ResidentialBusiness

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. Our new print issue features “How YouTube Ate TV,” an oral history of the video-sharing site’s impact on entertainment, culture, and business as told by dozens of eyewitnesses past and present. As we stitched sound bites together into a story, it became clear that our interviews had provided an embarrassment of riches. Indeed, we had too many great stories and insights to cram into one magazine article. So we expanded the online version of the article into five oral histories. Two are live on our site now, covering the company’s earliest days and acquisition by Google. Three more will roll out next week, bringing the story up to 2025—and, in the case of AI’s sweeping impact on the platform, beyond. One of the joys of working on this project with my colleagues and fellow interviewers, María José Gutiérrez Chávez, Yasmin Gagne, Steven Melendez, and David Salazar, was having an excuse to think back to what the web was like 20 years ago. It’s not just that YouTube was brand new and rapidly becoming a necessity of everyday life. At the time, the whole proposition of being able to easily watch videos on the internet at all was a novelty. The technology that made it—and sites like YouTube—possible at all was Macromedia’s Flash. By the time YouTube came along, Flash was more than a decade old. Initially known as FutureWave SmartSketch, it morphed from a drawing app for pen-based computers into a browser plug-in that allowed websites to offer more motion and interactivity than the early web could muster on its own. Flash jazzed up the internet without requiring much in the way of bandwidth or computing cycles—a critical virtue back in the days of pokey dial-up connections. A whole universe of Flash-enabled animations and games sprung up. Flash was so manifestly useful that Netscape and Microsoft bundled it with their browsers. Eventually, the plug-in added support for video playback, dramatically simplifying a process that had formerly required clunky software such as RealPlayer. Instead of video being something you watched in a separate app with its own interface, it could be rendered right inside sites. That’s why YouTube was so easy to use. It also permitted the fledgling site to make its videos embeddable on any web page, spreading them all over the internet. If you were online back then, you may recall all this. But I’m afraid Flash’s reputation was tarnished by what happened well after it helped YouTube become, well, YouTube. A couple of months after YouTube was founded, Adobe agreed to acquire Macromedia. Once Flash came into its portfolio, the software giant aggressively stuffed the plug-in with new features. What had begun as a complement to the plain-vanilla web became a platform unto itself. As Flash got more powerful, it lost its original spritely nature. Increasingly, it was a bloated resource hog—something you reluctantly allowed onto your computer because a sizable percentage of the web wouldn’t work without it. In 2011, I wrote about how Flash had mucked up my MacBook Air, and how much better the laptop worked with the plug-in disabled. Did I mention that Flash also had some pretty significant security issues? By the time I banished Flash from my Mac, the PC-centric web that had given us Flash in the first place was receding into history. Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010 had put browsers onto new classes of gadgets with smaller displays and touchscreen interfaces. But Apple didn’t give Adobe the kind of technical access it needed to put Flash on an iPhone or iPad. On those devices, Flash content showed up as empty boxes. In 2010, Steve Jobs published an open letter, “Thoughts on Flash,” that argued that Adobe’s software was rife with problems and Apple’s platforms were better off without it. Adobe—and a fair percentage of technology enthusiasts—saw Apple’s exclusion of Flash as being about locking out competition, not enhancing the user experience. Now, Google’s Android mobile operating system could run Flash. And for a time, makers of Android devices considered that a major advantage. BlackBerry, the maker of the PlayBook tablet, even ran TV commercials The Presidenteting Flash support as a defining feature. The only problem was that mobile Flash was awful. It taxed the devices of the period beyond their breaking point. Even if it had been more efficient, much of the world’s Flash content simply didn’t work well on a tiny touchscreen. In 2011, Adobe gave up on mobile Flash. Then a suite of open web technologies known as HTML5 largely replicated Flash’s features as part of web browsing’s basic functionality, no plug-in required. Many big sites started abandoning Flash, period. Adobe decided to wind down the technology in 2017 and stopped supporting it altogether in 2020. Today’s internet is entirely Flash-free. I don’t miss Flash in the sense of thinking we were better off when it was central to our computing lives or fantasizing about it coming back. Even in the days when Flash was quite pleasant, a single company bearing so much responsibility for how websites worked was never ideal. That became painfully clear when Adobe lost track of the values that had made Flash popular in the first place. When it finally died, I was able to reallocate the brain cells I’d dedicated to wrestling with it to happier pursuits. Nevertheless, it was nice to remember the days when Flash’s impact on the web was largely positive. As a startup, YouTube got a lot of things right, such as seeing its users as a community, not just a morass of eyeballs. But none of that would have mattered if the internet had still been stuck in the RealPlayer era. As Billy Biggs, a software engineer who’s been at Google and YouTube since 2006, put it when I spoke with him for our YouTube history, “Flash video is what made this all possible.” It was the right technology at the right time. That’s as much a part of its legacy as its later regrettable evolution and descent into obsolescence. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company This interactive AI-generated podcast app from ex-Googlers blew my mind Huxe makes podcasts almost uncannily personal—and even lets you talk to their AI hosts. Read More → Inside Amazon’s ‘Iliad Flow,’ the deceptive UX at the center of its federal trial We unpack the FTC’s claims that Amazon used design to trick customers into buying—and keeping—a Prime subscription. Read More → A Facebook dating app hopes to be the cure for ‘swipe fatigue’ The AI-powered bot can even suggest pickup lines. Read More → AI tools aren’t making much of a difference for companies Chat GPT, Copilot, and their competitors are boosting productivity without moving the needle on profit and loss. Read More → 5 time-saving Outlook features you’re probably overlooking Once you know these gems, you can’t go back to not using them. Read More → I gave ChatGPT $500 of real money to invest in stocks. Its picks surprised me I told ChatGPT with GPT-5’s ‘Thinking’ model selected that I would give it $500 to invest however it saw fit. Read More → View the full article

Former Lib Dem leader brought up in Glasgow tenement was key figure in party’s success in 2000sView the full article

What’s the biggest company in the world? Apple? Amazon? Microsoft? No. It’s Nvidia, which in early August became the world’s first $4 trillion company, overtaking both Apple and Microsoft. Last week’s results were eagerly awaited by the world’s markets and actually helped push the S&P 500 and Dow Jones to all-time highs. By the end of August, Nvidia accounted for more than 8% of the S&P 500, the largest weighting for a single stock in the index’s history. Yet, Nvidia isn’t a household name. It doesn’t make the devices in your pocket or the apps you use every day. Nvidia makes chips. Excellent chips, yes, but not unique in the way we tend to assume a $4 trillion product must be. Its success is not just a product story; it’s also a brand story. B2B is often treated as B2C’s poor relation. When budgets are tight, brand is first to be stripped back, reduced to a logo refresh or a new color palette. Nvidia’s rise proves that’s a mistake. Its transformation from graphics chipmaker to the engine of the AI revolution shows how brand strategy can create enormous value. Here are six lessons B2B brands can take from Nvidia’s playbook. 1. More than a logo Nvidia’s brand identity hasn’t changed much since the 1990s. The typography has been updated, but the odd, retro eye-and-square graphic remains. Many organizations would have dropped it long ago, worried it looked dated or alienating. Nvidia’s decision to keep it reflects confidence in what the brand stands for and in the loyalty of its audience, especially the developers and gamers who value its heritage. Many B2B brands struggle here. A new CMO arrives and the instinct is to “refresh the logo.” These changes are often driven more by internal pressure than by real market insight. In doing so, companies risk eroding recognition and alienating the very customers that anchor their brand. Companies need to ask: What do our core users value from us? What signals show continuity and confidence? Consistency builds familiarity, and that in turn builds trust. 2. Own a story, not just a product Nvidia’s two main rivals, AMD and Intel, have longer histories and strong product reputations. Yet Intel is seen as legacy computing and AMD as fast and affordable, while Nvidia is synonymous with the future. This isn’t because Nvidia “started” AI, but because it positioned itself as the essential platform for enabling it, shifting from being a graphics processing unit manufacturer to the company powering the AI revolution, and framing its value in terms of possibility rather than price or speed. That positioning has contributed to a market cap 15 times AMD’s and 47 times Intel’s, despite smaller revenues. Many B2B firms struggle to look this far ahead. Brand vision often gets tied to short sales cycles and annual budgets. The challenge is to set an ambition that stretches beyond the next quarter. Microsoft did this successfully with its “cloud-first” pivot. Intel seemingly failed to capitalize on the AI growth wave, falling behind AMD and Nvidia. Although it is reportedly working hard on a comeback, will it be enough to make up for lost time? The lesson: don’t just describe what you make, own the bigger shift your products make possible. 3. Be more peacock Brands are regularly the victims of trends. The more established and reputationally safe they are the harder it is for them to stay connected to new audiences while remaining true to themselves. However, Nvidia has remained remarkably true to its central vision. It uses its core brand assets—the logo, the green—everywhere. This consistency reinforces recognition, particularly among its most loyal audience: a technically minded, brand-aware community that values the company’s history. Where some brands tone down their heritage as they grow, Nvidia has leaned into it. Salesforce and Slack have both succeeded by sticking with distinctive, even playful, visual identities in a category prone to beige “professionalism.” In contrast, many brands caught up in the 2018 “blanding” epidemic traded characterful logos and flourishes for neutral sans-serifs, diluting their identities in the process. Often B2B brands should have the courage to lean into the brand assets that make them distinctive and unique, rather than feeling they need to follow the latest trend. 4. Make the brand an experience Nvidia’s GTC (GPU Technology Conference) has been described as the “Super Bowl of AI”, stadium-scale events wrapped in the brand, bringing together developers, researchers, and business leaders. These conferences position Nvidia not just as a supplier of hardware but as the platform powering what’s next. Most B2B brands don’t think about experience in this way. “Customer experience” is often a trade show booth or a sales meeting. Yet experience is where brand comes to life: through service design, digital platforms, physical spaces, and above all, people. Not every business needs stadium events, but every B2B brand can look at the moments where clients interact with them and ask: does this experience reflect who we are? Does it build confidence? Deloitte is a good example here. Its investment in connected digital and service experiences has made it the highest-valued commercial services brand by Brand Finance. 5. Partner for relevance Nvidia’s partnerships—from Tesla to Disney Research to Google DeepMind—have put it at the center of conversations about robotics, art, graphics, and AI. Each collaboration reinforces the company’s relevance far beyond chips. B2B companies often fall into one of two traps: chasing partnerships haphazardly without alignment, or avoiding them altogether for fear of losing control. But the right partnerships extend credibility, and relevance. The lesson is to find partnerships that complement your brand’s value and purpose. Co-branded thought leadership, for example, can build credibility for both parties. Deloitte and Apple’s collaboration to accelerate enterprise mobility is a good example. The misstep comes when brands partner without clear alignment. 6. Build a human figurehead Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, has become a brand asset in his own right. Known for his leather jackets and unscripted keynote style, he’s built a following—even a nickname for his fans—which is unusual in the world of B2B hardware. His visibility has amplified Nvidia’s vision while keeping the brand rooted in the community that uses its products. Most B2B leaders aren’t visible in this way. Either they avoid the spotlight, or they show up only in highly scripted investor calls. Yet charismatic leaders can create strong brand momentum. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce uses his personal platform to advance the company’s narrative. Deloitte CEO Joseph Ucuzoglu has also become a recognizable voice on leadership and the future of work. For B2B brands, the takeaway isn’t to manufacture celebrity. It’s to encourage leaders to show up authentically, in ways that reflect the brand’s values and ambitions. Brand is the differentiator From the outside, many B2B products can look more alike than they really are: another chip, another service, another platform. That’s when brand becomes the differentiator. Nvidia’s rise to the top wasn’t just about cutting-edge engineering. It was about confidence: sticking with distinctive assets, claiming ownership of the future, showing up consistently, building meaningful experiences, partnering with intent, and amplifying it all through visible leadership. The lesson for B2B brands is simple. Don’t treat brand as decoration. Allow your brand to be vision-led. Nvidia shows that even in categories that seem invisible or interchangeable, brand confidence can drive both growth and value. View the full article

