- How to Plan In an Uncertain Economy Harvard Business Review
- Focusing on the future in uncertain times KPMG
- Traditional business planning doesn’t cut it anymore. Here’s what leaders should embrace instead Fast Company
- Transformative strategies unveiled: Leveraging future-back thinking for business resilience The Business Journals
- The future won’t follow your roadmap—here’s how to lead anyway Fast Company
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How to Plan In an Uncertain Economy – Harvard Business Review
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Danish trial reveals how structured exercise and guidance affect life with chronic conditions
A new study reveals that combining tailored exercise therapy with self-management support can safely improve the quality of life for individuals managing multiple chronic conditions.
Study: Exercise therapy and self-management support for individuals with multimorbidity: a randomized and controlled trial. Image Credit: Halfpoint / Shutterstock
In a recent article published in Nature Medicine, researchers investigated whether a program combining support for self-management with personalized exercise therapy would enhance the quality of life for adults living with multimorbidity.
The findings from their research indicate that this intervention could statistically significantly improve the quality of life for individuals living with multimorbidities, without increasing their risk of experiencing adverse events.
Background
Multimorbidity, which occurs when individuals have at least two long-term health conditions, affects over one-third of adults worldwide and is projected to increase by 84% by 2050. It tends to develop 10-15 years earlier in socially disadvantaged populations, worsening health inequalities.
People with multimorbidity often experience reduced mental and physical functioning, lower quality of life, and a higher risk of early death. As chronic conditions increase, so do healthcare costs, hospital visits, and sick leave, placing a growing burden on healthcare systems.
Despite its widespread impact, effective treatments for managing multimorbidity are lacking. Current healthcare approaches often treat each disease separately, resulting in fragmented, conflicting, or inefficient care that can frustrate both patients and providers.
Experts emphasize the need to move towards person-centered care and have identified self-management support and exercise therapy as promising strategies for achieving this goal.
Exercise has proven benefits for a range of chronic illnesses, including depression, diabetes, and heart disease, conditions that commonly co-occur. Similarly, supporting individuals in managing their health has shown promise in reducing healthcare utilization and enhancing quality of life.
However, high-quality evidence has been limited. As a result, robust studies are needed to confirm their effectiveness in real-world settings.
About the Study
This multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) was part of a five-year project called MOBILIZE. It compared a self-management support and personalized exercise therapy program with usual care in adults with multimorbidity, defined as having at least two of six specified long-term conditions: knee or hip osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and depression.
Conducted in Denmark over 12 weeks, participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control groups.
The intervention consisted of 24 supervised sessions, combining 30 minutes of self-management support with 60 minutes of personalized exercise. Exercise intensity was adjusted based on participants’ perceived exertion, and physiotherapists were trained to deliver the program. The control group continued with standard medical care.
Outcomes were assessed at baseline and after 4, 6, and 12 months using validated questionnaires and physical performance tests.
The primary outcome was health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measured after 12 months. Secondary outcomes included physical function, disease burden, mental health, and self-efficacy.
Key Findings
Of the 632 screened individuals with multimorbidity, 228 were randomized: 115 received the 12-week support program in addition to usual care, while 113 received only usual care.
After 12 months, 197 participants (86%) completed the follow-up, with similar retention rates between groups. Adherence to the program was high, with approximately 75% of participants attending at least 18 sessions.
The primary outcome, HRQoL, improved significantly more in the intervention group than in the control group, as determined by the intention-to-treat analysis. Within-group analysis revealed that the intervention group’s HRQoL score improved by 0.050 points, whereas the control group’s score declined slightly by 0.014 points. More participants in the support group also achieved a patient-acceptable symptom state (55% vs. 40%).
Among the secondary outcomes, self-rated health (measured on the EQ-VAS) showed a significant between-group difference, favoring the intervention. Within the intervention group, participants demonstrated statistically significant improvements in physical function (as measured by both the 30-second chair-stand test and the 6-minute walk test), self-rated health, disability, illness burden, and depression. However, these improvements were not statistically significant compared to those seen in the usual care group.
Crucially, in the per-protocol analysis (which included only participants who fully adhered to the program), the between-group difference in HRQoL was not statistically significant.
Safety analyses showed no significant differences in serious or non-serious adverse events between groups, indicating that the intervention was well tolerated. Overall, the results support the potential benefit of the combined program in improving quality of life without increased risk.
Conclusions
This trial demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in HRQoL after 12 months for adults with multiple morbidities who received personalized self-management support and exercise therapy, without increasing the risk of adverse events.
