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Across America, a new generation of farmers is reimagining what it means to work the land. They are engineers, ecologists, and entrepreneurs—people who see farming not only as a way to grow food, but as a form of innovation. In fields across the country, these farmers are harnessing soil science, biodiversity, and technology to restore what decades of extractive agriculture have depleted. Their work represents one of the most powerful opportunities of our time: The opportunity to regenerate our planet from the ground up. Yet, the odds they face are immense. Land prices have soared, access to capital is limited, and isolation comes with choosing a career path few understand. Farmland continues to disappear, and for those eager to farm differently, access to resources and mentorship remains limited. These farmers are proving that the next era of agriculture can be both economically viable and ecologically sound. They are experimenting with cover crops to build soil health, integrating renewable energy into operations, and rethinking distribution through community-based models. Their work underscores a truth we must all recognize: The future of farming depends on our ability to empower the people willing to reinvent it. THE FUTURE OF REGENERATIVE FARMING At Rodale Institute, we’ve seen firsthand how supporting beginning farmers can accelerate this transformation. Through training, mentorship, and research, we’ve helped growers adopt regenerative organic methods that improve soil biology, reduce chemical dependence, and restore carbon to the earth. But the broader movement must go further, requiring not only scientific innovation but cultural and corporate partnerships. That’s why Rodale Institute and Davines Group have partnered to launch the second annual U.S. Good Farmer Award, a program recognizing beginning farmers and ranchers who have been in operation for 10 years or less and who embody environmentally responsible, community-focused, and forward-thinking agricultural practices. The award honors individuals whose work demonstrates a profound respect for nature, fosters biodiversity, and strengthens their local communities. More than an accolade, the award reflects a global mindset shift where innovation is not just about new technology but about regenerating what sustains us. In 2025, our U.S. inaugural winner, Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley of Green Heffa Farms in North Carolina, showed us what this vision looks like in practice. Her herb and tea farm blends economic impact, education, and equity into a model of regenerative success. She’s a farmer, but also a mentor, an advocate, and a catalyst for change. Her story, and those of farmers who will follow, remind us that progress doesn’t always come from technology or policy. Often, it grows quietly in the soil, nurtured by people whose courage to plant seeds in uncertain times defines what regeneration really means. WHY INVESTING IN NEW FARMERS IS ESSENTIAL Investing in beginning farmers is essential to a more resilient and regenerative future worldwide. At first glance, it may seem unlikely that a beauty, skincare, and haircare company like the Davines Group shares our commitment and passion for supporting new farmers. However, Davide Bollati, chairman of Davines Group, like us, sees regeneration as the next evolution of sustainability. It is not enough to minimize harm, but we must actively restore it. In a recent conversation, he shared that the protection and preservation of biodiversity are a cornerstone of our environmental strategy, alongside decarbonization, circularity, and water. Like us, Bollati also sees an energy among young farmers who have the energy and the courage to innovate with an approach that considers the wellbeing of our planet. Through The Good Farmer Award, in both Italy and the U.S., it’s about empowering the next generation of farmers to lead with empathy, intelligence, and creativity. The path forward must be multigenerational, inclusive, and rooted in community. FINAL THOUGHTS When Bollati and I met to prepare for the upcoming award application, he summarized our shared purpose perfectly—regeneration today is the only possible path to ensure a future for next generations, and for our planet. It is farmers like our inaugural award winner, Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley, who are embracing agriculture for a different quality, and a different pace of life where they can grow high-quality crops, use sustainable and regenerative practices to protect the soil, and connect others with limited access to farm-fresh products. Jeff Tkach is CEO of Rodale Institute. View the full article

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” scored a leading nine nominations to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Monday, adding to the Oscar favorite’s momentum and handing Warner Bros. a victory amid Netflix’s acquisition deal. In nominations announced from Beverly Hills, California, “One Battle After Another” landed nods for its cast—Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Chase Infiniti—and for Anderson’s screenplay and direction. It’s competing in the Globes’ category for comedy and musicals. Close on its heels was Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” a Norwegian family drama about a filmmaking family. The Neon release’s eight nominations included nods for four of its actors: Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. The Globe nominations, a tattered but persistent rite in Hollywood, are coming on the heels of a potentially seismic shift in entertainment. On Friday, Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion. If approved, the deal would reshape Hollywood and put one of its most storied movie studios in the hands of the streaming giant. Warner Bros., Netflix, and the Golden Globes Both companies are prominent in this year’s awards season. Along with “One Battle After Another,” Warner Bros. has “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed vampire hit. It was nominated for seven awards by the Globes, including box office achievement, best actor for Michael B. Jordan, and Coogler for best director. Netflix’s contenders include Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” (which landed nods for George Clooney and Adam Sandler), Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” (five nominations), and the streaming smash hit, “KPop Demon Hunters.” Arguably the most-watched movie of the year, the three nominations for “KPop Demon Hunters” included one for cinematic and box office achievement—an oddity for Netflix, which typically gives its films only small, limited theatrical runs but found a No. 1 box office weekend in singalong screenings for the animated film. The two studios led all others in nominations across film and television on Monday. Netflix landed 35 nominations, boosted by its expansive film slate and television nominees like the British limited series “Adolescence” (five nominations). Warner Bros. had 31 nominations, including 15 from HBO Max for series such as “The White Lotus,” the lead TV nominee with six. The proposed deal for Warner Bros. has stoked concern throughout the industry that Netflix might devote one of the most theatrical-focused studios to streaming. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has pledged a theatrical commitment to many Warner releases, but the leading trade group for exhibitors has called the deal “an unprecedented threat.” On Sunday, President Donald The President said the market share created by the merger “could be a problem,” and Paramount said Monday it was mounting a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Neon shines on a bad day for ‘Wicked: For Good’ Yet the studio that triumphed on the movie side of the Globe nominations was Neon. The indie specialty film company has emerged as a dominant force in international releases, winning a string of Palme d’Or awards at the Cannes Film Festival. It earned 21 nominations Monday, including five of the six international film nominees. Some of those nominations came at the expense of some high-profile studio films. “Wicked: For Good” was nominated for five awards, including two nods for its songs and acting nominations for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. But it was overlooked for an award it was presumed to be in contention for: best comedy or musical. The nominees instead were “One Battle After Another,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” (a Neon release), and a pair of Richard Linklater movies in “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague.” In the drama category, Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” scored six nominations, including nods for its stars, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It was nominated for best film, drama, along with “Frankenstein” and three Neon titles: “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value” and “It Was Just an Accident.” Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” the acclaimed Iranian revenge drama, was nominated for a total of four awards. At different times, Panahi has often been imprisoned, put under house arrest and prohibited from leaving Iran by the Islamic Republic while making films over the past two decades. Earlier this month, while traveling outside of Iran with the film, he was sentenced to a year in prison and a new two-year travel ban. Podcasters and A-listers mingle As the Globes continue to transition out of their scandal-plagued past, there’s one notable change this year. For the first time, the Globes are giving a best podcast trophy. The inaugural nominees are “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard,” “Call Her Daddy,” “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” “The Mel Robbins Podcast,” “SmartLess,” and NPR’s “Up First.” Many of those nominees aren’t exactly outsiders to Hollywood. But they’ll mingle with a wide array of stars that the Globes, long known for packing their red carpet with A-listers, were sure to nominate. Those include Timothee Chalamet, nominated for his performance in “Marty Supreme,” Jennifer Lawrence (“Die My Love”), Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”), Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”), Jeremy Allen White (“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”), Emma Stone (“Bugonia”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”) and the two stars of “The Smashing Machine,” Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. After a series of controversies for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that previously put on the ceremony, the Globes were sold in 2023 to Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, a part of Penske Media. A new, larger voting body of more than 300 people now vote on the awards, which moved from NBC to CBS on a shorter, less expensive deal. Nikki Glaser is returning as host to the Jan. 11 Globes, airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. This past January, Glaser won good reviews for her first time emceeing the ceremony. Ratings were essentially unchanged, slightly dipping to 9.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen, from 9.4 million in 2024. Helen Mirren will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award in a separate prime-time special airing Jan. 8. Sarah Jessica Parker will be honored with the Carol Burnett Award. —Jake Coyle, AP film writer View the full article

Google disputes a report claiming ads will arrive in the Gemini app in 2026, saying there are no current plans to add them. The post Google Disputes Report Claiming Ads Are Coming To Gemini In 2026 appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

When it's time to buy a new car, you don't necessarily need to stick with the one you had before. You don't lose your cloud-based photos by switching from Toyota to Subaru, nor will your friends yell at you for ruining the group chat by buying a Kia. That's not the case with smartphones: When you buy an iPhone, it's tough to switch away from it. The same goes for Android: While it's easy enough to switch within the Android ecosystem, such as between Pixel or Galaxy, moving from Android to iPhone can also be a pain. Tech companies tend to make it tempting to stick with their platform, and introduce friction when you try to leave. That, of course, is entirely business-based. Apple hasn't traditionally made it easy to move to Android, because, well, you might actually do it. It doesn't have to be this way, either. There's nothing inherent to smartphones that should make it so challenging to break out of any particular ecosystem. All it takes is some intentional design: If smartphones were made to be traded, you could migrate from one to another, without worrying about losing pictures, messages, or any other important data or processes. As it happens, that intentional design may be on the horizon. As reported by 9to5Google, Apple and Google are actually working together to make it easier to transfer data between iPhone and Androids, which would make switching between the two platforms more seamless. This isn't theoretical, either: Google has already released some of this progress as part of the latest Android Canary, the company's earliest pre-release software. All compatible Pixel devices can currently access this latest build, though it doesn't seem there are any user-facing features available to test. 9to5Google says that similar features will roll out to testers in a future iOS 26 beta. Perhaps at that time, Google will roll out its features to the Android beta as well, which has a much larger user base than Canary. While details are slim here, any cooperation between Apple and Google on this front is huge. Current migration tools do exist, but they can be problematic. By actually working together on a native transfer solution, it might actually be seamless to move between platforms. Apple and Google might not be motivated by charity, of course, as the EU has been cracking down on restrictive practices by tech companies in recent years. But while both companies may see this as a way to lose customers, it's also a way to gain them: Sure, some iPhone users may switch to Android if it's easier to do so, but some Android users may do the reverse for the same reasons. More choice is good for everyone—even if it doesn't guarantee exponential growth to shareholders. View the full article

The provider of actuarial-related services is bringing a company that provides mortgage servicing rights analytics and risk management into the fold. View the full article

