Whats your favorite brand? Now ask yourself, why? Brands That Matter is Fast Companys effort to answer that question on a broader scale. To recognize the brands that have significant cultural relevance, find unique and powerful ways to connect with audiences, and of course, drive business impact.
Now, were calling for brands of all shapes, sizes, and stripes to apply. Tell us your story!
Here are three reasons why you should apply:
1. Celebrate cultural relevance
It’s what distinguishes a brand from its competitors. Its what forges emotional connection with people. It may be a film, an event, or something that helps make our days easier or more efficient. But finding an audience and then crafting unique and meaningful ways to engage with them is one of the keys to long-term brand health.
Cultural relevance is one of the most important metrics for any brand today. This is an amazing chance to show it off.
2. Spotlight on CMOs
The role of the chief marketing officer is ever-evolving, and often bespoke to the company and brands with which they work. But the job has become more complicated while still being a crucial linchpin to commercial growth and success. In order to succeed, marketing execs must continuously straddle the growing collection of media and platforms to elevate their brands cultural resonance, and connect to audiences.
This is your chance to shine a spotlight on the executives making the biggest difference at your brand.
3. Get your brand story seen
Brands That Matter regularly receives more than 1,000 applications. But while only a relative handful are ultimately chosen to be recognized, for the Fast Company editors and writers judging each application, its also a treasure trove of potential stories and sources for the future.
So what are you waiting for? Apply now!
Ugly might be the new cute: Just look at Labubu, a “kind of ugly” plush toy that has sparked a buying frenzy across the world, especially in Asia, reported CNN. People from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur flocked to shopping malls on Friday to get the latest edition of the oh-so-collectible furry, while they quickly sold out online.
Inspired by Nordic folklore, the toothy stuffed animal has high, pointy rabbit-like ears; big round eyes; and a mischievous grin with serrated teeth. Made by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, Labubus come in so-called “blind boxes” the size of a hand, which keep the contents a mystery until the box is opened.
Pop Mart, which sells collectibles, has sold Labubus as part of its The Monsters series for a few years, making a staggering 3 billion yuan (roughly $410 million in sales) last year alone, reported CNN.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. on Friday, dozens of people lined up in the early morning hours in front of a Chicago Pop Mart store for the toy. By 6 a.m., a long line of fans snaked around the block.
Labubu mania
Celebrities from Rihanna to Lisa from Blackpink are fans of Labubu. The K-pop singer, who recently appeared in the television hit series White Lotus, recently proclaimed on Instagram: Labubu is my baby. On Wednesday, Lisa showed off her new pink-and-yellow tie-dye Labubu from the latest collection, which is big news because she is credited in part with the toys extreme popularity in Southeast Asia, per CNN.
In 2015, according to Pop Mart’s website, illustrator Kasing Lung created a fairy tale world inspired by Nordic mythology, populating it with magical characters both good and evil, called “The Monsters.” The most prominent is Labubu, who is “kindhearted and always wants to help, but often accidentally achieves the opposite.”
Lung was born in Hong Kong but grew up in the Netherlands, and he draws from both cultureswhich could explain Labubu’s cross-cultural global appeal.
Independent bookstores have long been champions of community, curiosity, and cultureand on Saturday, April 26, they get their moment in the spotlight. Independent Bookstore Day, a nationwide celebration of indie bookstores, invites readers to shop locally and support the spaces that keep storytelling vibrant. But this year, the festivities come with a wrinkle: Amazon is holding a major book sale at the same time, and many booksellers and readers aren’t having it.
Independent bookstores and users on BookTok are expressing their frustration with Amazon while encouraging readers to stay off of the online shopping site and instead make the trek to their local bookstore for the day. Some are even directly calling out Amazon and another large book retailer, Barnes & Noble, for having their sales so close to Independent Bookstore Day.
So if you didnt knowand its okay if you didnt, because I feel like Amazon is working overtime to try and overshadow the whole daythis Saturday, April 26, is Independent Bookstore Day, TikTok user torithatnerd said in a video posted Thursday.
Independent Bookstore Day began as California Bookstore Day in 2013, as a take on Record Store Day, according to Samantha Schoech in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Schoech wrote that it was a way for indie bookstores to band together and encourage a celebration of all things independent bookstores have to offer the public.
