Economy, Strategy & Finance Data Reactions

Too many retailers are shutting down: 2019 just hit its halfway point, but already the number of planned retail store closings has exceeded the total for all of 2018.

Directors don’t let management “just sit there.” The answer to knowing if your board is effective is having a meaningful board assessment process.

There is a great deal of evidence about the increasing sophistication of the assessments that investors, insurers, and others use in applying ESG indicators to evaluate risk and return. The President’s executive order brings the impact of climate change on retirement investments to the fore.

Rising labor costs and a dwindling number of available workers have compelled companies to seek new options such as gig hiring when it comes to recruiting.

Culture of innovation is a powerful driving force for corporations. The bigger picture, however, is that when the culture of innovation is measured consistently with other descriptive attributes, the results can reliably predict the cash flow multiple. The clear implications are that managers who need to justify and provide accountability for their budgets have a new tool to measure, value, and manage return on investment for intangible assets.

Now, more than in any other time during this decade, we see signs of a comeback in automation activity. The timing could not be better. Labor shortages are becoming a growing problem for the US economy, especially in jobs that do not require a college degree, which in large part are the jobs where automation is likely to have the most impact. From a demographic perspective, this problem is only going to get worse.

There are many anecdotes in the media today of employers across a range of industries wanting to hire more people, but not being able to find them: trucking companies facing driver shortages, retailers and restaurants being short-staffed, and construction companies and manufacturers encountering a limited supply of skilled or STEM-educated applicants.