getty It might seem surprising, but in 2023, the online consumer is more mysterious than ever. A shift toward data privacy has made buying journeys opaque and diminished the effectiveness of analytics and personalization tools. How can online vendors adjust to this new reality? Three Layers Of Online Anonymity For years, sellers have amassed troves of data about shoppers, tracking every interaction over weeks and months and using third-party data providers to enrich their CRM lists with more granular demographic details. But changes in the data privacy landscape threaten to nullify these investments as user-level tracking faces a new set of hurdles. Regulations and changing consumer behavior have combined to create an environment where collecting data about a specific shopper is more challenging than ever, leading to a growing number of online visitors who remain unidentifiable. In this context, it’s important to distinguish between three different types of online anonymity: • Not Logged In: These are shoppers who are using guest checkout options, or delaying their sign-in (or sign-up) until the very last moment. According to different estimates, over 85% of online shoppers will stay logged out for the duration of their session. In these cases, the user remains […]

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Justin Goodbread CFP®, CEPA, CVGA, at WealthSource Partners, LLC, is a financial educator, wealth manager, author and speaker. getty Business owners are often a tenacious and resilient lot. We tend to get an idea or vision for what we want to achieve in our businesses and dive headlong into those goals. Failure isn’t something that deters many of us. Instead, we often view it as a precursor to success. But what really makes us tick? Why can most business owners get kicked in the teeth and get up smiling, again and again? The answer may lie in the average entrepreneur’s psyche. In a 2016 study on the core competencies for entrepreneurship, researchers found that there are "positive and significant relationships between resilience and EI (entrepreneurial intention)," and the results "highlight the mediating role played by resilience." Likewise, "many researchers hypothesize that entrepreneurs thrive on a strong sense of personal self-efficacy to execute their visions and a keen eye for innovation to identify new products and markets." In other words, business owners are willing to press on in the face of failure because, ultimately, they believe in their abilities to accomplish their goals. While this is an important entrepreneurial attribute, […]

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“The Specialist Pipeline” by Kent Jonasen is released with Forbes Books This release is posted on behalf of Forbes Books (operated by Advantage Media Group under license.) NEW YORK (February 28, 2023) — The Specialist Pipeline: Winning the War for Specialist Talent, by Leadership Pipeline Institute CEO Kent Jonasen is now available . The book is published with Forbes Books, the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes and is available on Amazon today. Expanding on his work as a human resources executive for A.P. Moller-Maersk, where he was responsible for talent management, leadership development, executive development, and strategic talent acquisition, Kent Jonasen identifies a lack of specialist architecture as an urgent problem that modern organizations neglect at their own peril. The Specialist Pipeline is Jonasen’s warning that leaving specialists without clear career paths and development programs similar to those enjoyed by leaders will make attracting top, specialized talent near impossible. While most organizations put words to the importance of specialists, few do the work of supporting them properly. In an increasingly knowledge-based business environment that sees more and more companies breaking down hierarchies, having a pipeline of capable leaders and managers isn’t the imperative it used to be. […]

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The Man proposes four-day week sign. Notepad in hand. getty 4 Day Week Global published the findings from their four-day workweek global study last week, and the results were unsurprisingly positive. Ninety-two percent of participating companies are continuing the four-day week. Seventy-one percent of employees reported reduced levels of burnout at the end of the trial. And the number all business have their eye on — revenue — was also positive, with a 35% increase on average. Societal shifts in attitude towards work are changing. People have embraced working smarter, not longer, and research backs up the feasibility of this model. The report points to research from think tanks, business schools, and other government trials that indicate the four-day workweek may be ready for prime time. This shift begs several interesting questions about the longevity of the positive results, societal impacts, how people will use the time, fairness in the workforce and more. 4 Day Week Global cofounder Andrew Barnes and 4dayweek.io job board founder Phil McParlane weighed in on these important questions. Will these positive results last? One question regarding the benefits is whether companies only saw these fantastic results because the four-day week was new. Will employees […]

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Dr. Angela C. Hill | Talent Management Leader & Leadership Coach | Founder & CEO, Created2Catapult , a boutique HR consulting firm. getty Several years ago, the world had the unique opportunity to get to know the first African American First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, through her memoir, Becoming . This book offers a look into her early life experiences, how she learned to understand and accept her identity, and her position as a leader and global figure. During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Mrs. Obama explained why she used the word "becoming" as her memoir’s title. To her, it emphasized that her journey is ever-evolving. My thoughts immediately went to Michelle Obama’s memoir when reflecting upon recent conversations with coaching clients and when contemplating my own career path. This concept of "becoming" resonates with me. As the calendar, fiscal and performance year begin, organizations and employees are identifying strategic goals and priorities for the year. Along the same lines, some of us have made resolutions and established personal goals we would like to reach. However, this year, my conversations with clients and my own reflections on career growth involved asking, "Who do I […]

