Today's Management Pulse
Founder risk drives steep valuation discounts in owner‑led services firms
Dr. Dave Heath explains that founder‑dependency in owner‑led services firms mirrors the manager‑risk LPs assess in private‑equity funds. Buyers, banks and investors price this key‑person risk with 30‑50% valuation discounts or higher loan spreads. The risk stems from undefined decision authority, undocumented founder judgment, and missing exception handling.
Japan's Digital Minister Launches Gennai AI Pilot for 180,000 Civil Servants
Japan’s Digital Agency will roll out Gennai, a generative‑AI platform, to roughly 180,000 government staff in 39 ministries. The pilot aims to cut administrative workload, showcase trustworthy AI, and catalyze broader tech investment.
Workato Debuts Otto, Autonomous AI Teammate for Enterprise Workflows
Workato announced Otto, an autonomous AI teammate that can execute tasks across a company’s entire application stack while preserving IT‑level controls. The new agent promises to move beyond single‑app copilots by combining end‑to‑end automation with role‑based access, auditability and governance...
Atlassian Adds AI Chat, Code Insights and Agent Metrics to DX Suite
Atlassian unveiled four AI‑native capabilities in its recently acquired DX platform, including an AI chat interface, AI Code Insights, proactive SLA alerts and an Agent Experience scorecard. The additions aim to give engineering leaders concrete data on AI tool usage,...
Mark Allen Group Appoints Anna Younger as COO to Drive Media Expansion
Mark Allen Group announced the appointment of Anna Younger as chief operating officer, tasking her with integrating new acquisitions and scaling digital capabilities. The move follows the group's recent purchase of DVV Media International's commercial motor brands and signals a...
SPX Capital Closes London Office, Overhauls Macro Team After Sustained Losses
Brazilian hedge fund SPX Capital announced the closure of its London office and a major overhaul of its macro investment unit after a stretch of losses. The move includes the exit of senior partners Marcelo Castro and Marcella Libardoni, signaling...
Sumo Logic Hires Veteran CISO and SVP to Boost AI‑Ready Security Platform
Sumo Logic announced the appointment of Jeremy Powell as chief information security officer and Ben Cody as senior vice president of product management. The hires are aimed at hardening the company’s AI‑ready platform and accelerating product innovation as the market...
Deere & Company Appoints Brent Norwood as Senior Vice President and CFO
Deere & Company’s board has elected Brent Norwood as senior vice president and chief financial officer. The veteran executive brings more than two decades of internal and external finance experience, including leading the acquisitions of Wirtgen and Blue River Technology....
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Says Company Saw 80‑Fold Quarterly Growth, Triggers Compute Crunch
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told investors the AI startup’s revenue and usage jumped 80‑fold in the first quarter, far outpacing its 10‑fold growth plan and sparking a compute bottleneck. The company secured over 300 MW of extra capacity from SpaceX and...
CHRO Confidence Index Hits Record 59 as Hiring Surges, Retention Lags
The Conference Board reported that its CHRO Confidence Index rose to a record 59 in Q1 2026, driven by a hiring score of 63 and 59% of senior HR leaders planning to increase hiring. The report warns that retention remains...
Win Rate Alone Misleads; Pair It With Profit
Is a 34% win rate good? In 2019, my agency’s win rate was 12%. That means 9 out of 10 prospects said no to us (or we said no to them). That was our best overall year: $2M in revenue, $1M in...
7 Calendar Plays That Turn Stalled Deals Into Wins
Calendar.com outlines a seven‑play time‑blocking framework to accelerate stalled sales deals. By assigning dedicated blocks for discovery on Monday, proposal creation on Wednesday, objection handling on Friday morning, and other strategic activities, reps create a predictable rhythm that moves prospects...
Zip Deploys AI Agents to Cut Invoice Processing Time by 96% for Large Enterprises
Zip introduced AI Automation for Procure-to-Pay, a suite of agents that automate the full accounting workflow. Early adopters report invoice coding up to 96% faster and a three‑fold increase in monthly processing volume, while the platform has already flagged more...
