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Amazon posted higher fiscal third quarter profit and sales compared with a year ago, fueled by accelerating growth in its cloud computing business and strong spending by its customers looking for low prices at a time when inflation is resurging. The results, announced Thursday, beat Wall Street expectations. The company’s prominent cloud computing arm also surpassed analysts’ expectations, rising 20%. But Amazon issued a cautious sales outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter. Shares, however, soared nearly 13% in after-hours trading. Analysts are analyzing Amazon’s results, along with other retailers’ earnings performances, to get insight into how shoppers are spending heading into the holiday season and how the online behemoth is managing cost increases from President Donald The President’s tariffs. But Amazon, based in Seattle, is also under pressure to shore up confidence among investors that its computing arm Amazon Web Services is just as powerful as Microsoft’s Azure and Google’s Google Cloud platform. Amazon delivered better-than-expected 20% growth for AWS, following a 17.5% growth in the fiscal second quarter. Andy Jassy, president and CEO of Amazon, noted in a statement that AWS is growing at a pace it hasn’t seen since 2022. Last week Amazon grappled with a massive outage of AWS after a problem disrupted internet use around the world for most of the day, taking down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms. Jassy also noted Amazon is seeing strong momentum and growth across Amazon as artificial intelligence drives “meaningful improvements in every corner of our business.” Jassy also pointed out that in stores, Amazon continues to realize the benefits of innovating in its fulfillment network, and it’s on track to deliver to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever again this year, expand same-day delivery of perishable groceries to over 2,300 communities by end of year, and double the number of rural communities with access to Amazon’s same-day and next-day delivery. Amazon is rapidly automating its warehouses, raising big questions on how many workers it will need in the future. In fact, Amazon announced on Tuesday that it’s cutting about 14,000 corporate jobs as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence and cuts costs elsewhere. Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts were notified Tuesday. Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of about 1.56 million. The cuts amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce. Jassy told analysts that the announcement on job cuts wasn’t “really financially driven and it’s not even really AI driven.” “It’s culture,” he said. “And if you grow as fast as we did for several years, the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.” Late last month, Amazon unveiled a new robotics system — being tested in South Carolina — for its warehouses that coordinates multiple arms to perform picking, stowing, and consolidating tasks simultaneously. This technology effectively collapses three assembly lines into one, the company said. Amazon is also testing an AI agent that helps human managers deploy workers and avoid bottlenecks. The system allows operators to spend less time analyzing dashboards and more time coaching teams, creating safer work environments, the company said. Amazon’s strategies seem to be powering its latest results. Amazon posted net income of $21.12 billion, or $1.95 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That’s up from $15.33 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year ago. Analysts had expected $1.57 per share for the quarter, according to FactSet. Amazon’s sales rose to $180.2 billion, up from $158.88 billion in the year ago period. Analysts had expected $177.91 billion, according to FactSet. The number of items that Amazon sold in the latest period increased 11%, the company said. In late July, Jassy touted its more than 2 million sellers in its third-party marketplace, all with different strategies of whether to pass on higher costs to shoppers. He also told analysts that it hadn’t seen “diminishing demand nor prices meaningful appreciating.” Amazon said it expects sales for the fiscal fourth quarter to be in the range of $206 billion to $213 billion. —Anne D’Innocenzio, AP Business Writer View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Prioritizing your to-do list is key to getting everything done. You need to make sure you’re allocating enough time to the difficult and important tasks but saving space for the little ones, too, all while not designating too much time, either. Try the ABC method for categorizing your responsibilities for the day. It's simple to implement and will help you make sense of your to-do lists. What is the ABC method?Categorizing your tasks by need, timeline, and time necessary for completion is important, which is why some people use the Eisenhower matrix and others overload their Google Calendars. These are great methods, but you need to find the right one for you and the work you do. One of the simplest methods you can try was devised by Alan Lakein, an author known for his classic time management books, like How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. He suggested assigning priority status in terms of “A,” “B,” and “C” to everything you have to do, with those letters reflecting a hierarchy of importance: “A” items are “must-do” tasks that are important or critical and have close deadlines. “B” tasks are “should-do,” meaning they have a medium level of priority, will be important over time, but don’t have a looming deadline. You should still prioritize them to an extent, since they can evolve into "A" tasks if left unchecked. “C” is for anything that is currently low priority, either because it has few immediate consequences or no near deadline. Determining what is important to do right now and what can wait will help you feel less overwhelmed and figure out what to get cracking on, so you waste less time deliberating about where to even start. How to incorporate this method into your work dayGo through your entire to-do list and start ranking every task as A-, B-, or C-level. Then figure out what you’re going to do with them. I recommend a method like the 3-3-3 technique, which involves three hours of deep work on a big project (one of your A tasks), the completion of three mid-level projects (there are your Bs), and some time left over for the little tasks (your C items). You can also designate full days to certain tasks, especially if your A duties are really demanding. Theming your days helps you stay on-task for hours without worrying about other, less important responsibilities, so consider devoting an entire workday to your A work, the next day to B, and the day after that to C. Just remember to re-evaluate your lettering system every morning or so, since even C-level projects can suddenly turn into ones with A-level urgency. View the full article

FAQ schema is no longer a quick SEO win. In August 2023, Google reduced the visibility of FAQ rich results in search, restricting them to authoritative government and health websites. The update effectively rendered the tactic useless for marketers who once relied on it to expand their SERP real estate. Google also clarified that FAQPage markup should never be used for advertising or promotional purposes. It belongs only on genuine FAQ pages created to answer user questions. For years, many SEOs – including myself – added structured FAQ data to marketing pages as a best practice. It’s time to rethink that habit. Google’s shifting guidance isn’t new. Once-popular tactics, such as directory submissions, were also encouraged but later abandoned. FAQ schema is simply the latest reminder that even trusted SEO strategies can turn obsolete overnight. Finding your stride in the AI-driven FAQ era SEO often feels like running a race where the course keeps changing. Just as marketers adapted to the loss of FAQ rich results, AI is reshaping how questions and answers surface in search. The “add FAQs everywhere” era is over, but the Q&A format still matters – especially as AI-driven search begins to rely on structured, factual answers. Large language models rely on clear, structured information to generate responses. If your site isn’t providing direct, factual answers to user questions, you risk being invisible in AI-powered search results. The challenge is knowing where FAQ content still fits – and how to structure it for both people and machines. Keep marketing FAQs on the page for users, not for markup Add Q&A content to product, service, or category pages to: Address buyer objections. Explain features. Handle “what if” scenarios. Don’t apply FAQPage schema unless the page exists primarily to answer questions. This keeps you compliant with Google’s rules while ensuring your content remains structured and readable for LLMs. Build genuine FAQ hubs If you want to use FAQPage schema, create dedicated FAQ pages built around a single topic or high-intent theme. Each page should present a complete list of questions and answers in full text. This format helps LLMs map questions to authoritative responses and improves your chances of being cited in AI-driven search results. Dig deeper: How to create a helpful FAQ page (with 7 examples) Write answers for both people and machines Craft responses that are concise, factual, and written in natural language. Avoid filler or purely promotional copy. AI models perform best with content that reflects genuine expertise – direct, clear, and rich with relevant entities, facts, and relationships that reinforce topical authority. Avoid promotional or advertising language in answers Google explicitly warns against using FAQ markup for advertising. Even without schema, avoid turning answers into sales pitches. Focus on user value first, and let internal links or calls to action guide readers toward conversion naturally. Follow the ‘single answer per question’ rule Only apply FAQPage markup when one definitive, non-user-generated answer exists. If multiple perspectives are valid, use a QAPage or a long-form article with subheadings instead. Monitor performance across both search and AI surfaces Validate your markup with Google’s Rich Results Test, track visibility in Search Console, and monitor how your FAQs appear in AI search tools like Gemini, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT. Even if FAQ schema no longer drives rich snippets, well-structured Q&A content remains key to helping AI systems retrieve your brand’s answers in response to user queries. Dig deeper: How to create content that works for search and generative engines Where to use FAQ schema – and where to skip it Need a clear view of where FAQs belong, how they should be marked up, and when to leave the schema out entirely? The right placement ensures your content complies with Google’s rules while also optimizing it for visibility in both traditional search and AI-driven results. This framework outlines when to apply a schema, when to omit it, and how to strike a balance between user experience and technical accuracy. Use CasePurposeFAQ PlacementSchema UsageBest forDedicated FAQ HubProvide authoritative answers on a single topicStandalone FAQ page with all Q&As visible FAQPage schemaRich results (if eligible), LLM retrieval, evergreen referenceMarketing / Product PagesAddress buyer questions and objectionsEmbedded Q&A sections within product, service, or category pages No FAQPage schema (unless page is primarily a FAQ)On-page conversions, LLM retrieval, featured snippet potentialKnowledge Base / Support DocsAnswer technical or procedural questionsArticle or help doc with clearly defined Q&A FAQPage schema if page is entirely FAQ formatLLM retrieval, voice assistant queries, customer self-serviceAI-First Content DesignOptimize for generative AI inclusionQ&A woven into structured, topical content FAQPage schema if eligible and page meets guidelinesGemini, Bing Copilot, ChatGPT responsesPromotional ContentDrive sales or leadsLanding pages, campaign pages Never use FAQPage schemaSales-driven CTAs, brand awareness : Safe to use FAQPage schema under Google’s current rules. : Use Q&A format for user value, but do not apply schema to avoid violating guidelines. LLM retrieval: Content designed so that LLMs can easily identify and extract answers for AI-powered search responses. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. FAQ page wins and opportunities The most effective FAQ pages share two traits: They genuinely answer user questions. They present those answers in a clear, accessible format that search engines can easily interpret. Below are examples of pages that use FAQPage schema correctly to enhance visibility – and others that could benefit from adding it in a compliant way. Best-in-class FAQ pages with effective schema These examples follow Google’s guidelines by ensuring that FAQs are user-facing, non-promotional, and structured around genuine questions and answers. Vashon-Maury.com FAQ: Locally oriented FAQs with clear, visible answers and a dedicated page structure. Doctors Without Borders FAQ: Organized around the organization’s mission and operations, providing factual, non-promotional answers about humanitarian work, donations, and field logistics. Apple Podcasts FAQ NYC: Niche but focused, serving a specific audience with concise answers and clear navigation to related content. GitHub FAQ: Developed in 2020 from “People Also Ask” queries, this page addresses real user questions in plain language, improving both UX and search intent alignment. (Disclosure: I previously worked for GitHub.) These examples demonstrate that a strong FAQ page is not solely about markup. It’s about building a genuine information resource. Schema should enhance an already solid foundation, not compensate for content that exists primarily to promote a product or service. FAQ pages missing out on the benefits of schema Many FAQ pages already meet Google’s guidelines and provide genuine user value but miss out on additional visibility because they don’t use structured data. The following examples show how adding FAQPage schema – where eligible – can enhance both search visibility and AI performance. Website and pageCurrent state (No structured data)Potential with FAQPage schemaAmerican College of Surgeons Surgery FAQClear, patient-focused Q&A; authoritative health contentEligible for rich results under Google’s health guidelines; answers could appear directly in search and AI summaries for medical queries.California Student Aid Commission FAQSingle-answer financial aid Q&As; state government siteEligible for government rich results; schema could help surface answers for student financial aid questions in SERPs and LLMs.CMS Medicare FAQGovernment-run health FAQ; authoritative sourceFully eligible for health/government FAQ rich results; high potential for PAA inclusion and AI search visibility.Medicaid.gov FAQAuthoritative government health FAQsEligible for rich results; could increase visibility for Medicaid-related queries and improve AI answer sourcing. From markup to meaning: The real SEO value of FAQs The SEO strategies that worked yesterday may be restricted or retired tomorrow – and FAQ schema is only the latest example. The goal now is to adapt with intention: know when to apply structure, when to simplify, and when to shift your approach entirely. By creating FAQ content that serves users first, aligns with Google’s guidelines, and remains structured enough for both traditional search and AI-driven systems, you’ll stay visible no matter how the landscape evolves. Remember to: Treat FAQ markup as a targeted tool, not a blanket tactic. Use FAQPage schema only on genuine FAQ pages that meet Google’s eligibility criteria. Keep marketing-page FAQs for user value and AI visibility, but without schema. Write concise, factual answers that serve both people and LLMs. Monitor results in Search Console and AI platforms, and adjust as needed. SEO success comes from timing, precision, and adaptability – knowing when to build momentum, when to pause, and when to change direction entirely. View the full article