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JHVEPhoto Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG ) has invested significant resources in building its music streaming business. The music streaming industry itself is reaching a maturity phase where a large section of customer base has already subscribed to this service. According to MIDiA Research , the total paid subscription numbers have reached over 600 million including all the players. Alphabet’s YouTube Music service is placed at fourth place behind Spotify ( SPOT ), Apple Music ( AAPL ) and Amazon Music ( AMZN ) in this report. However, YouTube could soon reach second position as the value proposition for a combined YouTube Premium subscription is very attractive to many customers who regularly use YouTube streaming. The company has announced crossing 80 million subscription level including free trials for the quarter ending September 2022. Within the next few months, this number should cross 100 million level which would be very positive for the company as it was a latecomer in this race. Over the long run, we could see music streaming industry getting cornered by Big Tech players and Alphabet has a good chance of being the market leader in this business. A large subscriber base provides Alphabet with regular recurring revenue, […]

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getty After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many corporations scrambled to set up diversity committees and employee resource groups (ERGs). These groups were safe spaces for employees to discuss their concerns and provided necessary emotional support. Organizations also saw them as tangible proof of their commitment to social justice. But in their haste, many business leaders skipped a critical step: aligning the goals of their diversity committees and ERGs with the larger financial goals of the company, positioning these groups to have true business value. Set measurable goals. When many of these DEI groups were launched, in the early days of the pandemic, people were clamoring for ways to connect with each other. These groups created greater belonging in the workplace, but it’s not enough to make people feel better. For diversity committees and ERGs to maintain executive support, their members must take action. Diversity groups need to shift their focus to include business as well as social objectives. Without measurable, business-oriented goals, many ERGs and diversity committees became no more than book clubs or social gatherings. Others had vague objectives or took on too many initiatives, which diluted any impact on company culture. In one recent study, only […]

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Image Credits: gorodenkoff / Getty Images In 2013, Irma Olguin Jr. — a third-generation Mexican American and the first in her family to go to college — was working on making coding instruction available to disadvantaged members of her community. During her work, she met Jake Soberal, an intellectual property lawyer, who shared Olguin’s desire to leverage the tech industry to effect change at the local level. Olguin and Soberal started by co-founding Geekwise Academy, a coding and tech skills bootcamp that teaches HTML and JavaScript. Then — to boost the hiring pipeline for Geekwise graduates, and under a newly formed parent company called Bitwise Industries — they launched Shift3 Technologies, a software development house that creates managed services for Salesforce, DocuSign and various other software-as-a-service apps. As Fast Company notes , Bitwise made headlines in 2019 when it raised $27 million — one of the largest Series A rounds ever secured by a company with a female Latinx founder. Historically, female founders have received just 12% of venture capital investment for their businesses. Olguin and Soberal’s latest venture through Bitwise is commercial real estate — the two develop and turn previously blighted buildings into coworking spaces, restaurants, theaters […]

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Photo: General Mills, Inc. MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills, Inc. has ceased supporting its Bold Cultr brand of animal-free dairy products. The company posted a statement on the Bold Cultr website saying it was closing its doors as of Feb. 27. “Bold Cultr was a unique startup brand by G-Works, General Mills’ corporate venture studio, which deploys small teams to solve food-related consumer problems through innovation — testing and learning along the way,” the statement said. “G-Works regularly reviews its innovation portfolio and evaluates investment decisions. Recently, the difficult decision was made to deprioritize funding for Bold Cultr.” Bold Cultr was launched in November 2021. Its first product was a plain flavor cream cheese alternative made with milk proteins created through precision fermentation. The product featured non-animal whey protein from ingredient supplier Perfect Day, plus pea protein, palm oil, cultures, starches and gums. “The innovations coming out of our G-Works teams are an example of General Mills truly thinking differently about how we innovate,” said Doug Martin, chief brand and disruptive growth officer at General Mills at the time of the launch. “It starts with solving real consumer problems, developing breakthrough solutions — and then fueling those brands using the […]

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Small businesses can be a great source of innovation for big businesses looking to stay competitive and relevant. By studying what small businesses do to achieve success and sharing knowledge and resources, big businesses can tap into new ideas, insights and approaches that can help them stay ahead of the curve. As successful leaders in their fields, the members of Forbes Business Council understand that innovation requires a nimble, agile approach that small businesses often excel in executing. Below, 15 of them share some important lessons a bigger company can learn from observing their smaller counterparts. Members pictured from left to right. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Be Willing To Take Risks Big businesses can look to small businesses for innovation tips by observing and learning from their agility and willingness to take risks. Small businesses often have fewer constraints and can quickly test new ideas and pivot as needed. Small businesses must get creative with their marketing efforts and focus on direct-response marketing, which can have a greater impact on top-line revenue. – Javier Carlin , The Practice Revolution 2. Reduce Unnecessary Bureaucracy The biggest challenge large companies have is the lack of entrepreneurial thinking and […]

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