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US economy adds 164,000 new hires; unemployment rate stays at 3.7%
Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementIn July, U.S. payrolls added 164,000 workers versus job gains of 224,000 in June, as the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 6.1 million unemployed workers in July, close to the same number as June. The number of long-term unemployed persons decreased 248,000 in July from June. The employment-to-population ratio rate stayed nearly the same in July versus June, the BLS reported.
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How to role model good choices for your employees
Anne Rose Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementI am not advocating parenting your employees. But some of your employees may not have had the best role models in their life, so they have undeveloped critical judgment skills and poor decision-making with an inability to predict the consequences of their behavior. I worked with a young lady once who had barely been on the job for one week before asking for a day off to go shopping with her mother. That judgment is bad enough, but she confided to me that her mother had advised her to simply call in sick and not risk asking for the day off!
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How family businesses get retail right — and what everyone can learn…
Catherine Iste RetailJokes about family businesses and the problems associated with the obligations to hire, promote or otherwise put the bloodline before the bottom line are common. However, there are a few principles of successful family retail operations that nonfamily organizations can incorporate effectively. For example, when leadership is forced to create succession planning to preserve owner intent, a couple of things happen.
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Are we witnessing the death of Main Street, or its rebirth?
Lucy Wallwork RetailThe decline of America’s downtown "Main Streets" is nothing new. First, the rise of the automobile meant they were displaced as the nexus of community and commercial life by out-of-town malls. More recently, even the malls have fallen victim to the rise of online shopping, with 1 in 4 expected to be closed by 2022. The outlook for Main Street doesn’t look good, as the headlines tracking empty frontages keep telling us. But are we giving in to nostalgia too much? Perhaps the rebirth of Main Street might not look to the past at all, but to the future.
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For well-being, natural is almost as good as nature
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesNumerous research studies have shown that people experiencing stress, fatigue, trauma, and recovery from illness respond positively to natural settings, natural elements (such as indoor plants and water features), and views of nature. But what of nature imagery or patterns similar to those found in nature? Does exposure to sensory stimuli that remind us of being in a natural setting produce a similar effect? Several recent studies indicate that they do.
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By any other name: Beyond Meat grows beyond belief
Linda Popky Food & BeverageIn 2016, a Los Angeles-based company called Beyond Meat introduced the first plant-based burger to be sold in the meat section of a grocery store. Not only do these products look like a real hamburger, but they taste almost meat-like, too. The company’s revenue is expected to more than double this year, and the total market for plant-based, meat-like products is expected to shoot up to $5.2 billion by 2020. There's a lesson here for your business: Rather than continue to make incremental changes in a crowded or constricted category, try taking a leap forward with innovations so dramatic they change the category itself.
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Study: Beauty products send a child to the ED every 2 hours
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareFrom 2006 through 2016, emergency departments treated 64,686 children younger than 5 years old for injuries related to personal care products, according to the results of a new study. That works out to about one child every two hours. Many consumers are already aware of the dangers posed by cleaning products, batteries and household poisons, but are often unaware of the hazards posed by personal care products. The results of this study shed light on the special threat common cosmetics may pose to small children.
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McDonald’s eliminates CMO, forms new partnership with DoorDash: Is…
Linchi Kwok MarketingMcDonald’s recently announced a new organizational structure in its marketing division and formed a new partnership with DoorDash. According to CNBC, other companies such as Uber and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) also took a similar approach to restructure their marketing division. Additionally, besides restaurants and food-delivery startups, major retailers are also getting into the delivery competitions. Walmart and Nordstrom, for example, are building physical stores that surprisingly do not sell anything.
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Why your business needs an editorial calendar for marketing
Mashaal Ryan MarketingBusiness marketing isn’t just about throwing money at influencers or trying to find out when to post on social media. It needs to be a complete and total project that is ongoing, timed, creative and budgeted. Marketers usually use the word "campaign," which is a series of maneuvers they are using to aggressively market a product or service. You don’t have to have a marketing degree to implement some of this at your own small business. The first step is to create an editorial calendar.
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Why cultural-fit hiring is the enemy of diversity
Simma Lieberman Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementA study by Cubix International of 55 organizations, including Ikea, found that 9 out of 10 recruiters passed over applicants that were not a "cultural fit." Hiring for "cultural fit" has become somewhat of a trend and buzzword. It usually applies to values, visions, norms and the way a company does business. Some people have told me that hiring for "cultural fit," as opposed to just skills, is a way of ensuring that the new hire gets along with everyone and be a "team player." I’ve also been told that it is a way of increasing diversity since you’re not just hiring based on degrees and grades. But what if this is part-fallacy?
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