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When Santa Claus is done delivering presents on Christmas Eve, he must get back home to the North Pole, even if its snowing so hard that the reindeer cant see the way. He could use a compass, but then he has a challenge: He has to be able to find the right North Pole. There are actually two North Polesthe geographic North Pole you see on maps and the magnetic North Pole that the compass relies on. They arent the same. The two North Poles The geographic North Pole, also called true north, is the point at one end of the Earths axis of rotation. Try taking a tennis ball in your right hand, putting your thumb on the bottom and your middle finger on the top, and rotating the ball with the fingers of your left hand. The place where the thumb and middle finger of your right hand contact the tennis ball as it spins define the axis of rotation. The axis extends from the south pole to the north pole as it passes through the center of the ball. Earths magnetic North Pole is different. More than a thousand years ago, explorers began using compasses, typically made with a floating cork or piece of wood with a magnetized needle in it, to find their way. The Earth has a magnetic field that acts like a giant magnet, and the compass needle aligns with it. The magnetic North Pole is used by devices such as smartphones for navigationand that pole moves around over time. Why the magnetic north pole moves around The movement of the magnetic North Pole is the result of the Earth having an active core. The inner core, starting about 3,200 miles below your feet, is solid and under such immense pressure that it cannot melt. But the outer core is molten, consisting of melted iron and nickel. Heat from the inner core makes the molten iron and nickel in the outer core move around, much like soup in a pot on a hot stove. The movement of the iron-rich liquid induces a magnetic field that covers the entire Earth. As the molten iron in the outer core moves around, the magnetic North Pole wanders. For most of the past 600 years, the pole has been wandering around over northern Canada. It was moving relatively slowly, around 6 to 9 miles per year, until around 1990, when its speed increased dramatically, up to 34 miles per year. It started moving in the general direction of the geographic North Pole about a century ago. Earth scientists cannot say exactly why other than that it reflects a change in flow within the outer core. Getting Santa home So, if Santas home is the geographic North Pole (which, incidentally, is in the ice-covered middle of the Arctic Ocean) how does he correct his compass bearing if the two North Poles are in different locations? No matter what device he might be usingcompass or smartphoneboth rely on magnetic north as a reference to determine the direction he needs to move. While modern GPS systems can tell you precisely where you are as you make your way to grandmas house, they cannot accurately tell which direction to go without your device knowing the direction of magnetic north. If Santa is using an old-fashioned compass, hell need to adjust it for the difference between true north and magnetic north. To do that, he needs to know the declination at his location (the angle between true north and magnetic north) and make the correction to his compass. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an online calculator that can help. If you are using a smartphone, your phone has a built-in magnetometer that does the work for you. It measures the Earths magnetic field at your location and then uses the World Magnetic Model to correct for precise navigation. Whatever method Santa uses, he may be relying on magnetic north to find his way to your house and back home again. Or maybe the reindeer just know the way. Scott Brame is a research assistant professor of earth science at Clemson University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Costcos latest promotional offering just dropped, but members arent rushing to claim it. At select warehouse club locations, members can now take home complimentary 3-pound bags of Gala apples. The shopping warehouses unique business model, wherein membership fees contribute largely to its revenue, means that it focuses on plugging its membership more than advertising specific products. Costco puts significant effort into encouraging people to join, or upgrade and renew, existing memberships. In the past, Costco has offered enticing items like tote bags to coax customers into automatic membership renewals, but the promotional bag of apples is not as appealing, according to one Costco member. Giving away apples is like giving away white bread, they told TheStreet. Its fine, I guess, but not very interesting. Its certainly not going to get me to do anything different. Costco has previously been successful in pushing customers to upgrade to the Executive tier, which is $130 annually, with customers earning 2% cash back on most purchases, compared with $65 for the basic level. In June, for example, Costco started unveiling a new membership feature that allowed Executive members to shop one hour earlier than regular members during weekdays and Sundays, and half an hour earlier on Saturdays. The perk was generally well received. The company reported a 1% boost in sales at the end of September, and Executive memberships increased by 9%, according to CFO Gary Millerchip. Which might explain why the apples that followed seemed to fall a bit flat. Whats more, Costco shoppers have complained about employees tirelessly approaching them about memberships. Another customer told TheStreet that his membership makes sense for the amount that he shops, but he continues to face pressure. The last few times Ive gone to check out, Ive gotten the third degree about my membership, he says. Its getting really old. For years, Costcos membership system has served the brand well. But its apparent that taking a few steps in the wrong direction could turn people away. Ava Levinson This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
