by The Global School for New Leadership Admin | Apr 16, 2020 | April 2020
An army of tech-optimists, innovators and developers are gathering and building up in time record some the best solutions to tackle this pandemic.
Hundreds of innovations are being developed worldwide due to COVID-19, and we would like to share our top 20 technological innovations:
1. Stay Home Tours:
Innovation that allows you to discover virtually a city of your choice such as: Berlin, Bangkok or New York. As well as museums in different parts of the world.
This initiative raises funds to combat COVID and could make the full contribution through the Facebook platform ‘COVID-19 Fundraiser’ at the World Health Organization to help combat the coronavirus. Click here.
2. Corona central:
Brazilian platform that offers a free service that connects people with possible symptoms of COVID with doctors through a chat application (WhatsApp or Telegram). A few questions will be asked to confirm if the call needs to be forwarded to a doctor. If so, the conversation is directed to a request queue, to which the volunteer doctors have access. Click here
3. Cool Plans to Stay at Home:
Bobo Choses is a clothing company in Barcelona that wants to help keep children happy, have fun and explore their creativity during the quarantine. <Cool Plan to Stay at Home> asks families to send photos and videos of their best plans through Instagram, to help inspire other families around the world. Click here
4. We eat together:
Help local restaurants stay open. Launched by a group of restaurateurs who want to help small restaurants like themselves by selling vouchers, pieces of merchandise, or any other special offer, and asking people to redeem them when they open their doors again. You can even register your own restaurant. Click here
5. Innovation for Now:
Wirecard offers a range of low-cost solutions for merchants from the leading technology companies in Germany, who have been affected by COVID and who want to implement digital solutions quickly and easily. Click here
6. Craft tent:
The US-based event tent company USA Use medical and health apps to survive. It leveraged its strengths in custom manufacturing and wide format printing to produce new mobile infirmaries and direct access stores for Covid-19 detection. Click here
7. Masuno
Free and collaborative platform that preserves the most extensive knowledge about COVID for Colombia and the Latin American region. Combat fake news by centralizing all relevant information in one place. Click here
8. Mil Gracias
The Spanish agency Idear Ideas launched the #MilGracias initiative with the aim of exposing the small useful actions that other people do for us and giving them the opportunity to thank them in the way they want and to those they want during these times of crisis. Click here
9. Tuned.
Facebook launches its Tuned messaging app that allows couples to stay more connected, creating a digital scrapbook to help them better deal with social withdrawal and blockages. Click here
10. Did they Help?
The website classifies companies and celebrities who have made positive changes and actions to support employees and society during COVID as ‘Heroes’, and those whose actions may have had a negative impact as ‘Zero’. Click here
11. Bluetooth Estimote:
The company created portable devices with passive GPS location tracking to improve workplace safety for those who must be located in a physical workplace while using isolation and social distancing measures. Click here
12. Make way for books:
Through this free application, parents have access to electronic books in English and Spanish that give them the opportunity to read to their children. Additionally, each book that is in the app is attached to an activity that helps extend the learning that comes with each book. Click here
13. Antibacterial gel donated:
In view of the increased demand for raw materials necessary for the prevention of COVID, the Mar del Plata-based craft brewery and distillery took the initiative to set aside the commercial production of beverages and alcohol products available to health centers and municipalities in charge of distribution. Click here
14. Contactless technology:
Etihad Airways tests new airport technology to identify travelers with COVID symptoms. Contactless technology can monitor the temperature, heart rate and breathing of any passenger. Click here
15. Bakery creates a new bread:
This Vietnam bakery invented a new type of pink bread, to reuse the huge quantities of dragon fruit that were not sold due to COVID, as the country closed much of its trade with China due to the coronavirus. Click here
16. Hilton y American Express:
These companies teamed up to provide one million hotel rooms in the United States from next week to the end of May, to provide first-line personal doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and other medical practitioners a place to sleep. , recharge or isolate. Click here
17. The Russian Vkusvill supermarket:
You want to install vending machines in residential buildings. The vending machines will be placed in buildings of at least 100 apartments and will supply around 70 Vkusvill products to better serve buyers during the closure of COVID in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Click here
18. Happy Hours Virtual:
Molson Canadian launches virtual happy hours to support local bars and restaurants in Canada. The Canadian beer company is rewarding the hosts of its virtual gatherings with a $ 25 gift card destined for their favorite local bar once the restrictions set by COVID-19 are lifted. Click here
19. Your Local Delivered:
Is a free online community that connects local and independent businesses like UK pubs, restaurants, butchers, supermarkets with people who are quarantined at home. Click here
20. I give up my car:
Fundación Ibercaja and the Red Cross have launched the ‘#YoCedoMiCoche’ campaign in Aragon, Spain, turning automobile engines into repair fleets for home delivery of basic products, both food and sanitary, cleaning and hygiene. Click here
Can you recommend a great initiative worth to be part of this list?
Share it with us on Instagram GlobSchool
The Global School Team
by The Global School for New Leadership Admin | Mar 19, 2020 | March 2020
Pandemic
It goes without saying that the mess our world is in right now is one of our own making. We all knew this would happen one day and there have been a plethora of data-backed warning interventions, like the one Bill Gates brilliantly pitched in at TED in 2015. Yet, with very few exceptions, near to zero effort has been made globally to effectively mitigate this risk. What. A. Shame!
Although I am a Medical Doctor, I am not one of the millions of self-proclaimed internet virology experts, or other COVID-19 nut-cases — I’d like to focus on verified, available evidence, and try to figure out some lessons we can all learn in the face of this global uncertainty. If air travel has become this safe today, it is mainly due to the fact the industry has effectively implemented the lessons learned from blackboxes and crash investigations.
I’m henceforth leaving a blackbox here, so maybe one day, our kids will avoid making the same mistakes. So far, in this current saga, only very few nations like Singapore and Hong Kong have effectively implemented their lessons-learned from the previous SARS wave that hit them. But as the global health system has crashed on us everywhere else today, I would like to offer five elements of reflection and a question for discussion and future reference:

