A decade into their efforts, businesses nationwide are struggling with their transitions to a digital focus.
Just 52% of businesses would rate their “digital IQ” as strong in 2017, a 10th annual survey from PwC has found — compared to 67% a year ago. And in the adoption of new technology, surveyed businesses said they’re spending about 18% of their budget on emerging tech, up just 1% from 10 years ago.
A friend recently told me about a previous company trying to lure him back to his old position. In a moment of crisp clarity, he said he could never go back no matter how enticing the offer.
The reason? One toxic leader up in the ivory tower making life miserable for others below, that’s what. I agreed that my friend chose to take the higher road.
I, too, left a company once due to a toxic CEO with low emotional intelligence. His Grand Canyon-sized ego manifested in bullying and controlling behaviors that sent some of his best people packing. In exit interview data of the top-five reasons people quit, he was “reason No.5.” (I say this with accuracy because I collected the data)
Millennials have been the target of more scrutiny than any other generation. Why? Because as a generation, they are larger than the Baby Boomer generation that clocked in at 77 million. Baby Boomers were a significant force in terms of purchasing power, political direction and now retirement as they have moved through their lives. Millennials, sometimes called Echo Boomers, are expected to have an equal or greater influence on society.
Representing 25% of the population, and 80 million strong, Millennials are generally agreed to have been born between 1980 – 2000. You will also hear them referred to as Generation Y. The youngest Millennials are 17 years of age while the oldest will be 37 in 2017. What has this intense scrutiny revealed about these consumers?
Continue reading “Millennials as a Target Customer | Lydia Mehit”
A British supermarket chain has been combatting food waste in more ways than one. Waitrose, the sixth largest grocery retailer in the United Kingdom with 350 stores, began selling “ugly” produce—often discarded for their imperfectness—at a discounted price last year.
Before that, five years ago, the company also halted the practice of sending food waste to landfills. Waitrose also aims to donate as much food as possible to local charities and good causes that have passed the “best before” dates (for legal reasons, it cannot donate food that has passed the “use by” date).
With the right attitude and approach, almost any business can be turned into a much more efficient organization. However, it may take some time to transform your company into a well-oiled profit machine, but once you know what changes you need to make, anything is possible. Below are some simple steps you need to take to turn your business into a more efficient organization.
Planning and Preparation
Poor planning and preparation is usually one of the main reasons a business loses its edge. These are the first aspects of your business you need to get right and this change has to come from the top.
You and the decision makers in your business should analyze the current situation in your company. This involves identifying areas where you can improve, finding out why certain problems occur and uncovering other factors that could be affecting the efficiency of your business.
The NBA imposes millions of dollars worth of fines on players each season. But it’s not clear where exactly that money goes.
Other pro-sports leagues — the NFL, MLB and NHL — are very up front about how they donate player fines.
NBA players have paid more than $1.6 million in fines about half-way into the 2016-2017 season. That’s based on data from Spotrac, which monitors athlete contracts and financials.
According to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the money goes to charities chosen by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.
The NBPA’s half of the money goes to its foundation. However, it’s unclear where the NBA’s half goes. The league declined to disclose the names of any of the charities that get fine money.
Although getting a startup up and running is an immensely challenging task, taking it to the next level can be even more difficult.
A study recently published in Business Horizons found that the transition period between the startup and scaling phases can be a demanding time for entrepreneurs and one that must be navigated successfully in order for a business to grow.
Joseph Picken, the study’s author and founder of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Dallas, said past research has identified the most common reasons for failure or CEO replacement, but nobody has told the entrepreneur what to do to succeed.
Entrepreneurs often have a lot of unique qualities. They tend to be willing to take risks when it comes to business and their careers, and they’re often creative and think outside the box. That’s a lot of what propels them toward being entrepreneurs and building their own companies.
When you do have your own company, there are some unique investment strategies and considerations to keep in mind, however. There are ways that investing as an entrepreneur may be different than someone who works for a company, for example, and invests a portion of their salary.
The following are some things to consider if you’re an entrepreneur and you want to build a smart, sustainable investment strategy.
If you read stuff on the internet (and obviously you do because hi, you’re reading a blog) then you know the golden rule: never read the comments.
Scrolling past the end of a story is an adventure into a realm of racism, conspiracy theories and ad hominem attacks that will quickly make you lose your faith in humanity. But instead of encountering Godwin’s Law in the comments, you might start encountering Google instead. Google’s internet safety incubator Jigsaw launched new technology today called Perspective, intended to clean up comment sections.
Perspective reviews comments and assigns them a toxicity rating that reflects the likelihood that the comment is intended to be harmful. Jigsaw’s goal is to keep people engaged in the conversation, so it assesses “harm” as something that would drive other commenters away.
Will self-driving cars have steering wheels? Maybe not, if engineers keep falling asleep.
Ford’s self-driving cars will skip over Level 3 — where cars are automated, but human drivers are still expected to take over if need be — to Level 4, where cars are basically fully autonomous except for extreme conditions. (Self-driving cars that would meet the requirements for Level 5 are still theoretical at this point.) The levels are defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE.
Automotive News reported that Ford came to that decision after its engineers fell asleep, lulled into a false sense of security with nothing much to do while driving Level 3 cars.
“These are trained engineers who are there to observe what’s happening,” Ford Product Development Chief Raj Nair told the publication. “But it’s human nature that you start trusting the vehicle more and more and that you feel you don’t need to be paying attention.”
