Market Watch

The sun rises over University Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday, March 20, 2021. The nation’s leading renewable energy lab is developing a model to help businesses in three diverse Twin Cities business districts plug into solar power. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory selected the Twin Cities for its Solar Energy Innovation Network, a program that aims to address barriers to solar power nationwide. The project is working with local groups to develop models that can help business owners along Lake Street, West Broadway Avenue, and University Avenue to install solar power. The Lake Street Council, a nonprofit that promotes business along the south Minneapolis corridor, partnered with two other groups, the Neighborhood Development Center and the Northside Economic Opportunity Network, to apply for the program. The three groups were awarded funding to gauge interest in solar power among business owners in the corridors. Although the project is not supporting direct construction or financing of new projects, the goal is to create models that will support a spurt of solar installations in the areas. The project envisions a future in which megawatts of solar power could be spread across the roofs of corner stores […]

Click here to view original web page at sahanjournal.com

getty Call me an idealist, but in business, politics and every other aspect of our lives, trust matters. It used to matter, and it still does. We’re living in uncertain times, and trust is much more important when people feel unsure about their future. Yet, at present, I’ve noticed there seems to be a trust vacuum in many industries. As ongoing strikes show, there are real concerns about the intentions of employers toward their workforces, about the fair distribution of wealth and the very nature of employment. There are also changes in what employees expect from their employers. With all this going on, we’re going to take a look at the reasons why trust levels have fallen and why trust is such an important factor in business. What does trust mean in business? When I talk about trust in business, I’m referring to three different things. 1. Strategic trust: This is the trust employees have in the people running the business to make the right decisions, set the right course and help the company succeed. 2. Personal trust: Do employees trust managers to treat them fairly and consider their needs, or do managers put themselves first when making decisions? […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

getty Business development is a crucial aspect of any company’s growth and success. Much of the work involves finding and pursuing new opportunities to expand the business, whether through partnerships, new markets or new products and services. Effective business development requires a combination of strategy, planning, and execution. Here are ten more key tips to help you pursue business development for your company. 1. Define your business goals. Clearly defining your business goals will help you identify the types of opportunities that are most relevant to your company. For example, if your goal is to enter a new market, you’ll want to focus on opportunities that will help you achieve that. 2. Research your target market. It’s important to have a deep understanding of your target market, including their needs, preferences, and behavior. This will help you identify the types of products or services that are most likely to be successful, and it will also help you tailor your marketing and sales efforts to better appeal to your target audience. 3. Identify potential partners and customers. Research potential partners and customers in your target market and reach out to them to explore potential collaborations or partnerships. Be proactive in […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

While online shopping continues to be a popular choice for consumers, physical stores can offer shoppers perks that e-commerce can’t replicate. From crafting a more personalized customer experience to offering in-store loyalty rewards, there are many creative ways to entice customers to visit a brick-and-mortar business in person. Below, members of Forbes Communications Council share strategies to attract more customers to brick-and-mortar businesses. If you’re looking to drive more foot traffic to a physical location this year, incorporating some of these ideas into your overall marketing plan may help nudge prospects and customers off of their devices and into your store. Members pictured from left to right. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Merge The In-Store And Online Experience Change your view that the in-store experience is separate from the online one. Most brands have both to meet different customer needs and to expand their reach, but treating them as siloed channels is setting yourself up for failure. Merging the best of both and allowing customers to be co-architects of their CX builds trust and repeat business. It humanizes experiences, transcending channels. – Niki Hall , Contentsquare 2. Do Cross-Promotional Events With Other Businesses When I consult with […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

Adi is the Founder & CEO of Sheba Consulting and a seasoned leader with 30+ years of experience growing businesses and leading change. getty Small businesses make up 99.9% of U.S. businesses and are a crucial part of the nation’s economy. In 2022, a whopping 92% of all small businesses were owned by members of Generation-X and the Baby Boomer generation, according to research from Guidant Financial . If you, like me, are a small-business owner in their mid-40s to mid-50s, you are a part of a very special generation of business owners. Our generation witnessed and was a part of two major revolutions: the digital revolution and the mobile revolution. We vividly remember the days before the internet, email and cell phones—the days of dial-up modems, bulletin board systems (BBSs), textual internet relay chat (IRC) chat servers and floppy disks. We were there when “brick” cell phones were first introduced; when the first digital cameras popped up; when mobile phones began to have the ability to email and text; and when software moved from expensive servers and desktops to the cloud. Those are only a few of the incredible technologies that we personally experienced changing before our eyes. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

getty Before founding Catchpoint, I worked at DoubleClick as vice president of operations, quality of services. Here, I was responsible for reliability and created the quality of services department to promote reliability, performance, availability and resilience across the organization. Every morning I delivered reports on our data from a reliability perspective to the executive team. What was the response time? What was the availability? What was the data processing time? I did this for every function that we cared about. At 10 a.m., representatives from ops, network engineering, customer support and product management reviewed our reports and determined the next steps based on our data. This provided an underpinning of integrity to the work, and it drove better business outcomes, two elements that I believe are integral to overall success. Focusing On Customer Experience Reliability Yields Business Results Organizations are 260% more likely to focus substantially on customer experience reliability versus low-performing organizations. I see this daily borne out by customers. Good enough is no longer good enough, particularly not in the competitive, tumultuous landscape we find ourselves in at the tail end of 2022. Striving for excellence is now table stakes. Elite organizations prioritize customer experience reliability because […]