For years, Mercedes-Benz has relied on touchscreens as the command center of its vehicles. Is it too hot? Tap the screen to set the AC temperature. Want to listen to the news? Tap. Defrost the rear window? Tap, tap, tap. While the automaker has retained some physical controls in its cars, its modern user experience is effectively built around the screen. But that’s about to change. Magnus Östberg, chief software officer for Mercedes-Benz, recently announced that the company would be centering future car design around physical controls instead of screens. “The data shows us physical buttons are better,” Östberg told Autocar at the Munich motor show. He says Mercedes will begin integrating more physical controls into its digitally focused cabins starting in 2026. Mercedes’ announcement is part of a bigger industry trend… with carmakers like Hyundai leading the charge to bring back knobs and buttons to its cars. Earlier this year, fellow German automaker Volkswagen, also announced plans to fix its touchscreen problem, saying that it was “taking a step back to move forward.” After more than a decade of car screens growing bigger and brighter, the auto industry finally seems to be acknowledging what drivers (and science!) has known all along: physical buttons are safer and more pleasant to use. Why automakers went crazy for screens You can partly blame Buick for this mess. The General Motors’ brand introduced the first 3-by-4-inch car touchscreen with the 1986 Buick Riviera. It turned out that drivers found the design distracting and cumbersome, so Buick eventually cancelled it. Still, it serves as an early glimpse of how automakers would eventually come to think about integrating technology into the driver experience. Throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, automakers like BMW and Lexus began to integrate small, low-res screens into their cars to handle functions like navigation. But the touchscreen revolution didn’t happen in earnest until 2012 when Elon Musk installed cheap vertical 17-inch displays in his Model S. The sleek, tech-forward design intrigued other automakers, who realized they could cut costs by reducing the number of expensive physical controls in their cars. And sure enough, lots of car companies followed suit. Throughout the 2010s, touchscreens became the default mode of interaction for carmakers across the price spectrum. But screens were not without their problems. Tesla’s reliance on electronic controls has lead to some high profile issues. The screens themselves started failing, leading to a 158,000-vehicle recall for the company. Drivers, meanwhile, didn’t seem to like touchscreens all that much, and science didn’t either. Evidence began mounting that touchscreens, despite their perceived convenience, were actually not all that helpful. In 2022, Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare conducted a comprehensive study of 11 modern touchscreen-equipped cars. It found that physical controls dramatically outperform digital interfaces for driver tasks. Its testing revealed that a 17-year-old Volvo V70 with only physical controls allowed drivers to complete essential tasks in just 10 seconds, while modern cars with touchscreens took anywhere from 23.5 seconds to a disastrous 44.9 seconds to accomplish the same functions. But going back to physical controls is not just about convenience—it’s about safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says any distraction that requires drivers to look away from the road even for a second is a potential accident. Touchscreens, by nature, require drivers to take their eyes off the road to navigate through multiple menu layers in order to perform simple tasks that once required an easy-to-find single physical button press or dial twist. As design expert Amber Case says, “Because buttons are not fixed to specific locations, screens inhibit muscle memory and findability. Touchscreens compete for attention with the driving process, adding to the dangers of distracted driving.” Back to basics All this has lead automakers to reconsider their devotion to the screen. In early 2025, Volkswagen announced a significant policy shift, with the company committing to restore physical controls for essential functions across all future models. Design chief Andreas Mindt acknowledged publicly that the company’s touchscreen-heavy strategy had failed users. He said that cars are not phones, so they require a different interface. Hyundai also reversed direction in late 2024, when they reintroduced physical controls with its Ioniq 5. It came after a 2023 epiphany, when its internal testing revealed driver frustration with capacitive controls during critical moments. The Korean automaker’s research showed that touch-only interfaces create anxiety when drivers need immediate access to vehicle functions. “I think it’s great,” designer Chris Kernaghan told Fast Company at the time. “I’m not dismissing touchscreens in cars entirely, [but] there are certain critical controls that are better suited to good old-fashioned buttons and knobs. As a designer, I’m all about tactile feedback whenever possible. It just feels natural to push a button and get an immediate response. You don’t get that same sense of control with touchscreens.” Manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan maintained hybrid approaches throughout the touchscreen boom, preserving tactile controls alongside digital displays rather than eliminating buttons entirely. Chinese brands also offer hybrid a touchscreen-physical button UX, although some, like the Xiaomi SU7, provide it with an optional full physical control system that attaches magnetically to the dashboard, under the main display. Trend spotting If I were a cynic (and I am), I would say that Mercedes took these steps mostly because there seems to be a reversal to this useless fad. Plus, regulatory pressure is mounting: Europe’s safety testing organization will penalize vehicles starting in 2026 if they lack physical controls for essential safety systems including climate, signals, emergency features, and driver-assistance functions. But Östberg explained that the company’s real-world usage data—revealed by its own cars’ electronics—pointed out that something needed to change. A Mercedes spokesperson told Fast Company that consumer feedback played a role in the shift: “We’ve listened closely to customer feedback and analyzed real-world usage data from our software-defined vehicles. Physical controls offer superior usability and comfort for many drivers.” The spokesperson added, “The rollers and these physical buttons are very important for certain age groups and certain populations.” This may be true, but it’s a strange way to frame a decision that is ultimately about making cars safer for everyone. A solution in progress The solution Mercedes has chosen starts with a redesigned steering wheel featuring “a host of rockers, rollers, and buttons” that will become standard across all Mercedes models going forward. This wheel will be fitted to all car models already on sale, with implementation beginning early next year. Mercedes tells me that the manufacturer is reintroducing tactile elements like a rocker for the limiter and Distronic (its cruise control system) and a roller for volume control. These will all be on the steering wheel. The picture of the wheel shows a lot of buttons crammed in its horizontal axis, like an oversize PlayStation gamepad—a bit complicated, but definitely better than using the display. Is this the solution to the problem? I always found these types of button-heavy wheel designs problematic. In theory, not having to take your hands away from the steering wheel is good. In practice, I find myself looking down to make sure I’m clicking the right button. Or missing the target if I don’t look. When asked about usability testing for the new GLC wheel controls, Mercedes told me the new steering wheel had undergone “extensive testing” as part of its development process, though no specific details about the results were provided. It’s interesting timing for the announcement. Mercedes has just fitted its new GLC SUV model with what is allegedly the biggest screen ever put in a production car: a 39.1-inch display called an MBUX Hyperscreen. It spans the entire dashboard width. As Mercedes-Benz design chief Gorden Wagener acknowledged to Autocar, the company has “reached a point where you cannot make the screen much bigger.” Perhaps the industry’s screen-enlargement race has finally reached its logically absurd conclusion. Mercedes plans to add more physical controls elsewhere in future cabins, though Östberg indicated this will likely be limited to SUVs because “in larger cars we have more freedom to package” and buyers of those vehicles “care more about buttons.” When asked about expanding changes beyond the steering wheel, the Mercedes spokesperson told me the company doesn’t disclose details of future portfolios but continually evaluates “customer needs and preferences.” Maybe this is indicative that the company is still trying to balance cost considerations with user experience, rather than committing fully to what its own data shows works best. Perhaps it’s FOMO, as the Chinese industry seems to be fully committed to displays everywhere and companies like BYD are poised to dominate the global car industry. In fact, Östberg hinted that different wheel designs might be used depending on location, explaining that “while Europeans like buttons, Asian drivers prefer more touchscreen and voice controls.” This market-specific strategy suggests Mercedes is prioritizing regional preferences over the safety and usability benefits its own data has uncovered. Can AI fix it? At the same time, Mercedes says it is investing heavily in voice command technology, with Östberg noting that voice command usage in the CLA has “tripled” among Mercedes drivers, calling the increase “phenomenal.” This AI integration could represent the future solution to the buttons-versus-screens dilemma. If voice recognition becomes really good rather than the current Larry David level of accuracy, drivers might eventually interact with their cars through natural conversation. This mirrors the prediction of usability expert Jakob Nielsen, who believes that user interfaces will eventually disappear entirely as AI anticipates user needs. In such a future, the current debate about buttons and screens might be irrelevant. Back in the real world, however, things need to change. More manufacturers should embrace the return to physical controls, even if it will cost them more to make those cars because of the complex electronics that rolling wheels and buttons require. Mercedes deserves credit for acknowledging the touchscreen problem like its VW colleagues have done and attempting to address a real problem with data-driven solutions. But there is still a way to go before we can say automakers are truly prioritizing drivers’ best interests. What will the cars of the future look like? Right now, the industry seems to be hedging its bets. View the full article

Danish developer and US private capital group discuss deal for Hornsea 3 wind farm View the full article

Becoming a chartered financial analyst (CFA)—a certification that requires thousands of hours of professional experience, as well as taking a very rigorous exam; Investopedia calls it “one of the most respected designations in finance”—is no easy feat. That is, until now. Two years ago, AI models could only pass the first two sections of the prestigious, three-part exam. The essay section, however, had it stumped. And yet, in a new study from New York University’s Stern School of Business and GoodFin, an AI-powered wealth management platform, advanced AI like Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude Opus passed the exam with flying colors. What would’ve taken a human 1,000 hours of studying over multiple years took AI a matter of minutes. Just two years ago, analysts were saying that it would never be able to pass the exam. It’s a sign of how advanced the technology has become, and once again fuels discussion about how AI could replace even the most challenging jobs. But Anna Joo Fee, founder and CEO of GoodFin, which contributed to the research but did not fund it, told CNBC, “There are things like context and intent that are hard for the machine to assess right now. That’s where a human shines, in understanding your body language and cues.” That didn’t stop social media from having all sorts of reactions. One LinkedIn user called the news both an “impressive milestone” and “a little eye opening.” They wrote in a comment: “It doesn’t replace the human side of financial advising, but it does raise big questions about how the role of advisors and analysts will evolve in the near future.” “AI passing the CFA in minutes while humans cry over flashcards for years? At this point, the calculator deserves a corner office,” another joked. On the r/CFA subreddit, however, many were actually unimpressed. “Isn’t that like taking an open book exam? Unless your AI has memory problems,” one wrote. “Study: ‘water is wet’.” While it may not be surprising to some, the study does make plain the rapid pace of change in AI’s capabilities in just a few short years. “Right now, most of the conversation about work is about chasing the latest signal of what AI can do at work. It’s a messy, noisy, often contradictory conversation because AI is change that keeps changing,” chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, Aneesh Raman, wrote in a post. He encouraged: “This new era is about the mind not the machine. Focus on the mind—yours, your teams, your organizations, your societies—and so many opportunities will unfold in the coming years. It’s not the robots that are coming. The humans are coming!” A finance professional at PwC agreed. “AI won’t replace finance professionals—but finance professionals using AI will replace those who don’t,” she wrote. Her advice is to be selective about the tools you adopt, prioritize use cases, and prepare to “work alongside AI.” For now, though, this most recent headline is yet more fearmongering about the arrival of an omniscient entity plucking jobs from under our feet and kicking entire industries to the curb. “It’s just another test a machine can pass faster, cheaper, and without breaking a sweat. Let’s be real. This is bigger than finance,” another LinkedIn user wrote. “This is a warning shot for every ‘thinking’ job we thought was future-proof.” View the full article

