Blogs

While we may not have a magic wand to reveal the future, we have the next best thing! View our 2021 Mid-Year Economic Update webinar to catch a glimpse of how your business may be impacted by possible market and industry trends. Leading economist, Anirban Basu, Chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group, Inc., delivers an insightful, entertaining “Chamber of Data” themed presentation that pays a subtle homage to the Harry Potter series. Don’t worry, we didn’t let the sorcery get out of hand. During this webinar, Basu delivered economic data and an analysis juxtaposing the pre-pandemic and pandemic...

The farm labor shortage, soaring fertilizer prices, and increasing inflation can easily put a damper on what otherwise should be a favorable time for agriculture. While the effects of these price fluctuations can be mitigated, doing so requires careful planning and preparation. The farming industry—like every industry—has had to grapple with significant (and in some cases systemic) changes over the past few years in the way it conducts business. Demand for row crops, fresh produce, and nuts and berries has stayed robust. But the lingering after-effects of Covid-19 persist, causing supply chain...

Protecting your business from increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics is a challenge, especially in the continuing remote and hybrid working environment. As businesses have evolved their payment strategies and operational controls in this “new normal”, fraudsters are adapting to take advantage of vulnerabilities created in this changing landscape. Our bank experts share shifting fraud trends in the payment environment, fraudsters’ evolving sophisticated tactics, common types of fraud that may impact your business as well as best practices and steps you can take to mitigate risk and protect...

With more than an estimated 200,000 jobs to fill (and more to come), nursing home and ALC staff have every opportunity at their disposal to find a new position. Almost every operator you speak with will tell you recruitment and retention is one of their biggest challenges in today’s labor market, if not the biggest. That's why Skilled Nursing and Senior Housing operators must implement strategies to ensure the right staff is in place to deliver quality patient care. Covid-19 highlighted the importance of nurses more than ever before. As cases, hospitalizations, and deaths spiked in every city...

Is just-in-time manufacturing entirely to blame for the shipping crisis and ongoing supply chain issues? Experts seem torn on the matter. Ailing after World War II, Japan set its sights on rebuilding its industry sector with some help from its friends in the West. For the next 30 years, they experimented with different ways to utilize cash flow, real estate, labor, and resources to maximize profits. Then, Toyota pioneered the first iteration of just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing: the practice of making products to order, instead of managing an unwieldy inventory. Also sometimes referred to as a...