The Boss Who Put Everyone On 70k
In 2015, the boss of a card payments company in Seattle introduced a $70,000 minimum salary for all of his 120 staff – and personally took a pay cut of $1m. Five years later he’s still on the minimum salary, and says the gamble has paid off.
‘Angels’ In Hell: The Culture Of Misogyny Inside Victoria’s Secret
Victoria’s Secret defined femininity for millions of women. But inside the company, two powerful men presided over an entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment, according to interviews with more than 30 current and former executives, employees, contractors and models, as well as court filings and other documents.
The Great American Tax Haven: Why The Super-Rich Love South Dakota
Last year billionaire Sun Hongbin quietly transferred $4.5bn worth of shares in his Chinese real estate firm to a company on a street corner in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thanks to its relish for deregulation, the state is fast becoming the most profitable place for the mega-wealthy to park their billions.
Printing’s Not Dead: The $35 Billion Fight Over Ink Cartridges
HP’s printer supplies business garnered $12.9 billion in sales last year, and the printer division overall represented 63% of the company’s profits. Here in the year 2020, proprietary ink cartridges remain important enough to spark a fight worth at least $35 billion.
LEGO Launches Braille Bricks For Children To Learn Braille
At the Sustainable Brands conference in Paris, the LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group announced their new project to help blind and visually impaired children learn braille through custom LEGO Braille Bricks.
What Does Uber Love More: Restaurants or Investors?
Eateries are getting squeezed by delivery apps. Restaurants can enjoy a 69% profit margin onsite, versus just 38% from deliveries. Uber could give up profit to keep them happy, but that’s not what IPO investors want to hear.
The Lockdown Has Exposed The Fatal Flaw In Deliveroo’s Business
It wasn’t coronavirus that hobbled Deliveroo: it was its small margins and the crippling costs of competing both in its home market and abroad. In the UK, there are three big players in the market, in the US there are half a dozen, in Europe there are over 20.
The Fraught Business Of Removing And Selling Street Art Murals
Sales of street art murals in general are divisive. Artists often object to the transformation of a work they created for public enjoyment into an art object to be bought and sold. Banksy mural sales in particular attract protest.
The Highly Unusual Company Behind Sriracha, The World’s Coolest Hot Sauce
David Tran, CEO of Huy Fong Foods, shuns publicity, professes not to care about profits, hardly knows where his sauces are sold, and probably leaves millions of dollars on the table every year.
How IKEA Became Sweden’s National Brand
In 1950, Ingvar Kamprad began selling furniture. Seeing the logistical difficulty of shipping large items far away, Ingvar decided to flat-pack the furniture, which also reduced the chance of damage during transport. The company created a catalog that customers could browse through and order with from afar.
Nashville Wants To Be The Next Austin, But Tennessee Won’t Make It Easy
The city has sought to position itself as more affordable but no less hip than Austin, Denver, or Portland, Ore. Business interests in the state capital have held off a slew of anti-LGBT bills that seemed poised to become law.
What Google Learned From Its Quest To Build The Perfect Team
Our data-saturated age enables us to examine our work habits and office quirks with a scrutiny that our cubicle-bound forebears could only dream of. New research reveals surprising truths about why some work groups thrive and others falter.
The Price Of Plenty: How Beef Changed America
Exploitation and predatory pricing drove the transformation of the US beef industry – and created the model for modern agribusiness. The industrial slaughterhouse was a triumph of human ingenuity as well as a site of brutal labor exploitation.
How Global Trade Runs On U.S. Dollars
Nearly 90% of international transactions in 2019 were in U.S. dollars, giving the U.S. extraordinary power over nearly every entity that imports or exports anything anywhere. Here’s how the global economy runs on the U.S. dollar — and why some countries are trying to chip away at its dominance.
The Great American Labor Paradox: Plentiful Jobs, Most Of Them Bad
The numbers tell one story. Unemployment in the US is the lowest it’s been in 50 years. More Americans have jobs than ever before. Wage growth keeps climbing. People tell a different story. Long job hunts. Trouble finding work with decent pay. A lack of predictable hours.
A Simple Way To Map Out Your Career Ambitions
The challenge is that you’re competing against every individual in your industry who wants to be a high performer. If you grow more capabilities more quickly than they do, you’ll perform better today, earn opportunities to perform better in the future, and a virtuous cycle will take hold.
The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo
In 1981, a young Swede called Owe Bergsten strolled through Singapore to pass the time before his flight home. Passing a camera shop, he spotted a two-button LCD game called ‘Fire RC-04’ in the window. The story of a man, a lie, a video game handheld, and a business empire.
The Way We Work Is Killing Us
In the United States, workers work among the longest, most extreme, and most irregular hours; have no guarantee to paid sick days, paid vacation, or paid family leave; and pay more for health insurance, yet are sicker and more stressed out than workers in other advanced economies.
The Growing Death And Injury Toll From Takata Airbags
Twenty-four people have died and hundreds have been seriously injured from exploding Takata airbags. In 2000, Takata knew about the problem with their ammonium nitrate inflators, they knew they were exploding in their own labs, and they covered up the problem.
The Forgotten History Of How Automakers Invented The Crime Of “Jaywalking”
If there’s traffic in the area and you want to follow the law, you need to find a crosswalk. And if there’s a traffic light, you need to wait for it to change to green. Fail to do so, and you’re committing a crime: jaywalking. It’s the result of an aggressive, forgotten 1920s campaign led by auto groups and manufacturers.
I Stumbled Across A Huge Airbnb Scam That’s Taking Over London
As the short-term rental goldrush gathers pace, Airbnb empires are being rapidly scaled and monetized. This is the curious tale of a man called Christian, the Catholic church, David Schwimmer’s wife, a secret hotel and an Airbnb scam running riot on the streets of London.