Click here to view original web page at www.forbes.com

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – MyFlight Tours has brought the first helicopter tour company to Knoxville. The company has locations throughout the U.S., including one in the Smoky Mountains. Daniel Powell is a pilot for the company who said it’s a unique opportunity to bring this service to Knoxville. ″Just for people that live in this area especially that have maybe never been in a helicopter or have maybe seen their city from the air. It’s just a really cool way to get a new perspective on the city as well as just a really cool experience of flying in a helicopter,” Powell said. MyFlight offers three tours for people. The shortest one is a trip where you’ll see parts of downtown Knoxville. The most expensive package shows people downtown, UT’s campus and parts of west Knoxville. Powell said the people make his job fun. ″I really just enjoy seeing the look on people’s faces because every single time I just see that excitement, especially for people that have never been in a helicopter before,” Powell said. People are asked to bring a valid ID and tickets before taking flight at the Downtown Island Airport. Guests should get there 10-15 […]

Click here to view original web page at www.wvlt.tv

Embark achieved 121% growth, surpassing triple digits for the fifth time in the last six years while expanding into new markets and practice lines across America DALLAS, Jan. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Business advisory firm Embark is thrilled to announce $105.7 million in total revenue for 2022, a record figure that more than doubles 2021 revenue. At 121% growth, 2022 is also the fifth time in the last six years the firm has realized triple-digit revenue growth. Despite growing economic headwinds, Embark’s consistent hyper-growth continues to broaden its footprint across the professional services industry. Further highlighting its ongoing success, Embark also expanded into Nashville in 2022, making it the firm’s eleventh office across eight different states. As one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., Embark nearly doubled its headcount from 275 employees at year-end 2021 to 500, with a growth strategy in place to expand its footprint into at least two additional geographical markets in 2023. The firm also increased consultant compensation by 25-50% in 2022, ensuring it continues to attract and retain industry-best talent. "Our success in 2022 is a reflection of how Embark can deliver extraordinary results across all of our practices, proving we can […]

Click here to view original web page at www.prnewswire.com

Domino Enterprise MLOps Platform to streamline AI infrastructure adoption and boost model velocity throughout global TD SYNNEX ecosystem SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Domino Data Lab , provider of the leading Enterprise MLOps platform trusted by over 20% of the Fortune 100, is expanding and strengthening its partner channel through a partnership with TD SYNNEX , an industry-leading, global IT distributor and solutions aggregator. Domino’s enterprise MLOps platform is now available through TD SYNNEX’s global technology distribution and aggregation services to help enterprises in more than 100 countries scale data science quickly and with ease. A recent industry survey found that 37% of companies rank data science, ML and AI as the single most important factor for growth, yet nearly as many (27%) say access to appropriate data science tools and methods is their most significant challenge to scaling it. By leveraging Domino along with complementary partner solutions, TD SYNNEX partners and customers can deliver data science teams these required resources—such as access to infrastructure and tooling, and past research for collaboration—to quickly build, deploy, and monitor game-changing machine learning models across the business. "For a Global 2000 company, assembling the necessary hardware and software to scale […]

Click here to view original web page at www.prnewswire.com

New solution puts employee expense reporting in the express lane SAN MATEO, Calif., Jan. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP ), a leader in Business Spend Management (BSM), and Uber for Business , Uber’s enterprise arm, today announced a new collaboration to significantly enhance end-user experiences and compliance with expense policies. The integration will be available in February. Coupa is the first BSM platform to utilize Uber for Business’ Receipts API for expense automation. Through Uber for Business’ Receipts API, Coupa automatically will generate expense reports for trips through Uber for Business, with the receipt already attached, saving employees valuable time. This step also helps eliminate risk for companies fighting incomplete or inaccurate compliance reporting. This leapfrogs other integration models that require employees to manually find and attach receipts for trips completed with Uber for Business. "At Uber for Business we are committed to creating magical experiences for companies and their employees," said Susan Anderson, Global Head of Uber for Business. "We’re excited for our latest business expense innovation to come to life with Coupa. With this easy-to-use integration, the expensing experience becomes seamless for all. Reports are conveniently generated automatically, ensuring that employees don’t have to […]

Click here to view original web page at www.prnewswire.com