. 1. They voted to block it.
Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, dissented.
Supporters of the “Remain in Mexico” policy note it has prevented asylum seekers from being released in the United States with notices to appear in court, which they consider a major incentive for people to come.
Its expansion coincided with a sharp drop in Border Patrol arrests from a 13-year high in May, suggesting it may have had its intended effect. The Homeland Security Department called it “an indispensable tool” in an Oct. 28 report.
Opponents say it has exposed asylum seekers to extreme danger in violent Mexican border cities while they wait for U.S. court hearings. Human Rights First, an advocacy group that has criticized the policy, said in January that there were more than 800 public reports of rape, kidnapping, torture, and other violent crimes against asylum seekers who have been sent back to Mexico.
The policy was introduced at the border crossing in San Diego in January and initially focused on asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
It expanded to crossings in Calexico, California, and the Texas cities of El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, Brownsville, and included more people from Spanish-speaking countries.
The administration on Nov. 22 began busing asylum seekers who crossed the border in Arizona from Tucson to El Paso, Texas, to be returned from Mexico from there, extending the policy across every major corridor for illegal border crossings.
In Laredo and Brownsville, asylum seekers appear for hearings in tents on U.S. Customs and Border Protection property, connected by video to judges in other locations.
Mexicans are exempt, as are unaccompanied children.
The asylum ban on anyone who crosses the border illegally from Mexico also drew pointed questions from the judges during arguments. They asked whether the policy violated U.S. law that says it doesn’t matter how people enter the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a ruling blocking the ban following an extraordinary spat last year between Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts.
The president denounced the judge who ruled against the ban as an “Obama judge.” Roberts said there was no such thing in a strongly worded statement defending judicial independence. Trump stood behind his comments.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Are we undergoing an industrial revolution or a phase change?
—Twitter’s testing new ways to fight misinformation. Is open-source the answer?
—Meet Trump’s Giuliani-approved power broker—and Melania’s new senior adviser
—Angela Merkel is on her way out. Meet her potential replacements
—How the 2020 election could influence your personal finances
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.


fortune--2020-02-28--Regulators boost PG&E’s wildfire fine to $2.1 billion

California power regulators on Thursday slapped Pacific Gas & Electric with a $2.1 billion fine for igniting a series of deadly wildfires that landed the beleaguered utility in bankruptcy.
The record penalty imposed in an administrative law judge’s decision boosts a previously agreed upon $1.7 billion settlement announced in December. Several consumer groups had protested the settlement as too lenient in light of PG&E’s destruction, and the California Public Utilities Commission agreed after further review.
PG&E officials said they were disappointed by the increased fine after “working diligently over many months with multiple parties” to reach the previous deal.
“We recognize our fundamental obligation is to operate our system safely and we share the same objectives as the Commission and other state leaders — namely in reducing the risk of future wildfires in our communities,” PG&E spokesman James Noonan said in a statement.
The harsher punishment includes a $200 million payment to California’s general fund.
The San Francisco company has already set up a $13.5 billion fund to help those who lost family members, homes and businesses in catastrophic wildfires caused by PG&E’s outdated electrical grid and negligence during 2017 and 2018. The fires killed nearly 130 people and destroyed almost 28,000 homes and other buildings.
More than 81,000 claims have been filed in the bankruptcy case.
The decision will also prevent PG&E from attempting to recover $1.82 billion from its customers, forcing its shareholders to bear the cost instead. The settlement previously had prevented PG&E from recovering $1.63 billion.
As part of the previous settlement, PG&E had projected it would realize $469 million in tax savings. Thursday’s ruling could require the San Francisco company to funnel any tax savings to hold down the prices charged to the 16 million people who rely on the nation’s largest utility for electricity.
Thursday’s rebuke is the latest blow to PG&E, which has been trying to climb out of a huge financial hole left by its liabilities from the fires. The company filed for bankruptcy 13 months ago to seek shelter from more than $50 billion in claimed losses. It is seeking to emerge from bankruptcy by June 30 to qualify for a state wildfire insurance fund.
PG&E has settled those claims by reaching settlements totaling $25.5 billion with the wildfire victims, insurers and some government agencies.
But the company still faces some potentially imposing hurdles, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening a government-led takeover bid if the utility doesn’t make significant reforms. PG&E needs state approval of the plan to qualify for the wildfire insurance fund.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—The Greek economy is roaring back—which could lead to mass evictions
—Trump budget cuts could become a big problem as coronavirus spreads
—Should consumers be wary of Apple’s heartbeat monitoring app?
—One of Bordeaux’s most revered estates is launching a new high-end wine in Napa
—5 reasons coronavirus statistics seem inconsistent
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-02-28--George Clooney “saddened” by Nespresso’s alleged use of child labor

