A Word from Florence Tsai,
our Founder and Managing Director
Dear Friends:
I hope you are well during this unprecedented crisis that seems to pose new challenges every day. I am pleased to share our second edition of the Biweekly Brief, and I hope you find the stories that we have curated from various sources to be insightful and helpful during this pandemic.
As I shared previously, when I founded Centerprising, I felt the world was undergoing a series of severe disruptions around automation, globalization, and the environment. The global pandemic has brought many of these disruptions into sharper focus. The first two decades of the 21st Century have been marked by a kind of turbulence that seems to now be the norm.
From the financial crisis to the global pandemic, it seems volatility has become the “new normal.” The family enterprise is now challenged to adapt to a new normal on a frequent basis.
How can family leaders and rising generation members be prepared to meet these challenges? What systems exist within the family structure to foster these conversations, identify gaps, and set strategies to anticipate and address problems? These are some of the questions that, at Centerprising, we are constantly thinking about.
We welcome your interest. We are a membership-based community of innovators. We incubate wealth creators who are deeply committed to their local and global communities. We have a global roster of experts in a variety of existing and emerging fields. Among many others, we offer journeys to discover purpose, become more effective wealth creators, and establish 21st Century family governance structures.
More importantly, we assemble a Brain Trust to help wealth creators turn challenges into solvable problems and identify opportunities. This Brain Trust is more than just a problem-solving peer advisory group, it helps you find the right collaborators, identify strategic opportunities, and implement solutions. In short, we will help you develop as an effective problem solver. And we hope to have fun in the process as well as build lasting friendships.
As most of us gather to celebrate Mother’s Day, we extend our sincere wishes to you and your families for health and wellness during this unprecedented time.
With warm regards,
Florence
Wealth Creator Spotlight
In Honor of Mother’s Day
The Remarkable Story of Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger,
New York Times Family Matriarch
We honor Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger. She died February 27, 1990 at 97 years old. She was a remarkable force of nature who dedicated tirelessly to her local community in New York.
When her father passed away, she became a trustee of The New York Times in 1935. It was then that her husband was named publisher. She prided herself in maintaining the editorial integrity of the paper. However, she acknowledged in her memoirs, published much later in life, that she had encouraged her husband on issues of social justice.
Upon her passing, the Times captured her many contributions in her obituary available on this link. Among her many noteworthy efforts described, the obituary highlighted her role in maintaining cohesion within the family unit, which included her four children, thirteen grandchildren, and twenty-four great grandchildren. Her memoirs are available for purchase on this link.
Special Centerprising Programs
The Centerprising team is continuing to hold a series of webinars to discuss how Global Family Enterprises can navigate through the pandemic successfully. With our mission of sparking a 21st-century innovation-driven wealth creation renaissance, Centerprising has designed this series to help business families understand the challenges, re-frame the problems, and transform the pandemic into opportunities. The next session titled, “Opportunities Emerging from this Crisis“ will be held Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 9:30 am EST.
If you are interested in joining us, please click on the button below to register:
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that scientists around the globe are working furiously to quickly find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The article indicates that over 100 vaccines are in development and cites six companies that have reached phases I and II. To read the article, please visit this link.
Generations Working Together
Several Billionaires Funding a Secret Project for Covid-19
The Wall Street Journal reports that a group of scientists and billionaires are working on a ground-breaking project to battle the novel coronavirus. The group is led by 33-year-old entrepreneur Dr. Tom Cahill. Dr. Cahill is well-known in several venture capital circles and has connections to present the group’s plan to the White House.
The scientific team includes chemical biologists, neurologists, oncologists, epidemiologists, as well as at least one Nobel Prize winner in biology. The article indicates that Steve Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital, personally edited a report that landed on Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon’s desk. Mr. Solomon then shared it with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
You may read the article on this link.
The New Normal
Structural Changes Resulting from Pandemic Responses
The following is a selection of articles that we have curated to help you think about the “new normal” emerging from responses to the global pandemic.
Bloomberg reports Larry Fink’s forecast for higher corporate tax rates in the horizon as a result of a post-pandemic economy. You may read the story on this link.
Bloomberg reports that the Fed’s intervention may have prevented a blockbuster deal for Warren Buffet. You may read the story on this link.
Bloomberg reviews the Fed’s policy shift to fund highly leveraged companies it previously said it would not. You may read the story on this link.
CNN describes Covid as a “hinge” event that will transform the world in many ways, from how we work to implications on how we think about national security. You may read the story on this link.
Health and Wellness
Menopause and Alzheimer’s
Scientific American brings heightened visibility to the link between menopause and Alzheimer’s disease. The article details the role of estrogen in the metabolic processes in the brain.
Declining estrogen levels and brain glucose are linked to fewer new connections between neurons. The impact is not apparent immediately, but decades later, after menopause, patients are more prone to developing the disease.
The article asserts that menopause does not cause Alzheimer’s, but it does make women more susceptible. To read the full story, please visit this link.