Recent content from Lee Schafer
Schafer: Will it take a pandemic to finally change college sports?
Without money, the unfairness in the way risks and rewards were spread around gets exposed.
Schafer: The best-kept secret in town? An at-home workout provider takes off in the pandemic
Usage of the fitness and wellness coaching service of Wellbeats skyrocketed, but this was not some sort of accident.
Schafer: How Thrivent is gently raising its distinctive profile in a moment of change
A new marketing campaign aims to build more awareness of Thrivent as a financial services business that remains interested in helping people live a life of greater purpose.
Schafer: SuperAmerica, a well-liked Minnesota brand, has seen six owners churn through in a decade
Even for a time swirling with deals, this recent history seems absurd.
Lack of diversity among top executives contributes to racial wealth gap
Wealth inequality does not get nearly the attention it deserves, and nothing like the focus on income inequality.It's the hand-wringing over the role played by…
Schafer: Think the stock market has made big moves? Take a look at home values
What's happened since the beginning of the pandemic this year isn't exactly a normal recession.
Schafer: Here's why the $600 weekly jobless benefit meant so much to the U.S. economy
Even if Congress and the White House decided to continue the benefit, odds are slim it remains $600 per week.
Schafer: We might wear our masks yet if behavioral science is correct
Making decisions, over and over throughout a day, can use up our capacity for self-control.
Schafer: Big law firms embraced small-business loan program, and for good reason
It wasn't about making sure the rock stars kept getting paid but ensuring the crew members did.
Schafer: Stock market rising on the indispensable companies
The boomers and Xers remember when Microsoft was so dominant that a federal judge ordered it broken up. That year of peak Microsoft…
Schafer: How major league teams can still make money in front of empty stands
Is this the year that sports moves closer to completing its transition from an in-person experience to a reality TV show?
Schafer: Work from home is not about the place
The reasons some employers canned flexible work programs were what you would expect. Yet those seem like correctable management mistakes.
Schafer: An adjustment here, an adjustment there, soon you're talking real money
It's no defense of adjusting numbers for the virus to point out that investors see adjusted financial information all the time
Schafer: As threat vigilance ends, a new way of work is taking shape
The worst days of the spread of infection in our country’s COVID-19 pandemic were not in April after all. They were last week. There was…
New VC firm focuses on Minnesota's bread and butter, and some software
Staking out a well-defined position in venture capital doesn’t look to be easy. Until a track record emerges of generating better returns than the alternatives…
What is Bremer Financial worth? Well, it's complicated
The latest annual tax form called the 990 for the Otto Bremer Trust is now on the St. Paul foundation’s website, and very…
Schafer: How to coax holdouts to don a mask? Take a page from the Spartans
When you think about the health of the group as a whole, wearing a mask makes perfect sense.
Schafer: The last time Minneapolis rioted, one large company did more than just talk about change
Reminders of the one-time giant Control Data Corp. (CDC) can be seen all over the Twin Cities, from a street named Computer Avenue in Edina…
Schafer: So the job market came back in May, but it was still awful
It was the second-worst month in the more than 27 years that layoff announcements of U.S. employers have been tracked.
Schafer: Stress in child care will affect recovery from pandemic
In addition to being kept safe, active and fed, kids in a high-quality child care program are building skills that will help them do well once they get to kindergarten.
Schafer: All around Lake Street, hundreds of business owners now face difficult choices
Even with donations and GoFundMe fundraising, it could take years for this commercial corridor in the state's largest city to fully come back.
Schafer: More savings looks like a good thing, but it's not
Since the last recession ended in 2009, Americans have generally saved about 5% of what they made. That held up until March, when the savings…
Schafer: If you're near retirement, some tips for the hard choices coming your way
Not always being able to pick your own retirement date is just one challenge.
Schafer: Delivery business is dodgy all around, especially these days
Drivers sure need work, too, but delivery doesn't work great for them, either.
Schafer: Maintaining work community away from the office isn't easy
The change in thinking isn't where we work so much as it's how to work better with the tools we have.