However, the observed improvement of 0.064 points was modest and did not reach the 0.074-point threshold for what is considered a ‘minimum important difference’ in some patient populations, raising questions about its clinical relevance. Only one secondary outcome, self-rated health, showed a statistically significant benefit compared to usual care.
The study’s strengths include its pragmatic, real-world design, high participant adherence, and comprehensive co-design process involving stakeholders.
Limitations include potential bias due to unblinded participants, the potential treatment burden of the intensive 24-session intervention, and limited generalizability resulting from the specific definition of multimorbidity used. The heterogeneity in participants’ conditions and baseline health status may also have influenced the findings. The paper also notes that the additional attention from healthcare professionals in the intervention group could have contributed to the effect.
In conclusion, while the results support the safety and potential value of personalized self-management and exercise programs in improving quality of life for people living with multimorbidity, further large-scale trials are needed to confirm these findings and clarify their long-term clinical significance.
Journal reference:
- Exercise therapy and self-management support for individuals with multimorbidity: a randomized and controlled trial. Skou, S.T., Nyberg, M., Dideriksen, M., Rasmussen, H., Overgaard, J.A., Bodilsen, C., Soja, A.M.B., Attarzadeh, A.P., Bieder, M.J., Dridi, N.P., Heltberg, A., Gæde, P.H., Reventlow, J.L., Arnfred, S., Bodtger, U., Brønd, J.C., Thygesen, L.C., Møller, S.P., Jäger, M., Bricca, A. Nature Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03779-4, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03779-4
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Qantas confirms cyber-attack exposed records of up to 6 million customers | Qantas
Qantas has suffered a major cyber-attack, potentially exposing the records of up to 6 million customers.
The airline said on Wednesday that the affected system had now been contained and its systems were secured. The system in question was a third-party platform used by the airline’s contact centre, which contains the records of 6 million customers.
The data includes customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers. It did not contain credit card details, financial information or passport details.
Frequent flyer accounts were not compromised, neither were passwords, Pins or login details.
Qantas said it first detected the unusual activity on Monday and immediately took steps to contain the system.
Qantas is assessing the portion of data stolen but said it was expected to be “significant”.
Qantas said it has informed the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as well as the Australian federal police.
The airline’s chief executive, Vanessa Hudson, said the company had recruited independent specialised cybersecurity experts to investigate the matter.
A dedicated customer support line and a dedicated page on the company’s website will update customers as the investigation progresses.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause,” Hudson said. “Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously.
“We are contacting our customers today and our focus is on providing them with the necessary support.”
Cyber-attacks remain on the increase in Australia, after superannuation funds in April suffered hacks on a small handful of customers that resulted in more than $500,000 being taken from their accounts.
In May, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner said the number of data breaches reported under the mandatory notification scheme had increased by 25% in 2024, compared with 2023.
According to the report covering 1 July to 31 December 2024, there were 595 data breaches in the latter half of the year, taking the total number of breaches reported that year to 1,113, up 25% from 893 in 2023.
In the half year, the highest number of reports came from health providers (121) followed by government (100), finance (54), legal and accounting (36), and retail (34).
The report found 69% of the data breaches occurred due to malicious or criminal attack, with phishing – that is, using compromised credentials to access data – being the most common at 34% of such incidents. It was followed by ransomware at 24%.
The majority of reported breaches affected fewer than 5,000 people each but two were reported to affect between 500,000 and 1 million people. Most personal information in the breaches comprised contact information, ID information or financial or health information.
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Call for entries: High-growth companies Asia-Pacific 2026
Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Asia-Pacific companies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
Growing a company can be difficult at the best of times. But with the threat of US tariffs, rising geopolitical tension and a slowing economy, now is a particularly tough time for entrepreneurs and managers.
And yet despite those challenges, many companies are still managing to prove that rapid growth is possible.
For the past seven years, the Financial Times and its research partner Statista have ranked high growth companies in the Asia-Pacific region. From Singapore-based energy companies to Indian scooter rental businesses, we have highlighted those organisations that have pressed ahead with their business plans regardless of the external environment, and made them work.
Register for our list of high-growth companies Asia-Pacific 2026
© Getty Images If your company has a record of revenue growth between 2021 and 2024, click here to fill in our online form to be considered.
Last year, Lendbox, an Indian peer-to-peer lending platform, had the highest ranking, followed by south-east Asian ecommerce groups Borong and Etaily.
