LONDON and BOSTON, Jan. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — ESG and sustainability continue to remain top of mind for both business leaders and consumers. And survey research conducted by global strategy consultancy L.E.K. Consulting indicates both groups are committed to becoming more sustainable – and are willing to pay a price and make trade-offs for it. In fact, according to an L.E.K. Consulting survey of over 2,700 consumers in the UK, U.S. and Australia, more than half report they’re turning their backs on unsustainable products and services – while 55% report they may change brands due to ESG considerations and 56% said they’re willing to pay up to 40% more for sustainable products. And the hunger for sustainability is the same inside organizations. The majority of large companies around the world have made net-zero carbon emissions commitments, and 54% of executives say their companies should address ESG issues – even if doing so reduces short-term financial performance, according to an L.E.K. survey of 400 C-suite global leaders. But there’s also a large gap between the desire for progress and the capacity to make it happen, says John Goddard, Partner at L.E.K. Consulting and Vice Chair, Sustainability. "Unless the disconnect can […]

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Email, voice calling, webchat: today’s businesses need them all in order to stay connected with their customers. The always-on modern world has seen a rapid and far-ranging evolution of the powerful, cloud-based technology upon which it all depends. However, simple SMS is fast becoming the channel of choice — and smarter businesses are rightly putting it at the heart of their customer service strategy by deploying a communication platform as a service (CPaaS) that has messaging fully covered. CPaaS provides an easy way for businesses to add new communication capabilities to existing applications without having to build those capabilities from scratch. This can save businesses time and money, while also providing them with more flexibility in how they communicate with customers and employees. In a recent survey, 85% of smartphone owners said they prefer texts to calls or emails — a reflection on how much we all look to our mobile phones to help us run pretty much every aspect of our lives. Speed and convenience, it seems, are more important to us than pretty much anything else. In the hospitality and travel sector — where those two imperatives are perhaps most at play — the ability to communicate […]

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The Hispanic business community continues to be underserved by the financial services industry, according to a recent Nationwide survey. (Image: freshidea/Adobe Stock) I grew up around Hispanic entrepreneurs. My father was a former Mexican migrant worker who, along with others in my family, went on to build businesses that are still successful today. While they faced many challenges along the way, they succeeded in the end because they believed in themselves. Want to continue reading? Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader. INCLUDED IN A DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP: All PropertyCasualty360.com news coverage, best practices, and in-depth analysis. Educational webcasts, resources from industry leaders, and informative newsletters. Other award-winning websites including BenefitsPRO.com and ThinkAdvisor.com.

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Photo – Sam’s Club Sam’s Club plans to open a new warehouse club next year in Florida. It will be the first new club the chain has opened since 2017. The second largest warehouse club chain in the U.S. last week said it intends to add 30 new clubs “over the next several years” as it seeks to build on “historic comparable sales growth” sustained since the outset of the pandemic. “We’ve seen remarkable growth over the past few years with a record number of members, and we’re excited to bring the experience of Sam’s Club to even more markets as we expand our footprint,” Sam’s president and CEO Kathryn McLay said in a statement . “And as we open new clubs in new locations, we’ll continue to innovate so that our members shop and save whether in person or online.” Sam’s may not have opened new clubs in recent years, but it has invested in its existing locations to make them more welcoming to its members. The majority of the chain’s 600 clubs have been remodeled to be brighter and easier to get around. Service desks have been upgraded to better serve customers and Sam’s Scan & Go […]

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In the Know is a monthly partnership between LP Gas and Propane Resources . This month, Adam Zoellner and Sean McCann explain why implementing software can improve your propane company’s value proposition. QUESTION: How does software impact the value of your business? ANSWER: When was the last time you modernized an aspect of your company? Was it this year, last year, five years ago, even longer? Photo: ipuwadol/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images Your competition is always modernizing and so should you. A reluctance to modernize and adapt to ever-changing technologies will decay your company from the inside out. A successful propane company requires implementation of modern technologies to remain competitive. Negligence to adapt will result in an antiquated operation. Technological adaptation can improve all aspects of your company’s functions, including routing, customer management and weather-based operations. Business owners will see tremendous value in software applications that are on the market today. The value of these new system upgrades will spill over into other aspects of your business. From the smallest operation with a handful of employees to companies with several dozen, every company has a routing method that “works” for them. One big difference is the amount of […]

