Category: Global Business

There are many ways to run a successful company, but some practices are almost guaranteed to help you along the way. One of those, according to three founders of fast-growing companies, is transparency. 

Carey Smith, the founder of Big Ass Fans and Unorthodox Ventures; Diana Lee, the co-founder and CEO of Constellation Agency; and Nicole Sahin, the founder and CEO of Globalization Partners, agreed that transparency is an essential leadership trait, especially in difficult times. They spoke about the state of business today at a virtual town hall Monday moderated by Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. The discussion was part of the 2020 Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, a weeklong virtual event celebrating entrepreneurship and this year’s Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

The panelists offered advice to business leaders who are seeking to soften the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on both their companies’ bottom lines

Leading a business is hard. Leading anything, for that matter, is especially complicated right now. None of us have ever been through a global pandemic quite like this, and its affects have created remarkable challenges. One of those challenges is trying to navigate your business, or team, or family through what can only be described as very uncertain times. 

Here’s the thing: Starting a business–or anything really–is full of uncertainty. You don’t know, when you start, where you’ll end up. You have an idea, and hopefully you have a plan, but there are so many unforeseen circumstances and variables that come into play that it would be foolish to think you have all the answers.

That can be a difficult realization for leaders who are accustomed to being responsible for having it all figured out. It’s an important one, however, because it can directly affect whether your business

The iPhone launch is, without question, the most important public event for Apple every year. That’s true not just in terms of the effect the product has on the company’s bottom line, but in terms of the overall attention and media coverage as well. Apple has gotten very good at these events, and, even during a pandemic, has managed to produce them far better than most other tech companies. 

That’s important because the way Apple decides to spend its time says everything about what it thinks is important. The choices it makes in terms of what additional products to include, how to present them, and even who takes the stage are carefully considered and orchestrated in a way that most other tech companies haven’t mastered. 

That’s why it’s so confusing to me that they had such a strange moment during the iPhone 12 launch this week. You couldn’t

Prime Day got a serious pandemic bump.

Amazon’s two-day sale for its more than 150 million paid Prime members generated more business for third-party sellers than any other 48-hour period, according to the company. Sales rose nearly 60 percent over last year to $3.5 billion, potentially kick-starting the holiday shopping season in October. Prime Day’s third-party sellers’ sales rose “even more than Amazon’s retail business,” according to the company.

Typically, the e-commerce giant reports its own Prime Day sales at the same time as its third-party sellers, but this year released only the latter. Unsurprisingly, products friendly to pandemic lifestyles were the top-selling categories, included bedding, wireless accessories, nutrition and wellness, arts, crafts, and sewing, and health care items.

Christmas is arriving very early this year, says Melissa Horvath, founder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based home goods company Sweet Water Decor.

“People are already starting to shop for the

He’s an NFL Hall of Famer and a Super Bowl champion, but it would be a serious mistake to dismiss Michael Strahan as “just” a football player.

Since retiring from professional sports in 2007, Strahan has become one of America’s most multifaceted entrepreneurial figures: author, designer, award-winning television personality, and co-founder of talent management agency SMAC Entertainment. And here’s the crazy part: None of it was planned in advance. Following his football career, like many successful entrepreneurs Strahan happened to be in the right place at the right time–of course, with a few more doors open to him–and had the preparation and skill set to capitalize on each opportunity.

On Friday, October 23, Strahan will break down the X‘s and O‘s of his post-athletic career at the 2020 Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, a weeklong virtual event celebrating and connecting entrepreneurs of all stripes. You’ll learn