 |
|
|
|||||
Every founder wants top-tier talent. But when your company is young, two obstacles loom. The first one is that no one knows you. The second one is that, likely, you cant afford a full-time senior hire. The irony is that this is when you most need experienced leadership, because without it, you risk mistakes that cost more than the salary you were aiming to save. Why startups should consider senior leaders part time Bringing in a seasoned executive on a fractional basis is often a better answer than stretching for a junior full-time hire. A senior leader working part time gives you sharper decision-making, clearer priorities, and fewer detours. You get the benefit of years of experience without locking yourself into a payroll commitment you cant sustain. For the right scope of work, five hours a week from someone who has scaled before is worth more than 50 hours from someone learning on the job. Especially lately, many senior professionals are open to this model. Some want flexibility for family or side projects. Others value variety and like to keep a portfolio of roles. And in a market still shaped by layoffs, part-time income streams feel safer than a single employer. Hence, this arrangement makes sense for both sides, as long as expectations are set early and respected. How to hire part-time senior talent The first step is clarity. A vague job description with slogans will not suffice to attract someone experienced. Spell out the outcomes you expect. Instead of help us drive growth, say design and oversee a three-month plan to test five paid acquisition channels. Define how decisions will be made, the reporting line, and what success looks like. This will help them feel the role as something achievable in the time you are offering. Next, design the role to be respectful of their level. Senior operators will not commit to open-ended advisory calls or endless Slack pings. Set specific projects with clear deliverables, and show them you have thought about how their time will be used and that you understand the value they bring. The more tangible you can make the assignment, the easier it is for them to picture success. Finally, make it easy to say yes. Offer a paid pilot so both sides can test the fit. Be transparent about budget and timelines. Pay on time, and share how their work will be applied. And, of course, acknowledge their contribution. These details signal professionalism, and when you are still unknown, this matters more than perks. How to work with fractional leaders once you have them Hiring is only the beginning. To get value from a fractional leader, you need to create an environment where they can contribute without friction. As Jim Collins once observed, Great people need great things to do, or they will take their creative energies elsewhere. Even part-time, seasoned professionals will disengage if the setup is chaotic or the work is poorly defined. That means giving them access to the information they need, assigning a clear decision-maker they can work with, and sticking to a predictable cadence of check-ins. Chaos burns trust quickly, even if the hours are limited. To avoid this, set super clear expectations on both sides. They should know how you prioritize, how experiments differ from commitments, and who owns which decisions. You should know how they prefer to communicate and how they measure success. When the rhythm is established, their time multiplies the impact of your whole team, and the fractional leader can quickly raise the standard of execution and help you move faster. The bottom line For an early-stage company, every hire carries risk. But trying to fill a senior role full time before you can afford it is often the bigger risk. A fractional leader can give you the judgment and experience you need to avoid expensive mistakes, while keeping your company nimble. Start clear, keep the scope focused, and follow through on your commitments. Do that, and you will find senior professionals willing to bet on you, long before the market knows your name.
Category:
E-Commerce
According to a new NBC poll of 2,970 adults ages 18 to 29, Gen Z men and women are at oddsnot just about politics but also on how theyre viewed at work and what it means to be successful. For starters, men approve of Trump’s job performance at a far higher rate than women. A hefty 74% of women disapprove of the job Trump is doing, while only 53% of men in the same age bracket do. The genders were the most divided on Trump’s immigration policies, as 45% of men said they approve, while only 21% of women said the same. They also have different takes on gender and workplace culture. When asked if gender matters when it comes to getting ahead at work, more than two-thirds of men (69%) said gender doesn’t make a difference. Only about half of women (51%) felt similarly, and 44% of women said it helps to be a man. Only 27% of men answered the same way. One thing that Gen Zers were thought to be less divided on is their staggering rates of anxiety. Previous studies have shown that Gen Z struggles with anxietyabout work, finances, and the economy. However, according to the new poll, Gen Z women are far more anxious than men. While one-third (33%) of women said they feel anxious about the future almost all of the time, only 19% of men said they feel anxious “almost all of the time.” And when it comes to ideas about their plans for their future, as well as their views on what makes a successful life, Gen Z men and women are vastly different when examined through a political lens. Overall, they had the same top three answers on what defines success: “having a job or career you find fulfilling,” “having enough money to do the things you want to do,” and “having enough money to do the things you want to do.”However, when it came to women who voted for Harris versus men who voted for Trump, the answers were strikingly different. While the male Trump voters valued having children as the most important for personal success, the female Harris voters ranked it as the second-least important out of 13 choices, showing perhaps the starkest divide in the entire poll.