Joshua Aaron, the developer of the ICE agent tracking app ICEBlock, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and ICE for unconstitutionally pressuring Apple to remove the app from its App Store. Apple pulled ICEBlock in early October after Justice Department officials contacted the company claiming that the app enables users to evade immigration raids and endangers ICE agents. The app, which has more than a million downloads, gives users notifications when ICE agents are nearby, and allows users to anonymously report the location of ICE agent activity, but only if they are located in the same area. Aaron’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks reinstatement of the app, plus appropriate damages. The case could reshape how tech platforms handle government requests, particularly when those requests come without formal warrants or court orders. The developer argues the app simply facilitates sharing of public information, similar to community apps that track traffic or weather. The lawsuit claims Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials violated Aaron’s rights by forcing the app’s removal without a court order. “The goal is pretty simple–we’re hoping to set a precedent that says not only is ICEBlock protected by the First Amendment but they cannot come after me and threaten me as they’ve been doing over the past year,” Aaron tells Fast Company. If successful, the lawsuit could prevent the Justice Department or other federal agencies from depriving other lawful apps of distribution in the future. The ICEBlock app removal may be a case of an unconstitutional government tactic known as “jawboning,” in which a government official uses their official capacity to pressure a private sector entity to do something. In another recent example of the practice, FCC chairman Brendan Carr used an implicit threat of regulatory entanglement to pressure ABC and its affiliates to drop Jimmy Kimmel’s “Kimmel Live” show. Bondi may have admitted, in public, to jawboning, when she spoke on Fox Digital the night after Apple’s removal of ICEBlock on October 2, 2025. “We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store–and Apple did so,” Bondi declared, according to the lawsuit. “With this admission, Attorney General Bondi made plain that the United States government used its regulatory power to coerce a private platform to suppress First Amendment-protected expression,” the suit states. Bondi again boasted of the ICEBlock take-down during a congressional oversight hearing two days later. But it may take more than Bondi’s public statements to prove that the government violated the First Amendment. The EFF, a digital rights group, recently filed suit to compel the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to release documentation of their communications with Apple and other tech platforms that led to the app removals. Meta removed a Facebook group with 80,000 members called ICE Sighting-Chicagoland at the request (or demand) of the government. Chicago residents had been using the apps to warn neighbors when the masked federal agents were near area schools, grocery stores, and other community locations. Google removed an ICE tracking app called Red Dot from its Google Play store, saying the app violated its policy against apps that share the location of what it describes as a “vulnerable group.” Large tech companies have largely overlooked the authoritarian tendencies of the The President administration, choosing instead to appease and coddle it, and capitulate to its demands. The tech industry is engaged in investing trillions in AI, and wants the administration to continue hobbling the government’s normal regulation and oversight. Precedent may be on Aaron’s side. “There is a long history that shows documenting law enforcement performing their duties in public is protected First Amendment activity,” Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Mario Trujillo tells Fast Company. “The government acted unlawfully when it demanded Apple remove ICEBlock, while threatening others with prosecution.” Reuters reported that members of the House Homeland Security committee argued in a letter to tech companies that free speech does not protect incitement to lawless action, and called on them to explain how they vet and monitor such content. Apple cited its App Store guidelines prohibiting content that poses “safety risks” as justification for the removal, but critics argue the vague policy allows for arbitrary enforcement influenced by government pressure. As AppleInsider’s Wesley Hilliard points out, the App Store carries the Waze and Apple Maps apps, both of which allow users to post information about nearby traffic enforcement personnel. View the full article

On December 5, the entertainment world was rocked when Netflix and Warner Bros. announced a massive deal setting Netflix up to purchase the legendary Hollywood studio, creating one of the largest media entities of all time. Today, Paramount Skydance—which has been vying for Warner Bros. for months—appears to be saying, “Not so fast.” Paramount Skydance, the David Ellison-led company fresh off of its own merger earlier this year, has been circling around a potential buy-out of Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner Bros.’ parent company) since at least September. Last week, it appeared that Netflix was swooping in to snatch a large part of the deal. And now, Paramount Skydance has countered with a hostile takeover bid to secure Warner Bros. Discovery once and for all. Here’s everything you need to know about the saga and what’s at stake: What’s the backstory? Back in early September, initial reports emerged that Paramount Skydance was preparing a bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, one of its rivals. The following month, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that it was open to a potential sale in a press release, sharing that it had received “unsolicited interest from multiple parties for the entire company.” Paramount Skydance and Netflix were two of the top contenders identified for the deal. In late October, Reuters reported that Ellison’s initial $60 billion approach offer was rejected by Warner Bros. Discovery, though analysts still pegged Paramount Skydance as the most likely victor in the bidding wars. Then, on December 5, Netflix and Warner Bros. came forward to announce a deal in which Netflix would purchase the legendary Hollywood studio, along with its HBO Max and HBO divisions, for a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion (which Netflix says has an equity value of $72.0 billion). The agreement came after Warner Bros. Discovery announced this summer that it would split the current company into two, with the newly created companies owning its Streaming & Studios assets and Global Networks divisions, respectively. Through the proposed acquisition, Netflix would be buying the “Streaming & Studios” company that will spin off from Warner Bros. Discovery next year. Paramount Skydance, on the other hand, had expressed interest in buying all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets. How did people react to the Netflix deal? Experts say that the colossal Netflix-slash-Warner Bros. deal would give the world’s largest streaming service access to a giant library of valuable IP, including the Harry Potter film franchise, the DC Universe, Barbie, and more. The proposed deal sparked immediate concerns that Netflix might gain too much of a monopoly within the entertainment industry, potentially allowing the company to bump up its subscription prices. Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren called the deal an “anti-monopoly nightmare” in a statement. “It would create one massive media giant with control of nearly half of the streaming market—giving Americans fewer choices over what and how they watch, and putting American workers at risk,” she wrote on X. Another notable commentator was President The President, who said on December 7 that the deal “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. What’s happening now? Now, it seems that the Netflix deal could be on shaky ground. On December 8, Paramount Skydance announced that it would go straight to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders with an all-cash, $30 per share offer that equates to an enterprise value of about $108.4 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly rejected the deal last week, but now, its investors will get a chance to weigh in. This tactic is called a “hostile takeover bid,” and it’s intended to put pressure on a target company by recruiting its shareholders on the side of the deal. “We’re really here to finish what we started,” Ellison told CNBC this morning. He added, “We’re sitting on Wall Street, where cash is still king. We are offering shareholders $17.6 billion more cash than the deal they currently have signed up with Netflix, and we believe when they see what it is currently in our offer that that’s what they’ll vote for.” At this point, the deal is in limbo as shareholders react to Ellison’s new offer. And, no matter which company comes out victorious, the acquisition is likely to face regulatory fights to determine whether the megamerger truly represents a media monopoly. View the full article

Ellisons approach was rebuffed over concerns about financial backing from China and Middle East sovereign funds View the full article

For global companies, Africa’s promise has long been tempered by a persistent operational myth: that the continent is not ready for complex business. The reality is different, however. The barrier isn’t a lack of demand, but the inability of traditional global systems to handle Africa’s unique financial landscape. Nearly 400 million African adults remain on the fringes of the formal financial system, yet digital adoption is exploding. The conversation has decisively shifted from basic financial access to a more critical question: How can multinationals efficiently manage their core operations like paying suppliers, collecting revenue, and moving money across borders, in such a complex environment? WHY AFRICAN FINTECH IS THE SOLUTION Global payment giants are built for standardized, mature markets. African fintech companies have grown from basic payment services into essential partners. Their key strength is building the specialized digital backbone that businesses need to operate. The most important work of African fintech isn’t consumer-facing. Today, it’s happening behind the scenes, where it solves two fundamental problems at once: domestic fragmentation and global isolation. Internally, their platforms help large companies easily pay hundreds of suppliers across different African countries at once, in local currencies. Externally, they are building the rails for African businesses to trade with the world. For instance, they provide a secure infrastructure for African merchants to pay or receive payments from a partner in East Asia. This dual capability avoids the delays, high fees, and headaches of old systems, keeping supply chains running smooth. African fintech systems are crucial for global money transfer companies, allowing them to send payments directly to people anywhere, even remote areas, not just major cities. This same technology is also built into key industries like agriculture and logistics. It provides instant payments to farmers and handles complex freight payments, solving critical cash flow problems for businesses. This is not e-commerce, this is the essential financial plumbing for Africa’s real economy. The role of regulators has also evolved. It’s no longer just about enabling data sharing. Progressive regulators are now collaborating with fintechs to design cross-border payment frameworks and digital identity systems that secure high-value B2B transactions. This proactive engagement is creating a more stable and predictable environment for large-scale investment. Similarly, deep integration with telcos goes beyond consumer mobile money. It’s about leveraging vast agent networks and mobile penetration to create secure, corporate-grade channels for business operations, from distributing payroll to settling invoices with small-scale retailers. The data underscores this shift. According to the GSMA’s 2025 report, Africa processed $1.1 trillion in mobile money value in 2024, accounting for 66% of the global total. Digital payments in Africa are growing rapidly, with transaction values expected to continue their strong upward trajectory. But the real story is in the nature of these transactions: Increasingly, they are sophisticated, high-value B2B flows. Multinationals must now strategically partner with African fintechs to succeed. This is crucial for their proven pan-African networks and deep understanding of local rules and markets. The future of business on the continent will be built on this connected infrastructure. By working with these fintechs, global companies aren’t just overcoming a barrier; they are plugging into Africa’s most powerful driver for growth. Olugbenga GB Agboola is founder and CEO of Flutterwave. View the full article

Miami Art Week usually exists behind invisible velvet ropes. It is a place where private dinners, celebrity walkthroughs, and invitation-only installations dominate the social landscape. But this past week, Capital One tried something unusual. It opened one of Art Week’s most insular cultural moments to people who are not part of the traditional art world by giving its cardholders access to the kind of programming that normally requires a personal invitation, using Art Week not simply as a cultural stage but as a strategic laboratory for understanding what premium consumers now expect from financial brands. The brand’s presence featured a collaboration with artist Alex Prager and global arts agency The Cultivist, centered on Mirage Factory, a cinematic installation that functioned as both an artwork and an access vehicle. The activation also included a performance by Diana Ross, a signal of the caliber of entertainment Capital One was willing to attach to its premium ecosystem. Taken together, these elements demonstrated how the brand is positioning itself inside a broader evolution of the credit card rewards market. Once defined primarily by points, cashback, and lounge access, the premium category has shifted toward cultural relevance and emotional differentiation, especially among younger affluent customers. Capital One presented the activation as an example of what “premium” now means in a market where loyalty is shaped not only by earn rates, but by identity, affiliation, and what a customer feels their card allows them to experience. Turning a cultural moment into a loyalty engine Prager describes Mirage Factory as an immersive reflection of Los Angeles mythology and the machinery of Hollywood dreams. “The Mirage Factory allows visitors to escape into the dreamlike world of Los Angeles, to experience a heightened, fabricated vision that celebrates the artifice of the city and the dreams that built it” Prager explains. “It evokes the spirit of Golden Age Hollywood, a cinematic fantasy of nostalgia, glamour, and illusion.” The installation was open to the public for a limited time, but the most valuable components were reserved for Capital One cardholders. Those included a multi course dinner staged inside the installation and a second evening of bespoke programming. For select attendees, the activation also included access to the Diana Ross performance, a tier of cultural exclusivity that has become increasingly common as credit card issuers compete through experiential differentiation. From a business perspective, the shift reflects competitive dynamics that now extend far beyond traditional rewards. The premium card category has evolved into an arms race of cultural touchpoints. American Express, Chase, and Capital One are all investing in curated events, access-driven partnerships, and high-touch hospitality in an attempt to cultivate deeper emotional loyalty. In this context, a single moment like Mirage Factory becomes a test case for understanding what customers are willing to pay for and which experiences actually change brand perception. Lauren Liss, Capital One’s Senior Vice President of Premium Products and Experiences, noted that the company’s premium portfolio is now its fastest growing segment, driven in part by demand for experiences that feel both elevated and low friction. She explained that Capital One evolved from “a really small company” that issued credit to customers overlooked by traditional banks to a firm that identified a gap in the market. “There were premium credit cards that were out there, but a lot of folks were saying they weren’t for them. They wanted something that was simple, straightforward, easy to use, had the rewards, but also had things that were tailored to great experiences,” she said. “Both that value and the access.” The company now runs more than 300 branded experiences per year. Liss said the measure of success is straightforward. “I’d say the best measurement is that our customers love it. The sellout rate is well over 90 percent,” she said. “Even if I’m not going now, it’s really cool that I have these types of options or offerings for the future.” Why a financial brand is investing in art world authenticity For Capital One, credibility in cultural spaces depends on its partners. The Cultivist plays a central role in ensuring these activations feel artist-led rather than brand-driven. Cultivist cofounder Marlies Verhoeven Reijtenbagh said the firm began as a non-commercial art membership club and expanded into a consultancy that connects artists, institutions, and brands in ways that protect artistic integrity. “We realized that a lot of brands wanted to work in the art world, and that we could help them do it in a way that felt very authentic, because we saw a lot of brand activations that maybe were a bit more pasted on,” she said. Working with Capital One, she added, is structurally different from working with other financial firms because the company brings a unified internal strategy to the table. “When I work with big brands, especially big corporate financials, it often feels like little fiefdoms that have their own individual goals,” she said. “This is very different.” Authenticity is especially important because the credit card industry has entered a phase where premium customers judge brands as much by cultural fluency as financial benefits. Integrations that appear superficial can erode trust faster than a weak earn rate. But Capital One’s approach reflects an understanding that cultural participation must feel native, not opportunistic. The economics of premium dining inside a branded art experience Capital One also expanded its culinary strategy at Art Week. The exclusive dinner inside Mirage Factory was led by chef Dave Beran, whose Michelin-starred restaurants are known for narrative-driven menus. High-touch experiences like this operate at the top of what Capital One executives describe as an access pyramid. Some events serve thousands of cardholders through presales or reserved ticket inventory. Others, like the Mirage Factory dinner, serve a few dozen. Both are strategically important, but they generate value in different ways. Monica Weaver, Head of Branded Card Partnerships and Experiences, said the system is designed to give customers multiple pathways into the cultural sphere. “We think about it in this pyramid where there are certain events that are bucket list, and those are fewer. Then there are exclusive experiences, and then there is a broader tier which is reserved access to certain things,” she said. Capital One has built out these layers through Capital One Entertainment, which blends proprietary events with the full Vivid Seats inventory. Customers redeem rewards for both bucket list and everyday experiences. This reflects a broader shift in rewards behavior. Points are no longer perceived as a savings mechanism. They function as a form of stored access, a currency customers convert into identity-defining moments. Expanding influence beyond the gallery walls This year, the company also extended its Art Week presence into The Shelborne By Proper, a historic Art Deco hotel that became a branded retreat for Venture X and Venture X Business cardholders. Through the Premier Collection, stays included breakfast credits, upgrades when available, and property-wide programming tied to the Mirage Factory concept. There were daily Golden Hour gatherings, wellness events, and nightly sound sessions. The programming allowed Capital One to shape not just a single event but the full customer journey across the Art Week environment. In premium banking, this kind of journey-mapping is becoming a central competitive tool. Every moment becomes a data point in understanding what customers value. Weaver framed the partnership as a broader strategic move. “Our partnership with The Cultivist and debut of Alex Prager’s Mirage Factory redefines what immersive premium access means at Art Week in Miami,” she said. Ami Vedak, who leads Small Business Acquisitions for Business Cards and Payments, added that the events resonated strongly with small business owners, many of whom view premium card perks as tools for client entertainment and business growth. “You hear about Art Week in Miami a lot. It is in the press a lot. Even me as a regular person, I did not necessarily know how to access it,” she said. “Small business owners are people too. They want opportunities to immerse themselves in art and culture.” A financial company positioning itself as a culture brand Capital One’s activation fits a broader industry trend, in which financial institutions compete for high-value customers by offering cultural access that cannot be replicated by earn rates alone. In that landscape, a Diana Ross performance, an immersive art environment, and a curated hotel program are not aesthetic add-ons. They are strategic assets in a loyalty economy where emotional differentiation drives retention. For a brief moment, the boundaries around one of the most exclusive weeks in American culture shifted. Access depended not on a relationship with a gallery, but on whether a visitor carried a specific card. For Capital One, that shift was less about a single week, and more about building a long-term competitive strategy rooted in cultural relevance rather than commodity rewards. View the full article