Independent bookstores are not just storestheyre community centers and locals anchors, Schoech wrote. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity.
While the celebratory day started in California, sponsored by the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, Schoech took the event nationwide in 2014. Soon after, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) began sponsoring the event, and this year a record-breaking number of stores are participating. Over 1,600 bookstores from all 50 states plan to celebrate on Saturday.
Protecting books in a digital age
Andy Hunter is CEO and founder of Bookshop.org, a website and business with a B Corp certification that works to acknowledge and encourage the convenience of online shopping for books while still supporting local bookshops.
On the website, customers choose a bookstore theyd like to support when buying books, and the profits from orders are sent directly to the bookstore they selected. If customers opt not to choose a story, their purchases contribute to a profit-sharing pool that helps all associated bookshops affiliated with Bookshop.org.
Every independent bookstore is kind of an advocate and activist for the importance of books and reading in our society, Hunter said. So we want books to survive. We dont want Amazons rise to be an extinction for local bookstores that are precious.
In April 2024, the ABA filed a motion to intervene in the Federal Trade Commissions antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. The motion argues that Amazon has a monopoly power over books and can offer books at prices that independent bookstores find impossible to match. The motion, however, was eventually denied due to both the FTC and Amazons argument that ABAs claims were distinct from the FTCs allegations.
For some BookTok-ers, though, the timing of Amazons sale feels intentional. Though Amazons books may be cheaper than an average independent bookstores prices, influencers are still encouraging their followers to avoid Amazon, or even go to their local library if independent bookstores are too far out of their price range.
It feels like an intentional kick in the face to local bookstores, Hunter said regarding the Amazon sale. Independent bookstores generally have to charge full price because those margins are what help them survive. Amazon engages in predatory pricing.
Amazon denied these allegations. A spokesperson said, The overlap was unintentional. The dates for our sale were set this year to accommodate additional participating countries.
Whether intentional or not, Amazons sale dates seem to be callously ignoring the importance of Independent Bookstore Day, Hunter said.
Books are really important, and theyre too important to society to entrust to a single retailer, whether or not that retailer has good intentions, he said. Independent bookstores are fighting to keep an independent marketplace for books and ideas alive, and Independent Bookstore Day is a day that everybody who supports that effort, who wants a diverse ecosystem around books, shows their support.
Meta profits, kids pay the price, was the message delivered by dozens of grieving families at the doors of Meta’s Manhattan office on Thursday.
Forty-five families traveled from across the U.S. and as far as the United Kingdom to hold a vigil outside the East Village headquarters of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Holding photos of their children, they spoke about lives lost to cyberbullying, sextortion scams, and suicide-glorifying contentcalling on Meta to take immediate action to protect children on its platforms.
On a pile of rose bouquets, the families and demonstrators placed an open letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg. Signed by more than 11,000 individuals and 18 safety organizations, the letter urges Meta to “end the algorithmic promotion of dangerous content to children under 18, including explicit and sexualizing content, racism and hate speech, content promoting disordered eating or self-harm, dangerous viral challenges, and content promoting drugs and alcohol.”
The letter also calls for concrete steps to prevent nefarious actors including sexual predators, sextortionists, and drug dealers from finding, meeting, and grooming children and teens across all Meta platforms,” along with faster, more transparent responses to reports of harmful content or behavior.
The vigil was organized by Heat Initiative, ParentsTogether Action, and Design It for Us. Among those in attendance was Tammy Rodriguez, a mother from Connecticut, whose 11-year-old daughter died by suicide after becoming addicted to Instagram and later being groomed by men on another platform. In an effort to understand her daughters experience, Rodriguez created a fake Instagram account as a 12-year-old. “Within weeks the whole algorithm changed, I would never have received that on my own, just suicide content, self-harm content,” Rodriguez said, per ABC 7.
Mary Rodee, another mother who lost her 15-year-old son in 2021, shared that he was coerced into sending intimate photos by a sextortion scammer on Facebook. My kid is dead. I have nothing else to lose, Rodee said at the vigil, according to Bloomberg. Like so many other families, Ive been trying to meet with Mark Zuckerberg for years on this issue, but he refuses. Were all here to show that were willing to do whatever it takes.
