On the soccer field, athletes sporting official gear from the likes of Nike and Adidas might be the norm. But on the sidelines, it’s bootleg merch by independent designers that is dressing stylish fans during the World Cup. Designing an official kit for the World Cup comes with many rules and regulations that outline just how creative a design can be. For instance, official jerseys cannot be sleeveless, branding and logos have size and placement limitations, and the only uniform that can stray from the official team colors is that of the goalie. But none of that matters to some…
Author: Staff Writer
I don’t remember the valuation of the deal. I don’t remember most of the presentations. I don’t even remember many of the people who were in the room. But more than 20 years later, I still have a candle from the hotel. I was in my early 20s working as an investment banker on a transaction in Paris. That may sound glamorous, but I barely saw the city. Instead, I spent my days in windowless conference rooms, reviewing spreadsheets and legal documents, and operating on too little sleep. Every evening, though, I returned to the same hotel. And as I…
In the race between the U.S. and China to develop artificial intelligence, the battle over hardware and computing power is heating up as Chinese companies like Huawei overtake global industry leaders like Nvidia in their home market.Jensen Huang, the CEO of computer chip giant Nvidia, was mobbed by onlookers as he hit the streets for the “zhajiangmian” noodles while visiting Beijing during U.S. President Donald Trump’s May summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But his celebrity status has not translated into success in selling Nvidia’s advanced chips in China.Controls imposed by Washington on exports of advanced technology due to national…
MAHA is shaking up your bag of M&M’s. Starting in August, select packages of the iconic candy sold exclusively on Amazon will no longer include the colors blue or brown. That’s because candy maker Mars will begin what’s expected to be a two-year process of transitioning away from its use of artificial dyes in lieu of dyes made from natural sources. You don’t have to say goodbye to blue and brown M&M’s chocolates entirely—they’ll still be included in products sold elsewhere online and in stores—but the less-colorful bags of candy are related to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make…
Cold plunges, circadian lighting, and robot closets aren’t on the typical home renovation checklist. But then again, the once-in-a-generation wealth creation coming from the Bay Area’s new wave of tech companies going public offers a singular shift in San Franciscans’ net worth, and a window into how the tech elite define the dream home. The explosion of wealth that will follow a handful of history’s biggest initial public offerings is expected to reshape San Francisco and the Bay Area, with massive investments in new ideas, startups, and even philanthropic ventures. Space X’s massive IPO and upcoming IPOs from Anthropic and…
This month, IMD – one of Europe’s leading business schools, where I serve as an Executive Fellow and North America Program Co-Director – released its 2026 World Competitiveness Ranking. As I pointed out in my keynote at the U.S. launch of the index at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, the results sit awkwardly with the stories that the world’s largest economies tell about their world-leading competitiveness. The truth is, neither the U.S. nor China is a true world leader in this realm – the U.S. sits in 10th place globally while China is 12th. The most competitive economies in the…
It has hardly been two weeks since Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: SPCX), better known as SpaceX, went public, but the Elon Musk-led company is already poised to achieve another significant stock market milestone. Next month, it will be added to the Nasdaq 100. Here’s what that means for the company—and for you. What’s happened? On June 26, just 15 days after SpaceX made its stock market debut on June 12, Nasdaq announced that the space and AI company will be added to the institution’s closely watched Nasdaq-100 Index. And that 15-day timing? It’s fast, but it’s not exactly a…
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Jordan Goldstein and Anthony Capuano began working together 10 years ago on a pilot project and started collaborating in earnest about eight years ago when Marriott International selected Gensler to design its global headquarters building in Bethesda, Maryland. At the time, Goldstein led global design and was a co-regional managing principal for the architecture…
The cutaway has been the default design of dollhouses for generations. Like a house that’s been sliced in half from the roof to the floor, this conventional dollhouse design is a standard part of many childhoods. But for very young children, the cutaway dollhouse isn’t very easy or fun to play with. “They’ll be reaching to try to get the figure in and out of the door and the table will get knocked over, or they’ll be reaching and trying to get someone in the bathroom and they’re not really seeing the action,” says Sofia Dumery, head of design at…
Over the past decade, I’ve watched leaders chase digital transformation like it was the only game in town. Faster systems, leaner processes, and smarter automation have been the goals. And yet, the organizations that are genuinely thriving in the “Imagination Era”—this moment defined by AI, volatility, and the premium on creative thinking—aren’t winning on technology alone. They’re winning on people. The question is: Do they actually know why? I recently spoke with Angela Jackson, Harvard University lecturer, founder of Future Forward Strategies, and author of The Win-Win Workplace, whose research across more than 1,700 companies offers a data-backed answer. Her…