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‘Tis the season of holiday celebrations with friends, family and, yes—coworkers. Work holiday party attendees can typically be divided into two camps: those who look forward to donning an ugly sweater and doing shots with Lloyd in accounting, and those who have their “I can’t make it” excuses locked in long before December 1st. Good news for the latter camp: the number of companies hosting any kind of holiday party is on the decline. In 2007, 90% of firms said they were hosting one, according to data from (the coincidentally named) Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In 2024, that number dropped to just 64%. After spending 40-plus hours a week already wit…

In the high-stakes premium travel race of 2025, every major credit card issuer is trying to claim the loyalty of affluent travelers—and airport lounges have become the most visible battleground. American Express is refreshing its Platinum Card and launching a new fast-format Sidecar lounge. Capital One’s Venture X card has become a darling among travelers, thanks to its hyperlocal boutique-style lounges. And Citi has returned to the ultra-premium arena with the $595 Strata Elite card. As for Chase? Fresh off raising its Sapphire Reserve annual fee to $795 and launching its Sapphire Reserve for Business card, the finance giant is now signaling that its lounges are…

Michael Dell, along with his wife Susan, announced on Tuesday they are donating $6.25 billion to so-called “The President accounts”—a program that gives $1,000 of “free money” from the federal government to children in the U.S. born on, or after, January 1, 2025 through the end of 2028, while The President is in office. The Dells’ contribution will allocate about $250 per child, to 25 million children. The accounts are basically long-term savings vehicles. Parents will be able to contribute to the accounts starting in July 2026, according to USA TODAY. That money will be invested into stock market mutual or index funds. Here’s what to know. Who is eligible…

The U.S. stock market is holding relatively steady on Tuesday as both bond yields and bitcoin stabilize. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%, coming off its first loss in six days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 115 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:02 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher. MongoDB helped lead the market and jumped 23.4% after the database company delivered stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. United Natural Foods also climbed after reporting a stronger profit than expected, and it rose 7.3%. They helped offset a 4% drop for Signet Jewelers, which gave a forecast for revenue in the holiday shopping season…

Apple’s AI boss, John Giannandrea, is stepping down after seven years on the job. Apple’s stock price got a slight boost on the news, as some investors saw Apple signaling a new urgency to bring AI to its devices. Following a transition period, Giannandrea will “retire” next spring, Apple said in a press release Monday. Most of Giannandrea’s AI group will now be tucked into Craig Fedherigi’s software development group, which owns development of the various operating systems in Apple devices. While the reasons for Giannandrea’s departure are no doubt complicated, it’s a wonder he lasted so long. For years, he’s been linked to Apple’s failure to seize on generative…

A Pennsylvania police officer responding to a tip from the manager of a McDonald’s testified Tuesday about confronting Luigi Mangione during the intense manhunt last year for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer. As soon as Mangione doffed his medical mask at the restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Officer Joseph Detwiler said, “I knew” he was the suspect whose face had been all over the news since the shooting five days earlier on a Manhattan sidewalk. “It’s him … I’m not kidding. He’s real nervous, and he didn’t talk too much,” Detwiler told a supervisor by phone from the restaurant parking lot moments after meeting Mangione, according to the officer’s …

Students applying to college know they can’t—or at least shouldn’t—use AI chatbots to write their essays and personal statements. So it might come as a surprise that some schools are now using artificial intelligence to read them. AI tools are now being incorporated into how student applications are screened and analyzed, admissions directors say. It can be a delicate topic, and not all colleges are eager to talk about it, but higher education is among the many industries where artificial intelligence is rapidly taking on tasks once reserved for humans. In some cases, schools are quietly slipping AI into their evaluation process, experts say. Others are touting th…

Fatherhood used to be invisible in the conversation about entrepreneurship. The story was always the same: A founder celebrated for sacrifice, for grinding through the night, taming fortune one day at a time. The world championed the grind. But that archetype is now deeply outdated. The successful founder is no longer the one sleeping under their desk. That’s not simply dedication; it’s a symptom of poorly designed systems. If your company requires your constant, heroic presence, you haven’t built a business—you’ve built a cage. Today, elite performance is not measured by the hours you log, but by the resilience of the organization you leave behind. The best entre…

