Among this year’s crop of Fast Company‘s World Changing Ideas are organizations and initiatives with an unmistakably people-forward impact. For Aon and Mona, that meant getting money in the hands of people that need it—in Aon’s case, building a catastrophe bond in the event of devastating hurricanes, and for Mona, giving underserved entrepreneurs access to financial support. Edesia Nutrition and PharmaBox also helped get critical resources to people in need, whether it is emergency food aid or medical supplies. Field Operations proved the community-altering benefits of dynamic public spaces in both the Bay Area and Seattle. Read about all of…
Author: Staff Writer
A number of Subway restaurants have closed their doors after their owner filed for bankruptcy, the latest wave of store closures to impact a large franchisee of a major fast-food chain this year. Affiliates of MTF Subs, which together operate dozens of Subway restaurants across four states, have rejected the leases for six locations, court records reviewed by Fast Company show. Additional stores could also close, as the franchisee has been in the process of evaluating the remainder of its store footprint. A bankruptcy judge recently gave the franchisee until August to decide if it will reject additional store leases.…
Most people believe they are far more capable of changing their personality than they actually are. This is hardly surprising. Humans are deeply invested in flattering illusions about themselves. We routinely overestimate our intelligence, morality, attractiveness, and future prospects. Psychologists refer to this as the “better-than-average effect,” though “wishful narcissism” might be more precise. Unsurprisingly, personality is no exception. We like to imagine ourselves as unfinished masterpieces rather than stubbornly repetitive creatures of habit who have already maxed out on their limited potential. (Not sure about you but, in my case, the former is definitely true!) And yet all it…
Microsoft is reportedly considering a spinoff or restructuring of its Xbox gaming unit, as the division’s bets on subscriptions and cloud gaming have come up short and console sales have continued to decline. Sales of Xbox hardware were down 33% year over year, the company reported in its most recent earnings. That’s a long way from the unit’s heyday. Xbox launched in 2001 and came close to outselling Sony during the Xbox 360 era. Sony regained dominance in the last console generation and has extended its lead in the current one. Microsoft, meanwhile, has leaned heavily into cloud gaming in…
For years, South Africa’s rolling blackouts became a symbol of national decline. Businesses bought generators. Families planned their lives around power schedules. Factories lost production. Politicians blamed everyone but themselves. Now, after years of crisis, South Africa has achieved something many thought impossible. The country recently passed 300 consecutive days without load-shedding, and Eskom’s energy availability factor has climbed to nearly 66%. Diesel spending has fallen dramatically, and for the first time in years the power grid is no longer the country’s biggest economic problem. The IMF projects South African GDP growth of just 1.0% in 2026. Even more troubling,…
A botched marketing campaign by Starbucks’s South Korean operation has resulted in boycotts, an investigation, a fired executive, and a public apology. To address the fallout, all 2,000-plus locations nationwide will close early on June 22 for mandatory history and social sensitivity training.Present in South Korea since 1999, the coffee chain will mark its first nationwide early closure in the country’s history. After the U.S. and China, South Korea is the third-largest market for Seattle-based Starbucks. Shinsegae Group, which owns the majority stake in the coffee chain’s South Korean operations, is still doing damage control four weeks after launching a promotion…
The financial press is celebrating reports that traders are betting shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz could begin returning to normal by August. Oil prices have fallen sharply on hopes of a U.S.-Iran agreement, and prediction markets are assigning better-than-even odds that vessel traffic will recover during the second half of this year. Yet when you look beneath the headlines, even the traders themselves remain skeptical. The proposed agreement between Washington and Tehran contains several conditions that sound impressive on paper. Iran has reportedly agreed not to pursue a nuclear weapon, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen to commercial…
We’re living through the most answer-rich moment in human history. Need a market analysis? A product brief? A launch strategy? AI can generate something polished in seconds. Some of it still makes my jaw drop. But there’s a growing risk inside companies that I don’t think leaders are talking about enough: Fast answers can create the illusion of understanding. Increasingly, organizations are mistaking speed for insight. A few months ago, my team at SurveyMonkey noticed an uptick in customer churn, and we reacted quickly. We rolled out new messaging and retention campaigns because everyone assumed the issue was customer dissatisfaction.…
There is something that does not add up. If the objective is peace, then why was one of the most contentious parts of the negotiations the demand that hostilities in Lebanon also come to an end? Reports indicate that the U.S.-Iran framework includes de-escalation in Lebanon. Yet almost immediately Israeli officials declared they would not withdraw from southern Lebanon and would continue to reserve the right to act independently. Defense Minister Israel Katz stated plainly Israel would remain in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza regardless of the agreement. This is where the entire story begins to unravel. Trump has been publicly insisting…
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. During the pandemic housing boom, many publicly traded homebuilders achieved record profit margins as home prices soared and buyer demand ran red hot. Once the national housing demand boom fizzled out in the summer of 2022, many large homebuilders, including Lennar, a giant homebuilder with a $23 billion market capitalization, made affordability adjustments where and when needed to maintain their sales pace or prevent a bigger sales volume pullback. In order to maintain sales in this softer housing market environment, Lennar spent an…