A deadly outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to prepared pasta meals is continuing to spread across the United States. Since September 25, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified three new states with infections, bringing the total number to 18 states. The agencies first reported food recalls associated with the outbreak in June. In the last month, seven new cases have been identified, alongside six new hospitalizations. That brings their respective totals to 27 cases and 25 hospitalizations since the outbreak began. Two more deaths have also been reported, with six deaths recorded in total. There is also one reported instance of fetal loss during a pregnancy-associated illness. Where has the Listeria outbreak spread? The outbreak is widespread, with states largely reporting infections in the West, Southeast, and Midwest regions. The CDC has produced a map of where Listeria cases have occurred. Below is a full list of all impacted states: California Florida Hawaii Illinois Indiana Louisiana Michigan Minnesota Missouri North Carolina Nevada Ohio Oregon South Carolina Texas Utah Virginia Washington Which products have been impacted? At least nine different prepared meal products have been recalled in the wake of this outbreak, with major retailers such as Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and Albertsons being among those that have recalled products. Used-by dates on recalled products now extend to as recent as this week. The FDA has a full list of impacted products along with product images on its website. What Listeria symptoms should I look out for? The outbreak was first discovered in August 2024, but the number of new cases reported as part of the outbreak has increased over the last several weeks, according to a timeline on the CDC website. According to the FDA, a person who becomes infected by Listeria-contaminated food will normally begin exhibiting symptoms within two weeks. However, signs can appear up to 10 weeks later. Mild symptoms of a Listeria infection, known as listeriosis, include: Fever Muscle aches Nausea Tiredness Vomiting A severe form of listeriosis can bring symptoms such as: Confusion Convulsions Headache Loss of balance Stiff neck Individuals who are pregnant, 65 and older, or have weakened immune systems are at greater risk. The CDC directs people to call a healthcare provider immediately if you experience any of the above symptoms after consuming affected foods. Beyond not eating any of the recalled foods you might have purchased, the CDC also says to clean anything that might have touched these foods. These areas could be in the refrigerator, containers, or surfaces. Listeria can live in a fridge and “easily spread to other foods or surfaces.” What else is there to know? The investigation is ongoing, so it’s possible that more products will be added to the listeria recall. Watch the FDA’s and CDC’s dedicated pages for any updates. View the full article

Think about the last time you made a purchase using your phone. Maybe you were at a coffee shop and when your turn came, you opened your payment app, tapped your phone on the payment device, grabbed your cappuccino, and were done. Quick and easy. Maybe too quick and easy. Did the coffee shop miss a chance to engage with you? Did Mastercard miss an opportunity to show how their brand made this “priceless” moment possible? Did you miss an opportunity to teach your 8-year-old daughter a lesson on the value of money? As business leaders in an increasingly digital landscape, we’ve learned to treat “friction” as a dirty word. “Remove friction at all costs” is the rallying cry of every customer experience and user experience design team. But what have we lost in the quest to reduce cart abandonments or boost transaction speed? By putting speed and efficiency above all else, are we missing opportunities to build connections between consumers and brands—and perhaps each other? Have we lost the space to reflect on the quality of a product, or the substance of an experience? Are we unable to take a moment to think about a choice we just made and wonder whether there are better ones? Not all friction is bad Friction, in any of its many forms, can be a positive force—for teaching, adding value, creating deeper engagement, and fostering human connection. A process that’s too quick and simple may not offer enough choice, lead to poorly informed decisions, or might even erode trust. An experience with the right kind of friction in the right amount can prove more valuable in the long run. There’s a well-known behavioral science principle commonly known as the IKEA effect. Referencing the global home furnishings giant, it refers to a phenomenon where consumers place more value on an item they’ve invested time and energy in creating, which is why you refuse to throw away that $30 bookshelf you spent four hours putting together for your first apartment. The experience of building IKEA furniture is a form of friction that fosters ownership and personal value, even if the intrinsic value of the item is low. To be fair, our obsession with frictionless experiences stems from a legitimate fear: In a world of infinite choice, a single moment of frustration can send a customer to a competitor. But this relentless pursuit of speed and simplicity often results in a sort of non-experience, a homogeneous market where every brand looks and feels the same. The challenge is to find the right places to re-introduce friction, slowing the process to build and differentiate your brand, deepen customer relationships, or drive sales. You can start by dissecting your customer experiences and looking for three types of friction: imagined, demanded and created. 1. Imagined friction In our push towards a frictionless world, many customer experience designers have removed frictions that were never really customer challenges. QR codes were introduced as a means of contactless ordering at restaurants during the pandemic and many still remain in use. The ongoing justification is that it saves costs, allows for changes, and reduces staffing requirements. While these might all be true, it’s no longer a customer need, or a friction point in restaurant dining experiences. In reality, restaurant orders tend to be larger with physical menus because it allows for collaborative viewing and discussion between diners and provides servers an opportunity to upsell and encourage more human interaction between staff and guests. QR codes, on the other hand, only solve an imaginary friction, and have arguably made the restaurant experience poorer. 2. Demanded friction Almost every hotel chain has introduced digital, keyless check-in that can be done from your phone prior to your arrival at the property. At the same time, most hotel chains will acknowledge that the adoption of these technologies has been underwhelming. Most guests prefer to wait in line to check in, wanting to make eye contact with a hotel employee, announcing their arrival to a human, and perhaps chatting their way to a room with a view. The friction of a human interaction adds a degree of value, comfort, and reassurance. Brands should examine their customer journeys to discover points where efficiency and digitization remove essential customer connection points, including connection points customers actually demand—even if it means waiting in line after a six-hour flight! 3. Created friction IKEA isn’t the only brand creating friction to their benefit. With more than 1,000 stores, TJ Maxx is one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. It employs what it calls a “treasure hunt” strategy, making shoppers rifle through an enormous selection of roughly organized goods to find bargains. The assortment constantly changes, and categories are merely notions: You’re very likely to find a soup ladle next to a decorative candle. But their loyalists, affectionately called Maxxinistas, fight through the friction to discover a hidden “haul.” Reintroducing the right kind of friction There are different kinds of friction: cognitive, emotional, and interactive. In our rush to make everything effortlessly interactive, we’ve brushed over the cognitive and emotional—the human—aspects of friction. But research shows that customers are drawn to brands that align with their identity and values, not just those that offer the quickest transaction. By viewing friction not as a flaw but as a feature—or as a moment to be human—brands can design experiences that are more intentional, more aligned to need and, ultimately, more valuable. While no one would make the argument that the consumer experience world should make things slower, more difficult, or more inefficient, no one would suggest we design things to be less human. The trick is, and will be, to balance an increasingly digitized world with more humanity by creating more opportunities for attention, engagement, and connection. Oscar Yuan is chief strategy + growth officer at Material. View the full article

