In the past few weeks, the B2B world has begun to face new challenges certainly off the beaten path of the day-to-day. As society and the workforce grasp onto a new reality, B2B marketers and sellers are faced with the challenge of how to maintain a strong pipeline in the coming months. 

Outside of travel restrictions, event cancelations, and newly developing remote work environments, there are still ample other IT events and triggers impacting your target accounts. 

As you spend unanticipated time re-engineering your account planning and tweaking strategy, we hope this roundup of news in the IT world saves some time and helps you to approach the below accounts more strategically. 

 

[Chicago Tribune] Companies beef up video conferencing, cybersecurity as coronavirus prompts race to work from home

Businesses often have a contingency plan — a Plan B — in case workers can’t get to the office, but few companies expected their backup plans to be deployed for a worldwide pandemic.

Emissary Advisors ready to collaborate on Coronavirus action plans:

  • Former VP of IT, Johnson & Johnson
  • Former VP of Product Development and Operations, American Express
  • Former CIO, Procter & Gamble
  • Former CISO, Sabre, Anthem, Sallie Mae, and more
  • Former Director of Corporate Delivery, Southwest Airlines

 

[Fortune] How will coronavirus impact the economy? Here are 5 early-warning indicators

Check out five areas where a slowdown from U.S. consumers cutting back may show up first. By and large, indications are that consumption — the biggest part of the U.S. economy—has so far slowed only slightly.

  • Former VP of IT, Johnson & Johnson
  • Former VP of Product Development and Operations, American Express
  • Former CIO, Procter & Gamble
  • Former CISO, Sabre, Anthem, Sallie Mae, and more
  • Former Director of Corporate Delivery, Southwest Airlines

 

[Fortune] How coronavirus is rippling through travel, energy, financial markets

The economic effects of the coronavirus have preceded the spread of the virus itself, with financial markets swinging wildly, companies closing offices or asking employees work from home in affected areas, and throttling air travel across the globe. Following is a brief look at how things are changing in the economy and the workplace today as the outbreak widens.

Emissary Advisors ready to collaborate on Coronavirus action plans:

  • Former VP of IT, Johnson & Johnson
  • Former VP of Product Development and Operations, American Express
  • Former CIO, Procter & Gamble
  • Former CISO, Sabre, Anthem, Sallie Mae, and more
  • Former Director of Corporate Delivery, Southwest Airlines

 

[CNBC] New Disney CEO faces his first major challenge as coronavirus shuts down Disneyland and stock drops

Bob Iger’s surprise decision to hand the CEO reins over to parks chief Bob Chapek in February will give Chapek his first major challenge as CEO: Dealing with the fallout from the coronvirus outbreak.

Emissary Advisors from Disney:

  • Former CFO
  • Former VP, Planning and Development
  • Former CMO
  • Former Director, Enterprise Technology

 

[NY Times] Boeing’s Hires New CEO and Appoints new CIO

In his eight weeks on the job, Boeing’s chief executive, David L. Calhoun, has come to the conclusion that things inside the aerospace giant were even worse than he had thought. 

In further news at Boeing, Susan Doniz has been names as its new CIO and senior vice-president of IT and data analytics. She was previously group CIO of Australian airline Qantas.

Emissary Advisors from Boeing:

  • Former CISO
  • Former Director, Office of Data Privacy
  • Former CFO
  • Former Corporate Information & Analytic Leader

 

[BizJournals] Gap hires New CEO from within ranks

Gap Inc. has chosen Sonia Syngal, the head of its Old Navy business, as CEO, effective March 23. The move, announced Thursday after the markets closed, comes two months after the San Francisco company nixed its plans to split Old Navy into a separate publicly traded company. 

Emissary Advisors from Gap:

  • Former Sr. Director, Global Supply Chain Strategy & Product Operations
  • Former CISO
  • Former VP, Global Strategy
  • Former Director, IT

[Compliance Week] Virgin Media could face GDPR pressure after data breach

Virgin Media is likely to be in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) crosshairs after disclosing a recent breach that affected approximately 900,000 customers to the U.K.’s data regulator.

Emissary Advisors from Virgina Media:

  • Former Head of Transformation
  • Former Head of Programmes
  • Former Head of Digital Experience

 

Visa to acquire Plaid

Visa has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Plaid, a network that makes it easy for people to securely connect their financial accounts to the apps they use to manage their financial lives. Visa will pay total purchase consideration of $5.3 billion to acquire Plaid.

Emissary Advisors from Visa:

  • Former VP, Technology
  • Former Sr. Director, Security Engineering 
  • Former Chief Architect