Latest news with #corporateCulture
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Starbucks staff to return to office four days a week
The morning rush just got a little earlier for some coffee-sipping corporate types. Starbucks' top boss, Brian Niccol, said the coffee chain will now make some of its corporate employees come into the office for four days each week. The expanded return-to-work policy is set to kick in on September 29. Niccol said employees should expect to come into offices Monday through Thursday for 'common days.' All managers at support centers are also required to relocate to Seattle or Toronto within 12 months. Individual contributors who do not manage other Starbucks employees can stay remote. However, all future hires at Starbuck's support center must be based close to the company's headquarters. 'Being in person also helps us build and strengthen our culture. As we work to turn the business around, all these things matter more than ever,' the chief executive said. 'We want leaders and people managers to be physically present with their teams.' Niccol, who will complete a year in the job in less than two months, has been steering Starbucks back to its coffeehouse roots. In February, the coffee chain operator asked the remotely working vice president level leadership to begin relocating to Seattle or Toronto.
Forbes
08-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Aligning On One Source Of Truth: Why It's Hard—And How To Get It Right
Artyom Keydunov, CEO, Cube. I've written extensively about the universal semantic layer, an emerging (and sometimes misunderstood) concept. A semantic layer abstracts a corporation's business metrics, or standard units of measurement, from its data. Adopting a universal semantic layer isn't just a technical deployment—it's a cultural shift. Getting every team in a large enterprise to pull from the same data definitions requires more than installing new software. It demands structured change management, deliberate training and a commitment to cross-functional alignment. Making The Semantic Layer Work In practice, success starts with executive sponsorship. Teams often fall back into siloed habits without senior leaders reinforcing the importance of shared definitions and unified metrics. A cross-functional governance committee should be formed, ideally including finance, HR, sales, operations and IT stakeholders. This group defines, refines and owns the business logic embedded in the semantic layer. Next comes training—not just on how to use the tools but also on why the change matters. Data consumers must understand that consistent metric definitions (like "revenue" or "active customer") are essential for trustworthy insights. Hands-on workshops, role-based dashboards and embedded documentation all help reinforce these principles. But expect friction. Teams may resist relinquishing control of their own metrics. To address this, create a clear escalation path for reconciling disputes and showcase early wins demonstrating improved efficiency and decision-making from unified data. One of the most overlooked challenges is integrating the semantic layer into daily workflows. Implementing it is not enough—it must be embedded into the tools teams already use, like BI dashboards, spreadsheets or CRM platforms. The path isn't easy, but enterprises can achieve data alignment that scales by prioritizing executive buy-in, cross-team governance, contextual training and workflow integration. Benefits Of A Universal Semantic Layer Strategy A well-implemented universal semantic layer helps deliver measurable business value by unifying definitions and enabling trustworthy, real-time insights across departments. Here's how a successful semantic layer strategy can be realized by different teams: • Finance And Accounting: Finance teams often operate in fragmented environments with legacy OLAP systems and conflicting reports. Ensuring everyone is pulling consistent metrics—like revenue recognition or margin analysis—from a single, auditable source helps to centralize financial definitions, reduce reconciliation time and improve regulatory confidence. • Human Resources (HR): HR decisions suffer when data is spread across disconnected systems. The ability to consolidate performance, engagement and compliance data into one coherent view empowers more proactive, strategic workforce planning. • Sales: Sales leaders frequently lack a unified view of pipelines, customer behaviors and KPIs. With standardized definitions across CRM, emails and BI tools, teams unlock better forecasting, lead prioritization and coaching decisions based on facts, not guesswork. • Marketing: Disparate sources of campaign data lead to missed insights and wasted spending. By aligning attribution and ROI metrics across platforms, marketing teams can execute and adapt with real-time clarity. • Operations And Supply Chain: Fragmented supply chain data undermines efficiency and responsiveness. A consistent lens across ERP, logistics and inventory systems helps drive better planning, cost control and risk management. • Customer Support: As customer-facing teams often struggle with slow, inconsistent service due to scattered data, a semantic layer provides unified access to service histories and communication logs for faster, more accurate responses. Alignment First, Technology Second The universal semantic layer's promise is powerful, but it is not automatic. The technology itself can only take organizations so far. Success depends on how effectively teams align on definitions, processes and responsibilities. Creating a shared understanding of key business metrics across departments is a profoundly human challenge. However, when companies invest in organizational scaffolding—governance, communication and education—the semantic layer becomes more than a data architecture. It becomes a strategic advantage. Those who get it right aren't just managing data better—they're making better decisions, faster and with greater confidence. That's a competitive edge every organization should aim for. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Zawya