Professionals can find fresh opportunities for meaningful networking across these eight alternative platforms to LinkedIn. The post 8 LinkedIn Alternatives For Professional Networking appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Leading AI chatbot platform Character.ai announced yesterday that it will no longer allow anyone under 18 to have open-ended conversations with its chatbots. Character.ai's parent company, Character Technologies, said the ban will go into effect by Nov. 25, and in the meantime, it will impose time limits on children and "transition younger users to alternative creative features such as video, story, and stream creation with AI characters." In a statement posted online, Character Technologies said it was making the change "in light of the evolving landscape around AI and teens," which seems like a nice way of saying "because of the lawsuits." Character Technologies was recently sued by a mother in Florida and by families in Colorado and New York, who claim their children either died by suicide or attempted suicide after interacting with the company’s chatbots. These lawsuits aren't isolated—they are part of a growing concern over how AI chatbots interact with minors. A damning report about Character.ai released in September from online safety advocates Parents Together Action detailed troubling chatbot interactions like Rey from Star Wars giving a 13-year-old advice on how to hide not taking her prescribed anti-depressants from her parents, and a Patrick Mahomes bot offering a 15-year-old a cannabis edible. Character Technologies also announced it is releasing new age verification tools and plans to establish an "AI Safety Lab," which it described as "an independent non-profit dedicated to innovating safety alignment for next-generation AI entertainment features." Character AI boasts over 20 million monthly users as of early 2025, and the majority of them self-report as being between 18 and 24, with only 10% of users self-reporting their age as under 18. The future of age-restricted AIAs Character Technologies suggests in its statement, the company's new guidelines put it ahead of the curve of AI companies when it comes to restrictions for minors. Meta, for instance, recently added parental controls for its chatbots, but stopped short of banning minors from using them totally. Other AI companies are likely to implement similar guidelines in the future, one way or the other: A California law that goes into effect in 2026 requires AI chatbots to prevent children from accessing explicit sexual content and interactions that could encourage self-harm or violence and to have protocols that detect suicidal ideation and provide referrals to crisis services. View the full article

We don’t talk enough about what doesn’t scale. Which is ironic, because we talk about scale constantly. Scale is the shorthand for success in just about every industry. If it can’t scale, is it even worth doing? That’s the kind of thinking that floods strategy decks, venture capitalist meetings, and quarterly reviews. But here’s the question I keep circling back to: Can it still matter if it doesn’t scale? Because I’ve seen real impact in spaces where scale wasn’t the point. And frankly, it wasn’t even possible. THE MYTH OF “MASS = MEANING” There’s a quiet arrogance baked into how we treat scale, as if the size of a thing is what determines its significance. But some of the most meaningful changes happen in small rooms, not big stages. Think about financial education programs in rural communities. Or credit-building initiatives that are culturally tailored for a single neighborhood. They’re unpolished, localized, hard to replicate…and deeply effective. Yet because they don’t lend themselves to scale, they’re often dismissed or deprioritized. Scaling can absolutely expand access. But we shouldn’t mistake repeatability for revolution. WHAT’S LOST IN THE RUSH? Here’s what often gets left behind when scale becomes the headline: Nuance. What works in Memphis might not work in Minneapolis. Relevance. One-size-fits-all is rarely true in communities that have historically been overlooked or underserved. Feedback loops. When you scale too quickly, you lose the intimacy that invites honest feedback and real-time course correction. When we chase scale at all costs, we sometimes lose the very texture that made the original idea impactful. Small, sharp, and mighty. THERE’S POWER IN THE PILOT I’ve watched high-touch, hyper-relevant initiatives change the trajectory of communities—initiatives that no one would label “scalable.” The FICO Educational Analytics Challenge is a great example. It started with a small set of universities, giving students hands-on exposure to real-world AI and data science problems. The goal wasn’t to reach millions overnight. It was to invest deeply in students who otherwise might never get that kind of access. The early results were powerful. Students walked away with skills that shifted their career aspirations. One university even added a data science minor after participating. Those are outcomes that don’t need millions of participants to matter. Sometimes, small is the strategy. Sometimes, we need depth before breadth. WHEN SCALE IS THE LEVER That said, scale still has its place. Especially when the problem is systemic. Programs like the Educational Analytics Challenge are now growing toward a repeatable framework that more schools can adopt, while keeping the student voice at the center. The lesson? Scale works when it builds from authenticity, not when it erases it. The key is not to romanticize smallness or villainize growth. It’s to stay honest about what kind of impact we’re after, and whether our obsession with scale is helping or hurting that mission. WHAT IF WE MADE ROOM FOR BOTH? What if our strategies had space for pilots that weren’t polished, partnerships that were scrappy, and impact that wasn’t measured solely by reach? What if we treated scale as a choice, not a default? And what if we stopped asking “Will it scale?” as the first question, and started asking, “Will it matter?” That’s the kind of question worth building around. Rukiya Kelly is head of corporate impact and engagement at FICO. View the full article

As of yesterday’s market close, Netflix is the only Big Tech company whose stock is trading at four figures, but that will soon change. The TV streaming giant, whose shares closed at $1,089 on Thursday, has announced that it will initiate a stock split next month. That will send the stock’s price per share much lower, though it will not change the company’s fundamental value. Here’s what you need to know about Netflix’s upcoming stock split. What’s a stock split? A stock split is when a company decides to divide the number of its existing shares in order to create new ones—hence the term “split” the shares. A stock can split by any factor a company wants. For example, in a 2-for-1 stock split, for every one share of the stock presplit, there will be two shares post-split. Or in a 100-to-1 stock split, for every one share presplit, there would be 99 additional shares post-split. However, because new shares are being created in a stock split, the value of the stock is diluted by an amount commensurate with the split. Take a 100-to-1 stock split of the imaginary Company XYZ. If the share price of Company XYZ was $1,000 before the split, its new share price would be $10 after the split ($1000/100). Yet even though Company XYZ’s stock price is now 100 times cheaper, the company itself isn’t worth less. A company’s value—its market cap—is determined by adding up the total value of all its shares. How much is Netflix splitting the stock by? Netflix has said that it will split its shares by a ratio of 10-to-1 next month. This means that for every one share of Netflix stock (Nasdaq: NFLX) that exists today, there will be another nine NFLX shares in existence after the split. Netflix is by far the only major company to split its stock in recent years. In 2024, Walmart split its stock 3-to-1. In 2022, Amazon split its stock 20-to-1 and Tesla split its stock 3-to-1. And in 2020, Apple split its stock 4-to-1. More recently, this week, there have been rumors that Palantir Technologies may soon split its stock. When do Netflix’s shares split? There are several dates to keep in mind when it comes to Netflix’s upcoming stock split. The most important day is Monday, November 17, 2025. This is when NFLX shares will begin trading at their new post-split price on the Nasdaq. On this day, there will be 10 times more NFLX shares in existence than there are today. Another important date is Friday, November 14, 2025. This is the day that each shareholder of record will receive nine additional shares for every one share of Netflix they own as of the “record date.” They will receive these additional nine shares after the markets close on November 14. The final date to remember is Monday, November 10, 2025. This is the “record date.” Only shareholders who own NFLX shares after market close on this date will receive nine additional shares on November 14 for every one they own after market close on the 10th. What does this mean for investors and Netflix’s share price? Netflix’s 10-for-1 stock split means that, come Monday, November 17, NFLX shares will trade at 10 times less than their closing price on Friday, November 14. However, as explained above, this does not mean that Netflix will be worth 10 times less, because there will also be 10 times as many shares in existence. This also does not mean investors of record will see the total value of their NFLX shares decrease. Though the individual share price will be 10 times lower, investors of record will also have 10 times the number of shares that they previously did. So why is Netflix splitting its stock then? Stock splits have no effect on the fundamental finances or valuation of a company. But stock splits can have a powerful psychological effect on investors, particularly retail investors. Big institutional investors, like investment banks and hedge funds, buy stocks in dollar amounts—$5 million or $100 million worth of shares in a single company at a time, for example. But retail investors often buy shares based on the stock’s individual share price. And a single share priced at more than $1,000 often puts that stock out of reach for retail investors, who may just have a few hundred dollars to invest each month. By artificially lowering its stock price through a stock split, a company can make its shares more attractive and accessible to retail investors, which could actually help drive up the share price as more people buy into the stock at its lower price. But making a stock more attractive to retail investors isn’t the only reason why companies split their stocks. Another reason is to make the company’s shares more accessible to its employees, who can often buy shares via an employee stock purchase program. If a company’s stock price is too high, employees may not even be able to afford one share per month. A lower share price can make it so that more employees can buy into the company. Indeed, the employee factor is the main reason Netflix cited for its stock split. “The purpose of the stock split is to reset the market price of the Company’s common stock to a range that will be more accessible to employees who participate in the Company’s stock option program,” the company said when announcing the split on October 30. View the full article