“We know parents are concerned about their teens’ having unsafe or inappropriate experiences online,” a Meta spokesperson told Fast Company. “It’s why we significantly changed the Instagram experience for teens with Teen Accounts, which were designed to address parents’ top concerns. Teen Accounts have built-in protections that limit who can contact teens and the content they see, and 94% of parents say these are helpful. We’ve also developed safety features to help prevent abuse, like warning teens when they’re chatting to someone in another country, and recently worked with Childhelp to launch a first-of-its kind online safety curriculum, helping middle schoolers recognize potential online harm and know where to go for help.”
Starting today, shopping on Shein and Temu is going from dirt cheap to slightly less dirt cheap.
In updates to U.S. customers last week, the rival retailers shared similar announcements that their pricing would go up beginning on April 25, citing rising operating expenses from global trade rules and tariffs. The retailers even encouraged shoppers to get one last order in before it was too late: Until April 25, prices will stay the same, so you can shop now at todays rates, Temu wrote in its announcement. Weve stocked up and stand ready to make sure your orders arrive smoothly during this time.
By this morning, that shopping window had passed. Heres what we know so far about the price hikes, and how they might impact your favorite TikTok influencers next haul:
Why is this happening now?
This update from Shein and Temu doesnt exactly come as a surprise. Since early February, President Trumps new tariff policies made it clear that neither companys business model could survive unchanged for long.
Both Shein and Temu operate by using labor in Chinese factories to manufacture ultracheap goods and ship them abroad. But unlike other companies with a similar manufacturing strategylike Gap or H&MShein and Temu cut the middleman of stocking in U.S. warehouses by shipping goods directly from China to shoppers doors. This strategy has historically allowed them to take advantage of a tax code loophole called de minimis, which allows all packages under $800 to ship into the U.S. duty-free.
In early April, Trump signed an executive order thats set to end the de minimis loophole starting on May 2. That means that Shein and Temus packagespart of a total of four million low-value packages that arrive in the U.S. every daywill no longer be exempt from duties. For companies relying on Chinese-made goods, that’s an especially heavy financial burden, given that Trump also recently slapped a 145% tariff on most products made in China.
As experts predicted back in February, Shein and Temu are unable to absorb the major costs associated with Trump nixing the de minimis loophole. Now, theyve been forced to forfeit some of their competitive advantage by offloading costs onto consumers.
How will this affect pricing?
So far, its not entirely clear what those added consumer costs will look like. Neither Shein nor Temu provided specific price hike rates or an idea of how shipping might be affected, and its not immediately evident whether markups are the same across the board or variable based on items.
Pricing on Shein and Temu is difficult to navigate at the best of times, given that both sites rely on a nightmarish UX of constant promotions, markdowns, and discount codes to obscure the actual cost of individual items and make them appear even cheaper than they already are. To get some sense of how costs have increased, Fast Company took a look through TikToks that track Shein orders from earlier this week (when customers were flocking to place their last orders) and compared them to prices on the sites today.
On Tuesday, creator Chiara Aceto made a video showing followers what to add to your Shein cart before you place that order on April 25th. In the TikTok, she recommends a $21.59 yellow two-piece set, a $17.86 pair of heels, and an $8.79 sparkly tank top, among other items. Those pieces are now $44.71, $22.90, and $17.69, respectively, with both the set and the tank top nearly doubling in price. Other pieces, like a relatively pricey ($63.80) knockoff Miu Miu handbag only went up by about $1, while still others, like a Stanley cup dupe, have gone down slightly in price.
Aceto followed up with another video on Wednesday sharing her favorite bags on the site. Most of the bags are hovering around the same prices today, while a few have shot up considerably, like one Prada dupe that was $36.85 and is now $56.20. Overall, nearly all of the items mentioned by Aceto in the two TikToks are at least slightly more expensive today than they were earlier in the weekthough, given that Sheins prices are known to fluctuate on a regular basis, its difficult to tell how much of the change can be attributed to tariff price hikes, and how much is just par for the course.
Nvertheless, customers appear to be noticing a difference today. In a video posted on Wednesday, creator @lifeoqhi0js, who is a Shein ambassador, also warned followers to get their orders in before April 25. Several commenters under the video reported seeing prices go up this morning, including one user who wrote that their cart had increased by $60 overnight, and another who asked, why did a $3 shirt go up to $11?