The world economy has proven surprisingly durable in the face of President Donald The President’s trade wars, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday, upgrading its outlook for global and U.S. economic growth this year. The 38-country OECD now forecasts that the world economy will grow 3.2% this year, down a tick from 3.3% in 2024 but an improvement on the 2.9% it had predicted for 2025 back in June. The organization, which does economic research and promotes international trade and prosperity, expects global growth to slow to 2.9% next year. The OECD also raised its forecast for U.S. growth this year—to 2%, up from the 1.6% it had f…

More than 1 million workers in America have been laid off so far in 2025, according to the latest tally of announced job cuts from the executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The jobs span nearly every major industry, but layoffs have hit tech and government jobs the hardest. Here’s what you need to know, and which tech companies have had the largest round of layoffs in 2025. 2025 layoff announcements surpass 1 million Nearly every week this year, there have been headlines about layoffs hitting America’s workers. The latest report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas adds up layoff announcements from U.S. employers through the end o…

Since the launch of ChatGPT three years ago, almost everyone has used Artificial Intelligence in some fashion to help with their work and the world collectively believes AI holds potential. I have written on AI subjects three times before in this series – on strategy & AI, on AI investment, and on AI’s impact on entry level hiring. The third was co-authored with friends Ahmad Zaidi, co-founder and CEO of AI start-up TransforML, and Gui Loureiro, Regional CEO Walmart Canada, Central America, Chile and Mexico and co-author of Reinventing the Leader. That team returns for this Playing to Win/Practitioner Insight piece on leadership and AI. And as always, you can find all…

A few blocks from my home sits a small Japanese grocery store that has been in the neighborhood for years. It’s the kind of place that once felt irreplaceable—carefully sourced ingredients, shelves stocked with items I couldn’t find in mainstream supermarkets, and an owner who knows her regulars. But much as I love this store, it has been in steady decline for a few years now. Whole Foods opened up nearby and it now stocks all the basics—miso paste, kombu, dashi packets, nori—that I, or anyone else, could want for weeknight Japanese cooking. Suddenly, the extra trip to the specialty shop felt unnecessary most of the time. The big chain became “good enough,” and in a w…

A shooting last weekend at a children’s birthday party in California that left four dead was the 17th mass killing this year—the lowest number recorded since 2006, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Experts warn that the drop doesn’t necessarily mean safer days are here to stay and that it could simply represent a return to average levels. “Sir Isaac Newton never studied crime, but he says ‘What goes up must come down,'” said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University. The current drop in numbers is more likely what statisticians call a “regression to the mean,” he said, r…

The Prada Group closed the purchase of Milan fashion rival Versace in a $1.375 billion cash deal that puts the fashion house known for its sexy silhouettes under the same roof as Prada’s “ugly chic” aesthetic and Miu Miu’s youth-driven appeal. The highly anticipated deal is expected to relaunch Versace’s fortunes, after middling post-pandemic performance as part of the U.S. luxury group Capri Holdings. Prada said in a one-line statement that the acquisition had been completed after receiving all regulatory clearances. Capri Holdings, which owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, said the money would be used to pay down debt. Donatella Versace welcomed the deal in an Instagra…

As 2025 winds down, here are some moves to help you finish the year strong financially. Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning, Christine Benz, discusses strategies. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Benefits of rebalancing your portfolio What are the benefits of portfolio rebalancing, and who most needs to do it? The main benefit of rebalancing is risk reduction. You trim securities that have performed really well, presumably ones with higher valuations today. And you redirect the money into securities where returns have lagged, but valuations might be more attractive. It’s also important to rebalance on an ong…

Costco has sued the U.S. government to ensure it will receive refunds if the Supreme Court rejects President Donald The President’s bid for sweeping authority to impose tariffs. In a complaint filed on Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan, Costco said The President’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs left it uncertain whether businesses can recoup sums they should not have paid. The nation’s largest warehouse club operator said U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied its request for more time to make final calculations of tariffs owed, threatening its right to complete refunds even if the Supreme Cou…

To Trina Spear, cofounder and CEO of medical apparel brand Figs, change for the healthcare industry has to start with a focus on healthcare workers. “We believe if you serve the provider, they will be able to better serve the patient,” she says. “And that drives better outcomes. That drives a better healthcare system.” As part of that focus, Figs gave away hundreds of thousands of scrubs, organized healthcare worker retreats, and donated some $510,000 to healthcare nonprofits in 2024 alone. Now it’s expanding that work by launching its own nonprofit, the Awesome Humans Foundation, which will provide financial support, training, and resources to healthcare pro…