Manufacturing teams rely on various tools to keep production moving smoothly, and the andon board has become one of the most recognizable parts of that environment. Its purpose is to bring clarity to fast-moving operations and support immediate responses when conditions change. Understanding how an andon board fits into modern shop floors offers valuable insight into lean manufacturing practices and real-time communication. What Is an Andon Board? At its core, an andon board is a visual control tool used to communicate production conditions instantly. It signals normal operations, identifies abnormalities and prompts immediate action when attention is required. By presenting clear indicators for equipment status, quality issues or workflow disruptions, the board helps teams maintain stability, reduce downtime and strengthen overall manufacturing efficiency. On the shop floor, andon boards typically appear as brightly lit displays mounted in areas that offer wide visibility to operators and supervisors. They may use color-coded lights, large digital screens or LED panels to communicate real-time conditions. Positioned above assembly lines, near work cells or at central monitoring points, these boards ensure that workers can see alerts instantly and react without delay. While andon boards can be useful, project management software offers more powerful benefits. ProjectManager helps you plan when tasks should happen, define tasks, subtasks, milestones, deadlines, dependencies and monitor progress over time. Unlike an andon board, resource and workload management features make it seamless to assign tasks and balance workloads. Get started with ProjectManager for free. /wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Manufacturing-gantt-chart-light-mode-costs-exposed-cta-e1712005286389.jpgLearn more What Should Be Displayed in an Andon Board? To maintain consistency on the shop floor, an andon board should present a clear, standardized set of production details that allow teams to recognize issues instantly and take action without hesitation. Workstation or production line identification Real-time production status (running, stopped, waiting) Reason for stoppage or alert type Color-coded indicators for normal, warning or critical states Operator call signals for assistance Assigned responder or support team Time the alert was triggered and the duration of downtime Target output versus actual output Quality alerts or defect counts Safety warnings requiring immediate attention How Does an Andon Board Work? On a manufacturing floor, an andon board functions as a real-time communication tool that keeps everyone aware of production conditions. It brings visibility to issues the moment they occur and guides operators, support teams and supervisors through a clear response process that maintains workflow stability. Operators trigger an alert when a defect, delay or equipment issue is detected. The board displays the problem using color-coded signals or status messages. Supervisors or support teams respond based on the alert level. Teams address the issue, record actions taken and confirm resolution. The system returns to normal status once production resumes smoothly. Related: 10 Best Production Tracking Software Andon Board Example To show how these elements come together in practice, the example below illustrates a simple andon board commonly found on a manufacturing floor. /wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Andon-Board-Example-Manufacturing.png The layout of andon boards varies greatly from one company to another. In this case, this andon board shows the following elements: Workstation Status: Displays the current operating condition of the workstation, signaling whether it is running normally, paused or fully stopped due to an issue, and also the reason behind the issue. In this case, the station is stopped due to a machinery malfunction. Color-Coded Status: Uses visual cues—typically green for running, yellow for warning and red for stop—to allow workers and supervisors to understand operational conditions instantly from a distance. Time: Displays the current time of day or the timestamp when the alert was triggered, helping teams reference when the stoppage began. Call Duration: Shows how long it has been since the operator requested assistance, allowing supervisors to monitor response speed. Target vs. Actual: Compares planned output to real production numbers, making it easier to spot performance gaps and adjust workflow expectations. Downtime: Indicates the total time the workstation has been stopped, a key metric for measuring productivity loss and diagnosing recurring issues. Benefits of Using an Andon Board in a Manufacturing Shop Floor When incorporated into daily operations, an andon board enhances visibility, speeds response times and supports continuous improvement across the production line. Its real-time alerts and clear displays help teams stay aligned, reduce delays and maintain consistent operational performance. Faster identification of production issues Improved communication between operators and supervisors Reduced downtime through immediate response Enhanced quality control and defect prevention Greater transparency across workstations Support for lean manufacturing and continuous improvement Better coordination during workflow disruptions /wp-content/uploads/2025/09/banner-ad-manufacturing-ebook.jpg More Free Related Manufacturing Templates We’ve created dozens of free Excel, Word and Google Sheets templates that can help manufacturers plan, schedule and monitor their production processes. Here are some of them. Production Schedule Template Manufacturers looking for flexible planning tools can use ProjectManager’s interactive production schedule template to map out workflows with clarity. It supports multiple views—including Gantt charts, kanban boards and task lists—so teams can visualize sequencing, manage work-in-progress and maintain control over each stage of the production cycle. SIPOC Template A SIPOC template helps manufacturers document their processes from a high-level perspective by capturing suppliers, inputs, core steps, outputs and customers in a single layout. With these elements organized clearly, teams can identify inefficiencies, refine workflows and ensure the overall process stays aligned with operational goals. Stock Register Format A stock register format provides a structured way to record inventory levels, log material movements and track transactions over time. By maintaining accurate entries for incoming and outgoing stock, manufacturers gain clearer visibility into inventory trends, helping them prevent shortages, avoid excess storage costs and maintain reliable material control. How ProjectManager Helps Manufacturing Companies Manufacturing companies around the world trust ProjectManager to plan, coordinate and track their manufacturing processes. Our software provides tools that complement and go beyond what andon boards offer, especially when manufacturing operations are part of larger projects, continuous improvement initiatives, maintenance or multi-step workflows. Plan & Visualize Complex Workflows on the Gantt Structure complex operations beyond simply “production line running.” Use the Gantt chart when you need planning, task breakdowns, scheduling and accountability, not just real-time alerts. The Gantt has start and end dates, task dependencies and milestones that are ideal for planning ahead beyond day-to-day production. /wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Gantt-Manufacturing-Light-2554x1372-1-2048x1100-compressed.png Real-time Dashboards and Reports Utilize real-time project dashboards and reports to give management and supervisors a high-level view. Determine if the project is on schedule, if tasks are being completed and if any improvement tasks are delayed. Then, in a few clicks, generate custom reports to share with stakeholders as needed. /wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Project-reporting-software.png Related Manufacturing and Production Content Manufacturing Operations Management Explained Manufacturing Process Planning: Steps, Types & Benefits 20 Production and Manufacturing KPIs & Metrics What Is Lean Manufacturing? Definitions, Principles & Techniques ProjectManager is online project management software that connects teams anywhere and at any time. We empower you to plan, manage and track your projects in real time with dynamic features that allow you greater control over your projects to deliver success. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. The post Andon Board in Manufacturing: A Quick Guide appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

Massachusetts’ highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state’s lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users. The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Massachusetts who use the social media platforms. “We are making claims based only on the tools that Meta has developed because its own research shows they encourage addiction to the platform in a variety of ways,” said State Solicitor David Kravitz, adding that the state’s claim has nothing to do the company’s algorithms or failure to moderate content. Meta said Friday that it strongly disagrees with the allegations and is “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.” Its attorney, Mark Mosier, argued in court that the lawsuit “would impose liabilities for performing traditional publishing functions” and that its actions are protected by the First Amendment. “The Commonwealth would have a better chance of getting around the First Amendment if they alleged that the speech was false or fraudulent,” Mosier said. “But when they acknowledge that its truthful that brings it in the heart of the First Amendment.” Several of the judges, though, seem to be more concerned about Meta’s functions, such as notifications, than the content on its platforms. “I didn’t understand the claims to be that Meta is relaying false information vis-a-vis the notifications but that it has created an algorithm of incessant notifications … designed so as to feed into the fear of missing out, fomo, that teenagers generally have,” Justice Dalila Wendlandt said. “That is the basis of the claim.” Justice Scott Kafker challenged the notion that this was all about a choice to publish certain information by Meta. “It’s not how to publish but how to attract you to the information,” he said. “It’s about how to attract the eyeballs. It’s indifferent the content, right. It doesn’t care if it’s Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ or nonsense. It’s totally focused on getting you to look at it.” Meta is facing federal and state lawsuits claiming it knowingly designed features—such as constant notifications and the ability to scroll endlessly—that addict children. In 2023, 33 states filed a joint lawsuit against the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant, claiming that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law. In addition, states, including Massachusetts, filed their own lawsuits in state courts over addictive features and other harms to children. Newspaper reports, first by The Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2021, found that the company knew about the harms Instagram can cause teenagers — especially teen girls — when it comes to mental health and body image issues. One internal study cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse. Critics say Meta hasn’t done enough to address concerns about teen safety and mental health on its platforms. A report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups this year said Meta has chosen not to take “real steps” to address safety concerns, “opting instead for splashy headlines about new tools for parents and Instagram Teen Accounts for underage users.” Meta said the report misrepresented its efforts on teen safety. ___ This story has been corrected to show one of the justices is called Justice Dalila Wendlandt, not Wendland. —Michael Casey, Associated Press Associated Press reporter Barbara Ortutay contributed to this report. View the full article

