The coronavirus has impacted business practices across the globe. At a time when everybody is forced to be apart, some companies are responsible for keeping businesses, employees, and families connected. Tami Erwin, Executive VP and Group CEO of Verizon Business, joined ChedHER to discuss how her team is responding to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
The Verizon Business team has employees and customers around the globe, and so the response started taking place about 60 days ago as the coronavirus was impacting Asia and Europe. Erwin, who leads the $32 billion B2B practice, told Cheddar that its key priorities are keeping employees safe and making sure they are available to meet the needs of customers in a crisis environment.
"We've had incredible opportunities to serve customers in unique and different ways as they expand their connectivity, they expand their VPN tunneling so that they have their access into their business systems, they set up remote locations they might not have otherwise planned," explained Erwin.
Earlier this week the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, arrived in New York City to help with the city's overburdened hospitals. The team at Verizon played a critical role in making sure the ship was set up with the connection it needs.
"We've been part of for example the Comfort as it came into New York several days ago, meeting that ship as it came in to provide core connectivity," said Erwin. "We create the networks that move the world forward, and if there's ever been a time that's true, it's now."
As a woman business leader in the tech world, Erwin also encouraged women out there to take an active role in the 5G process. She explained how women should face fear head-on, despite the current environment filled with anxiety and uncertainty.
"Women need to be a part of what's happening with technology or they will be left behind," said Erwin. "I believe that as we move into the fourth industrial revolution, fueled by 5G, this will be the opportunity for women now more than ever to really seize the moment and lead."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