Social media users may love the “6-7” trend, but when it comes to their advice for baby boomers, a number of recent posts from TikTok financial influencers have users recommending that people start collecting their Social Security benefits early, at age “62.” However, this differs from what financial planners typically recommend, which is that people delay their Social Security claim as long as possible to get the maximum monthly benefit at age 70. Here’s what to know about the online debate. How does age affect Social Security payments? Before you do anything, it’s important to understand how Social Security works—and that you contact your financial adviso…

Air travelers in the U.S. without a REAL ID will be charged a $45 fee beginning in February, the Transportation Security Administration announced Monday. The updated ID has been required since May, but passengers without it have so far been allowed to clear security with additional screening and a warning. The Department of Homeland Security says 94% of passengers are already compliant and that the new fee is intended to encourage travelers to obtain the ID. REAL ID is a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that meets enhanced requirements mandated in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Obtaining the ID — indicated by a wh…

Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the company’s stock price surged a massive 36.4% yesterday. As of the time of this writing, BYND is up an additional 12.6% in trading before the bell. But is anything more than another round of meme stock mania driving the rising price? Here’s what you need to know. A volatile December The first day of asset trading for December kicked off yesterday, and already the final month of the year looks to be shaping up to be a volatile one. Yesterday, cryptocurrencies plunged across the board as nervous investors sold off the digital tokens amid ongoing uncertainty about next w…

Update Tuesday, 12:15 p.m.: Alternative meat company Beyond Meat saw its stock drop almost 5% in early trading on Tuesday after a significant rally had pushed shares up a day earlier and into premarket trading. As of around noon, the stock was trading at $1.28 a share after opening at $1.40. The volatility is another sign that the heavily shorted stock is being embraced by meme stock traders, with some seeking to lock in profits after shares rise. As of this writing, the stock is still up over 47% over the past five days. Original story: Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the company’s stock price surged…

Amazon Music just dropped its 2025 Delivered, an annual recap of your most streamed songs, artists, podcasts, and audiobooks, and the platform’s answer to the popular Spotify Wrapped. Here’s what to know, and how to access the feature. What is Amazon Music’s 2025 Delivered? 2025 Delivered transforms your streaming history on Amazon Music into a virtual music festival poster with your “dream lineup” of artists. Users are given special “Trendsetter” and “Headliner” badges for being an early album adopter or an artist’s top listener, respectively. From the moment you snap on your virtual festival wristband, 2025 Delivered will share personal insights from the …

The early stages of building a brand are critical. Beyond identifying their audience, brands also have to connect with them while demonstrating their utility. For the five companies recognized as 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the on the rise category, in four years or less they have managed to do both those things with aplomb. Whether it’s Unrivaled’s unique NIL and athletic proposition for WNBA athletes, Scarlett Gasque’s ability to tap into underserved shoppers, or Alan-1’s efforts to give the arcade game an upgrade for avid players, these brands have proven their strengths. Alan-1 Alan-1 creates arcade and video game products inspired by the 1980s. In …

A brand that isn’t thinking globally is limiting its reach. The four 2025 Brands That Matter global honorees know that and have worked hard to make their messaging reach beyond their home countries. All based outside the United States, these brands demonstrated that good messaging and authentic connection have no nationality. 1Password People don’t like to think about their digital security, so Toronto-based 1Password has become an expert at making it fun, and doing so using sports as the backdrop. The brand used its sponsorship of the Presidents Cup golf tournament in fall 2024 to debut its “What Not to Do” campaign. With more than 12 million impressions, the spot…

After the initial sprint of getting a brand to last for five years, there’s always the possibility of hitting a wall. Companies that emerge during cultural moments might be tempted to shift. But the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees for established excellence, which have been in business for 5 to 14 years, have managed to stand out by finding new ways to hew to their original ethos. In doing so, they underscore what set them apart in the first place and position their brands for future growth. Actively Black Founded five years ago, activewear company Actively Black donates more than 10% of its profits to organizations focused on Black mental health, healthier f…