A- Five Lessons:
Lesson #1: Despite the distances separating countries and continents, we remain heavily interdependent. However, the balance between the individualism of certain nations and common international good is increasingly tipping toward the former. As Prakash Sethi put it so beautifully in his 2003 book: ‘The economic and sociopolitical problems of the twenty-first century will be largely connected with the interdependent nature of the world and its people, a world in which individual goodwill is not possible without thought for the common good’.
Lesson #2: The Public Health interests of Nations are NOT mutually exclusive. In fact, in the face of public health threats, the health interests of one nation shall be aligned with that of all other nations. By effectively mitigating these risks for their populations, Nations are by default protecting one-another too. The WHO guidelines in this regard have always been quite comprehensive and clear. A few nations implemented them. Many ignored them. Some are still pointing fingers.
Lesson #3: In the case of an epidemic, our whole human race is as protected as our dumbest proxy (including so-called ‘political leaders’). Therefore, the consumption of medical information should be factual, not emotional: stick to verified health experts’ facts, not politicians’ blabber or your next of kin’s stupid post. In times of a public healthcare crisis, only read and listen to the official experts recommendations through their official channels. Learning this lesson or not is a matter of life and death.
As the internet has unfortunately become a garbage bin of ignorant content, the sources replicating that garbage have become contaminated. For the record: social media are not official sources of information until you check on the authenticity of the real source of publication. Unfortunately, through these channels, ignorance is spreading as fast at the virus itself, and you don’t want to take any advice based on ignorant people’s opinions either, because it makes you ignorant yourself.
There’s a reason why medicine is a science where uninformed individual opinions have no place. If you struggle to get access to reliable evidence-based sources of information, I’m suggesting some for you at the end of this article.
Lesson #4: The tax imposed on the global economic activities by a globally very poor health disaster preparedness is quite high. As we can observe, the wealth of nations is linear to the health of their populations. Adding insult to injury, the next silent healthcare killer wave is already hitting the shores via obesity and smoking and there’s a very little window to act. Back in 2015, I have published a paper on this topic urging responsible governments for action.
If we ignore this crucial relationship between population health and economy, and do not urgently capitalise on the visit our microscopic ‘Corona’ Nemesis to drive sweeping societal changes, then why bother about the climate altogether?
Lesson #5: Short-termism kills: A message to all apprentice politicians out there: long-term planning means a plan that spans longer than one electoral cycle, and in public healthcare, these plans are altruistic by nature. Both concepts of altruism and long-termism are something most politicians are paid to not understand.
Also, unlike building new hospitals for the communities, preventive medicine policies are not as sexy because laymen are unable to appreciate them at face value. But now, look back! If they were implemented, don’t you think those policies might have saved more lives and economies than all hospital beds and medical resources the world is unable to mobilise right now?
B- The Big Question:
In the past 2 weeks I have been approached by at least three instances to help put together an effective track-and-trace software solution to tackle the current pandemic problem in a more timely fashion. The common denominator of these solutions is a question to all of us: How much private information are we individually willing to make public, for the sake of enhancing public health and safety?
All your contact details, your last location and related time stamp, the identity of people you had physical contact with in that particular location, etc. — There’s no silver-lining, and there lies the whole complexity of public healthcare and safety.
Finally, as promised, here are some free evidence-based and regularly updated scientific resources on COVID-19:
- New England Journal of Medicine
- The Lancet
- American College of Physicians
- World Health Organisation
These are THE references and fact-checkpoints for 99% of the stuff you read out there on COVID-19. If the information you read or heard is not in one of these links, then it’s likely to be fake and it’s your responsibility to help redress it.
Learn. Stay Safe. Educate.
Mehdi Khaled, MD
Socio Director en SEHA
by Roberto A. Arrucha | Mar 13, 2020 | March 2020
Let´s be honest, no everyone will survive the coronavirus crisis …. buuuut what it doesn´t kill you make you stronger. Here 5 lessons (or changes needed) for your business model to thrive this crisis.
1. Variable Vs Fixed Cost.
Do you remember that last part of your business model canvas? Yes, that one in the left lower corner. Yes, you and everyone ignored it.
Well, finally you are paying attention to this super important base of your business: COST STRUCTURE.
You are not struggling cause the lack of income, you struggle due to your bills are piling up and you won’t have money to pay them.
Dividing your cost structure between Variable vs Fixed Cost will allow you to leverage fairly the operation of your business according to the market conditions.
Paying so much on a fancy office when your clients rarely visit you? Time to work from a co-working space.

