By Karyln Borysenko – Forbes With the holiday upon us, vacation time scheduled, and a new year right around the corner, it’s not uncommon for productivity at work to take a nosedive at the end of the year. However, you can empower yourself to stay on track by making simple shifts in your day. Here… read more
By Matt Dodgson – RecruitLoop Good marketing comes from building great teams. Honestly, good creative work — marketing or no — relies on both talent and teamwork. In a world where freelancers, gig-style deals, and online help are all too easy to come by, why even fuss over assembling your own crew anyway? The answer… read more
By Paul White – Ladders From Aristotle, Plato and Socrates to Jesus and Confucius. All used stories grounded in daily life rather than just stating principles. John was struggling with how to handle a difficult situation with a key vendor for the company. He went to his supervisor, Stephanie, and asked her advice on what he should do. Rather than… read more
By Ladan Nikravan Hayes – Ladders If feedback gives you anxiety — or at a minimum, butterflies — you’re likely looking for ways to alleviate that dreadful feeling. For some, the end of the year is a dreaded time — performance review season. Even if you don’t work in a professional setting that holds annual… read more
Dear Loyal Readers: I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. It is hard to believe that the beginning of Winter is still a few weeks away; as, here in Chicago, we have had our first blizzard!! So much for Global Warming. We are now in the push for those great end of year results,… read more
Bloomin’ Brands reinvigoration of Outback has, rightfully so, grabbed headlines in recent months. If you look back to the first quarter of fiscal 2017, the company shuttered 14 restaurants and followed by refranchising 54 corporate stores to longtime franchisee partners. In Q3 of this year—the most recent report for the legacy steakhouse—same-store sales rose 4.6… read more
Breakfast used to be an after-thought at most full-service eateries, but no longer. Now a number of restaurant chains specializing in breakfast such as First Watch, Black Bear Diner, and Metro Diner are showing steady growth and intensifying the competition against long-standing rivals like IHOP and Denny’s. As more Americans work independently and crave in-person… read more
Cava Group Inc. completed its acquisition Wednesday of Zoes Kitchen, creating a privately held Mediterranean fast-casual company with some 340 units and more than 8,000 employees. The $300 million deal, first announced in August, was financed by a “significant equity investment” from Act III Holdings, the emerging brand-accelerator financing group created by former Panera Bread CEO… read more
Forty per cent of consumers say their definition of health has changed over the past two years — and that definition is driving their choices of food and beverage, according to Technomic Inc.’s 2018 Healthy Eating Consumer Trend Report. Consumers are increasingly ordering menu items that meet that personal definition of health, such as food… read more
While product recalls in the bakery and snack industries are most often due to undeclared allergens or the detection of pathogens like Salmonella or E. coli, there have been food safety issues related to packaging. For example, a package that is not secure in some way can lead to food safety hazards ranging from spoilage to sabotage. Dan… read more