Our financial system still treats teens like little kids who need to wait their turn. Meanwhile, by the time most Americans turn 13, they have a smartphone in their pocket and are actively participating in the economy. Teens are transacting regularly, and many are earning through digital channels, running online businesses, or pursuing a passion project. There’s a better way. SUPERVISION AND A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT We need to give teens supervised access to financial tools earlier in their lives. Let them learn financial responsibility through real experience. Help them build smart money habits in a controlled environment. By the time they hit 18, every teen should have the financial knowledge—and the confidence—to manage their money independently. Locking them out until adulthood is an outdated approach that’s damaging the financial health of the U.S. consumer. On the flip side, granting full access to everyone turning 18 despite a lack of any meaningful financial experience is like handing someone keys to a car on their birthday without letting them practice driving. It’s dangerous. It means a steeper learning curve, higher stakes, and tons of missed learning opportunities. That’s what we’re doing with money. Keeping teens sidelined doesn’t just hold them back. It hurts the economy and undermines future growth. The rules of money were written for the few, not the many. Those with access build wealth and opportunity—like teens who get a debit card early—learn to budget with guidance, and even get a chance to build credit before college. By 18, they’re ready for loans, apartments, and independence. Teens without those luxuries (read: a majority of the young U.S. population), are stuck using cash or borrowed accounts and enter adulthood with less real-world experience managing finances, and fewer options. The result is a system where the financial elite get a head start, and everyone else is forced to improvise with workarounds. THE COST OF WAITING Today’s teens are already an economic force. More than half report earning an income, and they’re not just working traditional jobs. They’re running online businesses, doing creative work, and participating in the gig economy. In fact, two in five teens are earning through digital channels, outpacing those in older cohorts. And they’re completely reshaping what it means to be a consumer in America. Their demand for instant, flexible, digital-first experiences are already changing how businesses operate. Take buy-now-pay-later for example. What started as young people rejecting traditional credit cards has become a market worth hundreds of billions of dollar, with one of our brands, Afterpay, creating an entirely new payment infrastructure around transparency and avoiding debt traps. Over the next decade, teen habits will set the standard for how money is earned, spent, saved, and invested. Ignoring this shift isn’t just overlooking the future—it’s missing what’s happening right now. Instead of creating tools for a massive group of active economic participants, banks and incumbents push teens to borrow their parents’ accounts, deal with cash, or cobble together apps that weren’t designed with them in mind. In a world that’s rapidly going cashless, these workarounds aren’t just inconvenient. They delay financial learning, widen inequality, and leave an entire generation less prepared for adulthood. Let’s fix the problem. ACCESS WITH PROTECTION At Block, we believe providing access and promoting safety are complementary. Through Cash App, we’ve built something different: a platform where teens can fully and responsibly participate in the digital economy while parents maintain oversight and control. With a parent’s or guardian’s sponsorship, teens can send and receive money, save, and even begin learning about investing in stocks and bitcoin. Parents get real-time transaction monitoring, customizable permissions, and a front-row seat as their teen learns responsible financial habits in a controlled environment. And this approach is working. Our data shows that teens are using these tools responsibly, and we’re setting teens up to develop confidence and capability in managing their money, two skills that will serve them throughout their lives. A CALL FOR CHANGE The technology to do this safely exists today, and the research backs it up. What we need now is a fundamental shift in how we think about young people and money. This means: Recognizing teens as active participants in the U.S. economy Building financial tools that balance access with protection Giving parents the right tools to guide their teens’ financial journey When we give teens safe, supervised financial access today, we’re not just preparing them for tomorrow. We’re accelerating the future of our entire economy. Owen Jennings is head of business at Block. View the full article

Every technological revolution has its awkward adolescence. We’re living through AI’s right now. Recent research from Stanford and BetterUp has given this moment a name: “workslop.” It’s the flood of hastily AI-generated content that clogs inboxes, clutters presentations, and quietly erodes productivity. The email that reads like it was written by a committee of robots. The strategy document with oddly formal phrasing and zero original insight. The presentation deck that says nothing new. If this sounds familiar, you’re not imagining it. And if you’re a manager watching your team’s output simultaneously increase in volume and decrease in quality, you’re not alone. But here’s what history teaches us: this phase is predictable, necessary, and temporary. The question isn’t whether we’ll move through it. It’s how quickly we can get to the other side. Why Workslop Happens When personal computers arrived in offices, workers treated them as expensive typewriters. When the internet became ubiquitous, we spent years learning that you can walk 10 feet to talk to someone instead of firing off another email. Each time, we mistook the tool for the solution. We’re making the same mistake with AI. Only faster, and at greater scale. The core problem is one of delegation versus collaboration. AI will deliver increased speed and efficiency, but most organizations have accidentally encouraged their people to treat it as something to offload to rather than something to work with. An associate generates a client memo with Claude and sends it along, complete with the telltale “AI can make mistakes, please double-check” footer still attached. A manager asks ChatGPT to write a strategy document and forwards it without adding context, nuance, or judgment. This isn’t a technology problem. It’s a mindset problem that technology has exposed. When content creation becomes effortless, the cognitive work of thinking deeply becomes optional. And when it becomes optional, people can opt out. What researchers are calling “cognitive atrophy” is really just a gradual disconnection from the thinking process itself. We’re delegating not just the execution, but the strategy. AI will get you 70% of the way there, but someone still needs to own that final 30%, and right now it seems some people are checking out before the finish line. The Way Through The good news? Workslop isn’t a crisis. It’s a phase. Organizations that recognize it as such can compress what might take years into months. Start by redefining what you measure. The drive to do more with less can create pressure to crank out more work in the same time, with AI as the productivity multiplier. But leaders need to resist the assumption that one person plus AI should equal twice the output. If you’re still evaluating employees primarily on volume, you’re incentivizing exactly the behavior you don’t want. Prose and code generation are now commoditized. What matters is the quality of thinking that directs these tools. In your performance management processes, assess people on their judgment, their ability to steer AI effectively, and their capacity to iterate toward genuinely excellent outcomes. Draw bright lines. Leaders need to align on the AI vision, the guardrails, and how they’ll hold people accountable. Establish explicit standards for what constitutes acceptable AI-assisted work. Some organizations are implementing simple rules: AI-generated content must be marked during internal review. Client-facing materials must demonstrate clear human value-add. Any work bearing AI watermarks or disclaimers gets automatically returned. These aren’t punitive measures. They’re cultural signals about what professionalism means in an AI-augmented workplace. Without mutual commitment from leaders to embed these standards, the bright lines blur. Embrace experimentation, but guide it. The workslop phase exists because people need room to learn, and that requires a growth mindset, not a fixed one. Risk aversion kills experimentation. Moving through this phase means reframing failure as data, celebrating what you learn from missteps, and managers modeling vulnerability about their own learning curve. Managers can accelerate this shift by tapping into people’s intrinsic motivation for mastery. But experimentation without feedback loops doesn’t create change. So have forums where teams share what’s working and what isn’t, and celebrate the wins and the learnings of human-AI collaboration. Learn from unexpected sources. Universities faced the workslop crisis before corporations did. Many have developed sophisticated approaches to maintaining rigor while embracing AI tools. They’ve created assignments that inherently require human judgment, implemented systems that flag low-quality automated work, and redesigned evaluation criteria to emphasize critical thinking over production. These aren’t perfect solutions, but they’re battle-tested ones that can translate to corporate contexts. Resist the delegation instinct. The most important cultural shift is also the simplest: don’t treat AI as your copilot. Treat it like a student, and you’re the teacher. This reframes the entire relationship. You’re not handing off work. You’re responsible for what that student produces, which means staying engaged in the iterative process, using tools to enhance rather than replace human judgment, and taking full ownership of outputs regardless of how they were generated. Organizations that successfully embed this mindset move through the workslop phase measurably faster. The upside? New Stanford research tells us that employees trust AI more when they can see it as a collaborator, not a closed system. An Unexpected Opportunity Here’s what makes this moment genuinely unique: the traditional corporate hierarchy of expertise has temporarily inverted. Right now, a brilliant 22-year-old who knows how to work with AI tools can create more value than their manager who doesn’t. This isn’t a threat to experienced leaders. It’s an opportunity. Junior employees have rare insight into what actually works, and smart managers are creating channels for those employees to lead the way forward. You’re not being replaced. You’re being offered a shortcut to expertise that would otherwise take years to develop. The companies that emerge strongest from the workslop phase won’t be those that restricted AI use or pretended the problems didn’t exist. They’ll be the ones that acknowledged the awkwardness, called it out, learned from it quickly, and built cultures where humans and AI genuinely complement each other. Experience shows us that the most critical cultural factors that will shape the success of AI include the degree of autonomy of teams to shape workflows, the measures and controls put in place, and what gets rewarded and recognized. We’re in the messy middle of the AI adoption curve. Workslop is almost certainly happening in your organization right now. The only question is whether you’re managing the transition or hoping it resolves itself. History suggests which approach works better. View the full article

