What's on Your Mind?

At Visa’s ETA Transact event on April 3, the payments giant introduced three new products designed to simplify and secure payment acceptance. These innovations—Authorize.net 2.0, Unified Checkout, and the ARIC Risk Hub—all aim to enhance efficiency and fraud protection for businesses navigating an increasingly complex commercial landscape. By integrating the three new tools, Visa seeks to service businesses end to end—from integrating with existing platforms to accepting more payments, reducing checkout friction, and managing risk efficiently. “Visa is looking to wherever appropriate to invest in next-generation technologies and uplift our products,” says Rob Cam…

Walking around the factory floor of Twincraft Skincare, outside Burlington, Vermont, there is the unmistakable scent of soap. The general manager points out the luxury lines and designer labels for whom they manufacture soaps and lotions, as well as the basic, inexpensive bars and bottles left on hotel room sinks. The factory runs two 10-hour shifts per day, four days a week, with an overtime option as needed. At over 400 employees, Twincraft is one of the top employers in the state. In the last few years, there’s been a boom in skincare products and, to meet demand, Michele Asch, Twincraft’s chief people officer, says they’ve had to hire over 180 people over the pas…

Ikea’s new collection is all about accessibility. The furniture maker’s new Bäsingen collection, which is available this month, includes six items for the bathroom that the company designed to be easy to use for people with disabilities: a shower chair, two kids of stools with rails, a towel rail, a shower shelf, and a toilet roll holder. The products range from about $12 to about $39. The collection was designed to be sturdy and non-slippery, with tube handles on the stools and that are thick for an easy grip. The dark color for the products in the collections was also chosen so the items would be easily visible, but stylish enough so to be something you’d want t…

In today’s turbulent economic climate, there’s an intense pressure to perform. Organizations are exploring new business models and ways of working to accelerate growth and stay competitive. Boards and shareholders demand results, which pushes leadership teams to dial up their expectations. The term “accountability” has become a buzzword in discussions, but far too many misunderstand and misapply it. When leaders talk about creating a culture of accountability, they often rely on “shame and blame” tactics. This approach might seem effective in the short term, but it ultimately undermines the culture leaders seek to build. Instead of motivating individuals to do more, i…

In HBO’s hit show Succession, patriarch Logan Roy pitted his children against each other for the top spot of leading his media conglomerate. Those who’ve seen the show will know how it ends, but what if he took a different route? What if he established a collaborative, multi-generational leadership team to guide Waystar RoyCo into the future? Granted, it would have made for far less dramatic tension (and probably fewer award wins) for the show. But for Roy’s shareholders, it would’ve been a smarter move in a rapidly changing media industry. Succession planning is a non-negotiable principle for any thriving organization, yet it’s also one of the hardest to get right. …

Four years ago, if you found yourself at one particular intersection of Buenos Aires, you would see a nondescript, three-story parking garage with no cars inside. That building still exists—but it’s completely unrecognizable. Today, that structure looks like a stubby, UFO-like tower mushrooming from a concrete pedestal with a landscaped ramp curving upward. The metamorphosis is thanks to a multiyear project by New York architecture firm ODA. Ola Palermo, as the reimagined structure is known, has become a mixed-use building with cafés, restaurants, and Class A office space. The cherry on top of this (concrete) cake is an open-air promenade that peels off the sidewalk, wi…

For those tired of waiting in line to buy a new smartphone or anxiously refreshing a delivery tracking site to make sure a new phone arrives intact, Verizon’s Straight Talk Wireless brand is offering another option: phones from a vending machine. Straight Talk, a Verizon prepaid brand exclusively available at Walmart, has launched vending machines that dispense packaged iPhone and Android devices, similar to the tech vending machines often seen at airports. Customers can browse phones and plans via a touchscreen interface, then pick and pay for what they want, all without needing to wait for a salesperson. And when they take their new phone out of the box, it’s a…

Job searching can feel like a full-time job in and of itself. Endless networking coffees and cover letter drafts can make it easy to get discouraged. And while it’s helpful to get support from family, friends, and your significant other, they may not truly grasp the day-to-day grind that’s needed to keep the momentum going. In fact, for many, searching for a job is an isolating experience. According to a recent American Staffing Association/Harris Poll Workforce Monitor survey, 72% of Americans say applying for jobs can feel like sending résumés into a “black box.” And four out of 10 unemployed U.S. job seekers revealed they didn’t land a single job interview in a ye…

Catfishing. Once a trend confined to the realm of online dating. Now, like other relationship phenomena including ghosting, career cushioning, and quiet quitting, it’s infiltrated the workplace. This is bad for employers and employees alike. Corporate catfishing is when employers make false or misleading claims about their working culture in job ads or interviews in a bid to attract top talent, and it’s a big issue. Research shows that 70% of hiring managers have lied to candidates during hiring processes. A separate study also found that 72% of workers have experienced “shift shock,” where the reality of a new job doesn’t live up to what you were sold. The reas…

Work is full of potential rejection. Ask a colleague for a favor, and they may refuse. Apply for a job, and you may not get it. Seek a promotion, and you may be passed over. Submit a proposal to a client, and it may not be accepted. One key part of success is to be willing to learn from these failures, rather than to be paralyzed by them. Yet, you may find it hard to get over a rejection. Before you can learn anything from a failure, you first have to get beyond the emotions associated with rejection. Dealing with rejection sensitivity The first question you have to ask is whether a particular rejection is bothering you, or whether rejection in general is a pro…

Rumors of a Tumblr comeback have been bubbling for a couple of years—think a pair of Doc Martens here, a splash of pastel hair dye there. Now, Gen Z is embracing the platform as a refuge from an internet saturated with influencers and algorithm fatigue. Launched in 2007, just ahead of Instagram’s 2010 debut, Tumblr, with its blog-style format, encouraged users to craft personal aesthetics and immerse themselves in niche communities—where American Apparel tennis skirts, oversize flannels, and black wire chokers once reigned supreme. At its peak in early 2014, the platform had more than 100 million users and was often mentioned in the same breath as Facebook and other r…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. A beautiful object, expertly designed, can bring you joy throughout your busy day, unless you are unable to use it because of a permanent, temporary, or situational disability. How does design fail or succeed in creating an inclusive experience for all? As CEO of Michael Graves Design, I am deeply committed to advancing the functionality and accessibility of everyday products, with a special…

It’s no secret that raising kids in the U.S. has become grossly expensive. The price of childcare alone has ballooned over the past decade, with many families reporting that it costs them at least a quarter of their annual income. Across many states, families need to earn an average of $180,000 to comfortably afford infant care; the high cost of living in states like California and New York can require an income exceeding $250,000. An increasing burden on families A new analysis by the online lending marketplace LendingTree captures why so many families are struggling to manage the enormous cost of having children. The study found that since 2023, the annual cost o…

An artificial intelligence watchdog is accusing OpenAI of training its default ChatGPT model on copyrighted book content without permission. In a new paper published this week, the AI Disclosures Project alleges that OpenAI likely trained its GPT-4o model using non-public material from O’Reilly Media. The researchers used a legally obtained dataset of 34 copyrighted O’Reilly books and found that GPT-4o showed “strong recognition” of the company’s paywalled content. By contrast, GPT-3.5 Turbo appeared more familiar with publicly accessible O’Reilly book samples. “These results highlight the urgent need for increased corporate transparency regarding pre-training dat…