It’s not really possible to cleanly pin down the setting of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Written by Michael Chabon and published in 2000, the story takes place in Brooklyn, in Prague, on the battlefields of World War II, on the top of the Empire State Building, and in the imaginary universe of a superhero comic book. The breadth of locations—physical and metaphysical—make for a rollicking read. But when New York’s Met Opera decided to stage an opera version of the book, that globe-crossing, reality-bending narrative presented some very tangible challenges. “It’s a big sweeping novel, so it requires an enormous canvas and a lot of locations,” says Bartlett Sher, director of the opera version of the book, which has just opened the Met’s 2025–2026 season. “We started workshopping it a couple of years ago, and I realized I can’t do this in the normal way.” To make those leaps in the real time span of a live opera performance, Sher and his team had to take a novel and highly complex approach to its production design. The Met tapped 59, a multidisciplinary stage and experience design studio, to design the sets, lighting, and, crucially, video elements that reveal a narrative that takes place on multiple continents and within the pages of comic books. The story follows two Jewish cousins at the outset of World War II who create a comic book hero whose stories are intended to urge Americans to join the fight against the Nazis. Their comic becomes a hit, but their lives are thrown into chaos as the war unfolds, taking the audience from New York to Prague to the minds of comic book creators. Part of the experiential design agency Journey, 59 developed a production design approach that embraced the story’s location hopping. “The worlds start to be really musically distinct and really visually distinct, and then everything starts to collide together throughout the course of the piece,” says Jenny Melville, principal design director at 59. “It was quite clear early on that particularly the comic book world was going to have a major visual component to the whole design.” Melville has worked on operas and stage plays around the world, and 59 has developed video elements for productions like the Broadway version of the Netflix series Stranger Things and the Met Opera’s 2024 staging of Aida. Melville says that as more and more performances integrate video elements, production designers have to strike a careful balance. “Video design in opera is very much supportive material, an augmentation to the scenic design,” Melville says. “But it’s really critical to never overshadow the live performance on stage.” For The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay opera, video took on an outsized role, especially for scenes involving the creation of the comic book and stories from within its pages. “There are these moments where, really unusually for an opera, the singers stop singing and the video moments take over,” Melville says. That’s partially a function of the narrative, which revolves around the creation of a superhero comic. The impracticality of having the audience watch actors imagining superheroes and drawing comics on stage led to the integration of vivid animated sequences projected on the set. The opera’s modernist score, by composer Mason Bates, also creates moments for the video elements to come into the foreground. The music juggles between the somberness of Europe in World War II, the jazziness of New York City in the 1930s, and a comic book world represented by electronic music. “Because there are these electronic music sections, it’s a really clear divide when we’re a supporting act, which is actually like 90% of the time,” Melville says. The abundance of video elements in the opera presents its own set of technical challenges, especially when it comes to making sure the video synchs up with the musicians in the band pit and the singers on stage. “The timing changes every night, because of course the conductor and the orchestra and all the singers have to just do what feels right in the moment,” says Melville. “We’ve had to break all of our cue structures down into very, very specific time sequences.” “We worked very cleverly and carefully to make it work,” says Sher. “And that was fun, but it wasn’t easy.” The hard work on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay opera may pay dividends later on. Sher and 59 are already working together on another production, a musical version of the film La La Land, that is going to rely on a similar level of video integration. “Everything we’ve absorbed on this experience is only going to help redouble our efforts when it comes to that experience,” he says. View the full article

EV sales just hit a new record in the U.S.: This month, they’re on track to make up 12.2% of new car sales, according to J.D. Power and Associates. Meanwhile, gas car sales dropped compared to the same month last year. Buyers are racing to get new electric vehicles before the $7,500 federal tax credit goes away on September 30. When the The President administration pushed to eliminate the credit in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it inadvertently helped nudge some consumers to switch to EVs earlier that they otherwise might have. “There’s nothing like a deadline to get people paying attention,” says Josh Boone, executive director of Veloz, a nonprofit focused on electrifying transportation. The organization has seen a surge of traffic on its digital platform that helps consumers choose an EV. The end of the credit also helped temporarily push EV prices down. In August, the average transaction cost for an EV was $44,908—a little less than the average gas vehicle, at $45,521. That’s because manufacturers added generous incentives to help sell cars before the deadline. The tax credit has been in place since 2008, under the Bush administration. Now that it’s disappearing, EV sales are likely to plummet next quarter. Automakers are slowing production and canceling some models. But electric cars aren’t dead in the U.S., and sales are still likely to grow next year. How much does the tax credit matter? Even though the end of the incentive has spurred sales, the tax credit generally hasn’t been the deciding factor for most buyers, says Loren McDonald, who runs an EV data and analysis firm called Chargeonomics. “I’ve always believed that its importance has been overplayed,” he says. “For most people, it was more of a discount than it was an actual incentive to get people over the hump.” Most people using the tax credit have had higher incomes, and probably could have afforded the vehicles on their own. That’s still the case now. “For a lot of people, if they’re considering the difference of a $50 or $100 a month payment, it’s like ‘I can deal with that,’ he says. “What it means is that people with lower income brackets still aren’t interested.” In a recent survey with Morning Consult, analysts at Cox Automotive found that 65% of respondents who were in the market for a new EV said they would still consider an EV without the tax credit. “I thought that was a good data point to show that it’s important, but not for everyone,” says Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox. The number of affordable EVs keeps growing As EV production scales up and battery costs fall, that helps push cost down. The number of more affordable models is growing. The next-generation Chevy Bolt will enter production later this year. The new Nissan Leaf will start at just under $30,000, with a 300-mile range. Slate Auto, a startup backed by Jeff Bezos, will release an electric truck in the mid-$20,000s next year. (With the tax credit in place, it would have been less than $20k.) Toyota is releasing a new electric C-HR next year. Volvo has said that its new crossover, the EX60, is aiming to get as close as possible to price parity with gas cars. In China, it’s worth noting, EVs are already cheaper than gas cars without subsidies. Plug-in vehicles now make up more than half of new sales in China, with battery electric vehicles alone representing one-third of the market. Technology continues to improve. CATL, the largest EV battery manufacturer, plans to soon release new sodium-ion packs that cost $40 per kilowatt-hour, 20% less than its current lithium iorn phosphate batteries (which are already cheaper than standard lithium-ion batteries). Automakers are increasingly adopting platforms that support multiple EV models, boosting economies of scale. All of this will help, although automakers are also facing headwinds from tariffs. If you consider the total cost of ownership, many EVs are already less expensive than equivalent gas vehicles. They need less maintenance, and charging is cheaper than buying gas. Still, that’s harder to communicate than the sticker price. “The auto industry needs to start educating buyers to be more like fleet buyers, which is they get out their Excel spreadsheet and they calculate the total cost of ownership of the truck over the lifetime,” says McDonald. “They need to do this with electric vehicles. The problem is, if you’re also selling gas vehicles, you’re basically selling against your own cars. And that’s always been one of the problems with the legacy automakers: if they go too far in selling how great EVs are, they’re basically saying, sorry, [gas cars] aren’t that good.” The number of used EVs is also continuing to grow—1.1 million EVs were leased over the last few years and will soon be available for resale. The upfront cost of a used EV is already typically comparable (or cheaper) than an equivalent gas car. Those sales have also been surging. Some state and utility incentives are also still available. All of this means that even without the tax credit, the cost of EVs may not necessarily be a large barrier. Charging infrastructure is also improving, and the average range of an EV is already big enough that range anxiety isn’t the challenge that it used to be. Automakers will need to get better at marketing As the tax credit goes away, automakers may have to rethink marketing. McDonald argues that car brands have overrelied on incentives and rebates from the government and utilities. “They’ve focused on all these incentives—not that it’s a really great car, and it doesn’t require maintenance, and it’s fast, and convenient,” he says. “My hope is that they’re going to do a better job marketing and targeting.” One automaker he recently spoke with said that the brand is now beginning to target likely buyers, such as suburban families with a large garage and income. “They’re finally waking up and realized that doing Super Bowl ads is a waste of time,” he says. “What you really need to do is target the people who are considering a Tesla, and get them to buy yours.” Automakers may continue to offer strong incentives next quarter to help offset the loss of the tax credit. “I think they’ll step in and offer more now,” says Tyson Jominy, senior vice president of data & analytics at J.D. Power. (GM declined to comment on its plans for this story, and Rivian said that it is still working through its incentive plans.) Sales are likely to drop, and then rebound in 2026 EV sales will probably fall steeply in the fourth quarter, and likely the first quarter of 2026. That’s both because some sales that would have happened then happened early, and because other sales will be lost because the tax credit is no longer available. But they’re expected to pick up again later in 2026. The same pattern has happened in other countries that phased out EV tax credits. In Germany, for example, the share of EV sales temporarily spiked to 22% just before the German subsidy went away at the end of 2023. At the beginning of 2024, they dropped by more than half. But sales then started to rebound, and by this summer, had grown to 16.8% of the market. In Canada, a federal EV incentive was paused at the beginning of 2025. Sales spiked beforehand, dropped, and are now starting to grow again. JD Power expects that EV sales for this year will be around 9% of the total car market, similar to last year, and will grow in 2026 as new models arrive. Long term, analysts still expect steep growth over the rest of the decade, despite changes in policy. “As we go throughout [2026], and certainly as we head toward the end of decade, we are still bullish on EVs overall,” says Jominy. “We do expect there to be a lot of new launches and expect the technology to continue to improve and evolve.” View the full article

