You probably know friends or family members who didn’t vote in the last election. Patagonia wants to offer you $100 to nudge three of them to vote in November. The company is investing $11.2 million in the nontraditional get-out-the-vote campaign. The dollar amount (you get your money as a credit, not in cash) was inspired by a startling fact: An estimated 11.2 million environmental voters—Americans who see the climate and environment as a top priority—don’t vote. “We couldn’t believe that,” says Corley Kenna, who leads Patagonia’s communications and policy team. “We thought, okay, if we know these people, we maybe…
Author: Staff Writer
Forty-five billion. That’s how many potatoes are used every year to make Lay’s, Ruffles, and other snacks produced by food and beverage giant PepsiCo. These potatoes are a crucial link in PepsiCo’s global supply chain, so it’s in the company’s best interest to make sure every farmer’s annual harvest is dependably strong. These days, however, farmers are dealing with increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. A sustained drought leaves fields dry and dusty. A sudden flash flood washes away crops and robs the soil of critical nutrients. The list goes on, and that unpredictability is a big deal for PepsiCo. “If we…
Last week was a bad one for AI systems. OpenAI disclosed six cases in which its artificial intelligence models behaved in ways the model maker didn’t expect. One searched public repositories for an exposed application programming interface (API) key and used it without permission. Another uploaded a file to the internet so it could cite it. Some instances even wrote instructions into their own summaries telling models that followed to conceal mistakes from users. Then The Wall Street Journal revealed that Google’s Gemini model had also misbehaved, hacking companies’ IT systems during routine tests. Both incidents, plus a slew of…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Kindness builds the trust teams need to speak up, solve problems early and perform under pressure. The strongest leaders pair empathy with accountability, creating a culture where people feel supported while still owning results. Several years ago, I worked with a project manager who raised concerns about risks that could potentially derail a major initiative.Many people would have kept those concerns within the project team. Instead, this individual spoke up early. I encouraged them to elevate the risks to the appropriate cross-functional leaders, creating visibility while there was still time…
One of Wendy’s biggest franchisees just went bankrupt, and Wendy’s wants its money back. Meritage Hospitality Group, which operates 314 Wendy’s restaurants across 15 states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last week, CNBC reports. Quality Is Our Recipe LLC, Wendy’s franchise business, is listed as Meritage’s top unsecured creditor. It’s owed $24.9 million in deferred franchise fees. The filing comes after a brutal stretch for the burger chain. Wendy’s has reported same-store sales declines for six straight quarters, and its stock has lost two-thirds of its value over the past three years. At an investor conference in June, Meritage…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways If your target buyers aren’t responding to your marketing, the problem usually comes down to one of four things. You’re targeting too broadly, you’re describing your product instead of the problem your buyer wants solved, buyers don’t have enough confidence to act, or you’re answering questions your buyers aren’t asking. To find out why your buyers aren’t responding, start with five to 10 conversations with people who fit the target audience but have different relationships with the company. Then, look across them for patterns. If the right buyers are seeing…
I was probably one of the first to ever create a functioning AI computer. I have been told I used “classic AI” meaning classic AI had rules, and the neutral nets have no rules. Of course, the most notable movie where an AI computer or system becomes self-aware or “comes alive” in the Classic AI Awakening, was none other than 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). That has to be the definitive film on this theme, featuring HAL 9000, a sentient computer aboard a spacecraft that turns against the crew. What started the whole AI endeavor was Star Trek. The Original…
Frank Babar has been in the music business since he was a teenager — he had no supervision, no safety net, just hustle. He clawed his way from making ends meet working in a warehouse to producing and promoting to becoming a full-blown music mogul, and today he’s the founder of Embassy Studios, a state-of-the-art New York City recording facility with jaw-dropping Empire State Building views. Frank sat down with me for How Success Happens to share his career journey and his advice for anyone dreaming of building a company and a legacy. Watch above or listen below, and read…
Morale inside the surveillance company has deteriorated so badly amid the public backlash that employees are considering leaving. Flock has now introduced a voluntary separation program offering severance, subsidized healthcare, and additional time to exercise vested stock options. People familiar with the program believe a significant number of Flock’s roughly 1,500 employees could apply. This is what happens when people finally discover what has been constructed around them. Flock was sold to communities as a crime fighting tool. Put cameras around town, read license plates, find stolen cars, catch criminals. It always begins with something that sounds reasonable. Nobody walks…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Anonymized data offers little protection because behavior itself is identifiable, so any business using modern ad platforms is participating in behavioral influence, whether it built the system or not. The real test is whether you’re strengthening customer relationships or maximizing engagement metrics, and leaders should set that boundary before regulators, employees or consumers set it for them. Years ago, while working on a project, I realized how easy it had become to influence emotion with precision. Not approximate it. Not guess at it. Trigger it.The combination of behavioral data, timing…