Enter your company
This year, for the eighth time, we are asking for nominations for our list. We will aim to identify those Asia-Pacific businesses with the strongest revenue growth between 2021 and 2024, as the region was emerging from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic while also dealing with rising oil prices and inflation.
All you need to do is fill in this simple form.
We will publish the list of companies in March next year, followed in April by a report highlighting some of the most interesting businesses.
Eligibility
To be eligible for entry, companies must:
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Have generated revenue of at least $100,000 in 2021*
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Have generated revenue of at least $1mn in 2024*
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Revenue growth between 2021 and 2024 should have been primarily organic
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Be independent (ie, not a subsidiary or branch office of another company)
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Be headquartered in one of the following Asia-Pacific locations: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam
*Or average currency value equivalent over course of the relevant fiscal year
The survey will run from July 2, 2025 to October 31, 2025. More information can be found here.
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Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road Studios Just Dropped a Pair of Limited-Edition Loudspeakers
After 45 years of musical collaboration, Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road Studios have decided to celebrate.
The audio giant and the iconic recording studio have teamed up on a pair of exclusive loudspeakers based on B&W’s 801 D4 Signature. The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition lives up to its moniker as only 140 pairs will be available worldwide.
More from Robb Report
The design of the new speakers pay homage to Abbey Road Studios’ Studio 2. The pair both feature a bespoke red leather by Connolly trim, which matches rather well with the features of the recording space; the duo is also hand-finished in vintage walnut, inspired by the various instruments that have graced the studio throughout the decades. Each loudspeaker comes with a unique plate on its rear panel, denoting that it is one of those 140 pairs. And, as a cherry on top, the pair is accompanied by a special book, which shares the history of both storied companies.
After all, Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road Studios have been a duo for quite some time. The partnership started back in 1980, when the audio brand’s founder, John Bowers, stopped by Abbey Roads Studio to show off his new speaker, the 801. Designed to be the ultimate loudspeaker for hi-fi enthusiasts, it was also made to be incredible accurate in the studio. Abbey Roads Studio quickly became the first in the world to use the 801; since then, six generations of B&W 800 creations have been put to use by the team at Abbey Road. The recording hot spot, famously known for its work with the Beatles, has also crafted music for the Harry Potter, Black Panther, and Barbie films, as well as Lady Gaga’s Born This Way album.
“Abbey Road’s relationship with Bowers & Wilkins is a decades-long celebration of sound and technology,” Jeremy Huffelmann, Abbey Road’s general manager, said in a statement. “I’m delighted we have collaborated to create the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition together, honoring our shared history with an outstanding representation of the values, heritage and credibility of both our brands.”
The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition, retailing for $70,000, is already sold out, so you’ll have to find the pair on the secondary market. But if you’d like to experience other audio offerings, Bowers and Wilkins has plenty up for grabs on its website.
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Click here to read the full article.
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PA speaker moves to de-seat 26 MPAs
LAHORE:Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has directed a legal team to prepare a draft reference for consultation, before potentially submitting it to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to seek the de-seating of 26 suspended PTI MPAs over their alleged disruptive, abusive and disorderly conduct in the House.
The directive came during a meeting between the speaker and legal experts, after an initial determination that a reference could be filed based on applications submitted by PML-N lawmakers, urging the speaker’s office to take action against the suspended members.
Following detailed deliberations, it was decided to proceed with the reference. A subsequent meeting was held in which legal advisers assisted the speaker, who then formally tasked them with drafting the appropriate reference to be filed with the ECP.
It is worth noting that protest has historically been a recognised feature of parliamentary proceedings.
Opposition lawmakers are often seen engaging in fiery exchanges, desk-thumping, slogan-chanting, tearing up agenda papers or budget documents and holding placards aloft.
However, the situation in the current Punjab Assembly has taken a more punitive turn. The treasury benches, which had long tolerated such demonstrations, began demanding restraint, particularly during Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s addresses, urging the opposition to protest peacefully without disrupting proceedings.
Despite occasional cooperation from the opposition, including refraining from interrupting the House by remaining seated rather than crowding the speaker’s dais, the PTI’s members intensified their protests during the CM’s speech on June 27.
Their conduct appeared even more aggressive, reportedly in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on reserved seats.
The protest quickly escalated into a scuffle between treasury and opposition lawmakers. Despite Speaker Khan’s repeated efforts to pacify the situation, order could not be restored.
Consequently, on the same day, invoking Rule 210(3) of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab (1997), the speaker suspended 26 PTI MPAs.
