As it prepares to sell off its remaining assets in the wake of a second bankruptcy filing, Rite Aid continues to move aggressively to close pharmacy locations that it no longer deems viable.
The drugstore chain, which has already found buyers for most of its prescription business, has added another 111 retail drugstores to its rapidly growing list of doomed locations, a court filing revealed last week. The list includes pharmacies across 12 states, with California and New York being hit the hardest. Interested parties have until June 9 to object.
Fast Company has reached out to Rite Aid to ask about the timeline of the closures.
With this latest list, the pharmacy chain has now marked more than 470 stores for closure since the Chapter 11 process began about a month ago, comprising more than a third of Rite Aid’s total fleet of 1,277 locations.
The May 30 filing is its fourth notice of additional closures. Previous waves of closures were disclosed in earlier filings:
May 5: 47 initial locations
May 9: 68 additional locations
May 16: 95 additional locations
May 23: 151 additional locations
Immediate fate of stores uncertain as wind-down continues
Rite Aid had initially scrambled to sell off its prescription files amid concerns that a mass exodus of customers would diminish the value of its pharmacy assets. It quickly announced deals with CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, and others. For most customers, that means their prescriptions will be transferred to an entirely different pharmacy and location.
But only a handful of physical retail stores were included in those announcements, and the exact locations of those stores have yet to be releasedleading to further uncertainty for Rite Aid customers and employees.
Now time is running out for companies that may be interested in taking over additional Rite Aid locations before they close for good. Any such company was required to indicate its interest by last Friday. Bid submissions are due on June 18, with an auction planned for June 24 if necessary.
In addition to physical stores, Rite Aid’s remaining assets include the Thrifty ice cream brand, which is sold by third-party retailers in addition to being available at counters in many Rite Aid locations.
The latest list of 111 Rite Aid stores marked for closure is below.
California
15331 Baseline Avenue, Fontana, CA, 92336
1301 Munras Avenue, Monterey, CA, 93940
4010 Manzanita Avenue, Carmichael, CA, 95608
47985 Monroe Street Bldg A, Indio, CA, 92201
12511 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA, 91607
74958 Country Club Drive, Palm Desert, CA, 92260
1331 South Mission Road, Fallbrook, CA, 92028
26 Old Mammoth Road, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 93546
456 S Madera Avenue, Kerman, CA, 93630
740 Quintana Road, Morro Bay, CA, 93442
15025 Olympic Drive, Clearlake, CA, 95422
1021 Bridge Street, Colusa, CA, 95932
616 Alamo Pintado Road, Solvang, CA, 93463
4994 Joe Howard Street, Mariposa, CA, 95338
160 E Antelope Ave, Woodlake, CA, 93286
807 South Main Street, Yreka, CA, 96097
1935 N Street, Newman, CA, 95360
1500 Whitley Avenue, Corcoran, CA, 93212
616 East Hobsonway, Blythe, CA, 92225
2501 Highway 46, Wasco, CA, 93280
230 South Main Street, Angels Camp, CA, 95222
40 East Main Street, Quincy, CA, 95971
72253 Twentynine Palms Highway, Twentynine Palms, CA, 92277
159 West Polk Street, Coalinga, CA, 93210
1400 Linda Mar Boulevard, Pacifica, CA, 94044
199 North Fairview Avenue, Goleta, CA, 93117
20 East 18th Street, Antioch, CA, 94509
1110 Los Osos Valley Road, Los Osos, CA, 93402
345 Town Center West, Santa Maria, CA, 93458
2405 South Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454
1220 Broadway, Placerville, CA, 95667
725 South Fortuna Boulevard, Fortuna, CA, 95540
1710 California Street, Escalon, CA, 95320
2700 Oro Dam Boulevard East, Oroville, CA, 95966
4830 J Street, Sacramento, CA, 95819
9700 Panama Lane, Bakersfield, CA, 93311
14115 Lakeridge Circle, Magalia, CA, 95954
7900 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90046