08-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Saudi: Nayifat Finance rolls out 5-year strategy to drive sustainable growth
Riyadh - Nayifat Finance Company has launched its new five-year strategy until 2030, planning to foster its position in the financing sector and actively contribute to achieving the goals of Saudi Vision 2030. The company aims to enable individuals and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access innovative financial solutions easily and efficiently, according to a bourse statement. The new strategy focuses on achieving sustainable portfolio growth by expanding financing products, targeting individuals and SMEs to deliver stable returns for shareholders. Moreover, the company intends to strengthen market share and competitiveness by widening its customer base and entering new market segments. Nayifat Finance will develop innovative financial products and services that meet evolving market needs, enhancing competitiveness and market positioning now and in the future. It will also boost investments in digital transformation and cope with technological trends, while adapting to fintech solutions to improve customer experience. The Saudi group seeks to elevate operational efficiency and streamline processes across business sectors to support sustainable future growth. In addition, the Tadawul-listed firm plans to stimulate sustainable profit margins by improving risk-based financing and enhancing credit quality, while maintaining competitiveness and supporting future growth. Finally, the company will empower human capital, bolstering a high-performance corporate culture and providing an attractive work environment that empowers national talent to innovate and excel. At the end of March 2025, Nayifat Finance recorded 37.07% higher net profit at SAR 23.54 million, versus SAR 17.17 million in the same period a year ago. All Rights Reserved - Mubasher Info © 2005 - 2022 Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Forbes
07-07-2025
- General
- Forbes
The Leadership Buzzwords Your Employees Have Learned To Ignore
A young woman stands in front of a noticeboard covered with business jargon and buzz words witten on ... More yellow adhesive notes, looking sideways and frowning at the pretentious phrases. getty We've all seen them on a slide: psychological safety. agility. inclusive leadership. resilience. growth mindset. These concepts earned their place through research, urgency and real need. But somewhere along the way, they became buzzwords—repeated often, practiced rarely. And your employees? They've learned to ignore them. Not because they don't care. But because too often, the words don't match the work. What starts as a timely concept at the top often inflates through repetition. Leaders mention it in keynotes, consultants add it to frameworks, and eventually it becomes shorthand for strategic virtue. I call that concept inflation—when a leadership idea gains symbolic importance through repetition, but loses specificity and edge. It gets louder, but less grounded. Then comes concept deflation. As the inflated term travels through the organization—moving through layers of communication, misinterpretation, and fatigue—it begins to flatten. Its clarity weakens. Its weight disappears. By the time it reaches the people expected to act on it, the idea has lost traction. What started as a cultural commitment now feels hollow. A concept once full of possibility now means nothing—and does even less. It's a bit like a conductor lifting the baton to begin a performance, only to realize the orchestra doesn't have the same score. Everyone wants to play—but the melody doesn't land. The rhythm drifts. And what was meant to inspire alignment starts to sound like noise. Most of these leadership concepts weren't born hollow. They emerged from real research, practical wisdom, and lived urgency. Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety came out of field studies on team learning and recovery from mistakes. In her recent HBR article, she clarifies a frequent misconception: psychological safety is not about comfort—it's about being able to take interpersonal risks without fear of retaliation. Psychological safety gets name-dropped in nearly every culture conversation. Yet Gallup finds that only one in four employees worldwide strongly agree their opinions count at work. Agility wasn't a buzzword. It was forged in high-stakes environments—military planning, lean manufacturing, product teams responding to change. Agility has always been more than speed. It's about responsive action built on clarity, accountability, and iteration. Resilience. Growth mindset. Inclusive leadership. These weren't invented for slide decks. They were tools for hard environments—where cultures broke, people burned out and strategy stalled. But somewhere along the way, they were stripped of their edges and turned into slogans. Employees recognize the words but don't see the meaning. What once felt human and hard-earned now feels ornamental—language that sounds noble, but lands with very little weight. That's when a good idea becomes a hollow one. Not because the concept is flawed, but because its delivery has lost