Super-App

Finally.

Two years ago I wrote a letter to the chairman of Twitter calling for Jack Dorsey to be replaced as CEO. Or, more to the point, for the board to appoint a full-time CEO. An executive who spends 90% of his time running another company and plans to spend half the year on a different continent looked like a recipe for poor shareholder returns. Spoiler alert: It was.

This past February, as there were now directors on the board acting as fiduciaries, I predicted Dorsey would be replaced by the end of the year. READ MORE

How Long Do Startup Founders Lead Their Companies?

Jack Dorsey made waves Monday when news of his resignation from Twitter broke.

In a letter to Twitter employees that he also posted online, Dorsey noted there are a lot of conversations around the importance of companies being “founder-led.” He called that notion “severely limiting and a single point of failure.” READ MORE

DAOs as the future? Hard pass, thanks

It seems like just yesterday that exchanges like Coinbase opened the eyes of the traditional economy to the benefits that cryptocurrencies offer as an asset class.

Cryptocurrencies and other decentralized technologies have created applications that promise to create real social value by offering an automated way to establish trust, but at a much lower cost than traditional intermediaries (banks and governments) that have monopolized trust as a service. READ MORE

Microsoft says you just can't trust Google

Will Microsoft stop at nothing to get people to switch to Edge? Will it stoop to everything? Yes, and yes, it seems. READ MORE

Most CFOs think higher prices will last through 2022

A majority of U.S. businesses are hiking prices at a rapid clip as they seek to offset the pain of soaring inflation and a lack of available workers, according to a survey of American CFOs published on Thursday.

The CFO Survey, a collaboration of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta, shows that finance chiefs are increasingly worried about labor availability, inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions.  READ MORE

Why the ‘stay interview’ is the next big trend of the Great Resignation

Businesses are on a hiring spree during the Great Resignation of 2021, with many throwing out signing bonuses, lowering their standard qualifications, tapping boomerang employees and taking a harder look at their “enthusiastic stayers.”

As retention efforts heat up, you’ll probably hear more about the “stay interview.” READ MORE

Red Brands and Blue Brands: Is Hyper-Partisanship Coming for Corporate America?

The year is 2041, and Starbucks has real competition. Black Rifle Coffee Company, the java brand favored by conservatives, has opened thousands of locations around the country.

Starbucks, whose longtime chief executive Howard Schultz pioneered a new wave of liberal corporate activism in the early part of the century, still dominates the coffee scene in college towns and blue-state urban centers. But Black Rifle Coffee, now publicly traded with a $250 billion valuation, is flourishing in suburbs across the country and in cities large and small across the Deep South and Mountain West. READ MORE

A New Crisis Playbook for an Uncertain World

Today we stand at the precipice of not one but three converging and potentially catastrophic long-term trends: climate change, globalization, and growing inequality. On their own, each of these makes the occasional crisis worse: We might see a more destructive hurricane, a more widespread financial meltdown, or longer or more violent civil unrest. Together, though, these trends magnify challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic, for example, was not just a health crisis but an economic and political one as well. READ MORE

The ‘Great Resignation.’ Here is why it may not last long

Reports of the so-called Great Resignation may have been exaggerated.

Over the past several months, a rapidly growing number of Americans left their jobs — more than 4.4 million in September, the most recent month for which data is available. READ MORE

Turns out there was no 'Great Migration' during Covid

The "Great Migration" may not be as pronounced as once thought.

The US Census Bureau this week released data showing that migration activity has fallen to its lowest rate in more than 70 years. The findings toss some cold water on anecdotes that Americans were relocating more than ever during the pandemic. READ MORE

Two-Thirds of Workers Prefer This Over a Raise

Americans are quitting their jobs in droves. In what has been dubbed “The Great Resignation,” workers are leaving their current positions in search of greener pastures.

Companies hoping to retain such employees might offer them a raise. But as it turns out, there is something workers want even more than a simple pay hike. READ MORE

Labor shortage? Not at Target

A record number of Americans are quitting their jobs and businesses are desperately struggling to fill open positions. Target doesn't have either of those problems.

Target (TGT) said Wednesday that its turnover rate for hourly workers was lower this year compared with 2019, even after accounting for new hires. The retailer is also adding 100,000 new temporary employees to meet holiday shopping demand and offering its existing workforce five million additional hours of work during the busiest stretch of the year. READ MORE

4 Strategic Partnerships That Paired Wildly Different Companies

Strategic partnerships are always a smart way to grow your business faster and expand into new markets. Even smarter is to look beyond conventional or expected opportunities. To create entirely new products, keep employees happy, or achieve ambitious long-term goals, it pays to get creative about whom you team up with--and even to look far afield of your own industry. 

Here are four pairs of companies that recently reached outside of their sectors to build mutually beneficial partnerships. READ MORE

'No vaccine required' is the latest tactic to attract workers

In the search for workers in this tight labor market, companies have courted new hires with the promise of higher wages, sign-on bonuses, ample vacation time, and childcare.

The latest: "No vaccine required." READ MORE

Why giant companies are suddenly splitting into pieces

Breaking up is the newest craze for ginormous global companies. Johnson & Johnson, Toshiba and GE announced plans to split into multiple entities this week. The trend may have only just begun.

Conglomerates are big and unwieldy. Wall Street hates them, because it doesn't know how to value them properly. CEOs and corporate boards are finally getting the message: Nimble is the new big. READ MORE

Elon Musk reveals 'worst person' he's ever worked with

Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk slammed the company’s co-founder Martin Eberhard on Twitter on Friday, calling him the "worst person" he’s ever worked with and accusing him of nearly "killing Tesla."

"Founding story of Tesla as portrayed by Eberhard is patently false," Musk tweeted Friday. "I wish I had never met him. Eberhard is by far the worst person I’ve ever worked with in my entire career. Given how many people I’ve worked with over the years, that’s really saying something." READ MORE

Feeding Frenzy

Three weeks ago, “someone” floated the idea of PayPal buying Pinterest. PYPL plunged 5% the next day (shedding the value of Under Armour) and the company then denied the rumors. Our thesis: PayPal’s management leaked the story as a trial balloon, and let it float away when the market threw up on the notion of PinPal (couldn’t resist). READ MORE

Rivian is America's biggest IPO since Facebook

Rivian, the electric vehicle maker backed by Amazon (AMZN) and Ford (F), made its Wall Street debut on Wednesday, surrounded by mania that befits a market that appears to be defying gravity.

What's happening: The company priced its stock above the expected range at $78 apiece, allowing it to raise an estimated $11.9 billion. That's the biggest haul for a US firm since Facebook brought in $16 billion in 2012. READ MORE

America's prices are surging more than they have in 30 years

There's no end in sight for higher prices. US consumer price inflation surged higher again in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

Over the past 12 months, prices climbed 6.2% -- the biggest increase since November 1990. READ MORE

Onsite COVID testing tech has arrived—but there’s a catch

Following last week’s announcement of the new OSHA guidelines mandating that firms with more than 100 employees that do not require vaccinations provide proof that unvaccinated employees are tested weekly, HR technology providers are offering tools and services for both remote and onsite COVID-19 testing. READ MORE