2. Revenue Streams.
Everyone wants to hunt the big fish, everyone wants Steve Jobs and Elon Musk in the portfolio of clients, it seems sometimes a “status quo” than a real business model.
Let me ask you, do you have a revenue stream or revenue streamS? Do your income generators have you back?
I know, it sounds easier than it is, however, having the power to develop at least 2 income generators from the same or different activities is a life-vest during shaky moments.
E.j. If you sell a hand cream (luxury product), you can also sell a disinfectant soap (they are running out now from the stores). DIVERSIFY your income, and prioritise a cash flow activity.

3. Running a business is not always about making money.
It is about providing value, and when your functional value proposition runs out (better process, cheaper, higher quality) due to market uncertainty, your emotional value proposition will stand out.
How is your brand making feel your customers when purchasing your product/service? Do they connect with your why? Your client’s loyalty will be challenged the following days and their feeling of belongingness will decide your survival.
4. Time to re-arrange partnerships.
If you are relying on your partners to keep your business floating during this crisis, it is time to rearrange and rethink your partners.
Like clients, partners need also qualification:
Are they providing you with a better value proposition?
Are they reducing your cost structure?
Are they providing you with valuable communication and distribution channels?
If the answer is NO. You need to stop collecting logos on your website and collect real value.
5. Are you enjoying this moment? If your answer is no, time to say goodbye.

If you are not enjoying this challenge, if you don´t feel excited about the opportunities ahead, leave this business immediately.
If you blame the coronavirus for your business failure and collapse, it is time to abandon it.
The coronavirus crisis gives you an excellent opportunity to close down and Start Doing What You Love.
Is it time to re-arrange your Business Model? Let me help you out to survive the coronavirus crisis.
20 years as an entrepreneur and 10 as a social entrepreneur working for social entrepreneurs and impact-driven businesses is kind of good skill at this moment, huh?
😀 Download my Social Business Canvas for FREE HERE, and work from home. Or…
😍 Have a 1 hour 1:1 consulting session with me for only €150,
Coronavirus Price €50! (CLICK HERE).

Roberto A. Arrucha
Director & Founder of The Global School for Social Leaders &
Author of the Social Innovation Box.