Samsung’s latest innovation, the Galaxy XR, is set to redefine how small businesses leverage technology for enhanced productivity and customer engagement. With an infinite screen that seamlessly integrates virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), this device not only offers a fresh way to interact with applications but also opens the door to immersive experiences that could transform operations. The Galaxy XR features a cutting-edge interface guided by Gemini, an intelligent assistant that allows users to navigate with voice, hand gestures, and eye movement. For small business owners looking to streamline operations and enhance user experiences, this presents a compelling advantage. Key benefits include access to a wealth of applications optimized for XR, alongside existing Android apps. The device supports popular platforms and innovative XR content, enabling businesses to enhance customer interaction, improve training programs, and explore unique marketing strategies. Trending apps such as HBO Max, YouTube, and Google Maps will all be revamped for the XR format. In addition to mainstream options, small businesses can also tap into immersive experiences from brands like Adobe and Calm, which cater to a range of industries, from wellness to entertainment. This variety allows business owners to customize applications that resonate with their target audiences. “On Galaxy XR, Gemini Live can better understand what you’re seeing and doing, making it easier to get the help you need or take action on your behalf across your apps — with just a conversation,” a representative from Samsung noted. This functionality could drastically cut down on the time spent managing routine tasks, allowing owners to focus on strategic initiatives instead. In practical terms, businesses in niches like retail, real estate, and education stand to gain significantly. For retailers, for instance, the XR environment could be used to create virtual storefronts, offering customers immersive shopping experiences from the comfort of their homes. Real estate agents might leverage XR to provide virtual property tours, enhancing the buying experience for clients. Educational institutions could utilize the platform to develop engaging training modules, providing students with firsthand experiences in complex environments. However, venturing into XR technology isn’t without its challenges. Small business owners should consider factors like the initial investment in hardware and software, as well as staff training for effective utilization of these tools. There’s also the need to assess which specific applications will yield the highest ROI. Businesses must weigh the potential benefits against their unique operational needs. Furthermore, as XR technology evolves, staying updated on developments and compatibility issues will be essential. Open standards supported by Android XR, such as OpenXR and Unity, mean that ongoing innovation will be a constant, requiring flexibility from tech-savvy business owners. Moreover, there’s the question of customer acceptance. While the younger demographic typically embraces new technology, older consumers may need more encouragement to engage with immersive experiences. Addressing such hesitations could be crucial in maximizing the XR technology’s value proposition. In summary, the Galaxy XR signifies a leap forward for small business owners who are willing to adopt innovative technology. With its immersive capabilities and versatile applications, it holds promise for elevating customer experience and operational efficiency. As the digital landscape continues to shift, understanding and adapting to these advancements could provide a competitive edge. For more detailed insights, you can read the original press release here. Image via Google This article, "Galaxy XR Unveils Immersive Android XR Experience with Gemini Integration" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Samsung’s latest innovation, the Galaxy XR, is set to redefine how small businesses leverage technology for enhanced productivity and customer engagement. With an infinite screen that seamlessly integrates virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), this device not only offers a fresh way to interact with applications but also opens the door to immersive experiences that could transform operations. The Galaxy XR features a cutting-edge interface guided by Gemini, an intelligent assistant that allows users to navigate with voice, hand gestures, and eye movement. For small business owners looking to streamline operations and enhance user experiences, this presents a compelling advantage. Key benefits include access to a wealth of applications optimized for XR, alongside existing Android apps. The device supports popular platforms and innovative XR content, enabling businesses to enhance customer interaction, improve training programs, and explore unique marketing strategies. Trending apps such as HBO Max, YouTube, and Google Maps will all be revamped for the XR format. In addition to mainstream options, small businesses can also tap into immersive experiences from brands like Adobe and Calm, which cater to a range of industries, from wellness to entertainment. This variety allows business owners to customize applications that resonate with their target audiences. “On Galaxy XR, Gemini Live can better understand what you’re seeing and doing, making it easier to get the help you need or take action on your behalf across your apps — with just a conversation,” a representative from Samsung noted. This functionality could drastically cut down on the time spent managing routine tasks, allowing owners to focus on strategic initiatives instead. In practical terms, businesses in niches like retail, real estate, and education stand to gain significantly. For retailers, for instance, the XR environment could be used to create virtual storefronts, offering customers immersive shopping experiences from the comfort of their homes. Real estate agents might leverage XR to provide virtual property tours, enhancing the buying experience for clients. Educational institutions could utilize the platform to develop engaging training modules, providing students with firsthand experiences in complex environments. However, venturing into XR technology isn’t without its challenges. Small business owners should consider factors like the initial investment in hardware and software, as well as staff training for effective utilization of these tools. There’s also the need to assess which specific applications will yield the highest ROI. Businesses must weigh the potential benefits against their unique operational needs. Furthermore, as XR technology evolves, staying updated on developments and compatibility issues will be essential. Open standards supported by Android XR, such as OpenXR and Unity, mean that ongoing innovation will be a constant, requiring flexibility from tech-savvy business owners. Moreover, there’s the question of customer acceptance. While the younger demographic typically embraces new technology, older consumers may need more encouragement to engage with immersive experiences. Addressing such hesitations could be crucial in maximizing the XR technology’s value proposition. In summary, the Galaxy XR signifies a leap forward for small business owners who are willing to adopt innovative technology. With its immersive capabilities and versatile applications, it holds promise for elevating customer experience and operational efficiency. As the digital landscape continues to shift, understanding and adapting to these advancements could provide a competitive edge. For more detailed insights, you can read the original press release here. Image via Google This article, "Galaxy XR Unveils Immersive Android XR Experience with Gemini Integration" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

This week, we covered more Google Search ranking volatility mid-week. Google Search Console launched query groups reports. Disney's sitelinks in Google Search seemed to have been hacked. Google reminded us about...View the full article