Following the The President administration’s cuts to foreign aid, two-thirds of Mercy Corps’ U.S.-funded programs have been rescinded. CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna shares how she’s leading her team amid immense pressure—scrambling to find new ways to help those in need, even as she resorts to layoffs to keep the business afloat. McKenna reveals what she’s hearing from her team of aid workers on the ground in Gaza, and why she isn’t running away from burnout but embracing it. Like many business leaders experiencing political or economic volatility right now, McKenna is faced with a complex conundrum: fight, flight, or freeze. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. U.S. government funding accounted for half of your funding, right? Exactly. About two thirds of your programs were rescinded. I mean, it’s like an existential crisis, a true existential crisis for the organization. So what did you do? I mean, you faced a slew of urgent decisions. They were urgent decisions, and I have to say it was very clumsy, right? Usually when you work with the government, there are definitions for every single thing, so very specific definition for stop or very specific definition for freeze. And in this case, the guidance wasn’t there. When they said we had to stop doing everything, our first concern was safety for people. If I have people in a remote area of a country or in charge of delivering food to a school feeding program next day, that community didn’t understand that we weren’t showing up the next day, and they certainly didn’t understand it was because the U.S. government told us not to, but we had to go to work. Once it was clear what was going to be cut or what wasn’t going to be cut, we had to go about shutting down those programs across 40 different countries, lots of different labor laws to that. We consolidated some of our regions, we closed some country offices. We just got to work to say, “If the funding wasn’t there for that program, we’ll shut it down in the most responsible way possible and we’ll keep moving and then address what we have to do with the U.S. government to see what we can preserve, make sure our other funders are okay, and still be prepared in case if another hurricane or earthquake had hit during that period, we still had to be prepared to respond.” I mean, the irony is your organization is all about responding to crisis when it emerges and now the crisis becomes you. And in some ways in some of these communities you’re sort of creating the crisis because they’ve become used to having you there. Yes, yes, yes. And I worried a lot about staff safety, particularly in remote places where we were a source of survival for people where we provided access to food, and that continued to plague me. We’d hear reports from colleagues of government officials trying to stop their country director to make sure everyone got paid before they left. And my staff in Sudan, almost all of them are displaced from their homes themselves. So they’re working for us in temporary shelters, still going through the same problems that everyone else is going through. And so this was a weird situation where our organization was the one that had to be the emergency patient, but we also knew . . . You almost felt guilty for feeling bad because people have it so much worse than you do. There were a lot of weird mental gymnastics that were happening for all of us. We’re now months in, past that initial shock. How much do you look at 2025 today as an inflection point, sort of a new normal for USAID orgs like Mercy Corps? Are you kind of holding your breath in a way in hopes that, “A next administration maybe will reinstate things?” No, we know nothing’s going back to the way it was, but we don’t know exactly what that looks like going forward. The other thing that was surreal is there was this demonization of aid or demonization of aid agencies. A lot of misinformation about the work we were doing and how we were doing it. And then there’s the third and fourth effect. So in a lot of places, we rely on UN airplanes to get in and out of certain areas, and so a lot of UN organizations we’re also facing the same U.S. cuts that we were. So we are still digging out of the aftermath. We know the world is fundamentally changed, and right now we are trying to embrace that and move into the future while also knowing the future’s still quite uncertain. I have to ask you about Gaza. There are all the reports about famine in Gaza where you’ve had teams on the ground. Your Mideast director was on this show in October of 2023 soon after Hamas’s October 7th attack as the initial Israeli military action was underway. Are your teams still active on the ground there now? What are they seeing and what might our listeners be missing in the news reports that they’re getting? We have about 35 staff that are still on the ground living and working in Gaza. We’ve had about 1,300 trucks stuck at a border that have not been able to get in. We’ve had some food in those trucks expire in that time period. And even without those trucks, our teams on the ground we’re working with water desalination plants and supplying clean water to people. It’s so dire right now. Our own team members are hungry. They are worried about where their next meal is coming from. We have a staff member that is able to go in and out, and she talks about the weight loss that she’s seen in her colleagues. About a million people are under evacuation orders in Gaza City. A lot of them, this is the fourth, fifth time they’ve moved. And what’s different lately, which really concerns us, is that sense of hope is really eroded. I think people feel like they’ve been just left. This is as tough as it’s ever been, and our own staff are fighting for their own survival. We talk about the lack of food, but 95% of households there just don’t have enough water. And so someone said, “A choice you’re making every day is, do I wash my hands? Do I drink a glass of water? Do I bathe the kids? The little water I have, what do I do with it?” And we just can’t imagine. It’s just been horrific and to feel so powerless, especially when we know there are trucks waiting across the border that could get in. There are people like us that are really eager to do the work, like my staff who are looking for food themselves, who want to get out and do things, and we just know it’s political will that’s stopping that. I spoke to another humanitarian aid leader recently off the record, who shared that starting years ago, they chose not to provide services in Gaza because they were worried and believed that Hamas would inevitably infiltrate their efforts. And obviously this is what the Israeli government or military at least is kind of saying, did you have worries about that? Does that matter when you’re trying to just feed people? Gaza has always been one of the most difficult places in the world to work. I mean, we all are under U.S. anti-terrorism laws. Our staff are vetted. We check the names, we check the lists because the risk of having a staff member be a part of Hamas is too great to bear. We have not seen mass aid diversion from Hamas. That just has not been our experience, and most of our colleagues have not experienced that either. So that has been talked about as a threat. You do see looting, you do see hungry people, crowds of hungry people swarming to every truck and you see children and people throwing themselves in front of trucks. The way to address people stealing aid or making food valuable is to flood the zone with food, and then it’s not as valuable. I think more importantly, there have been anonymous Israeli defense forces in COGAT, which is the border authority officials saying that they’ve seen no mass aid diversion. U.S. government reports, internal former USAID audit reports said they have no evidence of mass diversion of aid. So we work in difficult environments and we all take vetting very seriously, but we know how to do this. We know how to work in these environments. View the full article

Artificial intelligence is infiltrating every corner of professional sports, from scouting and injury prevention to scheduling. Now, it looks like golf has its most sophisticated AI adoption yet, and it’s happening in the bag of Bryson DeChambeau, the sport’s most notorious tinkerer. “We’re building an AI golf coach,” DeChambeau says. “Essentially, it will be a golf coach that, based on data, will be able to tell you exactly what you’re doing, how to practice, and how to improve your game. We can take a golf swing, compile the information, upload it, and within a minute, it will give me what’s different from my gold standard set of swings.” The setup is deceptively simple: a smartphone on a tripod gathering data via video, paired with Google’s Gemini AI to interpret said data. Combined, they create a swing coach so intuitive that DeChambeau uses it even moments before teeing off in a tournament. “The mental game is something I’ve always struggled with,” he says. “But whenever I become a little more confident and comfortable with my feel, my mental game goes extremely positive. And this assistant has helped me become a lot more confident with my golf swing.” AI + AI = Coach DeChambeau’s coaching system starts with SportsBox, an AI-powered 3D biomechanical analysis app that analyzes over 30 key points on the body, club, and ball per golf swing. It measures everything from rotational range of motion to kinematic sequencing—the precise order in which different body parts accelerate and decelerate through the swing. This data is then processed by Gemini AI to turn those measurements into actionable coaching insights. Think of SportsBox as the measuring tool, Gemini as the AI coach agent, and Google Cloud as the platform hosting it all. The system starts by building and maintaining a database of DeChambeau’s optimal swings from recent years to create his “gold standard” set. So, when he hits a poor shot, the AI immediately measures that shot against his gold standard set and ranks the factors most likely contributing to the miss. “We can take a golf swing, then upload it, and within a minute, it will give me what’s different from my gold standard set of swings,” he says. “It will give me a rundown list of the top [deviations] that are correlating to whatever’s causing me to miss.” According to Granville Valentine, managing director of AI go-to-market at Google Cloud, it’s Gemini’s multimodal capabilities that bring the SportsBox data to life, creating the interactive coaching agent. “Gemini is very differentiated on multimodality—the ability to ingest the combination of video, audio, text, and voice, and even livestreaming some of those capabilities into the model,” he says. “The combination of really deep video understanding plus core reasoning comes out in differentiated coaching guidance.” The devil’s in the details The granular nature of DeChambeau’s AI coaching reveals just how sophisticated modern sports analytics has become. The system uses Z-scores—statistical measurements showing how many standard deviations a movement is from the mean of a data set—to identify exactly where problems occur. Previously, DeChambeau would capture swing data but wait hours or days for analysis. With this technology, he gets feedback within a minute, allowing for real-time adjustments before a round. “We were going through [the data] by hand in an Excel spreadsheet,” he says. “It was a manual process, very difficult. So you’re talking about months and months of trying to study the golf swing, now done in minutes.” The data is also surprisingly precise. “Let’s say it’s a radial deviation at P6,” DeChambeau says. “That’s too much, meaning I’ve got too much wrist hinge, which makes the club come more outside in. So it’s very specific.” For us non-DeChambeaus who got lost at “radial deviation” and checked out at “P6,” that’s where Gemini comes to the rescue. The AI’s ability to adapt its communication style allows users to train it to explain complex biomechanical concepts in terms appropriate for any skill level. Like other large language models, you can ask it questions, such as what specific terms mean, and as your understanding grows, it will adapt to give you more granular, technical data, meeting each golfer where he or she is at. Old dog, new tricks When he began using this technology earlier this year, DeChambeau found one of his fundamental beliefs about his swing challenged. For years, he says, he thought he needed to stay more centered over the ball—more on top of it—when hitting his driver. The AI consistently told him otherwise, saying he was too on top of the ball. “It told me to keep swaying my chest just a bit back on the backstroke to get my center mass more behind the golf ball so I can allow the club to release through the impact more,” he says. “So that just blew my mind at how precise this assistant is. It was kind of a kick-in-the-butt moment of, wait, you gotta start trusting this thing.” Eventually, he realized the AI’s objectivity as its strength. “It’s unbiased,” he says. “It doesn’t tell you what it thinks you should do. It’s literally based on what you do when you’re doing your best, and keeps you in check with that.” Democratizing elite-level instruction The rapid evolution of AI coaching technology suggests we’re witnessing the early stages of a broader transformation in sports training. Valentine points to each new release of Gemini, which shows consistent step-function improvements in spatial awareness and reasoning capabilities. “With each subsequent release, breakthroughs are happening,” he says, comparing Gemini’s current moment to the early days of Waymo self-driving cars, which needed time to become trustworthy enough for widespread adoption. “That level of trust—that level of breakthrough in the model itself—is now kicking over to a place where humans have the confidence to rely on this as a coach relative to a human coach.” Still, Valentine says, the ultimate goal is not to replace human coaches, but to democratize access to elite-level instruction. “I don’t think the objective is to get rid of coaches,” he says. “I think it’s to deliver access to those folks who don’t have access to coaches. There are lots of folks in the world who would probably be very well served to have access to coaching, it just hasn’t been available to them.” At the PGA Tour level, DeChambeau believes there are further use cases for the tool, and that widespread adoption is inevitable once other players experience the results he’s seen. “When these [other golfers] see what the capabilities are, they’ll immediately latch onto it,” he says. “Because it’s not about some theoretical idea. It’s about what works best for them as an individual. I can’t wait for a day when it’s a full-on coach, club fitter, you name it. We’re just at the beginning.” View the full article

It’s Sunday night. Before kids, this was the time to nurse a mimosa hangover and zone out to The Sopranos. Now? It’s a very different playbook. Sunday evenings feel less like a gentle exhale from the weekend and more like staging a Broadway play with a cast that hasn’t rehearsed and refuses to put on pants. You are simultaneously the chef, chauffeur, hairdresser, homework coach, and emotional support animal. For parents, the Sunday Scaries don’t whisper “your inbox is waiting.” They shout: Did you wash the soccer uniform? Are there enough snacks for afterschool? Is the social studies project due tomorrow or Wednesday? Ugh! Did I RSVP for that birthday party? The stress creeps up way before the Monday morning alarm. Workweek Ericka already has 15 Google Meets scheduled, but Mom Ericka must also make sure small humans leave the house with a full water bottle, completed homework, and hair appears combed. And unlike our carefree twenties, we can’t just order Pad Thai at 10 p.m. and call it dinner for two days. The case for Sunday systems Here’s the encouraging news: you don’t have to live in perpetual scramble mode. Research consistently shows that people who plan and structure their weeks report lower stress and greater well-being. Weekly planning reduces rumination. In a field experiment, people who sketched out their week in advance reported fewer 2 a.m. spirals about forgotten tasks and felt more engaged during the day. Routines stabilize mental health. Psychologists link chaotic home routines to worse parental well-being, especially during school transitions. Planning boosts control. Other studies show that planning is correlated with a greater sense of progress and competence—the feeling that you’re steering the ship instead of clinging to the side in rough seas. Of course, let’s be clear: folding laundry does not spark joy. It’s possible that people who are naturally calmer are also more inclined to plan. But the evidence leans in a direction every parent instinctively knows: structure is sanity. How to survive (without spiraling) The trick isn’t to banish the Sunday Scaries—you won’t, unless you invent a time machine or outsource your children. The goal is to outmaneuver them with rituals that make Monday feel less like an ambush. Hold a Family Staff Meeting Yes, it sounds corporate but it works. Ten minutes where everyone lays out the week: who needs poster board, who has soccer practice, who’s on snack duty. Cookies as bribes are encouraged. Do Laundry Like It’s Gospel Uniforms, tights, hoodies, and beloved blankies must be washed and folded by 7 p.m. Otherwise, you’ll discover the only clean option is a Halloween cape on Wednesday morning. Play Fridge Tetris Stock the fridge like a level of Tetris: cheese sticks where you can grab them, sandwich fixings prepped, carrots visible so you can feel virtuous (even if no one eats them). With a system in place, you can turn Sunday night from a slow-motion panic spiral into something approaching serenity. Because Monday morning will still bring tears over the wrong-colored water bottle, but if the bags are packed, the laundry is folded, and the fridge is stocked, you will survive with a little more calm, and maybe even brushed hair. View the full article