How Great Managers Run Successful 1:1s
The post announces a free live webinar on May 21, 2026 that teaches managers how to run effective 1:1 meetings. It highlights a proven framework used by more than 20,000 managers to turn 1:1s into productive feedback sessions. The session promises to...
Dana Gas and Levidian Ink $500 Million Deal to Launch UAE’s First Graphene Plant
UAE’s Dana Gas and UK‑based Levidian have signed a partnership to develop the Sharjah Graphene Park, with an initial $2‑5 million outlay and a potential $500 million phased investment. The first phase aims to produce 15 tonnes of graphene annually by year‑end, positioning...
1X Technologies Launches Full‑Scale Production of NEO Humanoid Robots in California
1X Technologies has opened a 58,000‑square‑foot factory in Hayward, California, to produce its NEO humanoid robot at scale. The vertically integrated plant will supply research programs and, later this year, U.S. consumers, signaling a shift toward domestic mass‑manufacturing of advanced...
Margins or Revenue: Which Matters More?
In a May 2026 Asymco Office Hours session, Dave Emery asked whether Apple should focus on expanding gross margins or gross revenue. The panelist answered that top‑line growth and customer acquisition are the decisive goals, with margins taking a back‑seat....
Mediocre B Players Are the Real Threat to Success
I recently stumbled upon this quote from Frank Slootman (CEO of Snowflake), and I can’t stop thinking about it: “Mediocrity is the silent killer. Organizations are not getting killed by their C players. Everybody knows who they are, and performance eventually is...
Name Owners, Deadlines, and Outcomes—Then Step Back
Everyone owns everything. Which means no one owns anything. Agreement without accountability is just a meeting. Name who owns it. Name the deadline. Name what done looks like. Then get out of the way. @askdrbrown
3 Ways AI Can Free Organizations From Legacy Workflows
Legacy workflows and outdated assumptions are eroding competitiveness across industries. Companies like Whitford & Co., FengSys, and SuboBank used AI to surface obsolete KPIs, contradictory messaging, and false customer myths. By letting AI objectively identify and retire these legacy elements,...
Flattening Hierarchy Won’t Fix Misaligned Decision Rights
Every reorg announcement I've read this year sounds the same: 'We're flattening structure to move faster.' Translation: 'We never defined our decision rights, so we're hoping fewer layers will hide that.' Flat structures don't solve alignment. They expose it.
Bruce Cohen – Building a Best-in-Class Performance Management System in 2026 and Beyond
In a new HRTech podcast, veteran HR leader Bruce Cohen outlines how organizations can build a best‑in‑class performance management system for 2026 and beyond. He argues that traditional annual reviews are obsolete and must be replaced with continuous, data‑driven feedback...
Aline Integrates Prospect‑Centered Selling Into New CRM Platform for Senior Living
Aline announced the full integration of its Prospect‑Centered Selling® (PCS) methodology into the newly built Aline CRM platform. The move lets senior‑living operators keep proven sales behaviors while shifting to a more flexible, AI‑enhanced system. Executives say the rollout preserves...
Vori Secures $22 Million Series B to Build AI Operating System for Grocery Stores
Vori announced a $22 million Series B funding round led by Cherryrock Capital, with Greylock Partners and The Factory also participating. The capital will fund the rollout of an AI‑driven operating system that automates checkout, inventory, pricing and supplier interactions across...
Betterworks Unveils AI‑Powered Talent Intelligence Platform to Drive Execution
Betterworks rolled out an AI‑powered Talent Intelligence platform that captures performance signals in real time, promising to convert traditional performance reviews into actionable execution metrics. The suite, featuring Unified Talent Profiles and Skills Intelligence, targets the gap where only 16%...