Your website is live – now it’s time to measure what matters. To sustain traffic growth, you need to track performance, collect meaningful data, and make informed, data-driven decisions that shape your site’s success. Here are the key areas to monitor and the tools that can automate much of the work. How to monitor your website for SEO performance Website performance and uptime alerts When a page loads slowly, conversions drop, engagement falls, and the user experience suffers. Visitors expect pages to respond instantly, whether they’re comparing products or just beginning their research journey on your blog. Monitor site speed with PageSpeed Insights, but that only scratches the surface of what you should be tracking. To keep your site running smoothly, focus on a few other key areas: Uptime: Sites that go offline lose money, and downtime impacts crawl and index rates. Rankings can also drop temporarily. Errors: Server or client errors, such as 5xx or 4xx errors, must be monitored and rectified. Redirects: Broken links and redirects. Internal links: Monitor existing and broken links. Website performance covers a wide range of technical SEO best practices, and manual checks rarely make the best use of your time. Automate site audits and set up alerts to catch issues, such as server errors or extended downtime, before they affect users or rankings. Tools that make life easier: UpTime Robot. Pingdom. Semrush site audit. Dig deeper: Core Web Vitals: How to measure and improve your site’s UX Keyword rankings A key goal of SEO is to enhance visibility through improved keyword rankings. If your site – or a client’s – isn’t appearing on Google, Bing, ChatGPT, or other platforms, you’re missing out on valuable traffic and potential revenue. Manual tracking isn’t realistic, so rely on industry tools to monitor: Current keyword positions. Ranking changes. Location. Traffic potential. To understand whether your efforts are helping or hurting, go beyond surface-level rankings and dig into deeper insights, such as: Average positions. Ranking distributions. Volatility. Trends over time. Keyword difficulty. Search intent type. Click-through rate. Keyword data helps you maintain focus on optimization efforts that have a return on investment. To monitor this data, use tools to search for the keywords that you’re trying to optimize for. Tools that make life easier: Google Search Console. Semrush. SE Ranking. Dig deeper: Keyword research for SEO: The ultimate guide Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Website changes Websites evolve constantly – content updates, design tweaks, and technical fixes occur daily. On enterprise sites or those managed by multiple teams, this creates plenty of room for error. While many of these changes overlap with performance monitoring, it’s better to track more than risk missing something important. Use monitoring tools to track: Web accessibility compliance. Site speed. Content changes. Before and after comparisons. On-page content changes to content, headings, meta tags, etc. URL changes and redirects. Proactive monitoring makes it easier to connect cause and effect. When rankings shift, you’ll have data showing what changed and when. For example, a content refresh on a service page might coincide with a keyword’s jump from position 23 to 1 – a clear signal of what worked. As a site scales and more stakeholders contribute, automation becomes essential. Smaller teams may still manage manual tracking, but for most, monitoring tools are indispensable. Tools that make life easier: Semrush. Screaming Frog. VisualPing. Botify. Lumar. Lead monitoring Website, blog, and SEO channels now deliver the strongest ROI for B2B brands, according to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report. Clients want to justify their marketing budgets and see that SEO efforts are producing a return on investment. Use lead tracking tools to identify B2B website visitors and pinpoint: Opportunities in the pipeline. Lead sources. Conversion potential. Lead tracking shouldn’t stop when visitors arrive. Monitoring behavior shows which pages they visit, where they exit, and what happens during form submissions. For example, analyzing form data can uncover broken fields or incomplete submissions that cost potential leads. Knowing where prospects come from, how they convert, and what happens when they don’t provides insights that manual tracking can’t deliver. Tools that make this possible include: LeadForensics. Formstory.io. Traffic and analytics Monitoring your website’s traffic and analytics is the heartbeat of your marketing performance. You need to know: Total sessions: The number of overall visits to your site. Unique visitors: Number of unique visitors. Pageviews: Total site pages viewed. Pages per session: Average number of pages visited by users. Average session duration: Length of time visitors remain on your site. Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your site without interacting with it. Traffic sources: Where visitors are originating from. Impressions: How often your site appears in the search results. Clicks: The number of clicks from the search results. Click-through rate: Ratio of clicks to impressions. Analytics can also segment audiences, track behavior metrics, and set conversion goals. Tools like Google Analytics can display revenue per visitor and surface crawl errors or other site issues. SEOs need to understand how visitors find a site, which content or keywords drive traffic, and how those efforts connect to measurable results. Tools that make life easier: Google Analytics. Google Search Console. Looker Studio. Fathom Analytics. Dig deeper: How to measure organic traffic in GA4 Backlinks and brand mentions Backlinks have long been tied to rankings and remain one of the strongest signals a site can earn. Track key factors such as: Total links. Referring domains. Follow versus no-follow. Anchor text and diversity. New and lost links. Top linking pages. Brand mentions have become even more significant with the rise of generative engine optimization (GEO), helping LLMs associate content and context with your brand. Mentions across communities, social platforms, and online content all play a role. Monitoring should also cover: Linked and unlinked mentions. Topic relevance. Sentiment. Volume. Both backlinks and brand mentions play a role in building authority and driving visibility – and, in some cases, referral traffic. To sustain growth, consistently track both. Tools that make life easier: Semrush. Google Alerts. Mention. SSL/Domain expiration Domain and SSL certificate expiration directly affect a site’s trust and uptime. Monitor the following: SSL status. Expiration date. Mixed content errors. HTTP to HTTPS redirects. Though easy to overlook, these expirations can disrupt sales, erode trust, and take your site offline. Use monitoring tools to send alerts and protect both your uptime and the credibility you’ve built with visitors. Tools that make life easier: Red Sift Certificates (formerly Hardenize). UptimeRobot. Datadog SSL Monitoring. TrackSSL. Host-Tracker. HeyOnCall. Building a monitoring system for lasting SEO growth Tracking and monitoring your site’s metrics after launch provides the long-term data needed to make meaningful improvements. Use the tools and guides above to build a system that keeps your website healthy, competitive, and growing – catching issues early, improving performance, and driving sustainable SEO results. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A lot of the productivity techniques and organizational hacks out there claim to make work easier and more efficient, and they really can—though you have to find just the right one for you. A few methods that originated in Japan have proven especially popular—consider the Toyota-approved Kanban scheduling method—including one of my favorites: kaizen. The man who took the philosophy mainstream, Masaaki Imai, died two years ago, but left behind a legacy of productivity and efficiency we can all learn from, because this technique not only helps you get more done, but helps you do everything better. What is kaizen?In Japanese, “kaizen” translates, essentially, to “improvement,” and that’s the goal at the heart of the method itself, which encourages individuals at all levels of an organization to work together to continuously improve everything about a company. When everyone from the boss to the intern is in on the plan, the idea goes, the place will simply be more efficient and everything will always be getting better. This is done through standardization and the implementation of uniform processes. A good example of this is within the Toyota production system: If there is any issue or abnormality detected by any worker in a factory, they stop the production line and employees and supervisors work together to resolve the problem. As Toyota puts it, this “humanizes the workplace” and the standardization involved empowers every individual in the organizational structure to make meaningful changes. This is all part of a system called Plan, Do, Check, Act (usually known as PDCA), which works perfectly within a kaizen framework. The PDCA cycle repeats, meaning once you’ve planned, you keep doing, checking, acting, and planning again, factoring in your results, so you’re always improving. (If you're familiar with an after-action review, which calls on you to review what you did poorly and what you did well, then use that information to plan out how you'll improve in the future, that's a helpful framework for understanding PDCA.) And while you’re doing all that, you have to keep the kaizen principles themselves in mind. How does kaizen work?In addition to incorporating PDCA, kaizen has its own set of five foundational principles: Know your customer: Cater to your customers or clients and take care to identify their needs and interests, plus how you can serve them from whatever level you’re at. Even a cashier who deals with one shopper at a time can have a broad, positive impact by making sure each is given detailed attention. A CEO who never deals directly with a customer can meet their needs by basing company decisions on data and feedback from buyers. In short, everyone and anyone can know the customer and serve them better. You can think broadly here: Maybe you don't have a "customer" per se, but your work can still require you to think of whomever you're doing that work for. Say you want to use kaizen to clean your home before your mom gets there for a week-long stay. Your mom is the "customer" you have to impress Let it flow: Eliminate waste, both physical and theoretical, meaning don’t take unnecessary steps, don’t clutter the space, and be direct in doing what you need to do. No matter what you're working on or how many people you're working with, this is where kanban can be a helpful complement, because it forces you to think over your action steps as you seek to meet a goal. Once you've identified what needs to be done and when, think of how you can scale each task back to only its most important, actionable elements. Go to Gemba: Gemba is the Japanese term for “actual place.” This means you should always be purposeful and direct about getting to where you need to be—which is likely to be where the action is happening. Don’t delegate anything you don’t have to, wait around on anything, or sit on the sidelines. Empower people: Encourage people in your organization, whether you’re their superior or they’re your peers, and make sure everyone is aligned in the common goals of the company and forward movement. If you're following a modified version of kaizen for a personal project, you can still take this step by not only giving yourself positive pep talks, but by making sure you have everything you need before you jump in. If you are working on that house-cleaning project, make sure you have all the right tools and are taking enough breaks that you don't burn out, for instance. Be transparent: Demonstrate your productivity with hard data and results and make sure everyone is always up to date on processes, developments, and goals. There are many ways to do this, even if you're working on your own. I personally love taking before and after pictures when I start and end a project, because seeing a finished product motivates me. Implementing all five of these in a working environment, per kaizen’s adherents, is the key to unlocking a culture of continuous improvement. If you want to learn more, there are dozens of books out there about the methodology, but you should start with the original: Masaaki Imai’s Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. View the full article

Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, was interviewed on the Silicon Valley Girl channel by Marina Mogilko about AI Search at Google. He explained how to do SEO for AI Mode and he was crystal clear that Google Ads is not going away with the release of these new AI features.View the full article

Americans know AI runs on electricity — and they’re starting to realize they’re the ones paying for it. A recent nationwide survey of more than 1,400 U.S. households found that two-thirds of Americans believe AI is already driving up their power bills, and most said they can’t afford more than a $20 monthly increase. They’re right to be worried. As tech companies pour hundreds of billions into new data centers, the surge in electricity demand is rewriting the economics of the grid — and households are footing the bill for an “AI power tax” they never voted for. The frustrating truth is that this isn’t about running out of power. As prices keep rising and politicians promise to build our way out of this crisis, we already have more than enough electricity. A broken system What’s broken is the system around us. As Chris Wright, the Secretary of the Department of Energy, recently said, “we don’t need more electrons … We only need more electrons a few hours a year at peak demand. We have slack capacity 98% of the time.” Outdated pricing rules hide the real cost of peak demand, shift the burden onto ordinary people, and drive bills higher even when supply is abundant. And as AI’s appetite for energy grows, that broken system is turning into a massive, invisible subsidy — one that lands squarely on consumers. In 2025, U.S. tech companies will spend $300–400 billion on AI infrastructure.That’s over 2% of GDP, a greater share than telecoms at the height of the Internet boom. Growing demand This “industrialization of intelligence” has sparked the steepest electricity demand growth since World War II. Five-year load forecasts jumped from 23 GW in 2022 to 128 GW in 2025, with data center usage projected to rise from 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023 to 12% by 2030. And since January 2021, residential electric prices have climbed nearly 40%. In PJM, which covers 13 states and D.C., the cost of ensuring reliability—known as capacity prices—has spiked 11x in just two years, with analysts attributing two-thirds of the increase to data centers. That’s $9.3 billion in extra utility bills this year alone, or an AI power tax of $10–$21 per month per household. If similar trends spread nationwide, Americans could face $15–30 billion annually in AI subsidies by 2027. Unlocking capacity But the problem isn’t AI, or solar panels that fail to deliver power at midnight when demand is lowest—it’s figuring out how to unlock the slack capacity of our existing grid where and when we need it. Imagine if airlines couldn’t charge more for Thanksgiving flights, so they had to buy enough planes for everyone to fly that one day. The rest of the year, those planes sit idle, but ticket prices stay high year-round to cover that wasted capacity. That’s exactly how our electric grid works today. Households and small businesses pay flat retail rates that don’t reflect real-time scarcity or cost—whether power is dirt-cheap at 3 a.m. or sky-high during a heatwave, you pay the same. This “one price fits all” approach hides the true cost of peak demand. The bill for serving those peaks doesn’t vanish, it’s just socialized across everyone’s rates, driving costs up for all. Large industrial users don’t face this problem. They buy electricity directly in wholesale markets, where prices fluctuate by the minute, and can shape their demand to avoid paying for expensive peaks. This flexibility allows them to reduce costs dramatically. Meanwhile, households and small businesses can’t. The result is a regressive system where those least able to change their behavior are stuck paying the most. We have the technology The good news is that we already have the technology to fix this. Over 120 million smart meters are installed nationwide, covering more than 75% of U.S. homes and businesses. Smart thermostats, EV chargers, and home batteries are becoming more common, and these devices can automatically shift usage without impacting comfort or convenience. The impact of even small shifts is enormous. Simply moving demand during the top 2% of peak hours could unlock 126 GW of capacity, enough to meet projected demand growth through 2030 and avoid $250 billion in new power plant construction. In July, 100,000 California home batteries discharged simultaneously, providing 539 MW—the equivalent of five natural gas plants. Scaling that single program in CA could help avoid blackouts while saving $200 million. So why isn’t this happening everywhere? Incentives. America’s roughly 200 investor-owned utilities, serving about 70% of the population, operate under a business model that rewards building more infrastructure. Utilities earn guaranteed profits on every dollar they spend on new power plants and distribution lines. Flexible demand solutions, by contrast, save money for consumers but don’t generate revenue for the utility. This misalignment explains why utilities are now pushing to spend $1.1 trillion by 2029 on new infrastructure to meet AI-driven demand. The path forward One path forward is structural reform. Congress could deregulate the ‘final mile’ of the grid, much as it did for telecom in the 1990s. That wave of deregulation unleashed competition, drove down prices, and sparked the innovations that gave us the Internet, mobile phones, and eventually AI itself. Similar reforms to the electricity market would allow households and small businesses to finally access real-time pricing and level the playing field with large corporations. In practice, this would mean utilities still maintain the wires, but other companies could compete to sell power and services directly to households over that shared infrastructure—bringing real-time pricing, choice, and innovation to consumers. States and grid operators could also expand programs that reward flexible demand under existing rules, such as allowing residential users to pay based on their actual smart meter usage data, rather than generic usage profiles that obfuscates the value of shifting their demand. California has already shown what’s possible when consumers are empowered to participate. When given access to real market incentives, innovators can help everyday Americans stabilize the grid and lower costs for everyone. The AI revolution is here, hungry for electrons. This demand surge doesn’t have to break the grid. It may even be our opportunity to make America’s grid great again. We just need enough political will to set it free and entrepreneurs who have the grit and endurance to hack through the regulatory morass and save us in spite of ourselves. View the full article