Hildene, which partners with Crosscountry Mortgage for non-QM securitizations, is doing this deal as part of its buy of an annuity provider, SILAC. View the full article

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers. There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day. 1. My boss loves being told she’s beautiful I’m afraid the ritual with the boss continues. I couldn’t find any way to say that the team might feel pressure to compliment her appearance without making it sound like I didn’t think she was good-looking. So I just caved to the pressure and decided to start talking up her career and telling her she’d be great for more senior roles so it doesn’t seem like I’m the only one not complimenting her. And to make more of a point of complimenting other team members so it’s not just all the boss all the time. 2. My new manager is upset I didn’t tell her I was pregnant when I interviewed I did end up having problems with “family friendly” culture at my hospital, although not in the way I was expecting. The frostiness from my manager subsided pretty quickly, partly because I stopped seeing her! Immediately after my orientation ended, I started getting called off for literally 90% of my shifts due to low census (too few patients on the floor). Unbeknownst to me, they had majorly over hired on the floor I worked on, and as a PRN employee I’m not guaranteed any work. However, it’s common courtesy in my experience to not hire if you don’t actually need the help, and there were many phrases like “we can use all the help we can get” and “we are always busy/slammed” thrown around in my interview, which makes me feel that they were not hiring/negotiating in good faith. It did not occur to me to include “must allow employee to work and subsequently get paid” to my list of “family-friendly” requirements! We are very fortunate that my income is not keeping our lights on or anything, but we have had to restructure the budget a little to accommodate me rarely working. The closest similar job is about an hour away, which is not workable with our family … so I’m kind of stuck. I’m hoping things will pick up in the winter, and I’m looking at cross-training to other departments to potentially be able to work more consistently. Most importantly, I delivered a healthy little boy in September, and he is a joy. I am scheduled to work again starting in November, but I suspect I will get more time off with him than I initially expected! If/when I have to take another position, I will certainly not be disclosing any medical info during my interview. Thanks for the advice and the solidarity of the commenters! 3. How can I help my dyslexic and ADHD employee write better? (#5 at the link) My staff member is doing great. To recap a couple of responses I gave in the comments of the original post: I had a chat with her of the form “how can I support you?” She had been employing a few of her own tactics like changing text colors and circulating things with others before sending things to me. I made sure the managers of other staff were aware and on board with them providing help. But I was happily proven wrong about our org’s appetite for AI, and we actually now have a limited set of tools approved. She (and others, including me!) are loving the help it provides. Roses have thorns, however, so now I have a new challenge. Without going into detail, I’ve received AI-generated work (from several people) that’s just not on point. I’m sure I’m not alone here. I wonder what the future looks like, since the reason why I pick up on this is because I cut my teeth in the pre-AI dark ages. How do we teach critical thinking and analysis using AI without requiring work that will negate the productivity benefits it provides? I’m genuinely fascinated and excited to see how this will all play out, and keen to hear the stories and advice from your readers. This particular staff member will be fine, though, because I have already seen that she has the skills required. I’m pretty sure she’s about to get promoted too :-) 4. We’re expected to provide treats for better-paid coworkers (#2 at the link) On treat day, my nosy coworker said something like, “I’ll be setting up for the potluck in the staff room at 9, so feel free to bring your … whatever you brought … any time before then!” to which I nodded noncommittally. It didn’t come up again. I’m relatively new at the job (last year was my first year), and while I haven’t experienced it myself, our principal has a reputation for taking criticism poorly and doubling down when she feels someone is challenging her authority/judgement. So I didn’t feel I had enough social capital to challenge the whole premise of “buy treats for your better-paid coworkers week.” But the good news is that my nosy coworker retired at the end of the school year, so I think going forward I should be able to get back to my plan of just quietly not signing up for anything. It was very validating to hear folks in the comments confirming that the whole thing was completely unreasonable! The post updates: my boss loves being told she’s beautiful, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Google is being forced to cap all default search and AI app deals at one year. This will end the long-term agreements (think: Apple, Samsung) that helped secure its default status on billions of devices. Just don’t expect this to end Google’s search dynasty anytime soon. Driving the news. Judge Amit Mehta on Friday called the one-year cap a “hard-and-fast termination requirement” needed to enforce antitrust remedies after his 2024 ruling that Google illegally monopolized search and search ads, Business Insider reported. In September, Mehta ruled on Google search deals: “Google will be barred from entering or maintaining any exclusive contract relating to the distribution of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app. Google shall not enter or maintain any agreement that (1) conditions the licensing of the Play Store or any other Google application on the distribution, preloading, or placement of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or the Gemini app anywhere on a device; (2) conditions the receipt of revenue share payments for the placement of one Google application (e.g., Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or the Gemini app) on the placement of another such application; (3) conditions the receipt of revenue share payments on maintaining Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or the Gemini app on any device, browser, or search access point for more than one year; or (4) prohibits any partner from simultaneously distributing any other GSE, browser, or GenAI product search access point for more than one year; or (4) prohibits any partner from simultaneously distributing any other GSE, browser, or GenAI product.” Why we care. A more fragmented search landscape means user queries could start anywhere. If AI-powered rivals like OpenAI, Perplexity, or Microsoft make even small gains in search, you’ll face a broader and more complicated world to compete in. Reality check. This is a speed bump, not a shake-up. Google’s cash, brand power, and user habits still give it a big edge in yearly talks. View the full article

Chief says deal with data streaming platform will allow company to deploy generative artificial intelligence ‘faster’View the full article

President Donald The President is planning a $12 billion farm aid package, according to a White House official — a boost to farmers who have struggled to sell their crops while getting hit by rising costs after the president raised tariffs on China as part of a broader trade war. According to the official, who was granted anonymity to speak ahead of a planned announcement, The President will unveil the plan Monday afternoon at a White House roundtable with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, lawmakers, and farmers who grow corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, rice, cattle, wheat, and potatoes. Farmers have backed The President politically, but his aggressive trade policies and frequently changing tariff rates have come under increasing scrutiny because of the impact on the agricultural sector and because of broader consumer worries. The aid is the administration’s latest effort to defend The President’s economic stewardship and answer voter angst about rising costs—even as the president has dismissed concerns about affordability as a Democratic “hoax.” Upwards of $11 billion is set aside for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which the White House says will offer one-time payments to farmers for row crops. Soybeans and sorghum were hit the hardest by the trade dispute with China because more than half of those crops are exported each year with most of the harvest going to China. The aid is meant to help farmers who have suffered from trade wars with other nations, inflation, and other market disruptions. The rest of the money will be for farmers who grow crops not covered under the bridge assistance program, according to the White House official. The money is intended to offer certainty to farmers as they market the current harvest, as well as plan for next year’s harvest. China purchases have been slow In October, after The President met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, the White House said Beijing had promised to buy at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of the calendar year, plus 25 million metric tons a year in each of the next three years. Soybean farmers have been hit especially hard by The President’s trade war with China, which is the world’s largest buyer of soybeans. China has purchased more than 2.8 million metric tons of soybeans since The President announced the agreement at the end of October. That’s only about one quarter of what administration officials said China had promised, but Bessent has said China is on track to meet its goal by the end of February. “These prices haven’t come in, because the Chinese actually used our soybean farmers as pawns in the trade negotiations,” Bessent said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” explaining why a “bridge payment” to farmers was needed. During his first presidency, The President also provided aid to farmers amid his trade wars. He gave them more than $22 billion in 2019 and nearly $46 billion in 2020, though that year also included aid related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The President has also been under pressure to address soaring beef prices, which have hit records for a number of reasons. Demand for beef has been strong at a time when drought has cut U.S. herds and imports from Mexico are down due to a resurgence in a parasite. The President has said he would allow for more imports of Argentine beef. He also had asked the Department of Justice to investigate foreign-owned meat packers he accused of driving up the price of beef, although he has not provided evidence to back his claims. On Saturday, The President signed an executive order directing the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to look at “anti-competitive behavior” in food supply chains — including seed, fertilizer and equipment — and consider taking enforcement actions or developing new regulations. ___ An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed the connection to tariffs to a White House official. —Seung Min Kim, Josh Funk, and Didi Tang, Associated Press Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Bill Barrow, and Jack Dura contributed to this report. View the full article

A report from AdWeek claimed Google privately told clients it plans to introduce ads in its Gemini AI chatbot in 2026 — but Google’s top ads executive is publicly denying it. Driving the news. AdWeek reported that Google reps, in recent calls with major advertisers, suggested that Gemini would get ad placements in 2026, separate from the company’s existing ads in AI Mode, the AI-powered search experience launched in March. Buyers said no prototypes, formats, or pricing were shown. The conversations were described as exploratory and lacked technical detail. Google says that’s wrong. Dan Taylor, Google’s VP of Global Ads, disputed the report directly on X, writing: “This story is based on uninformed, anonymous sources who are making inaccurate claims. There are no ads in the Gemini app and there are no current plans to change that.” Why we care. Advertisers are watching closely for monetization inside AI assistants, seen as the next major ad frontier. Conflicting signals about ads in Gemini hint at where Google may be headed with AI monetization, even if the company publicly denies immediate plans. Any move to bring paid placements into a high-engagement chatbot could reshape budgets, shift user behavior, and introduce an entirely new ad surface separate from search. Between the lines. The tension highlights a broader industry debate: whether AI chatbots should remain utility tools or evolve into new ad surfaces. Even speculation about ads inside Gemini is enough to spark planning discussions among agencies. What’s next. For now, Google insists Gemini remains ad-free. But with rivals exploring AI monetization and advertiser demand growing, the question isn’t going away — even if the timeline is. Dig Deeper. Report from AdWeek (registered account needed). View the full article

In oral arguments held Monday morning, a majority of Supreme Court justices seemed poised to overrule a 90-year-old precedent validating multimember independent commissions, but it remains uncertain what limits — if any — the court may impose on the president's removal powers. View the full article