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Retrieved from Danone. Dive Brief: Danone said in a statement it is exploring strategic options, including a potential sale, for its organic dairy business in the U.S. The segment is made up of the Horizon Organic and Wallaby brands. Horizon Organic and Wallaby, which offer organic dairy products, including milk, creamers, yogurt, cheese and butter, represent about 3% of Danone’s global revenues. Antoine De Saint-Affrique, Danone’s CEO, vowed last March he would improve performance in troubled offerings including Horizon Organic and traditional dairy, invest more in winning products and create value by selling existing brands or buying new ones. Dive Insight: Before De Saint-Affrique’s arrival, Danone, whose brands include Activia yogurt, plant-based Silk and Evian water, struggled with a stagnant share price and pressure on many of its key businesses. In the time since he took the helm, the former Barry Callebaut chief has wasted little time making changes and pushing for growth at the France-based food and beverage giant. Earlier this month, Danone appointed three deputy CEOs to improve its decision-making, execution and growth. Danone has also pushed innovation in many of its key brands. This includes two dairy-like plant-based alternatives , Silk Nextmilk and So Delicious Wondermilk, […]

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With Developers Focused on Building Massive New Distribution Facilities, Small, Blue-Collar Businesses in High-Growth Sunbelt Markets Face a Space Crunch In southern U.S. port cities such as Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, blocks of available industrial space that are smaller than 50,000 square feet typically spent an average of about nine months on the market before leasing during the 10 years prior to the pandemic. Since then, the median time to lease for these smaller industrial spaces has plunged to a record low of between two and three months in all three locations in 2022, a leasing speed typically only seen in Southern California, which has long been widely regarded as the tightest industrial market in the U.S. This news story is available exclusively to CoStar subscribers. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Mute Current Time / Duration Loaded: 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE Remaining Time – Share 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off, selected Captions captions settings, opens captions settings dialog captions off, selected Audio Track Picture-in-PictureFullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. TextColorWhiteTransparencyOpaqueBackgroundColorBlackTransparencyOpaqueWindowColorBlackTransparencyTransparent Font Size100%Text Edge […]

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In December, Cometeer quietly conducted layoffs and installed its chief operating officer as co-CEO. Former employees spoke of dysfunction and high executive turnover as growth has slowed at the most-funded coffee startup ever, where headcount is down nearly 50%. To the outside world, Cometeer was buzzing. Its coffee — roasted by elite partner brands like Counter Culture and Joe Coffee, flash-frozen and shipped in recyclable aluminum pods that needed only to be dropped into hot water to serve — was beloved by tech influencers and venture capitalists alike. When Cometeer announced $35 million in funding from name-brand investors in October 2021, taking its total raised to $100 million, the startup became the highest-funded coffee startup ever. “We’re hiring folks from Apple, Tesla, Palantir and Wayfair,” founder Matthew Roberts told Forbes then. “We are talking about real tech companies, real tech employees coming into the coffee industry because they see the opportunity to change an industry that’s really been stuck in its old ways.” But behind the scenes, it’s Cometeer that’s been stuck in a cycle of layoffs, executive departures and dysfunction that has contributed to slowed growth and a doubtful future. June and December layoffs, never publicly acknowledged, each […]

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Welcome to Monday, loyal readers. Here’s what you need to know today. First, a friendly reminder You have until 9 p.m. Friday to submit nominations for our Women Who Mean Business awards program, which recognizes female trailblazers in the local business community. Nominees must be based in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento or Yolo counties. Nomination information is available online. Nominees will be evaluated by the Business Journal editorial team, as well as a panel of previous honorees. Good luck! Big grocery news A new Pappas Investments retail project proposed for Elk Grove, called The Village, would have the city’s first Whole Foods Market as an anchor, according to plans filed with the city. Senior Reporter Ben van der Meer has details. From the health care beat A jury has ordered a Roseville skilled nursing facility to pay $30.9 million to the family of a man who died after a two-week stay. Learn more in this article by reporter Emily Hamann. Our latest cover story In our latest cover story, Senior Reporter Ben van der Meer lists six local real estate projects to watch this year. The progress of these projects in future years is likely to be a strong […]

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The new year is an important time when many business owners hit the refresh button and look for opportunities to change and improve their practice or company. The new year is an important time when many business owners hit the refresh button and look for opportunities to change and improve their company. If you own a healthcare business, have you thought about what resolutions you will be making in the new year? According to McKinsey & Company, the United States is projected to face a shortage of more than 200,000 registered nurses and more than 50,000 physicians in the next three years. [1] Growth and margins for providers are already strained due to this dynamic, and the impact is likely to worsen. They predict that testing, vaccination, and treatment of COVID-19 and the associated increased burden of behavioral-health and other chronic conditions could add another $220 billion in annual costs over the next five years. [2] Given this information, it’s essential that business owners take a step back and evaluate what they want to accomplish in 2023. The new year is a great time to make resolutions for your company. Here are some resolutions to consider as we begin […]

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