A former investment banking professional had her eureka moment when she noticed instances of assaults on single women travelling alone in taxi cabs at odd times of the day. The prevalence of these instances led her to begin a safe cab service run by women for women—Taxshe Services Pvt. Ltd. (Taxshe), located in Bengaluru, India. In March 2020, the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began in India, and a lockdown was announced as a preventive measure. Taxshe, whose customers mainly comprised working women and school-going children, faced a significant challenge, as the sudden changes and stringent restrictions brought on by the lockdown precipitated a substantial drop in the need for cab services. Taxshe’s founder contemplated the company’s dilemma and consulted people from across her wide network of personal and professional acquaintances. How could she keep Taxshe up and running in spite of the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic? What value-added specialty services could Taxshe offer as a cab service during the pandemic that would benefit society at large?

A former investment banking professional had her eureka moment when she noticed instances of assaults on single women travelling alone in taxi cabs at odd times of the day. The prevalence of these instances led her to begin a safe cab service run by women for women-Taxshe Services Pvt. Ltd. (Taxshe), located in Bengaluru, India. In March 2020, the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began in India, and a lockdown was announced as a preventive measure. Taxshe, whose customers mainly comprised working women and school-going children, faced a significant challenge, as the sudden changes and stringent restrictions brought on by the lockdown precipitated a substantial drop in the need for cab services. Taxshe's founder contemplated the company's dilemma and consulted people from across her wide network of personal and professional acquaintances. How could she keep Taxshe up and running in spite of the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic? What value-added specialty services could Taxshe offer as a cab service during the pandemic that would benefit society at large?

Google has been ranked as the best place to work in the United States. It practices a time allocation method of 70-20-10, with 70 per cent of employees’ time devoted to Google’s core business of search and advertising, 20 per cent to off-budget products, and 10 per cent to ideas based on personal interests and competencies. Luxury perks and generous rewards for employee innovations improve the likelihood that employees stay at Google instead of forming competing ventures. The firm is notable for its employee loyalty and investor confidence; the two founders and the CEO, Eric Schmidt, even took an annual salary of $1 just before the initial public offering in 2004. Schmidt’s leadership practices can be summarized as follows: 1. Get to know your employees. 2. Create new ways to reward and promote your high-performing employees. 3. Let your employees own the problems you want them to solve. 4. Allow employees to function outside the company hierarchy. 5. Have your employees’ performance reviewed by someone they respect for their objectivity and impartiality. This article concludes with the eight qualities of Google’s leader-managers, which relate to coaching, empowering, well-being, productivity, communication, career development, vision, and technical skills.