Planner vs. Engineer is a well-known professional rivalry in the infrastructure world. The arguments are sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, sometimes about important issues, sometimes insignificant. I’m in a peculiar spot because of my career as a “plangineer.” My parents helped me buy a civil engineering degree, but several years into my career, I bought the certified planning certificate. I know the two camps very well. The roundabout question Roundabouts are one of the many Planner vs. Engineer debates, and it happens to be a very important issue where emotions cloud good judgment. As much as I criticize the engineering profession, they are generally correct on this one. But that wasn’t always the case. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the status quo transportation engineering community believed wholeheartedly that roundabouts were not only good, but were silly, dangerous, would lead to gridlock, couldn’t be understood by American drivers, etc. The primary reasons for opposing roundabouts and defending traffic lights (the typical alternative) were speed and delay. That is, if an intersection design slowed down vehicles, that was bad. If there was real or perceived delay for drivers at intersections, that was bad. The status quo certified planners, spotting a thing engineers hated, praised the thing. Their reasons for supporting roundabouts included their function as a community gateway, a traffic calming feature, an environmentally sustainable design, and something that wasn’t so car-oriented like seemingly everything else dreamt up by traffic engineers. But in the 2000s, a fringe group of practitioners and academics who were claiming that roundabouts were [Gasp!] actually good started growing in numbers. Case studies were repeatedly finding the same results: roundabouts dramatically reduced vehicle speeds, reduced crashes, maintained or reduced overall travel time, and made it safer for pedestrians to cross the street. When the engineers became pro-roundabout, the planners became roundabout skeptics or flat out anti-roundabout. I lived through this transition. It was wild to behold. Modern roundabouts have been proven to be the safest form of at-grade intersection, and the most common claim from skeptics is “but cars don’t stop at roundabouts, so they must be dangerous for pedestrians.” That seems like a reasonable explanation, but it’s wrong. There are two reasons pedestrians are safer at roundabouts: slower vehicle speeds and shorter crossing distances. Speed is the difference between life and death Speed is the fundamental factor in crash severity. The difference between a person struck at 45 MPH (the standard American arterial speed limit) and one struck at 20 MPH (the standard design speed at a roundabout) is the difference between death and life. Roundabout geometry forces drivers to slow down. Even on a high-speed road, roundabouts are designed to slow approaching vehicles. Once drivers enter the circle itself, speeds drop even lower, giving them ample time to yield to people in crosswalks on the exit leg. The physical design of the roundabout makes speeding through nearly impossible. When drivers are moving slowly, they have time to see pedestrians, react, and stop. Shorter crossings are safer crossings Multi-lane roads get even wider at intersections, with multiple left-turn and right-turn lanes added to process vehicle queues during each signal cycle. Without these additional lanes, traffic would back up to adjacent signals. For pedestrians, this means crossing not just two lanes but potentially six or more, with threats coming from all directions. The longer pedestrians remain exposed to moving vehicles, the greater their risk. Turn lanes extend hundreds of feet before intersections, meaning a series of signalized intersections produces bloated corridors between them. These wide corridors invite speeding, and speeding leads to more severe crashes. Roundabouts eliminate the need for long turn lanes in every direction. Without them, the corridors between intersections can remain narrow, which naturally discourages high speeds throughout the entire roadway network, not just at intersections. Most modern roundabouts are designed so pedestrians never cross more than one or two lanes at a time without reaching a refuge island. The splitter islands that separate entering and exiting traffic create natural stopping points, breaking what would be a long, dangerous crossing into manageable segments. Retrofitting suburbia In the United States, the greatest life-saving potential for roundabouts lies in sprawling suburban areas along multi-lane arterials—precisely the environments where traffic engineers were trained to maximize vehicle flow at the expense of all else. These are the locations where pedestrians face the longest crossing distances, the highest speeds, and the most complex traffic movements. On tight urban streets with traditional grid patterns, signalized intersections can work well for pedestrians. But in suburban contexts, where intersections are spaced far apart and roads are designed for high speeds, roundabouts offer a proven solution for protecting vulnerable road users. As a certified planner who has worked as an engineer for many years, I don’t care which team gets the bragging rights for promoting pedestrian safety. I only care that we stop designing intersections and corridors in ways that are proven to be deadly. In suburbia, especially, every new or retrofitted multi-lane arterial crossing should default to a roundabout. View the full article

The new Pentagon press corps gathered last week for their first in-person briefing. That’s since almost all credentialed reporters from traditional media companies surrendered their passes in October to protest new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s strict media policy. Refusing to sign a 21-page Pentagon document that in effect banned journalists from trying to solicit any kind of information that was not pre-approved, the Pentagon instead issued passes to a newly credentialed corps of influencers, conspiracy theorists, and conservative commentators who happily agreed to the strict rules. The handpicked press corps were active on social media last week as they documented their first few days on the jobs. “The Fake News is OUT,” Wade Searle, who works for LifeSiteNews, a right-wing Catholic publication, posted on X. “LifeSiteNews is IN.” “The A-Team press corps has taken over type beat,” 23-year-old MAGA influencer Lance Johnston posted. He also uploaded a slideshow of photos of himself posing with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Others were otherwise occupied fighting over the desks of former press corp reporters. “The Pentagon cubicle that used to belong to @DanLamothe is now mine,” RC Maxwell, a reporter at the conservative outlet RedScare, posted on X, referring to a journalist at The Washington Post. “Out with the propagandists and hacks. In with the truth tellers who love America.” Conservative influencer ​​Cam Higby and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer also shared photos of themselves claiming to be sitting in Lamothe’s old spot. The Post reporter shared a compilation of the images on X, writing, “Y’all are going to have to work this one out for yourselves.” During the three-day event, the new press corps didn’t miss an opportunity to take shots at their predecessors. “MSM Journalists wreaked havoc on the Pentagon during their time in the building,” posted Higby on X. He claimed that the “adversarial media” created a “hostile work environment” for staff, echoed by Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson who spoke of former press corp members “waltzing” into her office and “eavesdropping” on officials’ meetings. The new press corp instead brought the heat and kept the public informed on issues relating to national security. “Hegseth answered my questions. It’s off the record so no details but I am very pleased with his leadership,” John Konrad, a former ship captain and social media personality, reassured his X followers Wednesday. Last week also saw the release of the long-awaited inspector general’s report on Hegseth’s sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year. “JUST IN: Advisor to @SecWar tells @RedState the IG report on SignalGate is an exoneration given that it proves no laws were broken, no classified information was shared, and the mission was a success,” Maxwell posted on X. That is despite the report explicitly saying that Hegseth’s actions could have led to U.S. soldiers being harmed. The new press also kept the public informed with reports of festivities in the Pentagon. “SANTA @ PENTAGON,” Higby posted. “Today Secretary of War Pete Hegseth introduced the children of America’s warfighters and civilian DoW staff to Santa, escorted in an armored military vehicle. Two soldiers in elf hats rapelled from the building as the vehicle arrived.” Johnston also captured the Pentagon Christmas tree lighting party for the public’s benefit. Last week, The New York Times sued the Pentagon and Hegseth over limits on press reporting. They alleged that the ban “seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done – ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements”. View the full article