Shein and Temus futures are currently looking relatively bleak, given that their business models revolve almost entirely around offering the lowest possible prices compared to competitors. To be clear, both retailers prices are still unbelievably cheap. But for consumers, the difference between a $3 T-shirt and an $11 T-shirt might be enough to abandon a $700 Shein haul in favor of investing in fewer pieces that will last a bit longer.
The Trump administration is loosening rules to help U.S. automakers like Elon Musks Tesla develop self-driving cars so they can take on Chinese rivals.
U.S. companies developing self-driving cars will be allowed exemptions from certain federal safety rules for testing purposes, the Transportation Department said Thursday. The department also said it will streamline crash reporting requirements involving self-driving software that Musk has criticized as onerous and will move toward a single set of national rules for the technology to replace a patchwork of state regulations.
Were in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldnt be higher, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard.
The new exemption procedures will allow U.S. automakers to apply to skip certain safety rules for self-driving vehicles if they are used only for research, demonstrations and other noncommercial purposes. The exemptions were in place previously for foreign, imported vehicles whose home country rules may be different than those in the U.S.
The decision comes a day after Musk confirmed on a conference call with Tesla investors that the electric vehicle maker will begin a rollout of self-driving Tesla taxis in Austin in June.
Its not clear how the exemptions from National Traffic Safety Administration rules will affect Tesla specifically. The company has pinned its future on complete automation of its cars, but it is facing stiff competition now from rivals, especially China automaker BYD.
The crash reporting rule being changed has drawn criticism from Musk as too burdensome and unfair. Tesla has reported many of the total crashes under the rule in part because it is the biggest seller of partial self-driving vehicles in the U.S.
Traffic safety watchdogs had feared that the Trump administration would eliminate the reporting rule. The transportation statement Thursday said reporting will be loosened to remove unnecessary and duplicative requirements but that the obligation to report crashes will remain.
Bernard Condon, AP business writer
Wall Street’s big three-day rally is running out of steam, and U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading Friday as they near the end of another roller-coaster week.
The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in midday trading, as nearly three out of every four stocks fell within the index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 237 points, or 0.6%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher thanks to gains for a handful of influential Big Tech stocks.
Intel weighed on the market after the chip company said its seeing elevated uncertainty across the industry and gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of analysts expectations. Its stock fell 6.8% even though its results for the beginning of the year topped expectations.
Eastman Chemical fell 5.9% after it gave a forecast for profit this spring that fell short of analysts expectations. CEO Mark Costa said that the macroeconomic uncertainty that defined the last several years has only increased and that future demand for its products is unclear given the magnitude and scope of tariffs.
Skechers U.S.A., the shoe and apparel company, pulled its financial forecasts for the year due to macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policies even though it just reported a record quarter of revenue at $2.41 billion. Its stock fell 4.3%.
Theyre the latest companies to say the uncertainty created by President Donald Trumps trade war is making it difficult to give financial forecasts for the upcoming year.
Stocks had rallied earlier in the week on signals that Trump may be softening his approach on tariffs and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which had earlier shaken markets. The hope is that if Trump rolls back some of his stiff tariffs, he could avert a recession that many investors see as otherwise likely because of his trade war.
But Trumps on-again-off-again tariffs may nevertheless be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment because of how quickly conditions can change, sometimes seemingly by the hour.
Business owners scrambling to figure out their supply chains and exposure to tariffs is more than just a distraction, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. It could be an existential threat, especially for smaller businesses that dont have the scale or resources to have the same supply chain flexibility as larger firms.
Helping to keep Wall Streets losses in check was Alphabet, which rose 2.2%. Googles parent company reported late Thursday that its profit soared 50% in the first quarter, more than analysts expected.
Alphabet is one of the biggest companies on Wall Street in terms of size, and that gives its stock’s movements extra influence on the S&P 500 and other indexes. Another market heavyweight, Nvidia, also helped push the S&P 500 index upward after the chip company rose 2.2%
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across much of Europe following more mixed movements in Asia. Tokyos Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9%, but stocks in Shanghai slipped 0.1%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased some more, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.28% from 4.32% late Thursday.
Its been generally falling since approaching 4.50% earlier this month in a surprising rise that had suggested investors worldwide may be losing faith in the U.S. bond markets reputation as a safe place to park cash.