Almost as soon as the first iPad was announced, a range of competitors sprung up in an attempt to become the “iPad killer.” Devices like the Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, and HP TouchPad all put another spin on the formula but couldn’t come close to the iPad’s blend of performance and App Store dominance. Android tablets are still around today, of course, but most manufacturers don’t push them too hard. They’re all fine at doing tablet things like watching videos, and they’re all worse than the iPad when it comes to the app ecosystem. In recent years I’ve used some great hardware from Xiaomi in particular that I still wouldn’t outright recommend over an iPad. Xiaomi’s latest, though, is straight-up better than its Apple equivalent. The Xiaomi Pad Mini feels like an exercise in picking low-hanging fruit: in this case, the iPad mini. Apple’s smallest tablet is often neglected and rarely updated, leaving several open goals for competitors. In this case, Xiaomi has turned in a better design with better performance, and critically in a form factor where Apple’s software advantages are less relevant. Added ports This tablet isn’t going to stun anyone with its originality—it pretty much looks like an iPad mini. It does have one neat trick, though, by placing USB-C ports along both the bottom edge and one of the sides you can easily charge it in a dock or while using it for video. (Apple apparently considered the same idea for the original iPad before deciding against it.) The Xiaomi Pad Mini runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 9400 processor, the chipmaker’s current top-end mobile system on a chip (SoC) and one that’s at least in the same ballpark as the two-year-old A17 Pro in the iPad mini, if not faster. Performance is excellent, and Xiaomi also offers up to 12GB of RAM while the iPad mini is stuck on 8GB. Superior screen The screen is where Xiaomi really pulls away from Apple. This is an 8.8-inch 3008-by-1880-pixel LCD with a 16:10 aspect ratio; the difference in size to the 8.3-inch iPad mini is mostly that the Xiaomi has thinner bezels and is slightly wider in landscape. Critically, it refreshes at up to 165Hz while the iPad mini is still stuck on 60Hz, which is very jarring for anyone who’s gotten used to the much smoother frame rates on the iPhone and almost every Android phone in recent years. That was the main reason I sold my own iPad mini a while back. HyperOS, which is Xiaomi’s custom version of Android, looks and works similarly to iOS, but Apple actually moved in the direction of its system of multitasking and resizing windows with this year’s iPadOS 26. While Android apps still can’t compete with the iPad in terms of quantity or quality, how much productivity are you planning to get out of an 8-inch tablet in the first place? Like a really big phone The Xiaomi Pad Mini handles simple multitasking with ease, and its aspect ratio is well-suited for most Android apps. Since you can hold it in one hand and the screen is relatively tall, apps like Instagram work fine in portrait orientation—it’s basically like using a really big phone. The aspect ratio is also better suited to most video content than the 3:2 iPad mini, meaning you’ll get a bigger picture with smaller black borders. Overall, this is a great tablet for watching videos, reading ebooks, scrolling social media, and browsing the web. You know, tablet things. It handles all of these tasks at least as well as the iPad mini unless you have a need for a very specific iPad app. A caveat There is one slightly bizarre caveat, which is the lack of any true biometric authentication. You can use your face to unlock the tablet through the selfie camera, which works better than it used to and didn’t get fooled when I tried to use a picture of my face, but that’s still not as secure as a fingerprint reader and doesn’t work in the dark. That could be a deal-breaker for many. Touch ID isn’t exactly a great experience on the iPad mini, but surely a fingerprint scanner would have been a low-cost, worthwhile inclusion here for convenience and peace of mind. Still, I can put up with sometimes needing to enter a PIN in exchange for all the ways that this is simply a better product. I would rather use this than the iPad it’s competing with, which is the first time I’ve ever been able to say that about an Android tablet. And that’s before I even mention the pricing, which starts at $429 for a model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The iPad mini, on the other hand, costs $499 for 8GB of RAM and half the amount of storage; the 256GB model is $599. It’s not like Apple isn’t capable of making the iPad mini better value for the money—it just doesn’t particularly care to. This is what can happen when companies keep outdated devices on shelves at high prices. Mini tablets clearly aren’t the most critical product category in the world, but for the first time in a long while, Apple doesn’t make the best one. View the full article

I was one of the millions of people who lost someone to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the nonstop news about the “new normal,” my grief felt invisible. I took shallow solace in my phone and turned to social media to numb me from the reality that I now lived in: a world without my dad. One day, while mindlessly scrolling, I came across the r/Squishmallow subreddit, where a girl had posted her collection of more than 100 round plush toys. They were called Squishmallows—round stuffed animals invented in 2017 that have become one of the most popular toy lines in the world, with more than 100 million sold each year. I was hypnotized. I expected that my dive into the Squishmallow phenomenon would be the usual two-hour rabbit hole, but spending time in that community was the first joy I’d felt in months. After scrolling through endless photos of Squishmallow hauls, I worked up the courage to post. I asked if there was a cardinal Squishmallow, since that bird was my dad’s symbol for his own father. I was bombarded with compassion; even though cardinal Squishmallows were rare at the time, someone sent me theirs for free. That single act of generosity started my collection. Stumbling into the Squishmallow world But alongside kindness and joy, I encountered a darker side of the community: resellers. Finding the most coveted Squishmallows could turn into a fierce competition. This wasn’t just my personal frustration. As a doctoral candidate in marketing, I wanted to understand how communities like this function when outsiders exploit their passion for profit. That became the focus of my dissertation—the first study to examine resellers’ psychological and emotional impact on brand communities. That research—which my colleagues and I published in one of the field’s top journals—echoed what I had lived through as a collector: Resellers are one of the most consistent sources of pain for members of brand communities. For example, when I heard that my local Hot Topic would be selling two Reshmas, the coveted strawberry cow Squishmallow, I, like any rational adult, found myself outside of a mall at 6:30 in the morning. When the doors finally opened at 11 a.m., I sprinted to the storefront—only to find that I had been beaten by some people who had dressed as mall employees to sneak in early. I left devastated and cowless. Later that day, I saw the same people gloating in local Squishmallow Facebook groups, trying to resell the cow for more than 10 times the retail price. I was heartbroken and angry; I swore I’d never collect again. And I wasn’t the only one to feel that way: Across social media, you’ll find countless collectors venting about resellers. What is a brand community? I didn’t know it then, but I had joined my first brand community: a group of consumers who form strong, meaningful connections through their shared admiration of a product. Brand communities range from giant online hubs with more than 100,000 members to tiny local groups that host trading parties in empty lots. You might be in a brand community without realizing it. These communities can be created by a company—like Harley-Davidson, Lego, and Hot Wheels—or emerge organically from fans, like the Facebook group “Walt Disney World Tips and Tricks.” And they aren’t just about buying and selling. They’re creative ecosystems, full of posts showing collections, inventive displays, and even goodbye messages when someone “rehomes” an item to another loving collector. Community members help each other solve problems, share leads on hard-to-find items, and sometimes even mail strangers a plush toy because they know it will make them smile. But while collectors use these communities to exchange information, so do resellers. The reseller paradox: A shared enemy can unite a community Resellers are outsiders who buy the most sought-after items and flip them online for a profit. They scout inventory tips, track hot products, and plan their shelf-clearing strategies accordingly. And they infuriate collectors like me. Nothing sours the thrill of the hunt faster than seeing a shelf cleared by someone who only wants to use your sacred collectibles for profit. After feeling emotional pain myself, I wanted to understand why resellers bothered me so much, and what they meant for the communities that had become my lifeline. That frustration became the spark for my research. What I found surprised me. As a collector, nothing frustrates me more than to say: According to my research, resellers paradoxically strengthen brand communities. Yes, you read that right. Resellers help communities, but not because they try to help members acquire their desired items. In fact, my findings indicate that resellers inflict heartbreak on community members—which was in line with what I saw and experienced. Resellers help brand communities because they create a common enemy that the community can rally against. When resellers grab all the stock from a store shelf, collectors turn to each other. They vent. They strategize. They share tips on where to find certain items, offer to pick up extras for strangers, and organize trades to help each other avoid inflated resale prices. Ironically, the people causing the most frustration also increase community engagement. Brand communities are real communities These communities reminded me that you are never truly alone in your darkest moments. Joining a niche community, whether for sneakers, trading cards, cars or even Squishmallows, can enrich your life far beyond the products themselves. It wasn’t the Squishmallows that helped me heal from loss; it was the connection that lived in threads, comments, and group chats. I even came to appreciate the “villains” of the community—resellers—for their role in bringing people together. Although I still think I deserve that strawberry cow more than they did. Danielle Hass is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing at West Virginia University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

The latest wave of tech layoffs doesn’t have to be a step backward—it can be a launchpad. If you’ve spent years shipping products, debugging systems, and partnering with go-to-market teams, you already have what many founders don’t: domain insight and a network. Pair that with AI “employees,” (role-specific software agents trained on your company’s data that can perform defined tasks like drafting on-brand content, qualifying leads, and updating CRMs) and your severance becomes seed capital for a lean, scalable company. What’s different now is that the traditional barriers to starting a business have collapsed. The math is transformative: What once required $500,000 in annual salaries can now be achieved for less than $500 a month. Beyond cost, there’s leverage—those complex migrations you managed, the customer insights you unearthed, the systems you architected—that’s IP AI can now operationalize at scale. The most successful builders aren’t just venture-backed startups—they’re experienced operators who realized AI employees can handle everything from customer research to financial analysis, all trained on their specific expertise and methods. Former Google engineers, Meta product managers, and Amazon developers are spinning up businesses with the capacity of a 10-person startup, run solo. Take Todd Krise, who launched Mercenary Marketing after two decades in agencies and now teaches others to run lean, AI-powered businesses without traditional overhead. Or Jenna Ahern of Guardian Owl Digital, who is transforming a decade-old agency into an AI-first marketing firm. Tech professionals have a unique edge here: You understand system architecture, data flows, and automation logic, and you know what “good” looks like from UX to code quality—knowledge that becomes exponentially more valuable when deployed through AI agents working 24/7. While I didn’t lose my job, I did choose to leave my job at TikTok when changing in‑office requirements and a fading work‑life balance told me it was time to rethink my path. I realized companies were being asked to deliver more with leaner teams, and AI was finally capable of helping. I started Parallel AI soon after with a simple goal to turn anxiety about headcount into AI tools that could help teams automate content, sales workflows, and operations without burning out. Building is messy and setbacks happen, even now. The steps below aim to reduce risk and improve your odds. Start with a real problem Write one sentence that states the outcome a buyer wants. Test it with 10 buyer conversations before you build. Ask: What have you tried? What did it cost? What would make this a “yes” in 30 days? A former marketing agency leader, Todd Krise, mapped out how artificial intelligence could replace the bloated, outdated agency model he worked in before launching Mercenary Marketing. He pressure-tested the plan with real clients and deadlines at the start of 2025 to prove that the systems, prices, and deliverables worked before he scaled. If you cannot find 10 people who would pay, change the outcome and try again. What to prioritize in the first 30 to 90 days Aim to land two or three paid pilots and validate one repeatable way to get customers. Divide your runway into two or three time blocks (for example, 30, 60, and 90 days) with clear milestones. Sell clear outcomes you can deliver in two to six weeks. Use them to confirm the right customers, the right price, and the value you create. Create a simple brand: Think a clear one‑line promise, a basic landing page, and two or three proof pieces (short case example, short demonstration, testimonial). Building trust matters more than polish. Measurement: Pick one main goal (revenue or active pilots) to focus on, and three early signs (qualified talks each week, proposals sent, share of proposals that become sales). Careful spending: Cap monthly spending, and pay yourself a modest paycheck. Platform choice: Prefer a measurable, custom AI agent platform over many single‑purpose tools. Fewer vendors means lower cost, less setup, and a clearer view of what works. How to land and execute your first paid pilot Define a tight offer Who: one target customer with a clear problem (for example, software companies that sell to businesses but have a weak sales outreach, or agencies that need brand‑safe content in larger amounts). What: a named pilot (for example, “30‑Day Artificial Intelligence Sales Outreach Boost” or “Content in Context Sprint”) with three to five deliverables and success measures. Why now: a clear trigger (new product launch, missed sales target, hiring freeze, a backlog of content). Use your own relationships to find your first pilot clients Use a short, specific outreach Subject or opener: “Quick pilot to achieve [outcome] in 30 days” Body (three lines): We help [customer type] achieve [outcome] without [main headache]. Proposed four‑week pilot: [deliverables] → success = [measure]. Price: [$X], 50% upfront, applied to ongoing work if it delivers. Worth a 20‑minute fit call next week? If not you, who is best? Include one proof point, a short case example, a short demonstration clip, or a measured personal example. Reduce friction Apply the pilot fee to a monthly agreement or offer a partial refund if success measures are not met. Keep paperwork simple with a one‑page work plan with clear data rules and weekly cadence. Make onboarding quick with a startup checklist, access you will need, and a day‑one plan. Execute to convert Measure everything! Record starting levels, send weekly updates with a simple measures checklist, and deliver early quick wins. At your mid‑point review show progress, confirm success measures, and discuss the follow‑on now. During the final week, present a short results deck and a one‑page decision plan with a yes or no choice and a start date for the monthly agreement. This is the moment to turn your experience into a scalable business with artificial intelligence on your terms. View the full article