A B2B customer journey map outlines the stages and interactions a business customer experiences when engaging with a brand, from initial awareness to renewal. It highlights key touchpoints and the roles of various decision-makers involved in the purchasing process. Comprehending this journey is essential for identifying customer needs and pain points, which can guide organizations in crafting customized strategies. As you explore this topic further, consider how effectively mapping these journeys can drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. Key Takeaways A B2B customer journey map visualizes the stages and touchpoints in a customer’s interaction with a brand, enhancing understanding of their experience. It identifies pivotal moments that influence customer satisfaction and retention throughout the awareness, research, and decision-making stages. By recognizing touchpoints and pain points, businesses can streamline processes and foster stronger relationships with multiple decision-makers involved. Emotional engagement and personalized communication during the journey can significantly boost customer loyalty and retention rates. Continuous evaluation of the customer journey using data and feedback helps optimize strategies, improving overall customer experience and satisfaction. Understanding the B2B Customer Journey Grasping the B2B customer path is essential for any business aiming to succeed in today’s competitive market. The B2B customer experience consists of various stages, including awareness, research, decision-making, onboarding, usage, support, and renewal. Each of these stages involves specific touchpoints where customers interact with your brand. Recognizing these B2B customer experience stages helps you identify the pivotal moments that notably impact satisfaction and retention. Furthermore, effective B2B buyer experience mapping allows you to tailor your messaging and strategies to the needs of different stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. By analyzing touchpoints, you can address customer pain points, ensuring a cohesive experience that meets their nuanced needs, eventually driving long-term success. Key Stages of the B2B Customer Journey In the B2B customer progression, the awareness stage is vital as it marks the point where potential customers recognize their problems and start looking for solutions. You’ll often rely on content marketing and thought leadership to attract attention during this phase, guiding prospects toward your offerings. Once they move into the conversion stage, comprehending the dynamics of their decision-making process becomes fundamental, as it involves evaluating options and making commitments based on various factors, including product features and vendor reputation. Awareness Stage Insights What does it take to effectively engage potential customers during the awareness stage of the B2B customer experience? In this initial phase of the B2B customer progression, buyers identify their problems and start searching for solutions. Since research indicates that buyers spend merely 17% of their time interacting with vendors, it’s essential to provide quality content that helps them understand their needs and available options. You need to guarantee your presence across multiple channels to capture their attention, whether through blogs, social media, or informative webinars. This approach not only addresses their pain points but additionally builds brand recognition, setting a strong foundation for the next steps in the b2b marketing customer progression and b2b digital customer progression. Conversion Process Dynamics As potential customers move from the awareness stage to the conversion process, they enter a critical phase where the decision-making becomes paramount. During this stage of the B2B customer experience map, buyers assess options, negotiate terms, and require clear communication. They often spend a limited amount of time interacting directly with companies, therefore necessitating efficient engagement strategies. In the context of a B2B ecommerce customer experience or a B2B SaaS customer experience, it’s essential to provide customized solutions that address specific pain points. As you guide prospects through this process, focus on delivering thorough information and quality content that resonates with their needs. Continuous optimization of this stage will improve customer satisfaction and drive repeat business, eventually leading to loyalty and advocacy. The Role of Multiple Decision-Makers Maneuvering the B2B customer pathway can be particularly challenging due to the involvement of multiple decision-makers, typically ranging from six to ten individuals, each bringing unique perspectives and requirements to the purchasing process. You need to tailor your communication strategies to address the distinct motivations and pain points of each stakeholder. Research shows that buyers spend only 17% of their time interacting directly with vendors, making it vital to create effective engagement strategies that resonate with various decision-makers. Decision-Maker Role Key Focus Area Budget Holder Cost-effectiveness Technical Buyer Product specifications End User Usability and support Executive Sponsor Strategic alignment Understanding these dynamics is important for optimizing your B2B SaaS customer experience map. Importance of Customer Journey Mapping Mapping the customer experience is essential for enhancing your engagement strategies and identifying pain points that might hinder the buying process. By visualizing each stage and touchpoint, you can pinpoint where customers face challenges, allowing you to address these issues proactively. This approach not just streamlines the customer experience but additionally nurtures stronger relationships and improves overall satisfaction. Enhancing Engagement Strategies Comprehending the significance of customer pathway mapping is vital for improving engagement strategies in B2B environments. A well-structured B2B customer pathway map visualizes touchpoints, allowing you to identify gaps in engagement. By grasping the nonlinear nature of these pathways, you can tailor communication to meet the needs of various stakeholders involved in decision-making. Mapping additionally highlights friction points that hinder customer interaction, enabling targeted solutions to improve overall satisfaction. Implementing feedback mechanisms within your pathway map allows for continuous adaptation based on real-time customer insights. In the end, these improved engagement strategies lead to increased customer loyalty and retention, driving long-term success for your business. Prioritizing effective pathway mapping is important for optimizing customer experiences and nurturing lasting relationships. Identifying Pain Points Identifying pain points within the B2B customer progression is essential for enhancing overall customer satisfaction and driving business success. Customer experience mapping visualizes the entire process, helping you pinpoint specific areas where customers face obstacles or dissatisfaction. By analyzing interactions at various touchpoints, you can uncover friction points that hinder conversions and reduce overall satisfaction. Research shows that addressing these pain points can boost retention rates by up to 5%, greatly impacting your revenue. Continuous feedback collection allows for real-time adjustments, enabling you to proactively resolve issues before they escalate. Implementing a structured approach to mapping improves communication among teams, ensuring all departments are aligned in addressing pain points and enhancing the customer experience effectively. Identifying Touchpoints in the B2B Journey In the B2B customer experience, touchpoints represent vital interactions that occur throughout various stages, including awareness, consideration, conversion, service, and advocacy. Identifying these touchpoints is important for addressing the diverse needs of multiple decision-makers involved in the purchasing process. Each touchpoint, whether digital or analog, greatly influences customer perceptions and decisions. Consider focusing on these key touchpoints: Website Visits: Engaging content can attract potential buyers during the awareness stage. Social Media Interactions: Posts and responses can improve brand visibility and trust. Support Inquiries: Prompt and helpful responses can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty. Analyzing Customer Pain Points As you navigate the B2B customer path, recognizing and analyzing customer pain points becomes crucial for enhancing the overall experience. Research shows that 70% of B2B buyers encounter obstacles during their purchasing process, often because of unclear information or complex website navigation. By identifying these pain points—like long sales response times and difficulty finding relevant product details—you can implement targeted improvements that streamline the customer experience. Addressing pain points at each stage, from awareness to post-purchase, cultivates stronger relationships and boosts customer loyalty. Continuous monitoring of customer feedback and analytics enables you to adapt your strategies, effectively mitigating these issues and ensuring a smoother process for your customers, eventually leading to greater satisfaction and retention. The Impact of Emotional Engagement Emotional engagement plays a vital role in shaping your interactions with customers throughout the B2B process. By ensuring that touchpoints resonate emotionally, you can nurture relationships effectively even after the purchase, leading to greater customer loyalty. Furthermore, anticipating customer needs and providing customized solutions improves satisfaction, eventually driving retention and encouraging repeat business. Emotional Resonance in Touchpoints Comprehending the emotional resonance at various touchpoints throughout the B2B customer experience can greatly impact purchasing decisions, shaping how customers perceive their interactions with your brand. Emotional engagement plays a crucial role in customer loyalty and retention, as studies show: Positive emotional responses can lead to increased loyalty, making emotionally connected customers more than twice as valuable as satisfied ones. Personalized communication and supportive customer service can reduce churn rates by up to 30%, emphasizing the need for emotional touchpoints. Businesses prioritizing emotional resonance often see a 23% increase in sales, demonstrating the direct impact of emotional engagement on revenue growth. Nurturing Relationships Post-Purchase Nurturing relationships post-purchase is crucial for maintaining customer loyalty and maximizing the lifetime value of each client. Retaining an existing customer is five times cheaper than acquiring a new one, making continued engagement critical. Emotional connections markedly improve loyalty; 70% of customers are more likely to stay devoted to brands that understand and value them. Personalized post-purchase communication, such as customized follow-ups and support, can boost satisfaction by up to 30%. Implementing feedback mechanisms like surveys can improve emotional engagement, increasing retention rates by 14%. Furthermore, building a community around your product, such as user groups or forums, cultivates connections, leading to a 25% increase in advocacy and referrals among engaged customers. Anticipating Needs and Solutions Comprehending the needs of B2B customers at various stages of their process is vital for enhancing emotional engagement and making informed decisions. By effectively anticipating these needs, you can build stronger connections and improve overall satisfaction. Here are three key benefits of emotional engagement in B2B: Increased Loyalty: Emotionally engaged customers are more likely to stay with your brand, nurturing long-term relationships. Higher Conversion Rates: Customized solutions that address specific pain points resonate better with multiple stakeholders, leading to improved sales outcomes. Enhanced Customer Insights: Mapping the experience helps you gather valuable feedback, enabling you to refine your offerings and better meet customer expectations. Strategies for Optimizing the Customer Journey To optimize the B2B customer experience, it’s essential to focus on comprehending your customers’ needs and pain points throughout each stage of their process. Start by implementing a consistent omnichannel experience to guarantee seamless interactions, whether your customers engage via email, chat, or social media. Collecting and analyzing feedback at each stage allows you to adapt strategies effectively, enhancing satisfaction and retention rates. Tailor your approach for each phase; for example, provide personalized content during the awareness stage and targeted follow-ups during advocacy. Regularly monitor key metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV) and conversion rates to refine your strategies. These focused efforts can lead to sustained success and stronger customer loyalty in the competitive B2B environment. Leveraging Data and Analytics As businesses navigate the intricacies of the B2B customer experience, leveraging data and analytics becomes essential for comprehending customer behaviors and preferences. By analyzing this data, you can uncover valuable insights that improve your marketing strategies. Here are three key benefits of leveraging data and analytics: Identify High-Performing Touchpoints: Determine which interactions drive conversions, allowing you to focus your resources where they matter most. Gather Customer Feedback: Use tools like NPS and CSAT to assess satisfaction levels, pinpointing areas needing improvement. Monitor Trends: Continuously analyze experience data to identify shifts in customer expectations, ensuring your strategies remain relevant and effective. Utilizing these insights can lead to improved customer engagement and sustained growth, in the end strengthening your business relationships. Continuous Improvement and Evaluation Continuous improvement of the B2B customer experience map requires a systematic approach to collecting and analyzing customer feedback. Regularly gather insights using key metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to evaluate the path’s effectiveness. Monitoring these metrics helps you identify pain points and stages needing optimization. Tools such as Google Analytics and Hotjar can facilitate ongoing assessments of customer interactions across various touchpoints. By continuously updating your customer path map to reflect current data and trends, you’ll guarantee alignment with evolving customer expectations. This proactive evaluation leads to improved customer retention rates and satisfaction, eventually enhancing the overall effectiveness of your B2B customer path. Case Studies: Successful B2B Journey Maps Successful B2B customer experience maps have proven to be instrumental in driving significant improvements in conversion rates and customer retention across various industries. Here are a few notable case studies: A financial services company saw a 20% increase in conversion rates after identifying friction points in their application process. A technology firm improved demo request rates by 40% through targeted guides based on insights from their customer experience map. An ecommerce company reduced cart abandonment by 20% by enhancing the checkout experience with incentives, following their experience mapping analysis. These examples illustrate how a well-structured customer experience map can pinpoint areas for improvement, leading to measurable gains in performance and customer satisfaction. Future Trends in B2B Customer Journey Mapping The future of B2B customer experience mapping is set to evolve considerably as businesses increasingly leverage advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. You’ll see a rise in personalized and proactive customer experiences through the analysis of complex data sets. As remote work becomes commonplace, enhancing digital touchpoints and omnichannel strategies will be crucial to cater to diverse customer preferences. Real-time customer feedback mechanisms will enable you to adapt strategies quickly and address pain points effectively. Predictive analytics will help forecast customer behavior, tailoring experiences that boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Collaborative mapping techniques will involve multiple stakeholders, ensuring a thorough view of the customer experience and alignment in strategy execution across departments. Frequently Asked Questions What Is a B2B Customer Journey? A B2B customer pathway refers to the entire process a business buyer experiences, starting from awareness of a need through to post-purchase support and renewal. It typically includes stages like awareness, research, decision-making, and onboarding. You engage with various touchpoints, such as product demos and customer support, often involving multiple stakeholders. Comprehending this pathway helps you identify customer pain points and opportunities, eventually driving satisfaction and nurturing long-term relationships. What Is Customer Journey Mapping and Why Is It Important? Customer experience mapping visually represents the interactions between you and your customers throughout their purchasing process. It’s crucial as it helps you understand customer needs and expectations, identifying gaps in their experience. For example, if customers struggle during the decision phase, you can adjust your support accordingly. What Are the 5 A’s of Customer Journey Map? The 5 A’s of a customer experience map are Awareness, Appeal, Ask, Action, and Advocate. In the Awareness stage, customers recognize a need. Next, during Appeal, you engage their interest by showcasing solutions. The Ask phase involves customers seeking further information. Action is when they decide to purchase based on their findings. Finally, in the Advocate stage, satisfied customers share positive experiences, promoting your brand and influencing others. Each stage is essential for effective engagement. How to Create a B2B Customer Journey Map? To create a B2B customer experience path, start by defining your buyer personas, focusing on their demographics and pain points. Identify all customer touchpoints, including online interactions like social media and offline meetings. Structure your map by outlining the stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, service, and advocacy. Regularly analyze customer feedback and key metrics such as Net Promoter Score to identify improvement areas. Update the map continuously to guarantee it reflects current insights and improves customer experiences. Conclusion In conclusion, a B2B customer experience map is crucial for comprehending the complex interactions between your business and its clients. By identifying key stages and touchpoints, you can tailor strategies to meet the needs of multiple decision-makers effectively. Leveraging data allows for continuous improvement, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. As you implement and refine your experience mapping process, you position your organization for strategic growth, ensuring that you remain responsive to the evolving demands of the marketplace. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a B2B Customer Journey Map and Its Importance?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A B2B customer journey map outlines the stages and interactions a business customer experiences when engaging with a brand, from initial awareness to renewal. It highlights key touchpoints and the roles of various decision-makers involved in the purchasing process. Comprehending this journey is essential for identifying customer needs and pain points, which can guide organizations in crafting customized strategies. As you explore this topic further, consider how effectively mapping these journeys can drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. Key Takeaways A B2B customer journey map visualizes the stages and touchpoints in a customer’s interaction with a brand, enhancing understanding of their experience. It identifies pivotal moments that influence customer satisfaction and retention throughout the awareness, research, and decision-making stages. By recognizing touchpoints and pain points, businesses can streamline processes and foster stronger relationships with multiple decision-makers involved. Emotional engagement and personalized communication during the journey can significantly boost customer loyalty and retention rates. Continuous evaluation of the customer journey using data and feedback helps optimize strategies, improving overall customer experience and satisfaction. Understanding the B2B Customer Journey Grasping the B2B customer path is essential for any business aiming to succeed in today’s competitive market. The B2B customer experience consists of various stages, including awareness, research, decision-making, onboarding, usage, support, and renewal. Each of these stages involves specific touchpoints where customers interact with your brand. Recognizing these B2B customer experience stages helps you identify the pivotal moments that notably impact satisfaction and retention. Furthermore, effective B2B buyer experience mapping allows you to tailor your messaging and strategies to the needs of different stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. By analyzing touchpoints, you can address customer pain points, ensuring a cohesive experience that meets their nuanced needs, eventually driving long-term success. Key Stages of the B2B Customer Journey In the B2B customer progression, the awareness stage is vital as it marks the point where potential customers recognize their problems and start looking for solutions. You’ll often rely on content marketing and thought leadership to attract attention during this phase, guiding prospects toward your offerings. Once they move into the conversion stage, comprehending the dynamics of their decision-making process becomes fundamental, as it involves evaluating options and making commitments based on various factors, including product features and vendor reputation. Awareness Stage Insights What does it take to effectively engage potential customers during the awareness stage of the B2B customer experience? In this initial phase of the B2B customer progression, buyers identify their problems and start searching for solutions. Since research indicates that buyers spend merely 17% of their time interacting with vendors, it’s essential to provide quality content that helps them understand their needs and available options. You need to guarantee your presence across multiple channels to capture their attention, whether through blogs, social media, or informative webinars. This approach not only addresses their pain points but additionally builds brand recognition, setting a strong foundation for the next steps in the b2b marketing customer progression and b2b digital customer progression. Conversion Process Dynamics As potential customers move from the awareness stage to the conversion process, they enter a critical phase where the decision-making becomes paramount. During this stage of the B2B customer experience map, buyers assess options, negotiate terms, and require clear communication. They often spend a limited amount of time interacting directly with companies, therefore necessitating efficient engagement strategies. In the context of a B2B ecommerce customer experience or a B2B SaaS customer experience, it’s essential to provide customized solutions that address specific pain points. As you guide prospects through this process, focus on delivering thorough information and quality content that resonates with their needs. Continuous optimization of this stage will improve customer satisfaction and drive repeat business, eventually leading to loyalty and advocacy. The Role of Multiple Decision-Makers Maneuvering the B2B customer pathway can be particularly challenging due to the involvement of multiple decision-makers, typically ranging from six to ten individuals, each bringing unique perspectives and requirements to the purchasing process. You need to tailor your communication strategies to address the distinct motivations and pain points of each stakeholder. Research shows that buyers spend only 17% of their time interacting directly with vendors, making it vital to create effective engagement strategies that resonate with various decision-makers. Decision-Maker Role Key Focus Area Budget Holder Cost-effectiveness Technical Buyer Product specifications End User Usability and support Executive Sponsor Strategic alignment Understanding these dynamics is important for optimizing your B2B SaaS customer experience map. Importance of Customer Journey Mapping Mapping the customer experience is essential for enhancing your engagement strategies and identifying pain points that might hinder the buying process. By visualizing each stage and touchpoint, you can pinpoint where customers face challenges, allowing you to address these issues proactively. This approach not just streamlines the customer experience but additionally nurtures stronger relationships and improves overall satisfaction. Enhancing Engagement Strategies Comprehending the significance of customer pathway mapping is vital for improving engagement strategies in B2B environments. A well-structured B2B customer pathway map visualizes touchpoints, allowing you to identify gaps in engagement. By grasping the nonlinear nature of these pathways, you can tailor communication to meet the needs of various stakeholders involved in decision-making. Mapping additionally highlights friction points that hinder customer interaction, enabling targeted solutions to improve overall satisfaction. Implementing feedback mechanisms within your pathway map allows for continuous adaptation based on real-time customer insights. In the end, these improved engagement strategies lead to increased customer loyalty and retention, driving long-term success for your business. Prioritizing effective pathway mapping is important for optimizing customer experiences and nurturing lasting relationships. Identifying Pain Points Identifying pain points within the B2B customer progression is essential for enhancing overall customer satisfaction and driving business success. Customer experience mapping visualizes the entire process, helping you pinpoint specific areas where customers face obstacles or dissatisfaction. By analyzing interactions at various touchpoints, you can uncover friction points that hinder conversions and reduce overall satisfaction. Research shows that addressing these pain points can boost retention rates by up to 5%, greatly impacting your revenue. Continuous feedback collection allows for real-time adjustments, enabling you to proactively resolve issues before they escalate. Implementing a structured approach to mapping improves communication among teams, ensuring all departments are aligned in addressing pain points and enhancing the customer experience effectively. Identifying Touchpoints in the B2B Journey In the B2B customer experience, touchpoints represent vital interactions that occur throughout various stages, including awareness, consideration, conversion, service, and advocacy. Identifying these touchpoints is important for addressing the diverse needs of multiple decision-makers involved in the purchasing process. Each touchpoint, whether digital or analog, greatly influences customer perceptions and decisions. Consider focusing on these key touchpoints: Website Visits: Engaging content can attract potential buyers during the awareness stage. Social Media Interactions: Posts and responses can improve brand visibility and trust. Support Inquiries: Prompt and helpful responses can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty. Analyzing Customer Pain Points As you navigate the B2B customer path, recognizing and analyzing customer pain points becomes crucial for enhancing the overall experience. Research shows that 70% of B2B buyers encounter obstacles during their purchasing process, often because of unclear information or complex website navigation. By identifying these pain points—like long sales response times and difficulty finding relevant product details—you can implement targeted improvements that streamline the customer experience. Addressing pain points at each stage, from awareness to post-purchase, cultivates stronger relationships and boosts customer loyalty. Continuous monitoring of customer feedback and analytics enables you to adapt your strategies, effectively mitigating these issues and ensuring a smoother process for your customers, eventually leading to greater satisfaction and retention. The Impact of Emotional Engagement Emotional engagement plays a vital role in shaping your interactions with customers throughout the B2B process. By ensuring that touchpoints resonate emotionally, you can nurture relationships effectively even after the purchase, leading to greater customer loyalty. Furthermore, anticipating customer needs and providing customized solutions improves satisfaction, eventually driving retention and encouraging repeat business. Emotional Resonance in Touchpoints Comprehending the emotional resonance at various touchpoints throughout the B2B customer experience can greatly impact purchasing decisions, shaping how customers perceive their interactions with your brand. Emotional engagement plays a crucial role in customer loyalty and retention, as studies show: Positive emotional responses can lead to increased loyalty, making emotionally connected customers more than twice as valuable as satisfied ones. Personalized communication and supportive customer service can reduce churn rates by up to 30%, emphasizing the need for emotional touchpoints. Businesses prioritizing emotional resonance often see a 23% increase in sales, demonstrating the direct impact of emotional engagement on revenue growth. Nurturing Relationships Post-Purchase Nurturing relationships post-purchase is crucial for maintaining customer loyalty and maximizing the lifetime value of each client. Retaining an existing customer is five times cheaper than acquiring a new one, making continued engagement critical. Emotional connections markedly improve loyalty; 70% of customers are more likely to stay devoted to brands that understand and value them. Personalized post-purchase communication, such as customized follow-ups and support, can boost satisfaction by up to 30%. Implementing feedback mechanisms like surveys can improve emotional engagement, increasing retention rates by 14%. Furthermore, building a community around your product, such as user groups or forums, cultivates connections, leading to a 25% increase in advocacy and referrals among engaged customers. Anticipating Needs and Solutions Comprehending the needs of B2B customers at various stages of their process is vital for enhancing emotional engagement and making informed decisions. By effectively anticipating these needs, you can build stronger connections and improve overall satisfaction. Here are three key benefits of emotional engagement in B2B: Increased Loyalty: Emotionally engaged customers are more likely to stay with your brand, nurturing long-term relationships. Higher Conversion Rates: Customized solutions that address specific pain points resonate better with multiple stakeholders, leading to improved sales outcomes. Enhanced Customer Insights: Mapping the experience helps you gather valuable feedback, enabling you to refine your offerings and better meet customer expectations. Strategies for Optimizing the Customer Journey To optimize the B2B customer experience, it’s essential to focus on comprehending your customers’ needs and pain points throughout each stage of their process. Start by implementing a consistent omnichannel experience to guarantee seamless interactions, whether your customers engage via email, chat, or social media. Collecting and analyzing feedback at each stage allows you to adapt strategies effectively, enhancing satisfaction and retention rates. Tailor your approach for each phase; for example, provide personalized content during the awareness stage and targeted follow-ups during advocacy. Regularly monitor key metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV) and conversion rates to refine your strategies. These focused efforts can lead to sustained success and stronger customer loyalty in the competitive B2B environment. Leveraging Data and Analytics As businesses navigate the intricacies of the B2B customer experience, leveraging data and analytics becomes essential for comprehending customer behaviors and preferences. By analyzing this data, you can uncover valuable insights that improve your marketing strategies. Here are three key benefits of leveraging data and analytics: Identify High-Performing Touchpoints: Determine which interactions drive conversions, allowing you to focus your resources where they matter most. Gather Customer Feedback: Use tools like NPS and CSAT to assess satisfaction levels, pinpointing areas needing improvement. Monitor Trends: Continuously analyze experience data to identify shifts in customer expectations, ensuring your strategies remain relevant and effective. Utilizing these insights can lead to improved customer engagement and sustained growth, in the end strengthening your business relationships. Continuous Improvement and Evaluation Continuous improvement of the B2B customer experience map requires a systematic approach to collecting and analyzing customer feedback. Regularly gather insights using key metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to evaluate the path’s effectiveness. Monitoring these metrics helps you identify pain points and stages needing optimization. Tools such as Google Analytics and Hotjar can facilitate ongoing assessments of customer interactions across various touchpoints. By continuously updating your customer path map to reflect current data and trends, you’ll guarantee alignment with evolving customer expectations. This proactive evaluation leads to improved customer retention rates and satisfaction, eventually enhancing the overall effectiveness of your B2B customer path. Case Studies: Successful B2B Journey Maps Successful B2B customer experience maps have proven to be instrumental in driving significant improvements in conversion rates and customer retention across various industries. Here are a few notable case studies: A financial services company saw a 20% increase in conversion rates after identifying friction points in their application process. A technology firm improved demo request rates by 40% through targeted guides based on insights from their customer experience map. An ecommerce company reduced cart abandonment by 20% by enhancing the checkout experience with incentives, following their experience mapping analysis. These examples illustrate how a well-structured customer experience map can pinpoint areas for improvement, leading to measurable gains in performance and customer satisfaction. Future Trends in B2B Customer Journey Mapping The future of B2B customer experience mapping is set to evolve considerably as businesses increasingly leverage advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. You’ll see a rise in personalized and proactive customer experiences through the analysis of complex data sets. As remote work becomes commonplace, enhancing digital touchpoints and omnichannel strategies will be crucial to cater to diverse customer preferences. Real-time customer feedback mechanisms will enable you to adapt strategies quickly and address pain points effectively. Predictive analytics will help forecast customer behavior, tailoring experiences that boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Collaborative mapping techniques will involve multiple stakeholders, ensuring a thorough view of the customer experience and alignment in strategy execution across departments. Frequently Asked Questions What Is a B2B Customer Journey? A B2B customer pathway refers to the entire process a business buyer experiences, starting from awareness of a need through to post-purchase support and renewal. It typically includes stages like awareness, research, decision-making, and onboarding. You engage with various touchpoints, such as product demos and customer support, often involving multiple stakeholders. Comprehending this pathway helps you identify customer pain points and opportunities, eventually driving satisfaction and nurturing long-term relationships. What Is Customer Journey Mapping and Why Is It Important? Customer experience mapping visually represents the interactions between you and your customers throughout their purchasing process. It’s crucial as it helps you understand customer needs and expectations, identifying gaps in their experience. For example, if customers struggle during the decision phase, you can adjust your support accordingly. What Are the 5 A’s of Customer Journey Map? The 5 A’s of a customer experience map are Awareness, Appeal, Ask, Action, and Advocate. In the Awareness stage, customers recognize a need. Next, during Appeal, you engage their interest by showcasing solutions. The Ask phase involves customers seeking further information. Action is when they decide to purchase based on their findings. Finally, in the Advocate stage, satisfied customers share positive experiences, promoting your brand and influencing others. Each stage is essential for effective engagement. How to Create a B2B Customer Journey Map? To create a B2B customer experience path, start by defining your buyer personas, focusing on their demographics and pain points. Identify all customer touchpoints, including online interactions like social media and offline meetings. Structure your map by outlining the stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, service, and advocacy. Regularly analyze customer feedback and key metrics such as Net Promoter Score to identify improvement areas. Update the map continuously to guarantee it reflects current insights and improves customer experiences. Conclusion In conclusion, a B2B customer experience map is crucial for comprehending the complex interactions between your business and its clients. By identifying key stages and touchpoints, you can tailor strategies to meet the needs of multiple decision-makers effectively. Leveraging data allows for continuous improvement, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. As you implement and refine your experience mapping process, you position your organization for strategic growth, ensuring that you remain responsive to the evolving demands of the marketplace. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a B2B Customer Journey Map and Its Importance?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