A new tool to track Latinx inclusion in the Fortune 100, George Clooney is sad, the Marines ban the Confederate flag, and a viral video highlights the disproportionate punishment of Black kids in school.
But first, here’s your week in review, in Haiku.
“Call me Harry,” he
smiled, becoming the hero
we didn’t know we
needed. In a world
of Hot Pockets heiresses,
always Be The Good.
If you can’t be good,
at least try to be sorry,
and at the very
least, wash your hands. In
a world of hate and fear, hope
can be hard to find.
Take a breath. Look up!
We’ve a new moon in tow! Let’s
name her Katherine.
Wishing you a hopeful and stellar weekend.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
George Clooney “saddened” by Nespresso’s alleged use of child labor The actor, who has been the face of the coffee brand worldwide, was reacting to a media report that alleges the company had been sourcing coffee from Guatemalan farms using child labor. Nespresso said they have stopped all coffee purchases from the entire region until they can confirm that child labor isn’t being used; Clooney asked the British investigative documentary program Dispatches to stay on the story. “Having grown up working on a tobacco farm from the time I was 12, I’m uniquely aware of the complex issues regarding farming and child labor,” says Clooney. “That’s why I joined the Sustainability advisory board of Nespresso seven years ago along with the Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade International, and the Fair Labour Association among many others with the goal then, as it remains to this day to improve the lives of farmers.”
People
The Latino Corporate Directors Association is putting corporate boards on notice The group that’s dedicated to improving Latinx representation on corporate boards has launched a new tool to highlight the issue. It’s new, interactive Latino Board Tracker shows that of 1,000 largest companies in the Fortune cohort, some 75% have no Latinx board members, seven have more than two Latinx board members of any gender, and five have more than one Latina board member. The list is current as of year-end 2019. The company with the highest representation are based in Puerto Rico and Florida, not surprisingly. But one retail titan is a true standout. Can you guess which one?
Associations Now
The Confederate flag is banned from all Marine Corps installations The order issued by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger appeared online yesterday, the directive requires senior staff to ensure the removal of all symbols of the Confederate States of America from all Marine installations. All branches of the military have struggled with the cognitive dissonance of unresolved history now amplified by the modern white supremacy movement. One example: Ten Army bases are still named for Confederate generals. In the past few years, Marines have been investigated or discharged for their associations with alt-right groups, including one Lance Corporal who was dismissed following his arrest for assaulting counter-protesters at the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Task and Purpose
On Background
Today in Black History… As we say goodbye to the best month of the year, I stand in tribute to Phonte, one half of the rap duo Little Brother, and a damn funny man. Every day this month, he tweeted out an “unsung hero” of Black History, based on the kinds of down-home trailblazing behavior that helps you understand exactly where you come from. “Today in Black History we celebrate David 'Sonny Boy' Pettiford, recognized as the first father to shake up water in an empty bottle of Tussin,” he tweeted on Feb. 23. “Today in Black History we celebrate Stanleyetta Hawkins, the first child to be named by a petty Black father who wanted a son,” came on Feb 20. This one —“Today in Black History we celebrate the life of Kenny Ray Littleton, the first man to be brutally murdered for drying his hands on a decorative towel”— slayed me. A hilarious reminder that I truly am the dream of my ancestors, and so are you.
@Phonte
Predicting conflict on diverse teams This case study on conflict and negotiation focuses on “the faultlines” that occur between people when diverse groups split themselves into “homogenous subgroups according to demographic characteristics,” like race. Researchers observed strong faultlines (and dysfunctional conflict) between a negotiation role-playing team made up of two white men in their 40s and two African-American women in their 20s. But when demographic diversity was broader—as observed in a team comprised of one white man, one Asian man, one Hispanic woman, and one African-American woman, all in their 30s—conflict diminished. But what really made a difference were groups comprised of people with distinct “information-based” diversity, such as work experience or subject matter expertise.
Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation
The hidden history of racism in atomic research European scientists fleeing Adolf Hitler’s rise flocked to the U.S. in the 1940s. Many joined the Manhattan Project and the quest to create atomic weaponry. African-American scientists were welcomed by the refugees in facilities up north, but when the Oak Ridge, Tenn. lab was constructed in the Jim Crow South, black scientific talent was no longer allowed to do the work. Says a University of Chicago professor, the European scientists were shocked. "Many were foreign-born and so the whole idea of discrimination against Blacks was repugnant.” Click through for the inspiring story of J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., the Black prodigy who worked with Enrico Fermi at the famous Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, before his research moved south without him.
Knox News
Tamara El-Waylly produces raceAhead and manages the op-ed program.
Quote
“We’ve had comments on our posts...saying ‘I have been bullied at work because I wear hoops or because I am too Latina.’ For people who thrive in the corporate environment, I would say, find that community that you’re lacking within your corporate job outside and find mentors who will help you show up every day of being unapologetic about who you are."
—Ana Flores, founder of the #WeAllGrow Latina Network


fortune--2020-02-28--Tokyo Disneyland closes down over coronavirus

Coronavirus has closed its third Disney theme park.
Disneyland Japan will close Saturday and stay shut down at least through March 15. Also shutting down are Universal Studios Japan and Legoland Japan.
This is the first time in nearly nine years Disney and Oriental Land Co, which runs the Tokyo Disney property, have been forced to close. That shut down came after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country.
China’s Shanghai Disneyland was closed on January 25 and Hong Kong Disneyland was closed on January 26. Neither has yet announced plans to reopen. While Disneyland Japan expects to be open again in two weeks, Oriental Land says it will work with government officials, which could affect that date.
While the parks are closed, the Disney hotels and monorails near the park remain open.
Japan has been a growing area of concern as the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads. Japan’s Hokkaido island declared a state of emergency Friday. That island is where the Olympic marathons are scheduled to take place this summer. Olympic organizers, meanwhile, are scaling back the torch relay due to the outbreak.
Also on Friday, United Airlines suspended some service to Tokyo and other cities in the country.
The growing threat of COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic has some onlookers concerned the 2020 Summer Games might have to be cancelled. The International Olympic Committee has downplayed those concerns, saying earlier this week that “preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 continue as planned.”
More must-read stories from Fortune :
—Trump budget cuts could become a big problem as coronavirus spreads
—China cracking down on VPNs in coronavirus crisis
—China tries to restart economy as outbreak slows. Is it heading back to work too soon?
—5 reasons coronavirus statistics seem inconsistent
—Coronavirus may be the straw that breaks the back of oil fracking
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