GLG’s Top 10 Articles of 2020

It’s safe to say that 2020 was a once-in-a-lifetime year, with a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic hitting large segments of the economy hard and a consequential election dominating the news cycle and causing uncertainty in the market. Unsurprisingly, our most popular articles this year tied back to these events. From the rise of telemedicine and online food delivery to the fall of corporate travel, we saw major changes in just about every industry. Our top 10 articles of 2020 take a deep dive into those shifts.

1. UberEats vs. Grubhub vs. DoorDash: The Battle for Online Food Delivery
   Online food delivery is still new or unknown to most of the U.S., outside our major cities. Our interview with Phil Dumontet, founder and former CEO of DASHED, looks at which major players are best positioned to permeate suburban and rural markets.
2. COVID-19 Update: The Race for a Vaccine
   Three medical and public health experts, Nicole Lurie, Michael Osterholm, and Rachel Sherman, weighed in on the state of the COVID-19 crisis. Although we now have a Food and Drug Administration–approved vaccine, their insights on what it will take to distribute a vaccination — and whether resistance to a vaccination will thwart the effort altogether — are still highly relevant.
3. The Future of the ACA in a Post-Ginsburg World
   The future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) hinges on the Supreme Court decision in Texas v. Azar. Nicholas Bagley, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, sat down with GLG to discuss the case and the outlook for the ACA now that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been replaced by Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
4. A Rough Road Lies Ahead for Corporate Travel
   The magnitude of COVID-19-related losses on the travel industry was staggering. Peter McFadden, former Head of Strategic Partnerships at Expedia Group Inc., tackled tough questions in this interview, like when the industry might bounce back, and which changes are indicative of new, long-term trends.
5. How Machine Learning Could Improve the Selection of Board Directors
   What if we could diversify and improve boards with an algorithm? Michael Weisbach, Chair of Finance at Ohio State University, thinks we can, and penned a paper with his colleagues to that effect. In a webcast with GLG, Weisbach elaborated on how machine learning might be the future of choosing board members.
6. The 6 Biggest Issues Facing the $532 Billion Beauty Industry
   The year is 2019. No one’s even heard of COVID-19. But while everything seems normal, the beauty industry is suffering huge losses. Laura Elkins, former Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for MAC Cosmetics at Estée Lauder, makes sense of those losses in this article, covering everything from a shifting retail landscape to a new preference for skincare and clean beauty.
7. Telemedicine Survey: Patient and Physician Adoption
   Telemedicine’s roots date back to 1925, but it’s never really taken off. GLG surveyed 505 American doctors to find out if COVID-19 might be a turning point. Our results showed that while telemedicine has gained mainstream acceptance, demand is likely to drop when patients can move freely again.
8. U.S. Retail Is Doing Better Than Expected Entering the Second Half of 2020
   Back-to-school acted as a buoy for retail sales going into Q3, boosting overall sales higher than predicted. GLG talked with Craig Johnson, President of Consumer Growth Partners, to see how retail performance was tracking against this and other projections.
9. Telemedicine Dynamics: Payer Perspective
   COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine, but there are still obstacles for the industry to overcome. One such issue is whether payers will be reimbursed the same way they would for a traditional doctor’s visit. GLG talked to Elizabeth Bierbower, former Segment President of Employer Group and COO of Specialty Benefits at Humana, about what she expects to see from patients after the pandemic is over.
10. The 2020 Presidential Election: Expect Uncertainty
    This year’s presidential election has been something of a roller coaster, but that was expected. Back in August, GLG interviewed David Mason, Senior Vice President at Aristotle International and former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, on everything mail-in voting, early voting, and the litigation we were likely to see before and after Election Day.

And there you have it — the year no one could have predicted and the trends that came out of it.

Be sure to also check out our top eBook of the year, Election 2020: Insights and Perspectives, in which senior officials from the Democratic and Republican parties weigh in on the (then) impending election.