For many who grew up visiting older relatives during the holidays, memories of childhood Christmas are swathed in a warm glow that feels like the calling card of the season: a combination of colorful bulbs, lit candles, and soft lamplight. In recent years, though, it feels like the holiday season has traded its cozy tones for a much cooler, even sterile color palette. As it turns out, that’s not just a quirk of our rosy collective memory. David Andora, a multidisciplinary creative who’s worked in branding, production design, specialized lighting, and parade events, set out to understand why Christmas looks so different today. He discovered that, with the advent of LED technology, classic holiday lighting has become something of a lost art. “When LED lights started becoming the norm for Christmas lights, which happened quite a while ago, one of the things that was completely missing was that warm, peachy glow that came off of those incandescent painted big bulbs,” Andora says. “Each year I would go to the big box resellers, look at the new Christmas lights, and wonder, ‘Why is no one making these?’” So, he decided to do it himself. Andora’s company, Tru-Tone, caters to a growing audience of customers who want the look of retro Christmas without any of the accompanying fire hazards. The company declined to share exact sales numbers with Fast Company, but it’s seen major demand since its founding in 2020, experiencing growth of about 50% over the past several consecutive years. A 25-light set of Tru-Tone bulbs costs about $65, making them significantly pricier than similar options at big box stores (a 100-count strand at Home Depot that retails for about $50). Tru-Tone’s secret, Andora says, comes down to a fairly simple design trick that pairs modern LED technology with a vintage lighting technique. Why are today’s Christmas lights so bad? During his research process, Andora found that the Christmas light manufacturing process has changed drastically since the mid-20th century. In that era, almost all holiday lights were incandescents, or bulbs that emit light via heat. The actual light source was all one color—a warm white hue—and, to make it colorful, American manufacturers like GE (one of the largest holiday light makers at the time) would add translucent bulbs with color washes on top. This combination created the peachy glow that defines Christmas nostalgia. There was just one major drawback to incandescent Christmas lights: they were hot. Like, really hot. “Your parents were constantly warning you to never leave the tree lit unattended,” Andora says. “If you left the room, the tree had to be turned off because there were all these horror stories of trees burning people’s houses down with these blazingly hot light bulbs.” LED lights began to replace incandescents in the late ‘90s, and manufacturing largely moved overseas to China. Unlike incandescents, almost all LED holiday lights on the market rely on colored LED diodes, rather than color-washed bulbs, to produce their final look. Colors from an LED diode are deeply saturated, “pure” colors emitted from a very narrow spectrum of colored light, whereas white incandescent light filtered through a colorful bulb produces a wider spectrum of light. This difference in the breadth of light spectrum is what makes many LED bulbs appear harsher and more electronic (even if they’re trying to recreate a “warmer” appearance), whereas vintage incandescents have a blurry, glowing look. For Chinese manufacturers, this process makes sense, Andora says. Producing lights that draw their color from the LED itself is much simpler and more cost-effective than the incandescent technique, on top of LEDs being significantly more environmentally friendly. In addition, he says, Chinese manufacturers typically don’t have the same nostalgic associations with peachy tones that American consumers do, meaning that modern LED bulbs are also considered more aesthetically appealing. “The nostalgia for warm-colored Christmas lights is very Western, not part of the region where these lights come from. The factories view the colored-diode lights as easier, less costly, and more beautiful,” Andora says. “Very little development of these products is coming from the U.S. Most of this happens from the factories, and provides a catalog to resellers, also shaping what we see for sale here.” To recreate the vintage Christmas look, he would need to both rethink today’s design process and convince manufacturers to adopt a new process. How Tru-Tone recreated the vintage incandescent look Tru-Tone started as a passion project from a basement in Michigan. Andora spent a year experimenting with his prototype before landing on a final product that he felt looked almost identical to the real thing. To recreate vintage incandescents, Tru-Tone’s products use the same basic process as the original lights. Every light is a warm white LED that’s fitted with a tinted bulb on top to produce the actual color. Inside the bulb, the light itself is created by warm white LED “filaments”—an array of very tiny LED’s used to mimic a tungsten wire filament—which create their warm white color with a color-tuned phosphor coating. Andora says this technique already exists in modern household lighting to produce a warmer effect, but Tru-Tone is the first to bring it to holiday lighting, likely because it adda an extra layer of inefficiency to the manufacturing process. To capture the nostalgic magic of vintage Christmas lights, Andora experimented with theater gels to perfect each bulb’s color wash. He used archival incandescent light samples from a range of periods, dating from the ’50s all the way to the ’90s. Once Andora had an actual product, the real challenge was convincing an overseas manufacturer to sign on. Hiring a manufacturer was made even more complicated by the fact that Andora hand-designs all of Tru-Tone’s packaging (and its delightfully retro website) to resemble vintage advertisements, which, he says, often included font alignment inaccuracies and printing errors that lend them a certain charm. Today, he provides manufactures with a full packet of information—translated to Chinese—explaining Tru-Tone’s premise and assuring bulb manufacturers and packaging printers that the brand’s quirks are intentional. “You see a lot of vintage-style design these days that I joke is ‘Old Navy-style retro,’” Andora says. “It’s really just retro font, and that’s the end of it—the design isn’t as authentic. I think that what makes us special is that I try to really make things feel like you pulled it out of your grandmother’s attic.” The return of a nostalgic Christmas When Tru-Tone launched its first small batch of lights via social media in 2020, they sold out within two weeks. Since then, the brand has been steadily expanding and adding new product lines while navigating the typical growing pains of a new small business. One of the main problems it’s faced, Andora says, is not having enough stock to keep up with demand. While that struggle has diminished as he’s developed some “good relationships” with overseas manufacturing partners over the years, Tru-Tone is still actively sold out of several popular items. In the future, Andora says, he’d love to begin manufacturing in the U.S.—though that’s currently more of a pipe dream than an actionable reality, given the lack of infrastructure for such an undertaking in the states. Andora believes that interest in vintage Christmas aesthetics is currently on the rise—and big box retailers seem to agree. According to a Home Depot spokesperson, demand for nostalgic holiday aesthetics is one of the major trends they’re noticing this year. That’s evident on TikTok, where a search for “vintage Christmas” yields hundreds of aspirational videos, DIY concepts, and nostalgia-core clips. And Pinterest data shows that searches for “nostalgic christmas aesthetic” are up 1,130% this November compared to last November, while “colorful vintage Christmas” and “vintage retro Christmas” are up 1,500% and 100%, respectively. Customers are turning away from the bright white, blue, and millennial grey aesthetics in favor of a classic Christmas, and Tru-Tone is on the leading edge of that shift. “I think that mid-century design, especially related to Christmas, is definitely reaching a peak,” Andora says. “After with the grey and beige interior trend, people are looking for more color in their lives, and the Christmas holiday is the perfect time for people to really want cozy, colorful, comfy vibes.” View the full article