Google may have a new chart in the Google Ads overview tab named cross campaign metrics. It seems similar to the Cross-Media Reach Measurement but this is shown in the overview tab and not in that specific report.View the full article

Google seems to have added a download option to the Google Merchant Center promotions section. when creating promotions in Google Merchant Center, the download button will be on the bottom right of the screen.View the full article

Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, was interviewed on the Silicon Valley Girl channel by Marina Mogilko about AI Search at Google. And one of the questions she asked was on how to show up in these Google AI responses. Robby Stein essentially said there is a lot of overlap between normal SEO for web search but the key difference are the "the kinds of questions" people ask AI versus traditional search.View the full article

Microsoft is testing a "see more" link within the Bing Search image carousel on search result snippets. Sometimes Microsoft will show an image carousel below a search result snippet, sometimes it will show product results and sometimes it won't show at all.View the full article

It’s the best publication for investors — but the latest issue makes spooky readingView the full article

In the defining years of American business, founding CEOs were virtually synonymous with the companies they led. Walt Disney was Disney incarnate; Dale Carnegie came to represent the steel industry itself. These figures were not just company leaders; they were the gravitational center around which entire industries revolved. Those days are gone. Though we still have echoes in modern chief executives like Tim Cook or Richard Branson, these figureheads, too, are becoming rarer. In fact, the average CEO tenure is the lowest in recent history. Over the past three years, CEO turnover has reached record highs, with 58 leadership changes in the S&P 500 alone. This pattern has prompted the C-suite to focus on a new leadership strategy: employing interim CEOs. Eighteen percent of all new CEOs are interim appointments compared to 7% just a year ago. For most, they’re still seen as a lame duck or hired gun, sent to take care of the company’s rudimentary duties; at best, a suboptimal stand-in for a proper leader. The savviest companies, however, are no longer relegating interim CEOs to a holdover role. They’re instead empowering them to be dynamic doers, essential to transforming organizations and breaking stale patterns and enacting rapid, bold changes. Interim CEOs Have Unique Opportunities To Enact Change Interims occupy a liminal space in the risk-averse, C-suite business world. Their temporary position frees them from the common pitfalls others so frequently get stuck in: politicking, backslapping, and monitoring rather than doing. With the right instincts and a good plan, however, the best interim CEOs can assess internal dynamics, align fellow leaders, and make key decisions while laying the groundwork for their successor or becoming permanent installations themselves. When James M. Cornelius was appointed Interim CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2006, he spearheaded expansive strategic partnerships and top-down initiatives to reduce costs and risk. His eight-month interim period was marked with such focus and urgency that it earned him full-time tenure, where he remained for years. Besides just righting the ship, he made decisions quicker than a permanent CEO ever could have. Whereas the previous three years saw negative YoY growth, Cornelius got BMS back on track with a near-double-digit YoY revenue increase. With the confidence of their fellow executives and shareholders, interim CEOs have the opportunity to move forward with the expectation of growth and new horizons, free from traditional time-pressures and deadlines. They can manage change in the C-suite, making tough-but-necessary decisions without bias. When Chipotle’s wunderkind CEO Brian Niccol departed for Starbucks, many wondered who could possibly follow his historic tenure. Rather than a superstar CEO from another organization, Chipotle brought on Scott Boatwright, an interim CEO from their own rank-and-file. Leaning on his prior COO experience, Boatwright erased bottlenecks and streamline decision-making from the top down, using his unique skill set to maintain prior momentum for a rock-solid year-end. These successful initiatives landed him a solidified seat atop the fast casual empire, where he still remains. In both of these cases, a new permanent executive may have felt pressured to keep the ship on autopilot rather than turn the wheel. With interim CEOs, these companies gave their leaders the freedom to make substantive change, resulting in both a healthy balance sheet and a naturally proven successor—the two foremost goals of any leadership transition. Interim Tenure, Genuine Risk Make no mistake, there’s a myriad of reasons companies choose to play it safe by limiting the purview of interim CEOs. Leadership missteps don’t just jeopardize the new leader but can also create long-term impacts way beyond their tenure. Take Reddit’s interim CEO Ellen Pao, who took the helm in 2014 when the company was on a steady path to an IPO. Pao implemented massive, top-down changes to the site’s rules and guidelines that went against Reddit’s founding ethos, causing upheaval among hundreds of thousands of users. She fired popular long-time employees, losing internal trust and community support alike. While Pao may have started the trouble, it didn’t end with her. As is often the case, a period of poor management led to cultural decay that lingered for years. Reddit’s cofounder had to come in and right the company’s ship over the ensuing half decade. Temporary Leaders Need Long-Term Vision As CEO tenure continues to shorten and transitions become a fact of life, interim leadership appointments will become the ultimate inflection point for an organization’s future. Not every interim CEO appointment is doomed to fail—far from it—but Reddit’s woes show why executive buy-in and clear company goals are essential. There’s a term in executive circles for this: leadership alignment. Successful companies let the interim CEO take charge but also have everyone else in the C-suite define their boundaries and establishes immutable values by which they must still abide. Top organizations will even allow stakeholders and employees to weigh in on those values to inspire increased confidence in the new head honcho. Some of the biggest companies have proven leadership alignment works. When Target was flailing in 2014, longtime executive John Mulligan stepped in to lead them into the future. As he said himself, the strong support and clear guidance from other executives was precisely what he needed. Interim no longer has to mean “ineffective.” During a period of leadership transition, the ship still has to go somewhere. So, the companies that give even their temporary leaders the mandate to navigate uncharted waters will sail ahead, faring far better than those who force them to drift with the tide. View the full article

