What's on Your Mind?

Happiness may be hard to quantify, but for the data-obsessed, the World Happiness Report is as close as you can get. The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, leverages data from Gallup to rank every country in the world by self-reported life satisfaction. For the second year in a row, not a single English-speaking country has cracked the top 10. The exact reason is tough to pin down, but this year’s lead researchers point out one major factor that could be to blame. As per usual, Nordic countries dominate the top 10 happiest countries, with Finland claiming the number one spot for the ninth consecutive year. Ic…

Postpartum depression is often framed as a private struggle that unfolds at home or in the doctor’s office. But for millions of working parents, its effects also show up quietly at work—through missed deadlines, sudden disengagement, or a colleague who no longer seems like themselves. Too often, these changes are misunderstood as performance issues rather than signs of a common and treatable mental health condition. To better understand what employers, managers, and coworkers often miss—and how workplaces can respond more thoughtfully—I spoke with Andrea Clark, deputy CEO of Postpartum Support International, a global nonprofit focused on supporting families and raisin…

The K-shaped economy strikes again. A new report from the Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), creator of the credit score most lenders use, shows that the average American’s FICO score is now down to 714 – a two point decline over the course of the last year. The current slide in U.S. credit scores began in 2023, when the government ended the temporary pandemic-era freeze on student loan collection. Missed mortgage payments have also ticked up some, contributing to the slide in credit scores. Prior to the latest report, the average American’s credit score had already dropped to 715 between 2024 and 2025, which at the time was the most dramatic decline in scores since the Gr…

American Express is making a push to play a bigger role in how businesses operate day to day with a new card and tools to support it. Alongside the launch of its Graphite Business Cash Unlimited Card, the company on Wednesday announced a broad set of updates across its commercial and AI-powered tools. Together, they signal a shift in how Amex wants to present itself to business customers. At the center of the rollout is a new product called the Graphite Business Cash Unlimited Card. But the bigger story is how that card fits into a larger system designed to help businesses manage spending, track expenses, and automate routine work. Expanding beyond the card …

When it comes to deciding on a job, Gen Z isn’t just thinking about paid time off, return-to-office mandates or salary negotiations. They’re checking whether a company will cover GLP-1 weight-loss drugs—and they’re not alone. It’s a benefit that could actually push young employees from one job offer to another. A new ZipHealth survey of over 1,000 workers found that nearly half (47%) of Gen Z said GLP-1 coverage would affect their choices between two similar jobs—that’s compared to 35% of millennials and 36% of Gen X. In more extreme cases, another 7% of workers said they would be open to taking a pay cut if it meant working somewhere that offers GLP-1 coverage. …

Why did Toyota‘s design firm build a model American dining room in Japan back in 1986, and then invite the company’s top brass to spend some time there? The easy answer, and the one you see in headlines and social media posts, is that they were trying to teach Toyota executives just how much bigger Americans are than Japanese people. While that’s certainly part of the explanation, it isn’t all of it. If you look at the whole picture, it can teach you a lot. That’s especially true if you hope to bring your company’s product to new markets. Today, Toyota is the world’s biggest carmaker. Back then it trailed badly behind both GM and Ford. Toyota had big ambitions, and to…

One of our favorite meme stocks is up more than 9%, but this time it’s for legit business reasons. BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB) saw its shares sharply rise Thursday morning following the release of its 2026 fourth-quarter and fiscal year results. The stock has previously been volatile due to BlackBerry’s place in the meme stock craze a few years ago. The Canadian company, once a leader in the mobile phone industry, reported $156 million in revenue for quarter four, a 10% increase year-over-year (YOY). Its adjusted net income also rose by a whopping 92% YOY. On a year-long scale, BlackBerry saw its revenue reach $549.1 million, a 3% jump YOY. “We are no …

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. CEOs, do you know what the public is saying about AI? New polling shared exclusively with Modern CEO by Just Capital, the nonprofit that tracks what the American public expects from business, finds that 66% expect AI will be a net positive for society within the next five years. That’s…

Chipotle, like almost every other fast casual restaurant, has been battling an ongoing period of increased inflation and lower consumer spending. Last year, the company saw what its CEO Scott Boatwright described to investors as a “broad-based pullback in frequency” of customer visits, especially among low- to middle-income customers and younger consumers, due to concerns about the economy. But the burrito chain has a master plan to address that, and it’s currently moving into its next phase: making earning rewards feel more like a game. The company’s fourth quarter report showed a revenue increase of 5.4% to $11.9 billion. But those gains were partially offset by a 1…

Roblox is updating its child protection features again, rolling out restricted Kids accounts for users ages 5 through 8 and Roblox Select accounts for users 9 through 15, both with parental controls and other age-based restrictions. Users will be required to go through an age verification process, generally based on live selfies or a government-issued ID—or be effectively restricted to content approved for the youngest users. Since January, age verification has also been required to use the platform’s chat features, with users under 18 generally restricted to chatting people relatively near to them in age. “We’ll be going through a transition period where we’ll…

There is a persistent belief that food, fuel, and industrial uses compete for the same bushel. In practice, the opposite is increasingly true. Crops have always served multiple markets. What is changing is how intentionally we are designing agricultural and manufacturing systems to serve those markets together. In a previous article I wrote, I focused on how familiar crops like corn and soybeans are finding new life through new demand pathways and molecular innovation. What I see today goes a step further. The same acre is increasingly supporting food, industrial materials, energy applications, and emissions-reduction strategies simultaneously. That convergence is…