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When the experts gathered at the Global Wellness Institute’s (GWI) recent “Redefining Workplace Wellness” roundtable, a key discussion point was how global/multinational workplace wellness initiatives need to toss the cookie-cutter (and U.S.-centric) programs—because if you want to successfully deliver wellness to employees around the world, you need to embrace the local realities and culture. The roundtable shared many specifics: from how Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern populations have a genetic profile that hits them much harder with obesity and diabetes complications; to how, in Russia, a successful smoking cessation program needs to involve grandma; to how, in countries in Southeast Asia, excluding Ayurveda means excluding the vast majority of the worker population.

“The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies” – Harvard Business Review, August 19, 2015

The bottom line: The “overwork story” is one of diminishing returns—keep overworking, and you’ll progressively work less well on tasks that are increasingly meaningless. There’s a large body of research suggesting that regardless of our reasons for working long hours, overwork does not help us. Not only does it not seem to result in more output, but considerable evidence shows that overwork harms both employees and the companies they work for. 

At the Global Wellness Institute’s (GWI) recent “Redefining Workplace Wellness” roundtable, the experts discussed how technology is the ultimate double-edged sword when it comes to workplace wellness: Technology is “killing” employees with 24/7 connections—but is also delivering incredible, new tools that can radically help with their physical and mental health. Businesses will increasingly embrace telemedicine and online coaching—even sensors in chairs that nudge workers to get up and stretch. And the future is going to look, well, futuristic: Move over clunky wearable devices because invisible, ingestible nanotechnology will soon effortlessly capture worker’s biometric data 24/7.

The recent P5+1 agreement with Iran (P5+1 refers to the six world powers—China, France, Russia, the UK, the U.S. and Germany—that have been working together diplomatically regarding Iran’s nuclear program) has the potential to alter the global geo-economic landscape in the Middle East and beyond. But Thierry Malleret argues it has other implications, namely helping open up a wellness tourism market with serious potential. Iran has an extraordinarily rich, ancient history and culture and large tourism companies are already figuring out how to invest.  

The Global Wellness Summit held a press conference August 19 at the Four Seasons in Mexico City about its upcoming November 13-15 conference.  Summit Co-Chairs Susie Ellis (chairman and CEO, Global Wellness Institute [GWI]) and Gina Diez Barroso de Franklin (president and CEO, Grupo Diarq), along with Mexico City Minister of Tourism Miguel Torruco Marqués, explained to the 40-plus major media in attendance (including Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, Robb Report and Vogue) about the wide-ranging 2015 Summit agenda. They also presented key GWI data on Mexico’s status as a global/regional wellness tourism growth powerhouse: ranking #11 worldwide and attracting almost one in two wellness tourism “dollars” spent across the entire Latin American/Caribbean region ($10.5 billion out of $25.9 billion).

“Why Are Millennials So Obsessed with Food?” – The Atlantic, 8/14/15

This article exposes a trend with considerable implications: The food culture is changing, and a key factor is how processed foods are being rejected by the millennials. Their taste for natural ingredients will shape the future of restaurants, resorts, grocery stores and agriculture.