How TerraCycle Persuaded Unilever, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble to Redesign Their Product Packaging | Inc.com

April 12, 2019April 10, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Take a look at your pantry or maybe the cupboard where you keep the cleaning supplies. Chances are, most of the household products you buy are packaged in plastic. About one-third of the world’s plastic winds up in the ocean, according to the World Economic Forum–that amounts to a garbage truck’s worth of plastic dumped into the sea every minute. Meanwhile, only 14 percent of it is collected to be recycled.

A New Jersey company called TerraCycle thinks it’s time for a better, more radical solution: zero waste. Under the company’s Loop system, which launches in April, containers are designed to be reused. As in: You’ll be using the same bottle that someone–or a lot of people–has already used.

Difficult Conversations Can Jump Start Company Innovation | Entrepreneur

April 10, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Harley-Davidson was in trouble in the early eighties. The booming popularity of imported Japanese motorcycles cut Harley’s market share from 75 percent to a flickering 25 percent. To protect the homegrown brand’s viability, CEO Vaughn Beals adopted an authoritarian stance modeled after the fearsomely efficient managers at his Japanese competitors.

Beals slashed his workforce by 40 percent, overhauled the manufacturing process, and doubled down on promotional marketing tactics to win back market share and save the HOG.

5 Expectations You Need to Set for Every Employee | Getentrepreneurial.com

April 10, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Even if you’ve never owned a business and you’ve never managed a team of people before, you should have at least a rough idea of the value of setting proper expectations. For example, if you walk into an account management role expecting to only manage client relationships, but you end up having to tackle tons of administrative responsibilities too, you might end up disappointed. Alternatively, you could focus only on what you were expecting to accomplish, but your boss will end up disappointed.

Expectations are a form of communication that remove ambiguities from language, clear up any misconceptions in advance, and help all parties walk into a relationship with clear understandings of the values, significance, and direction of that relationship. Clear communication of expectations, well in advance, is critical for a healthy employer-employee relationship.

That being said, some expectations can go without saying. So how do you know which expectations you have to set for your employees?

Corn-based lacquer heals its scratches when heated | New Atlas

April 9, 2019April 8, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s certainly a hassle when a car gets a big paint-scratch, but smaller scratches in its clear coat are much more common and still unsightly. A new corn-based transparent finish could help, as its scratches heal up when subjected to heat.

Developed by scientists at Germany’s Leibniz Institute for New Materials, working with colleagues at Saarland University, the “Nanomer” lacquer incorporates ring-shaped molecules known as cyclodextrins.

Derived from corn starch, these are threaded like pearls onto long-chain polymer molecules. The cyclodextrins are then able to move freely along the length of those chains, but are kept from falling off the ends by large “stopper” molecules. All of the cyclodextrin-loaded long-chain polymer molecules are in turn cross-linked to one another, via a chemical reaction.

People are baffled after someone said eating cereal with water is better than milk | Mashable

April 9, 2019April 8, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There are a lot of unpopular opinions out there. Some are polarizing (I will go to my grave defending the honor of pineapple on pizza), while some takes aren’t actually that controversial.

But every so often there is one opinion so devious, so purely evil, that it rises above the rest. I’m talking, of course, about eating cereal with water.

Redditor shared their beliefs on how this breakfast food should be eaten with a post that has since become the top of all time on the subreddit r/unpopularopinion.

Equal Pay Day: The future of the American economy is Hispanic and female | CNN

April 8, 2019April 7, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tuesday commemorates Equal Pay Day, which represents the number of days into the year that American women would have to work in order to catch up to what men made the year before.

But for Hispanic women, that day won’t come until November.

The wage gap for women who identify as “Hispanic or Latino” is larger than that of any other racial or ethnic group tracked by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the median, they earn 63 cents for every dollar American men earn, compared to 81 cents for women overall.

Why 2.7 million Americans still get Netflix DVDs in the mail | CNN

April 5, 2019April 4, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Remember when Netflix used to be a DVD-by-mail company? Well, for 2.7 million subscribers in the US, it still is.

The familiar red envelopes have been arriving in customers’ mailboxes since 1998 and helped earn the company a healthy $212 million profit last year.

Why are so many people still using this old-school service in the age of streaming? There are a number of reasons.

How Whole Grains Could Help Your Liver | Live Science

April 5, 2019April 4, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Eating whole grains and cereal may reduce the risk of liver cancer.

That’s according to findings presented Tuesday (April 1) here at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Eating a diet rich in whole grains and dietary fiber has been linked to numerous health benefits, including a lower risk of insulin resistance, high insulin levels in the blood and inflammation in the body — all of which are risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer.

How to Keep Business Data Secure While Traveling | Business News Daily

April 4, 2019April 3, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the office or at home, you may be protected from online threats thanks to a robust cybersecurity solution for your internal network. But what about when you’re on a trip? You won’t be protected by your office’s network security and must depend on hotel and conference center Wi-Fi, which aren’t always safe. Using your mobile devices on the on the go increases your risk of being exposed to online threats – hackers are always looking for opportunities to infect mobile devices and use them to gain access to the greater network.

When on a business trip and constantly using your mobile device for work, you need to be wary that you’re more at risk of attack. There are certain best practices that all employees should follow when traveling with your work devices.

12 Most Important Milestones in Life to Grow Through | Lifehack

April 4, 2019April 3, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Life truly is a journey. The experiences we have as we travel through our days are what give our lives richness, meaning and purpose.

We are all familiar with society’s conventional ‘markers’ of success and accomplishment – things like reaching the legal age to vote, getting your driver’s license and first car, graduating, getting married, becoming a parent, buying your first home, and retiring…

But society has changed; fewer people are choosing marriage, parenthood or a formal education. Many will never be able to afford to buy their own home, and retirement is no longer the guaranteed cushion it once was. How do we measure our success and progress without these once standard markers?