Schafer: There's still resilience in tech startups in middle of the U.S.
Never easy, building a company from scratch is going to be harder in this year of the pandemic recession.
Schafer: A job lost in government has the same economic effect as one lost in a business
Declining state and local government spending really can make an economic downturn worse. And this recession is bad enough already.
Schafer: Buffett comforted investors until he described selling
It was sobering to realize he'd already concluded that the airlines likely won't be the same.
Schafer: At the end of an awful month, here's what the stock market taught us
The simple explanation for the bounce back? Hopefully April was the low point.
Schafer: People in Minnesota businesses are solving problems fast
Instead of fixating on what can't be done for users, here are examples of focusing on what can.
Schafer: Bankers are at the crossroads of this crisis and face new scrutiny
We're still early in this economic crisis, but banks should err on the side of keeping businesses able to recover and able to pay workers and suppliers.
Schafer: The pain of social distancing paid off for Minnesota health care providers
HealthPartners shows how the providers have had to tweak facilities, make plans for staffing and more so much still unknown about the disease.
Schafer: There are no simple choices to find an exit from this lockdown
It's clear we can't go back to normal yet, and likely not for months.
Schafer: TP makers, internet providers didn't expect everyone to be home at once
A better question than why there are shortages or surpluses is why there aren't many more of them.
Schafer: Supportive communities are a strength, and working from home on video can't last
When you think about it, the supportive communities of elder care centers can be thought of as a metaphor for healthy neighborhoods, towns, cities and workplaces.
Schafer: Executive pay cuts are just a start in this gloomy time
While it's never going to be possible to see a small cut on $7 million in annual pay as painful, there is a case for these cuts as one part of an authentic leadership response to crisis.
Schafer: Here's why Minnesota doesn't have enough hospital beds
One update from state officials this week on the COVID-19 epidemic included details on facilities to house more hospital beds. So far five usable sites…
Schafer: How one Twin Cities business owner views the path through the downturn
Had Pete Scherer and his colleagues in the family business not managed to survive the Great Recession, they wouldn't be as confident as they are now.
Schafer: Stay home, Minnesota, and wait for the economic payoff to come
The Minneapolis Convention Center is not even half the size of the sprawling Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, now being turned…
Schafer: Finding a way out means keeping the workers and the recipes
A neighborhood restaurant is a perfect way to illustrate something for both business leaders and policymakers to heed in the brutal downturn ahead.
Schafer: This whole thing would be easier if it weren't so uncertain
There is a lot of bad news this week in the economy. More is coming when the formal measures of consumer spending, jobs and the like start getting reported for March.
Schafer: Abrupt closing of Edina cabinet seller shows the rough times and hard decisions ahead
There's unlikely to be severance pay, unused vacation pay and maybe even no last paycheck from CliqStudios.
Schafer: Minnesota may never see another business leader like Whitney MacMillan
MacMillan was an almost perfect spokesman for Cargill, although he wasn't easy to reach.
Schafer: Social distancing is a matter of workplace safety, public health
It's difficult to imagine a full schedule of professional conferences, trade shows and the like resuming any time soon.
Schafer: People want to travel and trade, which means risk
There are a lot of people around the world on the move all the time.
Schafer: So many rankings put Minnesota near the top, but this one finds a quandary
The paradox: To enjoy the highest living standards, people may want to move out of states with high per-person incomes.
Schafer: C.H. Robinson leader sees ripples, not big changes, in global trade
It hadn't been a great couple of years for people who manufacture globally even before the coronavirus.
Schafer: Shale oil passed its peak without making money
There was a boom in it a few years ago, big enough to be felt in Minnesota. But the reckoning is underway.
Schafer: Why Casper mattresses appealed to Target, and what bounces lie ahead
After just a few days, it's way too soon to reach the conclusion that Casper Sleep is a financial fiasco. However, that's the way to bet.
Schafer: Coronavirus outbreak underscores global economic connections
In times of heightened uncertainty, making a decision gets put off.