According to a recent study conducted by the global consulting firm, EY, 97% of respondents reported that it is important for companies to act with integrity. Many companies tout integrity as a core principle of their organizations in an attempt to reassure customers, employees, and the wider public that their organization “plays by the rules.” By some estimates, integrity is ranked as one of the most cited corporate core values, with over 80% of companies listing integrity as a core value. But simply including integrity on your list of core values and mounting that list on a plaque on a wall (as many companies do) won’t positively influence your culture unless your core values are fully embraced and lived by employees each and every day. After all, Enron was once the darling of corporate America and a supposedly stellar business success story—until news broke that Enron had engaged in what would turn out to be one of the biggest accounting scandals in U.S. history. Here’s why listing “integrity” as a core value and getting employees to live with integrity in the workplace can pose a challenge—even for companies with the best of intentions. A few years ago, the CEO and chairperson of a large financial institution were caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, engaged in what could be described, at best, as questionable behavior. When the media asked the chairperson if what she and the CEO had done was aligned with the company’s core value of integrity, the chairperson replied, “Integrity means different things to different people.” The media and the public were outraged by the response. But, y’know what? The chairperson was right! Integrity does mean different things to different people when it comes to business practices. Here are three steps to take if you want to build a company where everyone understands exactly what integrity means to the organization and exactly how to demonstrate integrity in the workplace. 1. Define what integrity means for your company An organization’s perspective on the topic of integrity most often comes from the leadership of that organization, and their various versions of integrity are often reflected in corporate policies. For instance, ice cream chain Ben and Jerry’s version of integrity is reflected in their policy to only use fair trade–certified ingredients, ensuring that farmers along their supply chain are paid a fair price for their products. Chipmakers like Intel demonstrate their version of integrity by avoiding using “conflict minerals” that are mined under conditions that could be considered to be abuses of human rights. The Body Shop demonstrates its version of integrity by committing to never testing its products on animals. Some companies whose very business models, products, services, or waste may be viewed by others as causing harm to the communities in which they operate try to demonstrate integrity by engaging in acts of restitution. For instance, timber company Hampton Lumber plants three trees for every tree it harvests. Outdoor clothing company Patagonia, known not only for the quality of its products, but also for its efforts to minimize damage to the environment, donates 1% of revenue to environmental groups. (Despite these actions, some critics insist that the acts of restitution pale in comparison to the destruction caused by the companies and even accuse these companies of “greenwashing”—a deceptive practice designed to paint organizations as being more environmentally conscious than they are.) But, demonstrating “boardroom integrity” through corporate policies isn’t enough to qualify a company as being one that acts with integrity. Companies also need to demonstrate integrity at the grassroots level. It makes little sense to list “integrity” as a company core value unless that commitment to integrity permeates every corner of the organization on an individual, team or departmental level. 2. Clarify what integrity means for your employees So, since integrity may mean different things to different people, how can a company’s employees truly commit to integrity as a core value? There’s no easy answer to that question, but one way to stay within the boundaries of ethical behavior is to use “the social media test” where you instruct your employees to ask themselves, “would I be comfortable if this behavior, action, or decision were to be reported on social media (or in the newspaper) for everyone to see?” If the answer is “no” to this litmus test, then deep down in their hearts, they probably recognize that whatever they are considering probably isn’t aligned with the principle of integrity. Another way to clarify to your employees how to act with integrity in the workplace is to articulate clear behavioral expectations expressed not in abstract concepts but in clear, crisp, and concise language, using what I refer to as the “even if” principle to make it crystal clear that your organization values integrity over the potential short-term benefits of acting unethically. For instance, members of your organization’s sales department might be told: “Integrity means never misrepresenting a product to close a deal, even if it means losing a sale.” Consultants that provide services on an hourly rate to clients might be instructed to never overestimate or bill clients for time not spent on the account—even if that means not hitting monthly billing targets. Quality control managers at a company that manufacture parts may be told in no uncertain terms to never ship faulty products—even if a customer might never notice the defects. 3. Take Accountability Seriously Next, it’s important to hold employees (especially leadership) accountable for these standards. One way to hold people accountable is through the use of independent oversight—such as an empowered board of directors, ethics committees, or external auditors. To be effective, these bodies must have the authority to investigate ethical concerns, insist on transparency, reward employees for acting with integrity, and apply consequences to those who violate their company’s standards for acting with integrity. Most importantly, these bodies must not be influenced by internal politics and should not be able to be fired on the whims of the leadership team who they are holding accountable. Ideally, these oversight bodies should be proactive, with audits that identify potential conflicts early enough to prevent ethical mischief. Another way to hold leaders accountable is to create a culture where employees at all levels feel safe reporting ethical concerns without fear of reprisal. Anonymous reporting and whistleblowing channels can help identify problems that leadership might otherwise miss—or worse, knowingly condone. The desire to operate a company that acts with integrity is a noble one—but, as we have seen, one that is fraught with challenges—particularly because acting with integrity means different things to different people. No wonder research shows that just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work every day! If you want your organization to be one in which employees can apply integrity to their work every day, follow the three steps above. Define what living with integrity means for your organization, drill down to the employee level and remove any ambiguity about how employees can live with integrity, and hold everyone in your organization (especially the leadership team) accountable for living with integrity. Once you’ve done this, you will be in a much better position to lead with integrity, maintain your reputation in the marketplace, and navigate complex ethical challenges. View the full article

And cash allocations historically low. Is that scary?View the full article

Early in my career, a boss encouraged me to leave a stable operations role for a position in sales. They noticed my natural persuasiveness in communication and approach to problems, skills they believed could translate into success in a completely different discipline. It felt like a gamble. I was trading a steady income for compensation directly tied to performance and sales volume. And, I would be venturing into a role where I had no prior experience. But I ultimately took the leap, and that shift changed the entire trajectory of my career. That experience taught me to embrace discomfort and trust in my capacity to grow. It also revealed something fundamental about sales: success doesn’t come from a single mold. Coming from an operations background, I spoke the language of operators, and that authenticity gave me instant credibility with the very people I was selling to. That experience didn’t just redefine my career path; it reshaped how I lead. Today, I actively look for opportunities to help others pivot into roles they never would have considered on their own. With the right encouragement and adequate support, people can thrive in roles in which they have no prior experience. People want growth, but rarely make the first move It’s tempting to keep strong performers exactly where they are. When someone excels in a specific function, moving them can feel like a loss, especially when resources are tight and hiring is competitive. But this mindset is shortsighted. Holding people in a specific track because they are performing well may feel efficient in the short term, but it can stagnate both the individual and the organization. One of the most effective ways to help people reach their full potential is to create pathways to grow outside their current functions. This isn’t simply a leadership philosophy; it’s reflective of employee feedback. Overall, 42% of workers are interested in upskilling or looking for upskilling opportunities, according to a McKinsey report. For most, myself included, pursuing a career pivot is rarely self-induced. People tend to stay where they are comfortable, and taking on a role that requires a new skill set can be daunting and fear-inducing. That’s where leaders come in. Leaders have the power to soften that fear of the unknown. By showing belief in someone’s potential and backing it with support, they’re given the confidence to try something new. And more often than not, people rise to the occasion. When I first joined Fintech, we needed a new marketing lead. The natural instinct might have been to hire someone from the outside with a textbook marketing background. But instead, I looked inward. One of our operations team members had been with the company for several years. She had no formal marketing experience, but she understood our customers. She had a creative spark, strong communication skills, and a deep sense of ownership. I encouraged her to consider the role. Today, she’s not only a capable marketing lead, she’s also one of our strongest cross-functional thinkers, bridging the gap between product, ops, and customer success. Making career pivots work These kinds of internal transitions are entirely possible, but they require structure and attentiveness. Individuals with untapped potential who prioritize strong communication, think beyond their interests, go the extra mile, and take pride in their work are prime candidates. They often just need a nudge and someone to believe in their ability to succeed to take the leap. But encouragement alone isn’t enough. Gaining buy-in from the team leader in the department where someone is transitioning is critical. Equally important is crafting a clear, detailed plan and communicating it transparently. Success must be defined in small, achievable milestones. For someone new to sales, that might mean setting a daily target of reaching out to 10 prospects, recording those conversations, and reviewing them with a supervisor to refine their pitch and delivery. In product development, early wins might come from reconnecting with a previous team to discuss a few targeted changes that could have immediate impact. Sometimes, the milestone is simply exposure. Giving someone the opportunity to present to an internal group can be transformative—especially for younger professionals who may have had little experience speaking in front of others. It’s surprising how often that skill is underdeveloped, yet it’s so critical to career progression. Early wins, no matter how minor, build confidence, and confidence is a powerful catalyst for long-term success. Creating a safety net is also essential. Provide reassurance that if the move doesn’t work out, they still have a place within the company. People are far more willing to take risks when they know failure won’t lead to free fall. Our operations lead was hesitant to pivot to marketing at first. Mentorship was central to making this transition successful. It began with short, focused 15-minute daily check-ins—just her and me—where we’d walk through her goals for the day and how she planned to approach them. These conversations created structure, built momentum, and gave her a safe space to ask questions and reflect in real time. The key was setting goals that were both practical and confidence-building. We set early milestones, which included attending management meetings and offering insights from an operations lens that marketing could amplify, collaborating with leadership to understand stakeholder expectations, and delivering a competitive analysis to leadership using her operational expertise to surface gaps and opportunities. As her tactical foundation solidified, our daily meetings transitioned into weekly hourlong strategy sessions. She began to link execution with strategy, and that is where her operational background allowed her to gain trust in other departments. With a clear development plan, dedicated mentorship, and achievable early goals, she settled into the role and began to thrive. The cost of growth vs. the cost of staying still According to the World Economic Forum, employees will require new skills in the next five years, and six in 10 will require additional training before 2027. Companies that don’t build internal opportunities now risk falling behind, both in talent retention and capability-building. Investing in people this way has always, in my experience, reaped a substantial return on investment. It rarely leads to loss. Both individuals and the company benefit: organizations that prioritize career development outpace others on key indicators of business success. A former boss once shared an anecdote that’s stuck with me: A CFO asks the CEO, “What if we invest in training our people and they leave?” The CEO replies, “What if we don’t—and they stay?” Too often, leaders get caught up in costs. What’s far riskier is underinvesting in your team and watching great talent walk out the door, or worse, watching them stay and disengage. The leaders of tomorrow won’t just be measured by their ability to drive results. They’ll be remembered for their ability to spot potential in unlikely places and to nurture it. Growth isn’t just about upward movement. Sometimes, it’s about having the courage to take on something new and the encouragement to try. View the full article

