An Affordable Alternative To Amazon Prime | How Top CIOs Are Navigating Data in 2021

Plus: The Future Of Burning Man Emerges At Fly Ranch, An Outrageous New World In The Black Rock Desert

Hello! Filling in for Alexandra Wilson this week.

At Forbes, I am part of a team that builds digital products for the newsroom. That means all newsletters, your preference center, the follow buttons on articles and you may get special themed reports from our team based on your newsletter subscriptions. Behind the curtains, there's a lot of data, and for those navigating a business path in 2021, the writing is clearly on the wall that managing data will navigate us out of uncertainty.

This week Alexandra Sternlicht, the Under 30 Editorial Community Lead, takes a look at Deliverr's mission to building a massive warehouse and data infrastructure to make an Amazon Prime-like experience for all of ecommerce, in a new virtual world.

There are also takeaways from a recent ForbesLive event, Building a Data Culture and Establishing Resilience Through Data Analytics where panelists discussed the long path to recovery during the pandemic and how businesses can build resilience by investing heavily in data. You can read the commentary from the Chief Data Science Officer of Johnson & Johnson, the EVP from Tableau and watch the entire event.

The pandemic has also highlighted just how central technology—and the teams that shape and manage it—have become to companies’ fortunes. Several top CIOs recently shared their 2021 priorities with Forbes and they include ambitious plans for everything from software-driven automation to mining deeper insights from data.

No data can replace a message from you, though. Email me at nshippers@forbes.com, tweet at me, or add me on LinkedIn to share any suggestions on how to make your Forbes experience better.

Must Read Stories For Young Entrepreneurs

On the heels of a year that saw a record amount of venture cash flow into healthcare startups, investor appetite for healthtech does not appear to be waning with a big data startup Innovaccer raising $105 million and a $1.3 billion valuation.

Exclusive Survey: In 2020, many companies ramped up efforts to address systemic racism in and out of offices. Diversity hiring quotas were established, unconscious bias trainings and retention strategies were put into place and pledges were made—but has diversity, equity and inclusion in corporate America actually improved? 

CIO's Top Priorities: Tech leaders’ swift response to the pandemic boosted their influence last year. This year, they aim to use their enhanced status to deliver even more digital success stories.

ICYMI: When this business icon died in a fire, questions abounded. The answers seem rooted in a Covid-period spiral, where he turned to drugs and shunned old friends.

It’s the end of the workplace as we’ve known it: there is no longer a separation of our professional and personal selves. Our new reality: we bring our perspectives, our families, our whole selves into work. In this new reality, what conversations are appropriate? 

Every year since 1986, right before Labor Day, almost 80,000 people gather to celebrate Burning Man, the legendary assembly of spirited people guided by the founders ten principles: “radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.” Now, there's something even more dramatic, revolutionary, and above all sustainable. Welcome to Fly Ranch!

The Pursuit

This week's collection of expert tips from Forbes contributors around the world for those building and running a business. Click to sign up instantly for The Pursuit, a biweekly essential briefing by Senior Entrepreneurs Editor Maneet Ahuja.

A bipartisan government commission on artificial intelligence (AI) recommends changing U.S. immigration laws to allow America to attract and retain talent to compete in AI and other cutting-edge technologies.

Every business needs a way to tell its customers about its products and services. Those marketing channels differ from one business to another and can change as the business grows. Here's marketing tips for early-stage startups.

When workers return to offices, Around CEO Dominik Zane thinks they’ll need a new way to talk with their teammates both who stay remote and who head back in person. They raised $10 million to fight zoom fatigue in the ‘hybrid’ office future.

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