Yields have dropped as several reports on the U.S. economy have come in weaker than expected, raising expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates later this year to support growth.
A report on Friday morning said sentiment among U.S. consumers sank in April, though not by as much as economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said its measure of expectations for coming conditions has dropped 32% since January for the steepest three-month percentage decline seen since the 1990 recession.
The value of the U.S. dollar meanwhile strengthened against the euro and other rival currencies. It’s been recovering some of its sharp, unexpected losses from earlier this month that rattled investors.
Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.
This year has so far been a pretty brutal one when it comes to store closures. Hundreds of retail stores have already shuttered due to everything from cost-cutting to bankruptcies. Major store closures so far in 2025 have included Rite Aid, Forever 21, Joann, Party City, Kohls, and Big Lots.
But one major store chain seems to be bucking the trend by opening new locations. That store is the popular grocery chain Trader Joes. Despite some controversies and questionable alleged business practices as reported earlier this year by Fast Company, the chain is still beloved by many diehard adherents. And now it seems like Trader Joes is capitalizing on that popularity by opening at least 22 new stores in the near future.
The chain currently has 581 stores spanning 42 states and Washington, D.C., according to USA Today. But soon 13 of those states and D.C. will be adding additional stores. (For context, Chain Store Age reported back in March 2024 that Trader Joe’s had “more than 500” locations.)
Heres the full list of Trader Joes new stores that are opening, according to data from the companys opening soon tool on its store locator website. Fast Company reached out to Trader Joe’s to confirm the accuracy of the store locator figure and ask if any additional store openings are being planned. We will update this story if we hear back.
Alabama
Hoover, AL 35244
California
Northridge, CA 91325
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 (Sherman Oaks 2)
Tarzana, CA 91356
Tracy, CA 95304
Yucaipa, CA 92399
Colorado
Westminster, CO 80031
Louisiana
New Orleans, LA 70119 (Mid-City)
Massachusetts
Boston, MA 02132 (West Roxbury)
Maryland
Rockville, MD 20850 (Town Square)
New Jersey
Iselin, NJ 08830 (Woodbridge)
New York
Glenmont, NY 12077
Staten Island, NY 10309 (Tottenville)
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, OK 73132 (Northwest)
Pennsylvania
Berwyn, PA 19312
Exton, PA 73132
South Carolina
Myrtle Beach, SC 29588
Texas
McKinney, TX 75070 (West)
San Antonio, TX 78230 (Northwest)
Washington
Bellingham, WA 98226 (Bellingham – North)
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. 20015 (Friendship Heights)
Washington, D.C. 20017 (Brookland)
Retail store closures could hit 15,000 in 2025
Despite Trader Joes expansion, America is expected to lose thousands of retail stores in 2025. According to a January report from Coresight Research, the U.S. could see up to 15,000 retail stores close this year.
The cost of inflation and the increasing preference of consumers to shop online are reported to be two of the biggest factors influencing retail store closures in 2025. Of course, keep in mind that Coresights report was conducted before President Donald Trump unleashed his tariffs on the world in April.
It is likely that the increased cost of importing goods into the United States, which is borne by the retail chains that import the goods, could have a negative economic impact on some of those chains. If that happens, it’s possible that even more retailers might decide to close stores to cut costs. For now, only time will tell.
The world’s auto industry is getting a shake-up from Chinese automakers that are quickly expanding across the globe, offering relatively affordable electric vehicles designed to wow car buyers with sleek designs and the latest high-tech interiors.Companies like BYD, Great Wall, Geely, and Chery Automobile are reaching outward as they build the scale they need to survive cutthroat competition in their home market.These generally are not state-run giants like SAIC, BAIC, and Guangzhou Automotive. The founder of Geely started out making refrigerators.BYD first built up its expertise in battery technology, now its biggest advantage as the world’s largest-selling EV maker. Some others are technology companies allied with automakers to offer autonomous driving.Here are some of the key players:
Great Wall Motors
Great Wall Motors, with the Haval, Wey, Ora, Poer, and Tank brands, is banking on overseas sales to keep growing after seeing its sales inside China fall by nearly 15% last year, even as the company’s net profit jumped more than 80%. The company has factories in Russia, Thailand and Brazil, where it is challenging Toyota’s popular Hilux pickup truck with its GWM Poer, a hybrid pickup of its own. Another mainstay is the Haval H6, a hybrid sports SUV.Great Wall has smoothed its transition to overseas production by buying factories of other automakers. In Thailand, it took over a factory formerly operated by General Motors Corp. In Brazil, it purchased a former Mercedes-Benz plant.“It is essential for volume to be big, otherwise the cost of production is too high,” Great Wall’s chairman, Wei Jianjun, said in a media huddle at the show. Wei, who also goes by the name Jack Wey, was born in Beijing but moved to nearby Hebei, home of the Great Wall. He led the company’s transition from vehicle modification to automaking, becoming China’s biggest maker of pickup trucks and a leading SUV maker. The company has a joint venture for EVs with BMW.