Category:
E-Commerce
A federal appeals court on Monday revived a Trader Joe’s lawsuit accusing a fledgling employee union of trademark infringement for selling t-shirts, buttons, mugs and reusable tote bags featuring the grocery chain’s distinctive red typeface and logo. In a 3-0 decision, The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said a trial judge was too quick to dismiss the lawsuit against Trader Joe’s United, which said it was created in 2022 and has four local chapters. Circuit Judge Gabriel Sanchez said the strength of the Trader Joe’s name, the chain’s own sale of tote bags, and the “strikingly similar” marks featuring the same red color, similar fonts and concentric circles could confuse consumers. “This is not one of the rare trademark infringement cases in which there is no plausible likelihood that a reasonably prudent consumer would be confused,” Sanchez wrote. Monday’s decision reversed a January 2024 ruling by U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera in Los Angeles, and returned the case to him. Vera called the union’s use of the Trader Joe’s mark fair use, and accused Trader Joe’s of trying to “weaponize the legal system” by suing to gain advantage in a labor dispute. Trader Joe’s disagreed, telling the appeals court that federal labor law protects many important union rights including advocacy, organizing and striking, but “selling branded goods in commerce is not one of them.” The union countered that no reasonable consumer would be confused by its tote bag, the only product sold by both parties. According to court papers, the Trader Joe’s bag featured wine, fruit, cheese and a cutting board. The union bag included a fist holding a box cutter, and the word “union.” Trader Joe’s is based in Monrovia, California, and has about 600 stores. Lawyers for the union did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trader Joe’s and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. The case is Trader Joe’s Co v Trader Joe’s United, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-720. Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Donald Trump on Monday to keep a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission away from her post for now, temporarily pausing a judicial order that required the reinstatement of the commissioner who the Republican president has sought to oust. The court’s action, known as an administrative stay, gives the justices additional time to consider Trump’s formal request to let him fire Rebecca Slaughter from the consumer protection and antitrust agency prior to her term expiring. The stay was issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency filings arising in Washington, D.C. Roberts asked Slaughter to file a response by next Monday. The Justice Department made the request on Thursday after Washington-based U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan blocked Trump’s firing of Slaughter. AliKhan ruled in July that Trump’s attempt to remove Slaughter did not comply with removal protections in federal law. Congress put such tenure protections in place to give certain regulatory agencies a degree of independence from presidential control. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on September 2 in a 2-1 decision upheld the judge’s ruling, prompting the administration’s request to the Supreme Court. Slaughter said she intends to “see this case through to the end.” “In the week I was back at the FTC it became even more clear to me that we desperately need the transparency and accountability Congress intended to have at bipartisan independent agencies,” Slaughter said. An FTC spokesperson declined to comment. The lower courts ruled that the statutory protections shielding FTC members from being removed without cause conform with the U.S. Constitution in light of a 1935 Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. In that case, the court ruled that a president lacks unfettered power to remove FTC commissioners, faulting then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s firing of an FTC commissioner for policy differences. The administration in its Supreme Court filing argued that “the modern FTC exercises far more substantial powers than the 1935 FTC,” and thus its members can be fired at will by the president. The court in a similar ruling in May said the Constitution gives the president wide latitude to fire government officials who wield executive power on his behalf. The administration has repeatedly asked the justices this year to allow implementation of Trump policies impeded by lower courts. