Commentary
The Next Recession
Knowing when were in one is easy; accurately predicting one is the hard part.
This article appears in print in the December 2017 issue. Click here for a free subscription. Whatever the official parameters for defining the onset of a recession, most people link the start of national and regional recessions to some specific triggering event the Black Tuesday stock market crash of 1929, the cancellation of the SST…
Collaboration Between Amazon and Microsoft Strengthens the Puget Sound Business Environment
When competitors cooperate and inspire each other, we all benefit.
This article appears in print in the December 2017 issue. Click here for a free subscription. Even as employment in the Puget Sound region has soared to more than 2.2 million, up an astounding 344,000 workers since 2000, and a growing number of local companies have a global presence, the Seattle areas business community has…
3 Ways To Bring Shoppers Back To the Stores For the Holidays
7 in 10 PNW shoppers say they are likely to shop in-store only this holiday season. Here's how to get them there.
This article is contributed by David Sprott, senior associate dean and marketing professor, Washington State University, Carson College of Business The growth of e-commerce is no surprise to residents of the Pacific Northwest, but this holiday season it has many brick-and-mortar stores reeling. Why? This year, shoppers are expected to spend more money online than…
Rolling Your Eyes at Employee Engagement? It Could Cost You
Disengagement costs businesses hundreds of millions of dollars, says the CEO of Point B, a firm recently named Best Medium Workplace by Fortune.
Employee engagement has been top of mind lately. Our company was just named the #1 Best Medium Workplace by Fortune magazine, and that honors how we engage the best people. But Im certainly not alone in contemplating the experience of my employees. According to recent Point B research, 82 percent of U.S. business leaders say…
When Will Profitability Matter for This Generation’s Tech Boom Companies?
Many high-flying companies, like Tesla, Snap, Zillow and Redfin, couldnt care less.
A lot of the companies of the dot-com boom didnt survive the dot-com bust, but some of the jargon did: B2B, B2C, P2P. Of those, B2B and B2C still have widely understood definitions (business to business, business to consumer), but the third had to do double duty, standing for both peer-to-peer (as in networks that…
Why Amazon is a Good Neighbor to Seattle and Why HQ2 is a Problem
Amazons community impact isnt always salubrious, but consider the alternative.
Amazon sent shock waves through Seattle in September when it announced plans to spend $5 billion to build HQ2, a second Amazon headquarters, to house 50,000 employees in another probably distant city. Our prospects for becoming a global metropolis suddenly seemed much diminished. Like Boeings decision to move its corporate headquarters to Chicago and build…
Corporate Profits Fuel Our Nations Gun Culture. Are You OK With That?
The Las Vegas massacre is the latest reminder that the National Rifle Association and the politicians it manipulates are part of the problem.
I had another column topic planned for the November issue something about this being the month to give thanks but then the Las Vegas massacre happened. And then I learned that a coworkers friend was one of those who didnt survive the shooting, who didnt get to go home that night and reflect on the…
Bertha Blame Game, Mismanagement Damages More Than Just Tunnel Project
Big infrastructure projects require unity, not enmity.
In August, when New York celebrated the opening of the Tappan Zee replacement bridge over the Hudson River, Governor Andrew Cuomo crowed about completing the $4 billion structure on time and on budget. That achievement was notable, he said, at a time when a litigious society and NIMBY concerns have made politicians allergic to risk,…
Size Matters: Could Amazon Attract the Attention of Antitrust Regulators?
When some companies get too big, the government gets nervous. Why is that?
Antitrust Law has figured prominently in Washington business for almost as long as theres been a Washington state. In the Northern Securities case of 1904, the Supreme Court told James J. Hill that while he might control the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and the Burlington Route, merging them was a violation of antitrust law…
How Can the Seattle Area Create a Better Environment for Nurturing Startups?
Editor Leslie Helm on stoking the star-maker machinery in Seattle.
In a dark night sky with a good telescope, you can see not far from the Big Dipper the spiral bands of M51. Extending across hundreds of light years and encompassing the mass of a million suns, this galaxy exhibits the perfect conditions for giving birth to new stars. One X-ray image taken by NASAs…
Virgin on Business: What Constitutes a Tech Company, Anyway?
Who knows? Your business may qualify.
Its impossible to pinpoint the moment at which the phrase tech company ceased to have meaning. Its easy to detect that, wherever and whenever that point was, were well beyond it now. As evidence, we cite a recent response from a San Francisco-based company, Postmates, to a state Labor & Industries query into its workers…
Editors Note: A View of the Future
What kind of city will emerge from Seattles incredible growth spurt?
Stop and listen. Do you hear it? The roar of the city is just a little louder, more jarring. Drivers are quicker to honk their horns, run red lights and screech their brakes. Turn your head. Look out the window. Theres yet another building appearing from nowhere like a missile rising from its underground silo…
Virgin on Business: The (Uncertain) Future of Retail
The implications of chain-store closings and shopping-mall failures will be far reaching.
The big story in American retailing in 2017 is not Amazon, although Amazon figures in the tale. This year, the lead headline is the demise of the American chain store. Heres a quick scan of companies that recently announced theyre closing stores, going out of business, filing bankruptcy petitions or all of the above: Sears….