Chery
State-owned Chery Automobile says it was the first Chinese automaker to export overseas. It has sold more than 15 million of its Chery, Exeed, Omoda, and Jetour models overseas, mostly in the developing world and emerging markets, including Turkey and Ukraine. Chery reported selling 2.6 million vehicles overseas last year and is aiming for 3 million in 2025. It’s quickly expanding overseas production, setting up factories in Russia and Spain. It is expanding rapidly in Latin America.Chery’s tie-up with EV-maker Visionary Vehicles aimed to sell in North America but has not yet achieved that goal. The company has a 50-50 joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover, which is a subsidiary of Tata Motors of India that makes Jaguars and Land Rovers in China. It also collaborates with Huawei Technologies and e-commerce giant Alibaba.Chery still sells far more fuel-engine cars than EVs. Its battery electric vehicle company, Chery New Energy, makes minivehicles like the eQ1, or Small Ant, and the QQ Ice Cream. Its mainstays are the Tiggo lineup of SUVs and its Arrizo sedans.
BYD
BYD made more electric vehicles last year than Tesla, selling 3.52 million EVs in China, up 28% from a year earlier. Its strength in plug-in hybrids has helped as Chinese increasingly opt for the fallback of a fuel engine.The company, based in southern China’s Shenzhen, recently announced an ultra-fast EV charging system it says can provide a full charge for its latest EVs within five to eight minutes, about as long as a fill-up. It plans to build more than 4,000 of the new charging stations across China.The Chinese company started out making batteries and has been refining its battery and energy storage technology while building an auto empire that is expanding outside China.While BYD’s fanciest, latest premium models are expected to sell for up to about $40,000, it also makes much less expensive EVs including the Seagull, which sells for around $12,000 in China.BYD barely nudged ahead of Tesla in production of battery-powered EVs in 2024, making 1,777,965 compared with Tesla’s 1,773,443.
Geely
Geely Auto is perhaps the most famous Chinese automaker that many people have never heard of. The privately held company was founded as a refrigerator-maker by businessman Li Shufu in 1997 in eastern China’s Taizhou, which early on became a hub of private industry.Li began making strategic overseas acquisitions early on, buying Sweden’s Volvo Car Co. from Ford Motor in 2010. Geely’s purchase of a 49.9% stake in Malaysia’s Proton gave it a 51% stake in luxury sports car brand Lotus. It formed a 50-50 joint venture to make Smart city cars with Germany’s Daimler AG. It also works with Renault SA of France on powertrains and owns a stake in Aston Martin Lagonda.In March, it launched sales of its Geely EX5 SUVs in Australia and New Zealand, adding to its global reach.Geely also owns New York Stock Exchange-listed Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding, which makes a premium EV brand. Geely and Volvo own Swedish automaker Polestar, which has struggled in the U.S. market.
Wuling
China’s second-best selling EV brand is Wuling, a joint venture of Shanghai’s SAIC Motor, General Motors and Guangxi Auto. It sold more than 673,000 EVs in China and has a market share of only 6% compared with BYD’s nearly one-third share. Tesla came in third at 659,000 cars sold.Apart from its Baojun sedans and vans, Wuling mainly makes engines, commercial vehicles and special purpose vehicles like mini-EVs and golf carts.