NYT Hits 13 Million Digital Subscribers, Adds 310,000 in Q1 as Video Push Gains Momentum
The New York Times announced it surpassed 13 million digital‑only subscribers in the first quarter, adding 310,000 new users. The milestone came with a 12% rise in revenue to $712.2 million and a 31.6% jump in digital ad sales, underscoring the paper’s shift toward...
Run Your Construction Business Like a Contractor, Not a Tradesman
Construction SMEs often lose money not because they can’t build, but because their back‑office processes are scattered across quotes, invoices, WhatsApp threads and spreadsheets. The blog highlights how larger contractors rely on integrated systems to protect margins, and introduces ProBuilder...
Netwrix Adds CTO, VP of Engineering, and Channel Head to Accelerate AI‑Driven Security
Netwrix announced three senior hires—Avesta Hojjati as CTO, Marcin Gierlak as VP of Engineering and Kraków site leader, and Natalie Tomlin as Head of North America Channel—to sharpen its engineering pipeline and expand its partner ecosystem. The moves come as...
J.S. Held Names Jessica Larson SVP to Lead Digital Transformation Push
J.S. Held announced the appointment of Jessica Larson as Senior Vice President of Digital Transformation, tasking her with unifying and accelerating the firm’s digital initiatives. The move underscores the consulting firm’s ambition to embed AI, machine learning and secure data...
Bitdefender Appoints Veteran Frank Koelmel as CRO to Boost Global Business Sales
Bitdefender announced that Frank Koelmel, a three‑decade cybersecurity veteran, will serve as chief revenue officer for its Business Solutions Group. Koelmel will steer global go‑to‑market strategy, align sales, marketing and customer success, and expand the company’s partner ecosystem as AI‑driven threats...
VIP Software Hires Chris Kennedy to Scale rateIQ Insurance Intelligence Platform
VIP Software announced the hiring of Chris Kennedy as Senior Vice President of Revenue Operations to drive the next phase of expansion for its rateIQ™ platform. The move targets scalable execution as the insurance intelligence layer gains traction across carriers...
AI Success Depends on Organized, Conductor‑Style Workflows
I was working through my newsletter this week and realised there's a problem nobody's really talking about with AI adoption. Everyone's focused on which tools to use. Nobody's talking about the fact that most people aren't organized enough to actually use...
Pricing Restraint and Labor Costs Squeeze McDonald's Margins
McDonald's says its company stores were "more restrained on pricing" and invested in labor, which contributed to their margin problems. $MCD
Wyndham Deploys AI Across 8,400 Hotels and Launches First Native ChatGPT Booking App
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced a company‑wide AI rollout covering its 8,400‑property network and introduced a native ChatGPT app for hotel discovery and booking. The move leverages $450 million in tech investments and promises measurable revenue lifts for franchisees.
Start Data Cleaning Early to Prevent Vendor Delays
Vendor Statements of Work often clarify their tasks but omit yours. A single line item like 'Client shall clean data' can mean months of work, often discovered during UAT or training. Start data cleaning early to avoid costly delays. #ProjectManagement...
Simplify Onboarding to Unlock Growth without Bigger Budgets
Growth is not always about new marketing or bigger budgets. Sometimes it is about removing friction. In this episode, I show how simplifying onboarding can transform results. 👉 Watch the full episode: https://t.co/5dcOvVfGgn https://t.co/JP2RsfesqE
From Data Overload to Measurable Gains: How AI Is Driving Hotel Performance
Hotel operators face a flood of fragmented utility data that rarely translates into action. AI‑driven platform Cadae converts Building Management System outputs and dashboard metrics into prioritized, on‑site tasks, delivering roughly 25% energy and water cost reductions. Its Performance Hotel...
AI Alone Can't Drive Enterprise Transformation without Expert Guidance
The inability of AI systems to act as their own deployment consultants, process mappers, and change management experts is what makes AI use in enterprises so “normal” - the tools are powerful, but you need a lot more to...