Schafer: Old is when General Mills brings back a 'nostalgia' product you never heard of
A good way to feel old is to have a major food company reintroduce a “nostalgia” product like Dunkaroos that you didn’t know about when…
Schafer: Naifs like me thought the PolyMet project would be decided on economics
Whether this proposed mine ever operates in the northeastern corner of our state was always about politics.
Schafer: Hospitals and doctors have your health records. Should app makers get them too?
What the conflict really boils down to is differing notions of security when it comes to patient information. And money, too.
Schafer: Three years on, the Wells Fargo scandal is still breathtaking
Thousands of people at the bank knew better. Even the friends and family of Wells Fargo senior executives knew better.
Schafer: Taking a cue from activist investors
The best idea for dealing with this kind of hedge-fund shareholder seems too valuable to not share. And easy, too.
Schafer: Investing in college doesn't always pay
The thing that matters is whether you got value out of what you paid for.
Schafer: Manufacturing has become a weak spot in a healthy economy
The latest of the very closely watched purchasing managers index readings just confirmed what we have been hearing for a while, that American manufacturing went…
Schafer: For Mayo and other nonprofits, operating in the black is about survival, not greed
We have to once again talk about how it just isn’t possible to have a greedy nonprofit, never mind what presidential candidate Bernie Sanders might…
Schafer: For activist investors, real change can be elusive
What really matters is whether the management team generates a return on the capital that exceeds what it costs to get the money in the first place.
Schafer: Best business movie of the decade? "The Social Network" about Facebook
Without counting documentaries, a list of 10 was way too ambitious.
Schafer: Minneapolis Fed's Kashkari plans a steady course in 2020 — with voting, on Twitter
Neel Kashkari thinks he attracts critics mostly because he's both active and open to mixing it up a little himself on Twitter.
Schafer: For Burnsville startup, finding the right board members key to launching product
Chief Executive Lisa Lavin is the only officer listed on the website of Anser Innovation, a startup company based in Burnsville, although a half-dozen additional…
Schafer: When it comes to affordable housing, money matters
On their own nickel, no developer would so much as paint the porch on any of the Fort Snelling buildings.
Schafer: Falling life spans show U.S. economy failing many
Life expectancy stopped increasing in the United States in 2010 and has been decreasing since 2014.
Schafer: 3M deal shows importance of knowing when to sell
Finding the right assets to sell is one of the underappreciated arts of good management.
Schafer: Low interest rates mean recalculating the retirement income formula
For that big generation of Americans now retiring, low-risk investing ideas that provide income have got to be top of mind.
Schafer: Cost-sharing pools don't solve the real problem in health care
A short video entitled “How Does Sedera’s Medical Cost Sharing Work?” on the website of Sedera Health leaves at least one big question unanswered —…
Xcel sees financial payoff in push for wind-power development
The case the industry makes — renewables are cheap enough, and getting cheaper — is getting clearer in the latest numbers.
Schafer: The first step in helping people is getting to know them
Thinking more about the why behind our gifts could make donating a far richer experience.
Shared prosperity is part of competitiveness
One more program for emerging leaders wouldn’t be all that interesting, until you learn more about the problem that a new Minnesota initiative is addressing.…
Schafer: Trade warriors should heed bloody lessons of the Civil War
That's where the reality of the war finally sank in for Gen. Grant: There wasn't going to be any one decisive action that could bring the war to a quick close.
Schafer: Big valuations for Bite Squad, WeWork were never realistic
A reckoning with reality was inevitable.
Schafer: Formula for retaining software engineers is mostly hard work
Maybe that's the lesson for employers, when it comes to talent: Constant recruiting followed by a willingness to train.
Schafer: Rebranding a company is never easy, but sometimes necessary
To understand where Discount Steel came from, you have to go back to its beginning in the summer of 1992.
Schafer: Major threat to U.S. jobs today? It's automation, not China
The adoption of technologies to let machines take over much of the work people do is just getting going.