In a further tightening of disciplinary measures, on June 28, the Speaker directed that Rs2,035,000 in damages be recovered from 10 PTI MPAs, approximately Rs203,550 each, for climbing onto desks and breaking eight microphones during their protest on June 16, when the provincial budget was being presented.
Earlier, the speaker had ordered that PTI MPA Hassan Malik (PP-81) be barred from attending the Assembly until the end of the current session for hurling a copy of the budget speech at Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman.
On June 24, Speaker Khan issued a ruling emphasizing the importance of decorum. “I emphasise ALL members, regardless of their political affiliation, to preserve decorum, uphold the dignity of this august Assembly, and ensure that parliamentary proceedings continue without disruption,” the speaker stated.
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From 30 days to 1: Chevron’s cloud migration ROI in real numbers
Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more
The No. 1 way AI is changing 150-year-old energy giant Chevron? How technical practitioners engage with data.
Offshore in the Gulf, Chevron is drilling for oil resources miles below the ocean floor in pockets and reservoirs that may or may not yield results. Agentic architectures need to be able to process petabytes of critical data — which not only provides insights on where to drill, but how to do so without negatively impacting human lives or the environment — in the cloud and at the edge.
“Data is the ultimate accelerant for all of our AI use cases,” Steve Bowman, GM for enterprise AI at Chevron, said onstage at this year’s VB Transform. “It’s something that we’ve embraced in a big way.”
How AI is changing the way Chevron interacts with its untold amounts of data
In 2019, Chevron teamed up with Microsoft and oilfield services company SLB in a project called ‘Triple Crown’ to modernize and standardize cloud-based tools. The three companies have built Azure-native apps into SLB’s DELFI* cognitive exploration and protection (E&P) to help Chevron process, visualize, interpret and gain meaningful insights from multiple data sources. DELFI* E&P covers exploration, development, production and midstream environments.
The $250 billion energy giant with 1,000s of employees in 180 countries worldwide has “an enormous amount of data out there,” said Bowman. And, while Chevron has “very robust systems of record,” large amounts of unstructured data have existed in a variety of share points.
Over the years, Chevron has built some “really great algorithms” that have traditionally been run at small scale on-premises, he explained. However, there has been an increasing push to scale up, running those algorithms at a much larger scale and more efficiently in the cloud.
By doing that, “instead of looking at one three-mile-by-three-mile block in the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America, we can look at much larger areas we’re trying to operate on,” he said.
The Microsoft-SLB collaboration has focused on three products: FDPlan, DrillPlan and DrillOps. FDPlan utilizes high-performance computing (HPC) to integrate subsurface models, enabling employees to make faster and more informed decisions in complex environments, leveraging the best available data. For instance, in the Gulf, FDPlan helps Chevron analyze different options for developing a reservoir so its teams can focus on the most optimal scenarios.
Meanwhile, DrillPlan is designed for engineers developing drilling plans, while DrillOps is used by teams that drill wells.
Before the initiative, some subsurface Chevron employees were spending as much as 75% of their time looking for data, Bowman noted. “We can see that the time people spend looking for data is beginning to decrease, and the speed at which we can get insights is really accelerating,” said Bowman.
DrillPlan has also helped Chevron reduce its deepwater well planning process by 30 days. For instance, in Argentina, the company has reduced its planning cycle time for an eight-well pad from two weeks to less than a day.
Ultimately, Bowman called the move to the cloud “a real force multiplier” that has allowed Chevron to enter into a new phase of modernization.
A focus on modular systems
Now, as they work to integrate AI, Bowman’s team is focusing heavily on modularity.
He pointed out that the initial ‘ask’ was search; they offered up a very simple use case allowing people to retrieve information that existed within a “very, very” complex SharePoint. But as users have engaged more and more, their asks are increasing; in response, his team has added a retrieval agent, an agent that can evaluate findings from a technical standpoint and an orchestrator agent to link the two.
“We really realized pretty early that we needed to lean in heavily on modularity, because we knew that these agents would be called upon in other workflows, based on the demand,” he said.
Another effort is ‘Chevron Assist,’ a chat interface to operate on health, safety and environmental (HSE) standards. “We work in an enormously complex industry, and the stakes of the game are always higher,” said Bowman.
The tool provides a natural way for people to interact with documents related to critical standards and procedures, eliminating the need to click through links or search within documents. So, for instance, a user can combine all of the standards they need for a drilling crew, an operations crew and a maintenance crew.
“We realized we weren’t thinking of the problem in the way that individual users are thinking of those things all together at once,” said Bowman. “There has been so much value in that integration. That’s really changed the way people do their work.”