New research suggests mainstream politicians created an opening for the populist rightView the full article

The US president’s assault on the green energy ‘scam’ is part of the struggle with China for global economic hegemonyView the full article

Greg Jackson insists it is ‘implausible’ for his company to comply with Ofgem rules and maintain contract with ShellView the full article

Covert operations in waters surrounding the British Isles pose a grave threat to critical infrastructure and a fresh challenge to Nato View the full article

Career development programs are essential for enhancing employee skills and overall job satisfaction. These programs can include personalized learning paths that align with both individual and organizational goals, structured mentorship initiatives, and focused skill development workshops. Regular feedback mechanisms and clear growth paths likewise play a significant role in tracking progress and outlining career advancement. Comprehending these elements can help you identify the most effective strategies for nurturing workplace growth and retention. But what specific programs should you consider implementing? Key Takeaways Personalized Learning Paths: Tailor development programs to meet individual employee needs and align with organizational goals for effective skill enhancement. Structured Mentorship Initiatives: Pair employees with experienced mentors to provide guidance, boost confidence, and facilitate networking opportunities within the industry. Skill Development Workshops: Offer hands-on training sessions focusing on both technical and soft skills to engage employees and improve job satisfaction. Regular Feedback and Assessments: Implement consistent evaluations to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and adjust development strategies as needed. Clear Growth Paths: Establish defined milestones for career advancement, helping employees understand potential career trajectories and skill requirements. Importance of Career Development Programs Career development programs are vital for any organization that aims to improve its workforce’s skills and competencies, as they align employee growth with the company’s objectives. Investing in these programs can lead to a more competent and productive workforce, as employees who see clear paths for growth report higher job satisfaction. Furthermore, organizations that prioritize career development opportunities for employees often experience up to 34% higher retention rates, greatly cutting turnover costs. In addition, structured initiatives can boost productivity by an average of 15%, enabling employees to better contribute to business goals. Finally, by focusing on career development, companies can cultivate future leaders, with 80% recognizing leadership development as fundamental for effective succession planning. Key Elements of Effective Programs To create an effective career development program, organizations must focus on several key elements that align with both employee aspirations and company goals. First, personalized learning paths guarantee that career development programs for employees cater to individual needs during supporting organizational objectives. Next, clear growth paths should outline transparent milestones for career advancement, helping employees understand their potential for progression. Regular feedback and assessments are crucial, allowing employees to track their progress and adjust their development plans as needed. Furthermore, investing in skill development initiatives, such as training sessions and workshops, equips employees with relevant knowledge. Finally, structured mentorship opportunities improve skill acquisition and cultivate professional networks, eventually leading to increased job satisfaction and improved performance within the workplace. Mentorship and Coaching Initiatives Mentorship and coaching initiatives serve as critical components in employee career development, as they connect individuals with seasoned professionals who can guide them through their career paths. These programs improve your confidence and goal-setting abilities, leading to increased job satisfaction and retention rates. Studies show that mentored individuals are five times more likely to receive promotions than those without mentors. By creating customized development plans, mentorship helps identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Regular check-ins and feedback facilitate ongoing development, whereas networking opportunities provide insights into industry trends. Benefit Impact on Employees Outcome Increased Promotions 5 times more likely Career advancement Improved Engagement 25% increase Higher job satisfaction Personalized Support Customized development plans Improved skill growth Networking Opportunities Professional connections New career insights Skill Development Workshops and Training Amidst steering today’s dynamic work environment, skill development workshops and training programs play a crucial role in enhancing the competencies necessary for both current and future roles. These career development training initiatives focus on bridging both technical and soft skills gaps, ensuring you’re well-equipped for your responsibilities. Engaging in hands-on activities and simulations reinforces your learning, allowing you to apply new skills effectively. Regular participation not just boosts employee engagement and job satisfaction but likewise improves retention rates. Organizations investing in staff career development see significant returns, with studies indicating that every dollar spent on training can yield a $4.50 return in productivity. Incorporating feedback helps track progress and tailor future workshops to meet your evolving needs. Measuring Success and Impact of Programs Measuring the success and impact of career development programs is vital for comprehending their effectiveness within an organization. You should track employee engagement and satisfaction levels, as effective programs can lead to a 20% increase in retention rates. Performance metrics, like skill acquisition rates and career progression, can likewise help assess development initiatives. Regular feedback loops improve program satisfaction by up to 30%. Moreover, organizations that invest in career development experience a 24% lower turnover rate. Aligning these programs with organizational goals is fundamental since 62% of employees are more likely to stay with a company that supports their growth. Metric Impact Percentage Improvement Employee Retention Rate Increased Retention 20% Job Performance Improved Performance 70% Program Satisfaction Improved Satisfaction 30% Turnover Rate Lower Turnover 24% Career Growth Alignment Increased Retention 62% Frequently Asked Questions What Are Career Development Programs? Career development programs are structured initiatives aimed at enhancing your skills and competencies. They often include mentorship, training sessions, and personalized learning paths that align your professional aspirations with organizational goals. These programs not just promote your growth but additionally boost motivation and engagement in the workplace. By participating in such initiatives, you can improve your job performance, increase your career prospects, and contribute to a positive workplace culture. How to Develop a Career Development Plan for Employees? To develop a career development plan for employees, start by setting SMART goals that align their aspirations with company objectives. Regular check-ins help track progress and provide feedback. Include personalized learning paths, such as training programs and mentorship, to improve skills. Outline specific activities like training sessions and networking opportunities. Engaging employees in creating their plans promotes ownership and accountability, eventually increasing their motivation and satisfaction in their professional growth path. What Are 5 Career Development Tips? To advance your career, set SMART goals that guide your progress and clarify your ambitions. Seek mentorship within your organization to gain valuable insights and connections. Engage in continuous learning through workshops and online courses customized to your field. Actively request feedback from colleagues to identify areas for improvement. Finally, take initiative in job rotations or cross-departmental projects, which can broaden your skill set and improve your comprehension of the industry. What Are the 5 Steps of Career Development? To navigate career development effectively, start with self-assessment to identify your strengths and interests. Next, set SMART goals that align with your aspirations. Then, focus on skill development through training and mentorship to improve your competencies. Networking is essential, so build relationships within and outside your organization for insights and opportunities. Finally, regularly review and adjust your development plan to guarantee it aligns with your evolving goals and organizational needs. Conclusion In summary, implementing effective career development programs is essential for enhancing employee skills and job satisfaction. By incorporating personalized learning paths, mentorship initiatives, skill development workshops, and regular feedback mechanisms, organizations can create a supportive environment that promotes growth. Clear growth paths additionally help employees visualize their career advancement. Ultimately, these programs not merely boost individual competence but also contribute to higher retention rates, making them valuable investments for any organization aiming for long-term success. Image Via Envato This article, "5 Essential Career Development Programs for Employees to Boost Skills" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Career development programs are essential for enhancing employee skills and overall job satisfaction. These programs can include personalized learning paths that align with both individual and organizational goals, structured mentorship initiatives, and focused skill development workshops. Regular feedback mechanisms and clear growth paths likewise play a significant role in tracking progress and outlining career advancement. Comprehending these elements can help you identify the most effective strategies for nurturing workplace growth and retention. But what specific programs should you consider implementing? Key Takeaways Personalized Learning Paths: Tailor development programs to meet individual employee needs and align with organizational goals for effective skill enhancement. Structured Mentorship Initiatives: Pair employees with experienced mentors to provide guidance, boost confidence, and facilitate networking opportunities within the industry. Skill Development Workshops: Offer hands-on training sessions focusing on both technical and soft skills to engage employees and improve job satisfaction. Regular Feedback and Assessments: Implement consistent evaluations to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and adjust development strategies as needed. Clear Growth Paths: Establish defined milestones for career advancement, helping employees understand potential career trajectories and skill requirements. Importance of Career Development Programs Career development programs are vital for any organization that aims to improve its workforce’s skills and competencies, as they align employee growth with the company’s objectives. Investing in these programs can lead to a more competent and productive workforce, as employees who see clear paths for growth report higher job satisfaction. Furthermore, organizations that prioritize career development opportunities for employees often experience up to 34% higher retention rates, greatly cutting turnover costs. In addition, structured initiatives can boost productivity by an average of 15%, enabling employees to better contribute to business goals. Finally, by focusing on career development, companies can cultivate future leaders, with 80% recognizing leadership development as fundamental for effective succession planning. Key Elements of Effective Programs To create an effective career development program, organizations must focus on several key elements that align with both employee aspirations and company goals. First, personalized learning paths guarantee that career development programs for employees cater to individual needs during supporting organizational objectives. Next, clear growth paths should outline transparent milestones for career advancement, helping employees understand their potential for progression. Regular feedback and assessments are crucial, allowing employees to track their progress and adjust their development plans as needed. Furthermore, investing in skill development initiatives, such as training sessions and workshops, equips employees with relevant knowledge. Finally, structured mentorship opportunities improve skill acquisition and cultivate professional networks, eventually leading to increased job satisfaction and improved performance within the workplace. Mentorship and Coaching Initiatives Mentorship and coaching initiatives serve as critical components in employee career development, as they connect individuals with seasoned professionals who can guide them through their career paths. These programs improve your confidence and goal-setting abilities, leading to increased job satisfaction and retention rates. Studies show that mentored individuals are five times more likely to receive promotions than those without mentors. By creating customized development plans, mentorship helps identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Regular check-ins and feedback facilitate ongoing development, whereas networking opportunities provide insights into industry trends. Benefit Impact on Employees Outcome Increased Promotions 5 times more likely Career advancement Improved Engagement 25% increase Higher job satisfaction Personalized Support Customized development plans Improved skill growth Networking Opportunities Professional connections New career insights Skill Development Workshops and Training Amidst steering today’s dynamic work environment, skill development workshops and training programs play a crucial role in enhancing the competencies necessary for both current and future roles. These career development training initiatives focus on bridging both technical and soft skills gaps, ensuring you’re well-equipped for your responsibilities. Engaging in hands-on activities and simulations reinforces your learning, allowing you to apply new skills effectively. Regular participation not just boosts employee engagement and job satisfaction but likewise improves retention rates. Organizations investing in staff career development see significant returns, with studies indicating that every dollar spent on training can yield a $4.50 return in productivity. Incorporating feedback helps track progress and tailor future workshops to meet your evolving needs. Measuring Success and Impact of Programs Measuring the success and impact of career development programs is vital for comprehending their effectiveness within an organization. You should track employee engagement and satisfaction levels, as effective programs can lead to a 20% increase in retention rates. Performance metrics, like skill acquisition rates and career progression, can likewise help assess development initiatives. Regular feedback loops improve program satisfaction by up to 30%. Moreover, organizations that invest in career development experience a 24% lower turnover rate. Aligning these programs with organizational goals is fundamental since 62% of employees are more likely to stay with a company that supports their growth. Metric Impact Percentage Improvement Employee Retention Rate Increased Retention 20% Job Performance Improved Performance 70% Program Satisfaction Improved Satisfaction 30% Turnover Rate Lower Turnover 24% Career Growth Alignment Increased Retention 62% Frequently Asked Questions What Are Career Development Programs? Career development programs are structured initiatives aimed at enhancing your skills and competencies. They often include mentorship, training sessions, and personalized learning paths that align your professional aspirations with organizational goals. These programs not just promote your growth but additionally boost motivation and engagement in the workplace. By participating in such initiatives, you can improve your job performance, increase your career prospects, and contribute to a positive workplace culture. How to Develop a Career Development Plan for Employees? To develop a career development plan for employees, start by setting SMART goals that align their aspirations with company objectives. Regular check-ins help track progress and provide feedback. Include personalized learning paths, such as training programs and mentorship, to improve skills. Outline specific activities like training sessions and networking opportunities. Engaging employees in creating their plans promotes ownership and accountability, eventually increasing their motivation and satisfaction in their professional growth path. What Are 5 Career Development Tips? To advance your career, set SMART goals that guide your progress and clarify your ambitions. Seek mentorship within your organization to gain valuable insights and connections. Engage in continuous learning through workshops and online courses customized to your field. Actively request feedback from colleagues to identify areas for improvement. Finally, take initiative in job rotations or cross-departmental projects, which can broaden your skill set and improve your comprehension of the industry. What Are the 5 Steps of Career Development? To navigate career development effectively, start with self-assessment to identify your strengths and interests. Next, set SMART goals that align with your aspirations. Then, focus on skill development through training and mentorship to improve your competencies. Networking is essential, so build relationships within and outside your organization for insights and opportunities. Finally, regularly review and adjust your development plan to guarantee it aligns with your evolving goals and organizational needs. Conclusion In summary, implementing effective career development programs is essential for enhancing employee skills and job satisfaction. By incorporating personalized learning paths, mentorship initiatives, skill development workshops, and regular feedback mechanisms, organizations can create a supportive environment that promotes growth. Clear growth paths additionally help employees visualize their career advancement. Ultimately, these programs not merely boost individual competence but also contribute to higher retention rates, making them valuable investments for any organization aiming for long-term success. Image Via Envato This article, "5 Essential Career Development Programs for Employees to Boost Skills" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