Others
Other major Chinese brands of EVs include Nio, Xpeng, Li Auto and Leap Motor. State-run giants like Dongfeng Motor Group, which has an alliance with Nissan Motor Corp., and Changan Automobile, a partner with Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp. and with Ford Motor Co., are also quickly expanding EV sales.But the industry is fast-changing and competition in the home market is tough. That’s a key reason why the biggest automakers have focused attention on expanding into global markets.
Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
The traditional model of leadership, where a single individual is expected to provide all the answers, is becoming obsolete. In a world of accelerating complexity, hyper-specialization, and rapid change, no leader can single-handedly navigate the full spectrum of challenges facing modern organizations.
The future of leadership is about curating the best insights, talent, and ideas, not dictating the direction. The best leaders will be those who act as architects of collaboration, assembling diverse perspectives and fostering an environment where expansive thinking thrives.
This shift in leadership isnt just about delegationits about creating conditions for continuous learning, adaptability, and innovation. Leaders who embrace a curation mindset are best equipped to drive organizations forward in an unpredictable world.
Why Curation is the New Leadership Superpower
In a world overflowing with expertise, no single leader can master every domain. The leaders who thrive are those who:
Curate Talent. They dont just hire smart people; they intentionally build diverse teams with complementary skills and perspectives. Studies show that diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones by 39% in problem-solving efficiency.
Curate Ideas. They create spaces where unconventional thinking is not only encouraged but strategically leveraged. Googles 20% time policy, which allows employees to spend part of their workweek exploring passion projects, has led to breakthroughs like Gmail and Google Maps.
Curate Innovation. They design environments where experimentation, iteration, and cross-disciplinary collaboration drive meaningful breakthroughs. IDEO, a global design consultancy, uses cross-industry ideation sessions to unlock unexpected solutions, from healthcare innovation to urban design.
Rather than positioning themselves as the ultimate expert, these leaders act as orchestrators, ensuring that the right voices are heard at the right moments.
How Leaders Can Adopt a Curation Mindset
The shift from traditional leadership to curation requires intentional practices. Heres how leaders can start:
Seek Out Outliers.Conventional wisdom often leads to conventional results. The best leaders actively engage with voices outside their immediate circlescontrarians, industry outsiders, and emerging thinkers who challenge the status quo. For instance, Netflixs early decision to pivot from DVD rentals to streaming came from its leaderships ability to absorb trends from tech, media, and consumer behavior research.
Design for Collaboration, Not Just Efficiency.Many organizations optimize for productivity at the cost of creative collision. Leaders must create structured serendipity, allowing ideas from different disciplines to intersect in unexpected ways. Pixars open office architecture, where animators, writers, and tech teams share communal spaces, has fostered storytelling innovation.
Facilitate, Dont Dictate.Instead of being the sole decision-maker, adopt a facilitators mindsetguiding discussions, posing better questions, and allowing collective intelligence to emerge. Jeff Bezoss Disagree and Commit principle at Amazon encourages debate, ensuring that the team moves forward with informed risk-taking even if consensus isn’t reached.
Champion Psychological Safety.The best ideas often come from environments where individuals feel safe to challenge, experiment, and even fail. Research from Googles Project Aristotle found that psychological safety was the top predictor of high-performing teams.
Unlocking Cross-Disciplinary Breakthroughs
Historys most significant breakthroughs didnt come from isolated silos but from cross-disciplinary collisionswhere physics met art, where biology informed engineering, and where technology reshaped storytelling. Here are a few inspiring examples:
NASA & The Sports Industry: NASAs space suit advancements have directly influenced sportswear technology, improving gear used by Olympians.
Bioengineering & Architecture: The Eastgate Centre in Zimbabwe was designed using biomimicry principles based on termite mounds, leading to a 90% reduction in cooling costs compared to conventional buildings.
AI & Music Composition: IBMs Watson has been used to compose symphonies, merging artificial intelligence with classical music expertise to create never-before-heard compositions.
Organizations that embrace curation-minded leadership will be better equipped to solve complex, multidimensional challenges.
The organizations that thrive in the future will not be those with leaders who know the mostit will be those led by individuals who know how to bring the right minds together to figure things out.
The ability to curate talent, ideas, and innovation will define the next generation of transformational leadership.
So, as you reflect on your own leadership approach, ask yourself: Are you accumulating knowledge, or are you assembling the right people and perspectives to unlock something greater?
The future belongs to curators. Are you ready to lead like one?