Not focusing too much on POCs
As it builds out its programs, Bowman’s team has actively avoided falling into the habit of undertaking pilots and proofs of concepts (POCs) that drag on too long. “There’s no value in that,” he said.
The goal has always been to deploy the most promising use cases into production, he said. Everything must be linked back to Chevron’s bottom line and offer up a strong value proposition.
“We know that with a curated data set and really enthusiastic, well-meaning group of users and a super narrowly defined use case, there’s almost 100% certainty that your POC will be successful,” said Bowman.
Another important element in deploying next-gen tools is overcoming the trust hurdle. From a behavior change standpoint, enterprise leaders must understand not only the expectations the company places on users locally and at the edge, but what those users expect in turn, said Bowman.
“If you’ve built out these systems or tools in such a way that the individuals who are going to put hands on them don’t trust them, or can’t trust them, or there’s something holding them back, then you never really get the full enthusiastic deployment,” he said.
Editor’s Note: As a thank-you to our readers, we’ve opened up early bird registration for VB Transform 2026 — just $200. This is where AI ambition meets operational reality, and you’re going to want to be in the room. Reserve your spot now.
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NZ’s digital breast screening platform goes live and more briefs
NZ launches online breast screening platform
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand’s latest digital breast screening platform has gone live nationwide.
Called Te Puna, it allows users to enrol, book, and manage their breast screening appointments through a secure personalised link or QR code sent via text, email, or letter.
The new system, accessible via Zero Data, which provides free access to web-based government services, can automatically identify eligible persons for breast screening and invite them to book a mammogram.
It replaced an outdated legacy system with a modern platform with enhanced data tracking, accuracy, and reporting.
“This change will significantly boost participation and help close the gap for the 135,000 eligible women who aren’t currently getting screened,” said Health Minister Simeon Brown in a statement.
NSW researchers unveil neuroscience-backed mental health app
A new mobile application developed in New South Wales seeks to promote mental wellbeing and resilience among adults through neuroscience.
The app called ReNeuWell is based on the COMPAS‑W Wellbeing Scale, a validated tool that assesses a person’s subjective and psychological wellbeing. It is created by researchers from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney).
“The app is designed for anyone looking for ways to understand and boost their own level of mental wellbeing,” explained Justine Gatt, associate professor and director of the Centre for Wellbeing, Resilience and Recovery at NeuRA and UNSW Sydney’s School of Psychology.
It offers a four-week tailored program of activities based on psychological concepts, such as mindfulness, meditation, self-compassion, and goal setting. A 12-week clinical trial of the app is currently underway, seeking 500 adult participants who could commit 10 minutes daily to use it.
The app is also available on the Apple App Store in Australia for a one-time fee.
Mental Health Foundation Australia develops mental health app with Infosys
Mental Health Foundation Australia, one of the longest-running non-government mental health organisations in the country, has released a new mobile self-help application.
Developed by Infosys for MHFA, the Supportive Mind app provides a wide range of features to help users promote their wellbeing, including mood tracking and insights, personalised activity recommendations, walking challenges, fundraising campaigns, self-care tools, and wellness tips delivered via push notifications.
The app was built on Infosys’ generative AI stack, Topaz, which enables it to analyse performance metrics and measure social impact.
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Jury says Google must pay California Android smartphone users $314.6m | California
A jury in San Jose, California, said on Tuesday that Google misused customers’ cellphone data and must pay more than $314.6m to Android smartphone users in the state, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The jury agreed with the plaintiffs that Alphabet’s Google was liable for sending and receiving information from the devices without permission while they were idle, causing what the lawsuit had called “mandatory and unavoidable burdens shouldered by Android device users for Google’s benefit”.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement that the company would appeal, and that the verdict “misunderstands services that are critical to the security, performance, and reliability of Android devices”.
The plaintiffs’ attorney Glen Summers said the verdict “forcefully vindicates the merits of this case and reflects the seriousness of Google’s misconduct”.
The plaintiffs filed the class action in state court in 2019 on behalf of an estimated 14 million Californians. They argued that Google collected information from idle phones running its Android operating system for company uses like targeted advertising, consuming Android users’ cellular data at their expense.
Google told the court that no Android users were harmed by the data transfers and that users consented to them in the company’s terms of service and privacy policies.
Another group filed a separate lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, bringing the same claims against Google on behalf of Android users in the other 49 states. That case is scheduled for trial in April 2026.
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