US looks for former British prime minister to be involved in transitional postwar arrangementView the full article

Managing your time effectively is vital for achieving your goals and maximizing productivity. By implementing seven fundamental techniques, you can streamline your daily tasks and improve your efficiency. For instance, setting SMART goals provides clarity on what you want to achieve, whereas using the Eisenhower Matrix helps prioritize your tasks. These strategies, among others, can greatly impact how you allocate your time and focus. Explore these techniques further to see how they can transform your approach to time management. Key Takeaways Utilize the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance, enhancing decision-making skills. Implement time-blocking strategies to allocate specific periods for focused work, improving productivity. Break goals into smaller, actionable steps using the SMART criteria to maintain motivation and clarity. Create a structured schedule with dedicated time for breaks to minimize burnout and increase efficiency. Regularly reflect on progress and productivity patterns to identify areas for improvement and adapt strategies accordingly. Understanding Time Management Skills Time management skills are essential for anyone looking to improve their productivity and reduce stress in both personal and professional settings. These skills involve planning, prioritizing, and allocating your time effectively to improve your overall performance. By engaging in time management training, you can learn techniques like creating to-do lists, prioritizing tasks using the Eisenhower Matrix, and employing time-blocking strategies. Achieving proficiency in these skills allows you to meet deadlines and manage competing responsibilities more efficiently. Furthermore, continuous practice and assessment of your time management skills training can lead to increased efficiency and a healthier work-life balance. Focusing on minimizing distractions as you concentrate on important tasks ultimately contributes to your success in various aspects of life. Setting Clear and Achievable Goals To set clear and achievable goals, you should start by defining specific objectives that guide your focus and actions. Prioritizing task importance allows you to identify what needs immediate attention, whereas setting realistic timeframes helps you stay on track without feeling overwhelmed. Define Specific Objectives Effective goal-setting is crucial for achieving personal and professional success. To define specific objectives, follow the SMART criteria—make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Research shows that you’re ten times more likely to achieve specific goals than vague ones. For instance, instead of saying, “I want to improve my time management,” specify, “I will complete a time management training for employees by the end of the month.” Break larger goals into smaller, actionable steps to maintain motivation. Utilize goal-setting tools, like digital apps or worksheets, to organize and visualize your objectives, enhancing your focus. Regularly review and adjust your goals based on performance and changing circumstances to keep them relevant and aligned with your desired outcomes. Prioritize Task Importance Prioritizing task importance is essential for achieving your goals and managing your time effectively. When you use the SMART criteria, you can set clear and achievable goals that help define your priorities. Furthermore, applying the Eisenhower Matrix enables you to focus on tasks that are both important and urgent, which aligns with your long-term objectives. Research shows that individuals who regularly assess their goals are considerably more likely to achieve them. Breaking larger tasks into smaller steps improves motivation and clarity, making it easier to prioritize. Enrolling in a time management training course or a task management training program can provide you with the tools to regularly review and update your goals, ensuring they remain relevant and attainable. Set Realistic Timeframes When you set realistic timeframes for your goals, you create a structured approach that can significantly improve your productivity and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. Break larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks, which allows for clearer paths to completion. By employing the SMART criteria—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—you boost your focus and guarantee clarity. Research shows that individuals who set achievable goals are 33% more likely to reach their objectives. Regularly reviewing and adjusting your timeframes based on progress keeps motivation high and frustration low. Consider incorporating buffer time to account for unforeseen challenges, leading to better project outcomes. For improved skills, consider enrolling in time management training for managers or time management courses for professionals. Breaking Tasks Into Manageable Steps Breaking tasks into manageable steps is essential for enhancing clarity and reducing feelings of overwhelm, which can greatly impact your productivity. Start by utilizing the SMART criteria to define each step: make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. You can apply the “chunking” technique, breaking larger tasks into smaller, digestible parts, encouraging a sense of progress. For instance, instead of saying “complete report,” list actions like “draft,” “review,” and “submit.” Regularly review and adjust your steps to stay aligned with changing priorities. If you’re looking for additional guidance, consider enrolling in time management courses or exploring time management training free resources that offer practical skills for breaking tasks down effectively. Prioritizing Tasks Effectively How can you guarantee that your most important tasks receive the attention they deserve? Prioritizing tasks effectively guarantees you focus on what matters most. You can use methods like the Eisenhower Matrix or the ABCDE Method to categorize tasks based on urgency and importance. Consider these techniques: Identify high-priority tasks (A) that need immediate attention. Eliminate low-priority tasks (E) that don’t contribute to your goals. Set clear deadlines for each task to create urgency. Tackle challenging tasks first with the “Eat That Frog” technique to boost motivation. Engaging in time management training for employees free or enrolling in a time management skills course can improve your ability to prioritize tasks, leading to increased productivity and better results. Creating a Structured Schedule A well-structured schedule can greatly boost your productivity by providing clarity on how to allocate your time effectively throughout the day. Start by allocating specific time blocks for tasks, which helps visualize your day and minimizes procrastination. Utilize digital calendars or planning tools to set reminders and deadlines, ensuring every task has a specific timeframe. Incorporate buffer times between tasks to accommodate interruptions and reduce stress. It’s also essential to review and adjust your schedule weekly, reflecting changes in priorities or workload. Additionally, don’t forget to set aside time for regular breaks to recharge your mental energy. Consider enrolling in a time management online course or training time management strategies to improve your scheduling skills further. Removing Distractions To effectively remove distractions, start by identifying what commonly disrupts your focus, such as smartphone notifications or background noise. Creating a dedicated workspace that minimizes these distractions can greatly improve your ability to concentrate and complete tasks efficiently. Identify Common Distractions Identifying common distractions is essential for enhancing productivity, as studies indicate that distractions can reduce your efficiency by up to 40%. Recognizing these distractions helps you take actionable steps to improve your focus during a time management training workshop or online time management training. Here are some common distractions you might face: Smartphone notifications pulling your attention away from tasks Social media platforms tempting you to scroll instead of work Cluttered workspaces causing mental distractions Colleagues interrupting your workflow with casual conversations Create Focused Work Environment Creating a focused work environment is essential for enhancing productivity and minimizing distractions. Start by identifying and eliminating potential disruptions, like noisy surroundings or device notifications. Implement a “do not disturb” signal, such as a closed door or a sign, to communicate your need for concentration. Use apps that block distracting websites and social media during work hours to stay focused. Organize your workspace ergonomically to reduce physical discomfort, allowing for longer periods of concentration. Don’t forget to establish a routine with regular breaks in a separate area to recharge. For further development, consider engaging in time management courses free or company time management training to refine these skills and boost your productivity effectively. Regularly Reflecting on Progress Regular reflection on your progress is a crucial aspect of effective time management that can greatly boost your productivity. By setting aside dedicated time weekly for reflection, you can assess your completed tasks against your goals, encouraging accountability. Consider these strategies: Identify effective time management techniques from your time management seminar. Adjust strategies that aren’t working, based on insights gained from a life management course. Use a journal or digital tool to track productivity patterns. Seek feedback from peers or supervisors to gain diverse perspectives. Incorporating regular reflections helps you continuously improve your time management skills, allowing for better task completion and overall efficiency. Make this practice a priority to elevate your productivity and achieve your goals effectively. Frequently Asked Questions What Are Time Management Techniques? Time management techniques are strategies that help you organize and prioritize tasks effectively. For instance, the Pomodoro Technique encourages you to work in 25-minute intervals followed by short breaks, enhancing focus. The Eisenhower Matrix aids in categorizing tasks by urgency and importance, allowing you to concentrate on what matters most. Furthermore, setting deadlines based on Parkinson’s Law can increase efficiency, as tasks expand to fill the time allocated for completion. What Are the 5 P’s of Time Management? The 5 P’s of time management are Purpose, Priority, Planning, Practice, and Performance. First, identify your Purpose by setting clear goals to guide your efforts. Next, determine the Priority of tasks to focus on what’s most urgent. Planning involves creating a structured schedule for your activities. Practice means consistently applying these techniques to build effective habits. Finally, assess your Performance to identify areas for improvement, ensuring ongoing improvement of your time management skills. Which of the 5 Techniques Do You Think Is the Best Way to Manage Time? When managing time, the Eisenhower Matrix is often the best approach. This technique helps you prioritize tasks by categorizing them based on urgency and importance. For instance, urgent and important tasks should be tackled first, whereas less critical tasks can be delegated or eliminated. What Are the 4 D’s of Time Management? The 4 D’s of time management are Delete, Delegate, Delay, and Do. To improve efficiency, start by identifying tasks to Delete—those that don’t align with your goals. Next, Delegate tasks to others when possible, allowing you to focus on more critical work. Delay non-urgent tasks to prioritize what’s truly important. Finally, Do the tasks that are both urgent and important immediately, ensuring you meet deadlines and manage your workload effectively. Conclusion By applying these seven crucial techniques for time management, you can greatly improve your productivity. Setting SMART goals gives you direction, whereas breaking tasks into smaller steps makes them less intimidating. Prioritizing effectively guarantees you focus on what’s most important. A structured schedule keeps you organized, and reducing distractions boosts focus. Regularly reflecting on your progress allows for continuous improvement. Implement these strategies consistently, and you’ll likely find greater efficiency and effectiveness in managing your time. Image Via Envato This article, "7 Essential Techniques for Training in Time Management Skills" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article