When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built Apple in a garage, the incumbents they were up against were slow-moving hardware companies. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, Barnes & Noble wasn’t pouring billions into machine learning or cloud infrastructure. This doesn’t mean that it was easy for these entrepreneurs to change the face of whole industries. It was not. But it was at least possible. Back then, giants could be out-innovated because they were bureaucratic, cautious, and often blind to the potential of what the upstart start-ups were building. The situation is very different today. The startup landscape has changed radically. Where once it was populated by bootstrapping innovators who hoped to build giants from tiny seeds, today many of the most promising opportunities are gobbled up by firms that can deploy billions of dollars in resources long before they start making revenue. Often, these companies are funded by giants themselves, whether that’s the enormous PE and VC firms that dominate the Silicon Valley landscape or existing tech hyperscalers, who work hard to ensure that their dominance won’t be threatened by some offbeat newcomer. Microsoft, for example, now owns approximately 27% of OpenAI’s newly restructured for-profit entity—a share valued at roughly US$135 billion—after investing some US$13.8 billion across the early life of the AI firm. Amazon, meanwhile, has invested $8 billion into the AI startup Anthropic and supported it with extensive infrastructure-building. Not to be left behind, Alphabet has channeled around $3 billion into Anthropic as well. The established giants are also pouring almost unimaginable resources directly into their own innovation efforts. A 2025 report found that five of the biggest US tech companies—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft—invested $227 billion in R&D in 2024, which is more than the US government’s total non-defense R&D budget; indeed, it is more than the annual R&D investments of most countries. These investments have predictable effects. Over the last decade, the research output of the big tech companies has dramatically outpaced that of other researchers (typically academics at universities). Crucially, from a commercial perspective, this kind of fundamental research leads to patents that can then be monetized. A recent report from the World Intellectual Property Organization found that large corporations dominate patent applications for AI-related applications and techniques. In contrast to previous times, the giant corporations are now also the disruptors—either directly or through their substantial investments in other companies. These giants are doing deep research, filing patents, and pouring resources into new ventures. An entrepreneur today is not competing with a handful of people with big ideas and small resources. In most major markets, tiny startups now have no choice but to get into the ring to duke it out toe-to-toe with an 800-pound gorilla. The game has changed on a fundamental level. Entrepreneurship today The old assumption was that entrepreneurs could out-innovate big companies, using their small size and agility to pivot twice before the traditional lumbering beasts could even begin to turn. But the statistics show that this assumption no longer holds. Entrepreneurs are not able to out-spend, out-compute, or out-research the giants. Yes, a privileged few entrepreneurs—typically those with deep connections in Silicon Valley—can still raise enormous sums and aim to reshape entire industries. But for most founders, that path simply isn’t available. And here’s what often goes unsaid: it doesn’t need to be. You don’t need billions in seed funding or a Rolodex of prominent venture capitalists to build something valuable. What you need is expertise so deep that no one can challenge you. This article is about a different path—one that any entrepreneur can take, whether in tech or far beyond it. The principles here apply to healthcare, construction, professional services, manufacturing, and countless other fields where deep expertise creates real value. The new entrepreneurial opportunity lies not in disrupting entire industries, but in becoming the undisputed authority in a problem space in which your specialized knowledge defines your competitive advantage. This isn’t about slipping under the radar or being too small to notice. It’s about being so specialized—so clearly the expert—that you effectively build a moat around your niche. Here are three things that can help entrepreneurs do just that. Become the domain expert The most reliable path to taking ownership of a market niche is simple: become the domain expert. As an expert, you know the vocabulary, you know which problems are just annoying and which are also important. You know the workarounds people use when traditional systems fail and you know the ways in which those systems normally do fail. As a domain expert, you aren’t selling a vision of the future. You are selling the fact that you have spent years in the trenches and you know things that cannot be learned from market research or Google searches or AI queries. You are selling something that differentiates you from the big corporations that cater to mass audiences—expertise that is both narrow and deep. The kind of expertise that can’t be replicated by a team of generalist engineers, no matter how many resources they throw at the problem. Start Here: Pick one domain you know well and spend a week documenting three problems that matter intensely and that cannot be solved by a generalist solution. Define your specialization ruthlessly Your job isn’t to find the biggest market. It’s to find a market where your expertise gives you an unassailable advantage—one in which even well-funded competitors couldn’t match your depth of understanding. So, instead of “I have a vision for transforming healthcare,” it’s “I spent 10 years as a hospital administrator and I know exactly why the equipment maintenance scheduling system creates safety risks that nobody’s addressing.” Or, instead of “I’m going to disrupt construction,” it’s “I worked on 50 residential job sites and I understand why tool checkout tracking breaks down and costs contractors thousands per project.” A trillion-dollar company is not going to deploy a team of 40 engineers to solve a scheduling quirk faced by 10 mid-sized hospitals. Meta is not spinning up a new product line to solve equipment-tracking failures on residential construction sites. Alphabet isn’t obsessing over the peculiarities of compliance reporting in boutique insurance firms. And even if they did, they couldn’t match the hard-won expertise of someone who has lived these problems for a decade. So you can. Start Here: Write down your idea. Then ask: “Could a well-funded generalist team outcompete me here?” If yes, go deeper into your specialization until the answer is no. Solve the specific problem from end to end Giants build platforms. They build tools. They build solutions designed to work reasonably well for millions of different users with millions of different needs. By necessity, that means they solve problems partially—they will get their many different customers 70% of the way to a solution and then leave them to figure out the final stretch. As the true expert, you can do something they never will: solve the customer’s specific problem from end to end. When you’ve spent years living inside a specific domain, you understand not just the obvious pain points but the second-order complications, the upstream causes, the downstream consequences, the workarounds people have layered on top of broken systems. You see the complete picture. That means you can deliver a complete solution—one that doesn’t require your clients to bridge the gap between what the tool does and what they actually need. That depth commands a premium. Clients aren’t paying for a product that they can use to solve a problem; they are paying you for the solution itself, built by someone who understands their reality. Start Here: Think about the problem you solve. What’s the gap between existing solutions and what your clients actually need? That gap is where your expertise lives—and where your value lies. You can still win You don’t need venture capital connections. You don’t need billions in seed funding. You don’t need to be in tech. What you need is expertise so deep and specialized that you can own the specialized problems the industry giants can’t even see. Instead of trying to disrupt whole industries, the winning move today is to leverage domain expertise so you become the irreplaceable authority in a space so specialized that competition becomes irrelevant. The giants will keep chasing the billion-dollar markets. Let them. Your expertise is your moat and, if you use it correctly, they will never be able to cross it. View the full article