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky Predicts AI Will Render People‑manager Roles Obsolete
Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky told the Invest Like The Best podcast that artificial intelligence will soon eliminate the need for traditional people‑manager positions. His comments join a growing chorus of tech leaders advocating flatter, AI‑driven org charts, and come...
Xbox Cancels Gaming Copilot, Announces Leadership Shake‑up to Accelerate Growth
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced a sweeping leadership reshuffle and the termination of Gaming Copilot for consoles. The move follows a 33% plunge in hardware revenue and a 5% dip in content and services revenue, as the company pivots toward...
Uber Posts 21% YoY Booking Surge and Returns $3 B to Shareholders in Q1 2026
Uber Technologies reported a 21% year‑on‑year increase in gross bookings and a 44% rise in non‑GAAP earnings per share for Q1 2026. The company also returned a record $3 billion to shareholders through stock buybacks while expanding Uber One to over...
American Express CEO Stephen Squeri Drives Premium Push to Win Gen Z and Millennials
American Express CEO Stephen Squeri is betting on affluent younger consumers, using high‑fee premium cards and pop‑culture events to spark a 38% spend jump from Gen Z. The strategy helped the firm post Q1 2026 earnings of $4.28 per share,...
Why Outsourcing Has Become the Defining Question for Modern Family Offices
At Spear’s 500 Live 2026, a panel of family‑office experts argued that the defining decision for modern family offices is what to insource versus outsource. They emphasized starting with purpose, not structure, and asked families to clarify the problems they...
U.S. Bank Survey Finds 49% of CFOs Expect More M&A, While Near‑Term Optimism Slips to 36%
U.S. Bank’s quarterly CFO Insights Report, based on 1,000 senior finance leaders surveyed March‑April 2026, shows cost cutting remains the top priority at 39%, while revenue growth jumps to 31%. Near‑term economic optimism fell to 36%, yet 49% of respondents...
Growth Rate Is Startup’s Vital Pulse—Launch First
By default my first question to any startup is "What's your growth rate?" That's the patient's pulse. Which is why we push startups to launch. Till then you have no pulse; till then you have no idea if you're doing...
DoorDash Grocery Push Sparks 37% Marketplace Sales Surge
DoorDash said its first‑quarter marketplace gross order value hit $31.6 billion, a 37% year‑over‑year rise, as grocery delivery became the engine of growth. The company credited a surge in new grocery shoppers, record DashPass sign‑ups and AI‑driven operations for the jump.
Panasonic Toughbook Marks 30th Year with New European Partner Program
Panasonic Toughbook has launched Elevate, a new European partner program aimed at deepening its channel‑first approach. The initiative introduces a tiered reseller structure—Authorized, Expert, Elite—along with a deal registration system that offers premium discounts and pricing predictability. It also rolls...
How Paywall Plus Philanthropy Saved The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer, once bankrupt, turned a profit in 2025 after Jerry Lenfest transferred ownership to the nonprofit Lenfest Institute and introduced a hybrid for‑profit, nonprofit structure. A $7.8 million grant and aggressive digital‑subscription strategy pushed subscriber revenue to 70% of...
Temenos Launches Composable Deposits and Lending to Speed Core Modernization
Temenos announced the launch of composable retail deposits and lending solutions, cloud‑native modules that let banks modernize core banking functions one at a time. The move targets large institutions seeking faster, lower‑risk digital transformation, and builds on design‑partner feedback from...
Your Delivery Guy Might Be Your Brand Ambassador. (Sorry.)
In this episode of the Liquid Lunch Project, hosts Matthew Armiehan and Professor Luigi Rosa Bianca interview Randy Vlasic, founder of LIWMI Logistics, a third‑party trucking brokerage. Randy explains how his firm connects shippers with carriers, navigates rising diesel costs,...
Leader: Should Financial Advice Formalise the Transfer of Agency?
The financial‑advice industry has no standard process for transferring agency when clients switch advisers, leaving critical client information behind. This gap creates a "starting cold" scenario for incoming advisers, risking weaker advice and unnecessary product changes. Professionals argue that a...