Research is clear that multitasking significantly undermines career progress despite its popularity in modern workplaces. But why does multitasking harm workplace productivity? And how can you maintain concentration to get more accomplished? Below, experts share proven strategies that replace multitasking habits with intentional productivity systems to improve focus and work quality. No-Stacking Rule Drives Meaningful Project Completion Trying to multitask is the workplace version of spinning plates . . . except they all end up smashed! In my experience, multitasking is the fastest way to look busy while achieving very little. On the surface, it feels productive because you’ve got emails on the go, projects open, and calls happening, but the reality is that you’re only scratching the surface of each task. I used to have five or six projects all sitting at around 30% complete. It gave me the illusion of progress but left me with very few meaningful results. The real issue with multitasking is the constant switching cost. Every time you change from one task to another, your brain has to reorient itself. You lose rhythm and you lose quality. Instead of giving something your full attention, you end up spreading yourself so thin that nothing gets finished to the standard it could. Productivity isn’t about activity, it’s about completion and impact. That’s what multitasking robs you of. The strategy that changed everything for me is what I call the No-Stacking Rule. It’s very simple: I don’t allow myself to have more than two tasks in progress at any one time. This means that if something is sitting at 30% complete, I have to finish it before I can start something new with no exceptions. Easier said than done though! It creates a discipline where I’m forced to think carefully about what I start, because once it’s on my plate, I’m committed to taking it through to completion. This rule stops me from scattering my attention across multiple half-done jobs and instead drives me to deliver tangible results. A specific example: I once found myself with six different strategic projects on the go and all moving slowly and none close to completion. It felt overwhelming. When I applied the No-Stacking Rule, I cut everything back and committed to just two projects. I finished the first in three days, the second in the following week, and then moved on to the rest. Within a month, every single project was complete and signed off—something that would have dragged on for months under my old approach (it used to drive my team mad!) What I learned was that focus compounds. Completing one task gives you momentum and frees up headspace. Before long, you’re not drowning in half-finished work. Instead, you’re creating real impact. Remember, multitasking at work is basically professional procrastination in disguise! Sean McPheat, Founder & CEO, MTD Training Mental Clarity Outperforms Productivity Hacks Multitasking is one of the most pervasive myths in modern work. We wear it like a badge of honor, but the science is clear: it’s not efficiency—it’s cognitive switching. Each time we move between tasks, we lose time and mental energy. Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus cites research showing that it can take over 20 minutes to regain full focus after switching. Multiply that across a workday, and the cost to performance, well-being, and creativity is enormous. In our peak performance coaching work, we see this daily. Leaders describe being “always on,” yet never feeling ahead. The problem isn’t their workload — it’s their state of mind. When your mind is cluttered with competing thoughts, tasks, and worries, you’re not multitasking; you’re fragmenting your attention. The most effective strategy I’ve found to maintain focus isn’t time blocking or task batching—it’s understanding how your mind actually works. Not emotional intelligence, not techniques, but insight. Once people grasp that their mental experience is created from the inside out—not by external pressure or circumstance—they stop trying to control everything outside them and start working from clarity inside them. In practice, that means when I feel overloaded, I don’t reach for productivity hacks. I pause. I notice that my racing thoughts, not my inbox, are creating the sense of pressure. As soon as I see that clearly, my mind quiets, and focus returns naturally. This understanding isn’t about managing stress—it dissolves it. We apply the same principle in our programs. One pharmaceutical client saw dramatic results: 93% of participants reported reduced stress and overwhelm and 88% improved decision-making after learning this inside-out model of performance. When people stop fighting their thoughts and start working with a clear mind, productivity, creativity, and engagement follow—without the burnout. The takeaway? You can’t out-plan an overactive mind. Productivity doesn’t come from doing more; it comes from thinking less. The real advantage in the modern workplace isn’t multitasking—it’s mental clarity. Kay Tear, Managing Director, Business Reimagined Ltd Ruthless Prioritization Delivers Higher ROI Results Multitasking harms productivity because it drains both a team’s capacity and capability. When too many priorities pile up, velocity slows, quality drops, and burnout sets in—even though it looks like everything is moving forward. Skills are stretched thin, people work on tasks that aren’t the best use of their talent, and morale suffers as wins become harder to see. My most effective strategy is ruthless prioritization—doing less to achieve more. It starts with clarity: defining what problem we’re solving and asking, “Can the current team deliver this?” before adding anything new. In one case, we cut or paused 35% of active projects, freeing up capacity and capability for higher-ROI initiatives. As a result, over two fiscal periods, ROI across the portfolio of efforts rose by 20%, two-thirds of projects were delivered months ahead of schedule, and morale improved as the team delivered meaningful outcomes, which led to higher talent retention levels. Rohit Bassi, Founder & CEO, People Quotient GTD Method Transforms Focus Not Time Multitasking harms productivity because it divides our attention and forces the brain to rapidly switch between tasks, a process that has been proven to drain mental energy, increase stress, and reduce the quality of our thinking. I learned this firsthand when I realized I was spending hours each year simply rewriting to-do lists, reacting to whatever was loudest or latest, and feeling perpetually busy, but not always productive. The strategy that transformed my focus was implementing the Getting Things Done® (GTD) methodology, which shifts the goal from time management to focus management. GTD helps externalize thoughts and commitments so the mind is free to think clearly rather than constantly remember. One of the most effective habits I adopted was the “mind sweep,” taking a few minutes to capture everything that has my attention on paper and then clarifying the next specific action for each item. By organizing these actions into trusted categories (“calls,” “emails,” “projects,” etc.), I eliminated the clutter in my head and could focus on one meaningful thing at a time. The impact has been remarkable: I sleep better, my energy is higher, and I no longer react to crises. I respond with clarity, and throughout the years, my teams have also adopted this practice, and the result is a game changer. The difference was night and day. Those of us who drank the GTD Kool-Aid and went through the training stopped spinning in circles, made decisions faster, and stayed accountable to what we said we would do. In a nutshell, multitasking scatters attention; having a focused and reliable system restores it. When we clear the noise and stop trying to hold things in our minds, overwhelm dissipates and creativity and strategy emerge. Judy Goldberg, Founder, Wondershift Separate Digital Environments Enhance Mental Focus We humans are not wired for multitasking. Even if you are sure you are a pro at it, it might be harming your productivity and attention span in the long run. Focusing on too many things at a time increases anxiety levels and reduces your ability to enter deep focus that is crucial for tasks like brainstorming, ideation, planning, or strategy building. Long-term, it simply kills your creativity. What I do to protect my focus is separate my digital environments. It’s convenient to have everything in one place, yes, but it ruins my concentration. So, for instance, I keep one browser “sacred” for deep work and research, and another for lighter tasks or entertainment like social media. Over time, the mind starts to associate the tool with the type of work you’re doing: when I open my work browser and see only my work tabs and bookmarks, my brain immediately switches into serious mode. It sounds small and maybe even silly, but those mental cues reduce friction and help keep my concentration abilities in shape. Jan Hendrik Von Ahlen, Managing Director & Co-founder, Career Coach, JobLeads Multitasking Disrupts Critical Flow States Multitasking harms workplace productivity, leading to errors that can damage your personal brand. Today, it’s commonplace to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously, such as leading a Zoom call, sending a Teams message, and responding to an email. These actions make us appear “busy,” but beneath the busyness are poorly thought-out arguments and disengaged employees, resulting in lower engagement and longer cycle times. A July 2024 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that multitasking disrupts “flow states” (deep immersion) by 40%, leading to reduced task satisfaction and 15–25% more errors in complex tasks like report writing. To counter this, my personal strategy to maintain focus is straightforward but effective: when working on critical strategic imperatives for the business, I close my Teams chat and email and silence my personal phone. By doing so, I’ve gained the ability to concentrate, which fosters more ideas and clearer thinking. Andrew Lee, HR Director, Raytheon Multitask With Intention Through Priority Management Multitasking isn’t the villain. It’s the open-ended projects and shifting urgencies that eat up more time than they deserve. I always go back to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and his time management matrix. Four quadrants: urgent and important, not urgent but important, urgent but not important, and not urgent and not important. The trap? We confuse urgency with importance, so our days get stuffed with urgent-but-not-important tasks that steal time from the real priorities. And the most dangerous ones? The important but not urgent tasks we push off until they explode into fire drills. We build AI phone services for restaurants, and a big part of our work involves adapting to telecom regulations. It’s critical but rarely urgent. Deadlines can be months away, the scope is fuzzy, but it’s the kind of effort that can’t get shoved aside. Ignore it for too long and suddenly you’re headed towards serious downtime and messaging issues. Meanwhile, urgent and important efforts like sales pushes and marketing launches keep knocking at the door. The trick is not to avoid multitasking, but to do it with intention. That starts with clearly defining where each effort sits in terms of importance and urgency. Then you build a process around it with cross-functional ownership, delegation to the right people, and everything logged in a centralized project tool. Not every project moves in a straight line, and as blockers pop up, you shift focus to the next priority. That’s what effective multitasking looks like, i.e., knowing what’s on your plate, when to tackle it, and who owns what. Back to telecom as an example. We know exactly who our internal expert is, and while they wear multiple hats, they’re crystal clear on their ownership and priorities. That way they can balance their time across critical projects without things slipping through the cracks. Week to week, priorities will change. The key is to stay flexible but organized. When everything’s reviewed, documented, and assigned, you don’t lose track and you stop mistaking “urgent” for “important.” Zeel Jadia, CEO, ReachifyAI Creative Immersion Days Protect Quality Work In creative work, multitasking dilutes the quality of ideas. Concepts need space to breathe when you’re building a brand’s identity or reimagining a client’s marketing strategy. If you’re bouncing between logo sketches and a website build, neither will get the full depth of creative exploration each deserves. One way I make sure that focus is protected is by structuring our projects into creative immersion days. So instead of spreading a designer thin across five clients in a single day, we dedicate extended time to just one client. The result was not only stronger design work but also faster approvals because the concepts reflected a deeper understanding of the brand. Adrienne Folse, Founder, Design the Planet Time Blocking Transforms Task Completion Quality Multitasking has become normal, even expected, in many workplaces. You might be hired as a social media manager but soon find yourself also doing graphic design, copywriting, and more. When we try to do too much at once, even if it feels “normal,” the work suffers. The biggest issue I see with multitasking is that it’s easy to miss things. You overlook details, rush, and hop between tasks without the mental space to go deep. You’re checking notifications, hearing open office chatter, and prepping for the next meeting all while trying to produce high-quality work. That’s not a recipe for excellence. And that’s what we should be aiming for: work that’s thoughtful, well-crafted, and drives results. One strategy that helps me (and my team) stay focused is time blocking. We block specific times on our calendars for high-impact tasks and honor those blocks like meetings. As a founder, I now schedule certain days just for meetings and leave other days free for deep work. That way, I’m not bouncing between strategy calls and writing copy within the same hour. And it’s made a big difference. Instead of dragging one task across three days in 30-minute chunks, I now get it done mostly in one sitting. I stay in flow. The work is better and the stress is lower. It may require a lot of thought and adjustments to implement but if more teams, whether they are corporate, startup, or small businesses, made space for focus like this, I think we’d all see better outcomes. Remi Roy Osi, Founder, PodGround Efficient Processes Master Multiple Tasks Successfully Multitasking can harm workplace productivity when it focuses on quantity over quality. In the rush of “getting things done,” you may compromise on quality by not giving each task enough thought, time, or attention. The best way to stay focused is by clearly understanding and setting priorities, based on business objectives, revenue potential, impact, and other factors that are important to you or your organization. For me, the trifecta of maintaining an efficient process, staying organized, and keeping a repository of templates has been an effective strategy in mastering multitasking and delivering high-quality results. There are huge time-saving benefits that lead to more efficient use of time to accomplish multiple tasks without compromising on quality. Efficient processes: When managing multiple projects, you need to have a solid workflow for creation, approval, execution, and optimization. In my experience, this has fueled better alignment, communication, and collaboration between teams, while speeding up the process, overcoming obstacles, and leading to higher output. It also reduced our campaign launch times from more than a week to two days. Staying organized: I maintained a central folder system that gave the team quick access to all documentation and resources. Instead of wasting time searching through multiple channels or asking peers, they were able to find the information they needed in one or two clicks and focus on the task at hand. It also created a central space where teams could access everything from guides and briefing documents to assets and reports in the same place for easier decision-making. Templates: Hours were being wasted as stakeholders developed briefs from scratch, causing delays in campaign executions and losing the company money. I then created templates of briefing documents that stakeholders could easily complete through fill-in-the-blank options, drop-down menus, and other features. What would usually take more than 30 minutes to an hour to create ended up taking less than 15 minutes. Sidra Tariq, Owner, Curio Solutions Hub View the full article