As the year winds down, many leaders find themselves in a familiar ritual: closing the books, reviewing revenue targets, and drafting ambitious financial goals for the year ahead. These practices are important. But after years of designing teams and advising organizations at different stages of growth, Ive come to believe that the most valuable year-end ritual has little to do with money alone. Instead, its about setting nonfinancial metrics alongside your financial ones. Revenue tells you where your business landed. Nonfinancial metrics tell you why and whether the success youre chasing is sustainable. They reveal the health of your organization from the inside out, often long before that health shows up on a balance sheet. The quiet stretch between Christmas and New Years is an ideal time to step back and ask a different set of questions. Not just Did we hit our numbers? but What did it cost us to get there? And What kind of organization are we becoming in the process? Why Financial Metrics Alone Arent Enough Financial metrics are essential, but they are lagging indicators. By the time revenue dips or margins tighten, the underlying issues such as burnout, disengagement, inefficient processes, or stalled innovation have often been present for months or even years. Nonfinancial metrics, on the other hand, act as early signals. They help leaders understand whether the systems, culture, and behaviors inside the organization are aligned with long-term success. Consider employee engagement. Teams that feel trusted, challenged, and supported tend to deliver better work, collaborate more effectively, and stay longer. Gallup research shows that highly engaged teams deliver significantly better business outcomesincluding up to 23% higher profitability and 41% lower absenteeismindicating that engagement metrics act as early predictors of future performance rather than just retrospective measures. Or look at client satisfaction. Loyal clients dont just renew contracts; they deepen their engagement and/or refer others and become partners in growth. Operational efficiency, learning velocity, and innovation milestones similarly tell a story about whether an organization is built to adapt. When these indicators are strong, financial results often follow. When theyre ignored, revenue gains can be fragile or short-lived. Making the Intangible Measurable One reason leaders shy away from nonfinancial metrics is the belief that theyre too soft to track. But meaningful doesnt have to mean vague. The key is choosing a small number of metrics that reflect what actually matters in your context. A startup might track time to decision or experiment-to-launch cycles. A growing team might focus on employee engagement scores, internal mobility, or manager effectiveness. A client-facing organization might prioritize retention, net promoter score, or qualitative feedback trends. These metrics dont need to be perfect or overly complex. What matters is consistency and intent. Even a quarterly pulse survey or a structured retrospective can surface patterns that financial numbers alone wont reveal. For individuals, the same principle applies. Instead of setting only income or productivity goals, you might track energy levels, learning hours, or the quality of your working relationships. These nonfinancial indicators often predict performance more accurately than output alone. Turning Reflection Into Ritual The end of the year offers a rare pause: a liminal space where urgency softens and perspective sharpens. Rather than rushing straight into next years goals, consider making reflection a deliberate leadership ritual. Start by reviewing the nonfinancial signals from the past year. Where did momentum build naturally? Where did friction show up repeatedly? Which systems supported your work, and which quietly drained it? Then, as you look ahead, set intentional nonfinancial metrics alongside your revenue targets. Ask yourself: If we succeed financially next year, what must also be true about our people, processes, and culture? Write those answers down. Revisit them quarterly. Talk about them as openly as you discuss financial performance. A Different Kind of New Years Resolution New Years resolutions often fail because they focus on outcomes without addressing the conditions required to sustain them. Nonfinancial metrics flip that script, shifting attention from sheer output to the inputs that make great work possible. In doing so, they offer a more humane, and ultimately more effective, approach to leadership and work. They remind us that organizations arent machines that run on numbers alone. Theyre living systems shaped by trust, clarity, learning, and adjustment. As the year draws to a close, you can still set ambitious financial goals. Just dont stop there. Pair them with measures that reflect the kind of organizationand leaderyou want to be. Because when you measure what truly matters, the numbers tend to take care of themselves.
Category:
E-Commerce
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