fidelity. Buzzword fatigue getty From Performance To Confusion Let's say a manager is told to drive agility in their department. The message from above sounds strategic: 'Be fast. Stay nimble. Respond to change.' But no decision rights are shifted. Priorities keep changing without input. The team is reactive, not agile. There's no time for reflection. No space to adjust. Soon, 'agility' just becomes another word for exhaustion. Or picture a leader who opens a meeting with, 'This is a safe space—please speak freely.' And someone does. They question a longstanding process. The leader nods. Says 'good feedback.' Then moves on. The idea is logged, but not heard. There's no reaction. No reflection. No action. And the room goes quiet again. When the system doesn't back the message, the message loses meaning. The Manager As Shock Absorber Gallup's research shows that managers today are the shock absorbers of culture and change. They're expected to perform, engage, retain, coach, adapt, communicate and now—operationalize values and frameworks. And yet, they're rarely given time, authority, or clarity to do it well. Imagine a frontline manager with a burned-out team, limited headcount, and multiple cross-functional pressures. Now layer in a new leadership expectation: 'Drive resilience.' It's well-intentioned. But without structural support—without permission to rethink the workflow or challenge the pressure points—'resilience' sounds like code for 'just hang on longer.' It's in these moments that concept inflation gives way to concept deflation. The words may arrive with power. But if they don't match the rhythm of daily work, they fade. What once sounded strategic becomes noise. And in the absence of reinforcement, reinforcement becomes absence. How To Spot Concepts That Have Become Performative You know a concept is being performed—not practiced—when the room sounds good but the follow-through goes quiet. A few signs: The word is repeated often but never defined in behavior Feedback loops open, but don't close Leader talk endlessly about values, but examples of actual behaviors are hard to find Team leads speak the value, but act in contradiction Frontline ideas are acknowledged, but not acted on The same people always decide, even as the message is 'inclusive leadership' What began as alignment becomes theater. And what was meant to unify starts to fragment. What Real Leaders Do Instead The best leaders don't decorate strategy with big ideas. They integrate them. They don't just say psychological safety matters. They act first. They name a mistake before asking others to risk speaking up. They back someone who challenged them, not just tolerate the challenge. They don't define agility as speed. They define it as adaptation. That means pausing to reflect between sprints. It means giving teams power to shift course. It means choosing learning over optics. They don't perform inclusion in panels or listening sessions. They change who makes decisions. They rework hiring, mentoring, and meeting design. They shift power: not just celebrate presence. And they don't treat resilience as quiet endurance. They treat it as a system design problem. Where do we keep asking people to absorb strain we refuse to remove? Woman shakes her head in blurred motion as she stands in front of a wall of business buzz words ... More written on yellow sticky notes. getty Let The Concept Show Up In The System Not Just The Slide These ideas don't have to live on the surface. They can live in the system. Nothing changes if the system doesn't evolve. When the system does not, these concepts are nothing better than window dressing. Let's say a leadership team wants to embed growth mindset. Instead of repeating the phrase, they redesign performance reviews to reward learning goals. They give visibility to projects that failed but taught something. They ask each other publicly: 'What did you unlearn this quarter?' Or take inclusion. A leader restructures their team's agenda so one rotating member—especially those newer to the table—sets part of the discussion. It's not a gesture. It's a shift in who gets to frame the work. These are small moves. But they're real. And they travel far. Because what's modeled early becomes mirrored consistently. Not as a diktat or a superficial 'model'. But in the lives and work of every employee. Tune Before You Conduct Leadership isn't performance. It's translation. If you want your team to play in harmony, don't just repeat the theme. Make sure they have the score. Make sure they're tuned to the same key. Because when the message sounds noble but the rhythm feels off, it's not that people aren't listening—it's that they can't follow. Culture doesn't fall apart in grand moments. It unravels slowly. A hundred missed cues. A thousand small silences. A concept declared but not backed by design. A value named but never reinforced. So before your next keynote, pause. Not to perfect the language. But to ask: Is this concept inflated beyond recognition? Has it deflated before it ever took root? Where are the places this value already exists—but hasn't been named? What would it take to make it visible, repeatable, and real? Your people don't need another well-meaning declaration. They need clarity they can act on, consistency they can trust, and a culture that feels coherent from message to behavior. That kind of alignment doesn't come from repeating values or amplifying strategy language or repeating buzzwords—it comes from leaders who tune the system, not just set the tone. When leadership is practiced with rhythm, not just intent, the message doesn't fade as it travels. It lands, resonates and guides.