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has sided with the administration in almost every case that it has been called upon to review since Trump returned to the presidency in January. Slaughter was one of two Democratic commissioners who Trump moved to fire in March. No more than three of the five commissioners can come from the same party, and the FTC has operated since April with three Republicans at the helm. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has pursued conservative political goals at the agency, including holding a workshop on what it called the dangers of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, saying the agency would investigate whether employers coordinated diversity, equity and inclusion goals, and telling Google that filtering Republican fundraising emails as spam could be unlawful. The FTC has also sought to investigate media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of his social media platform X, and cleared Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of rival Interpublic after the companies agreed not to steer advertising spend based on political factors. Ferguson, who was appointed as a commissioner by Democratic former President Joe Biden last year, often dissented from actions taken by then-FTC Chair Lina Khan, who carried out a liberal political agenda aimed at checking corporate power. John Kruzel and Jody Godoy, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
For more than 150 years, horse-drawn carriages have been a fixture in Manhattans Central Park. Now, a growing online movement is trying to push them out. Pure joythe feeling I have when I ruin the sale of a horse carriage guy, Kristina Papilion, who posts under the handle @spare_time_gurl, said in a video posted last month. The horse guys hate to see me coming, she added in another. @kristinapap Despite a horse collapsing and dying last week blocks from Central Park – & it being NINETY DEGREES in NYC TODAY – the Central Park horse carriages were still operating. Speak up and help save the horses!!!#centralpark #nyc #newyork #fyp #horse #horses original sound – spare_time_gurl Papilion never intended to become a horsefluencer, as she calls her now-viral series. A New York City local who visits the park almost daily, she felt compelled to speak out after a carriage horse named Lady collapsed and died last month. @kristinapap Another horse died in Central Park today!!! RIP Lady @Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AlexandriaOcasio-Cortez @Zohran Mamdani #centralpark #nyc original sound – spare_time_gurl At the end of July, I was in California when I recorded a video about how the industry needs to end, Papilion tells Fast Company. I decided to wait and re-record when I got back to New York, thinking it would carry more weight. But before I even could, Lady collapsed and died on 11th Avenue. Thats when I postedthe same day she died. Ladys death has revived a long-running debate over an industry some see as a tourist draw and others as animal abuse. (Fast Company has reached out to the Transport Workers Union for comment.) Since then, Papilion has made it her mission to educate tourists about carriage horses and push back against handlers who, she says, work them during periods of extreme heat. While the drivers may resent her, many commenters cheer her on. Girl, thank you for what youre doing, one wrote. Youre literally my hero, added another. @kristinapap Saturday, August 16 @ 11:30am | Everyones favorite coachman being the horse lover that he is this morning #nyc #centralpark original sound – spare_time_gurl My hope is that the more people see how outdated and cruel this practice is, the harder it becomes to ignore, Papilion tells Fast Company. If the videos push things in the right direction, its worth every aggressive run-in. Papilion is not the only influencer using their platform to speak up about the practice. This is the type of shit that pisses me the fuck off, TikToker Dylan Kevitch remarked in a video posted last month as he biked through Central Park. Just give me five seconds. @dylan.kevitch Save a horse and ride a cowboy! #fyp original sound – msjacksonn89 A few seconds later, he rode past a carriage pulled by a white horse. Put the fucking horse back in the fucking barn, he shouted at the handler. The clip has since gained 2.6 million views. I go to Central Park almost every day to ride a bike, and it kills me to see these adorable horses in the beating sun, Kevitch tells Fast Company. I wanted to take advantage of my platform and use my voice. Ladys death comes three years after another high-profile death of a carriage horse named Ryder. The horses death spurred Ryders Law, a bill introduced in 2022 to phase out and ban horse-drawn carriages in the city by 2026. For the first time, the Central Park Conservancy has thrown its support behind the bill,
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] next »