Day: May 1, 2020

The 3-Step Strategy to Help You Determine Your Business Mission, Values and Goals

wayne May 1, 2020


6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


The following excerpt is from Rick Terrien’s Ageless Startup. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound.

There’s a widely used acronym that you may have heard of: KISS — keep it simple, stupid. But it’s an old saying, and it needs updating. How about, “Keep it simple, smarty”? Simple is the new smart, and it is, in fact, exactly what most people need to focus on when starting a business.

Let’s talk about some key ways you can set up your ageless startup’s mission, values and goals in a way that provides simplicity and clarity for both you and your customers.

Determine Your Mission

At the heart of every new enterprise is the organization’s mission. A mission statement is a short, succinct statement about how you’ll position your organization to interact with the world. What is your business purpose, its meaning and the basis of how you want your new enterprise to serve the field in which it operates?

A mission statement isn’t just an outwardly focused marketing statement, though it is that to some degree. A mission

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Futures fall, Amazon drops 5%, sell in May?

wayne May 1, 2020

8:25 am: Wall Street analysts react to Apple earnings

The tech giant reported mixed earnings on Thursday after the bell but analysts say Apple is well-positioned as the 5G cycle begins to ramps up. “We remain positive on the long-term eco-system and product development opportunities, coupled with a strong balance sheet and brand position,” Baird said. “With increased confidence in the 5G iPhone launch and stretched iPhone replacement cycles, Apple remains top pick,” Morgan Stanley added. — Bloom

8:23 am: Apple stock dips after company withholds guidance

Shares of Apple were down about 2.6% in premarket trading after the company declined to announce guidance for its fiscal third quarter. The tech company did report better than expected earnings and revenues for its second quarter, but iPhone revenue was down 7% compared with the same quarter last year. Apple’s stock jumped 15.3% in April. — Pound

8:16 am: Amazon shares fall after profit warning

Shares of Amazon fell 4.6% in premarket trading after the technology giant warned that it planned to spend all of its second quarter profit on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. “If you’re a shareowner in Amazon, you may want to take a seat, because we’re not thinking

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Chrissy Taylor on keeping Enterprise’s rental fleet moving—and her family’s business afloat

wayne May 1, 2020

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business.

Chrissy Taylor took over as CEO of the world’s largest rental-car company in December, but she’s been training for the job for a lifetime. The granddaughter of Enterprise Holdings’ founder, Taylor served as chief operating officer before finally taking the wheel of the $26 billion travel industry giant and its fleet of 2 million vehicles in January.

Now, in her first months on the job, Taylor is deep in coronavirus crisis management mode. But she’s maintaining a long-term outlook, preparing for the travel industry to be forever changed. “I always knew being CEO was not easy, but this came a little sooner than I thought,” she says.

For a new series, Fortune asked female business leaders—including those who appear on Fortune‘s annual Most Powerful Women in Business list—to talk about leading through the public health and economic crisis. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Fortune: What’s your No. 1 concern related to the coronavirus and your business? 

Chrissy Taylor: Our No. 1 priority and concern is our employee safety and our customer safety. Everything that we’re doing …

After coronavirus, expect a ‘new’ Delta

wayne May 1, 2020

Good morning.

CEOs are taking pay cuts in response to the COVID-19 crisis.  A report out later today, which was shared early with CEO Daily, finds 11% of companies in the Russell 3000—343 companies—reported executive pay cuts between March 1 and April 24. Some 60% of the reports came from the hospitality and retail sectors, where the job losses have been greatest. Data was compiled from SEC reports by The Conference Board, in collaboration with Semler Brossy and Esgauge.

Among the companies that reported pay cuts, 27 percent said they cut out the CEO’s base salary entirely. Another 19 percent cut pay by half.  Most of the companies also cut the pay of other top executives, as well as cash retainers for board members.

The report doesn’t include how companies are dealing with equity grants, which at public companies often account for the lion’s share of CEO pay.

One of the CEOs who has taken a 100% base salary cut (but traditionally earns most of his pay through stock awards) is Delta CEO Ed Bastian, who talked recently with Fortune’s Susie Gharib.  His comments make it clear the industry is preparing for a long, tough slog. “Our load factors are …

After the best month in 33 years, what’s next for stocks?

wayne May 1, 2020

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.

Happy May Day, everyone. It will be a lighter than normal trading session as stock exchanges across Europe and Asia are closed for International Workers’ Day. But fear not, dear international worker, Bull Sheet is on the job.

Let’s see who’s open and trading.

Markets update

Asia

  • Markets in Japan, Australia and Singapore were all in the red as weak manufacturing data sinks investor sentiment.
  • China, Hong Kong and South Korea are closed today.

Europe

  • The lone major index operating today is London’s FTSE. It should have taken the day off. It’s down roughly 1.8% at the open, and falling.
  • The ECB’s Christine Lagarde warned yesterday that Europe is “facing an economic contraction of a magnitude and speed that are unprecedented in peacetime.” Coronavirus could shrink the bloc’s economy by as much as 12% this year, the central bank now forecasts.
  • The ECB, meanwhile, has turned to a familiar tool—negative interest rates—in its latest bid to jumpstart the stricken economy.
  • Ryanair will cut 3,000 jobs as passenger numbers
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