Forbes
27-06-2025
- Health
- Forbes
How Bias Harms Black Women In Leadership
Still shot of a businesswoman delivering a speech during a conference. Bias against Black women in the workplace has unfortunately become a common phenomenon in corporate boardrooms across America, where Black women face an impossible reality. When Black women show vulnerability, the kind of authentic leadership increasingly valued in modern workplaces, they risk being perceived as unfit for advancement. On the other hand, when they project the strength society demands from Black women, they risk facing the 'angry Black woman' stereotype that can equally affect their career progression. This double bind represents one of the most obvious barriers in contemporary workplace cultures overall, where the mere act of being perceived as vulnerable can come at a professional cost, one that only worsens over entire careers. Data from McKinsey's 2024 Women in the Workplace study shows that Black women's promotion rates regressed to 2020 levels despite notable improvements in 2021 and 2022. This regression isn't coincidental but reflects the effect of bias, which can make every workplace negotiation a high-stakes performance where authenticity itself becomes a luxury Black women cannot afford. The concept of vulnerability as weakness runs counter to decades of leadership research that champions emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. Yet for Black women, displaying any form of professional vulnerability—asking for help, admitting uncertainty, or showing emotion—triggers a cascade of biased perceptions that can corrode credibility and derail career progression. This dynamic plays out in measurable ways. Dr. Kia-Rai Prewitt's research at the Cleveland Clinic reveals something many Black professionals already know too well—when a Black employee shows anger, people are more likely to see it as a personal flaw instead of a natural reaction to stress or unfair treatment. This bias means that even when Black women have every right to be upset, their emotions get turned against them. The Leadership Authority Gap Multiple studies show that Black women in leadership positions are held to different and higher standards than white women and leaders of other racial identities. This 'prove-it-again' dynamic means that any display of uncertainty or request for support is used as evidence of incompetence rather than human leadership. Black businesswoman and businessman shaking hands at a meeting. Adding to these impossible standards is the 'Glass Cliff Effect,' the tendency for organizations to look to Black women to lead at times of great change, scrutiny or tumult. It's no wonder that many feel they are held to impossible standards without the benefit of tools and resources that more privileged groups can lean on. Organizations that are committed to addressing this problem are setting guardrails in place to address bias at its source, and despite potential DEI pushback, these solutions remain possible. Research suggests that anonymous evaluations reduce bias in decision-making and improve outcomes for women and people of color. Companies are also restructuring performance reviews to focus on concrete achievements rather than subjective assessments of 'leadership presence' or 'cultural fit,' terms often used to exclude qualified Black women. Successful interventions can look like: 1. Structured negotiation processes that remove subjective evaluation from salary discussions 2. Bias interruption training that teaches evaluators to recognize and counter their unconscious preferences 3. Mentorship programs that specifically connect Black women with senior leaders who can advocate for their advancement 4. Transparent promotion criteria that reduce the role of informal networks in career progression The professional cost of being perceived as vulnerable represents a fundamental challenge to workplace equity and until organizations address the systematic bias that punishes Black women for both strength and vulnerability, they will continue to lose qualified talent and perpetuate structures that limit innovation and growth. The solution calls for something more sustainable than awareness; instead, it demands systemic change that recognizes bias as an organizational problem that needs organizational solutions. Companies that succeed in this transformation won't just be doing the right thing; they'll be positioning themselves to attract and retain the diverse leadership talent that drives competitive advantage in an increasingly complex business environment. For Black women navigating these challenges, the research offers both validation and strategy. The problem isn't their negotiation skills or leadership style but a system that must be changed, not accommodated. And increasingly, the organizations that recognize how harmful bias against Black women in the workplace can be are the ones staying ahead of the learning curve and building the workplaces of the future.