Connecticut
190 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT, 06855
1387 New Haven Ave., Milford, CT, 06460
Delaware
444 Savannah Road, Lewes, DE, 19958
Maryland
7 Westminster Shopping Center, Westminster, MD, 21157
505 Linden Avenue, Pocomoke City, MD, 21851
4600 West Northern Parkway, Baltimore, MD, 21215
New Hampshire
51 South Main Street, Newport, NH, 03773
14 Peterborough Street, Jaffrey, NH, 03452
315 West Main Street, Hillsboro, NH, 03244
136 Meadow Street, Littleton, NH, 03561
10 Main Street, Winchester, NH, 03470
89 Nh Route 25, Meredith, NH, 03253
New Jersey
3400 New Jersey Avenue, Wildwood, NJ, 08260
New York
40 West Main Street, Springville, NY, 14141
81 West Main Street, Gowanda, NY, 14070
1511 Route 22 Suite A, Brewster, NY, 10509
3795 East Main Road, Fredonia, NY, 14063
153 Prospect Street, Attica, NY, 14011
2175 South Park Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14220
480 Evas Road, Williamsville, NY, 14221
1000 Pennsylvania Avenue, Elmira, NY, 14904
5224 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11220
350 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY, 14201
1941 Seneca Street, Buffalo, NY, 14210
424 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY, 14222
419 Division Street, North Tonawanda, NY, 14120
476 William Street, Buffalo, NY, 14206
6000 Transit Road, Depew, NY, 14043
3987 Lockport Olcott Road, Lockport, NY, 14094
320 Main Street, Beacon, NY, 12508
284 Connecticut Street, Buffalo, NY, 14213
963 Fairmount Avenue We, Jamestown, NY, 14701
140 Pine Street, Hamburg, NY, 14075
6616 Lincoln Avenue, Lockport, NY, 14094
9160 Main Street, Clarence, NY, 14031
5447 Main Street, Williamsville, NY, 14221
338 West Washington Street, Bath, NY, 14810
9062 Erie Road, Angola, NY, 14006
1631-43 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11212
103 Hawkins Drive, Montgomery, NY, 12549
5335 West Genesee St Ste 20, Camillus, NY, 13031
50 East Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays, NY, 11946
6939 Erie Road, Derby, NY, 14047
12983 Main Road, Akron, NY, 14001
2325 Grand Island Blvd., Grand Island, NY, 14072
8079 North Main Street, Eden, NY, 14057
100 Conhocton St, Corning, NY, 14830
5999 South Park Avenue, Hamburg, NY, 14075
1454 Union Road, West Seneca, NY, 14224
2898 Westinghouse Road, Horseheads, NY, 14845
798 Harlem Road, West Seneca, NY, 14224
Oregon
448 Ne Hwy 99W, Mcminnville, OR, 97128
1900 Sw Court Place, Pendleton, OR, 97801
30 East Oak Street, Lebanon, OR, 97355
Pennsylvania
164 West Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19144
Vermont
12 North Main Street, Randolph, VT, 05060
1823 Vermont Route 107 #2, Bethel, VT, 05032
Virginia
2305 Oaklawn Boulevard, Hopewell, VA, 23860
10 Willow Oaks Blvd, Hampton, VA, 23669
3005 Old Mill Road, Chesapeake, VA, 23323
Washington
412 East College Way, Mt. Vernon, WA, 98273
520 West Washington Street, Sequim, WA, 98382
8500 35th Avenue Ne, Seattle, WA, 98115
500 South Pioneer Way, Moses Lake, WA, 98837
4920-A Evergreen Way, Everett, WA, 98203
4117 Kitsap Way, Bremerton, WA, 98312
31645 State Route 20, Oak Harbor, WA, 98277
1630 South Grand Avenue, Pullman, WA, 99163
621 South Lincoln St., Port Angeles, WA, 98362
1850 South Mildred Street, Tacoma, WA, 98465
3909 Hoyt Ave, Everett, WA, 98201
Trading resumed on the Damascus Securities Exchange Monday after a six-month closure, as Syria’s new leaders attempt to shore up the country’s battered economy and begin rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war.The stock exchange had closed during the chaotic days leading up to the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive.Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh, who attended the reopening, said that it signals that the country’s economy is beginning to recover and that the stock exchange “will operate as a private company and serve as a genuine hub for Syria’s economic development, with a strong focus on digital,” state-run news agency SANA reported.He said the country’s new leaders plan to “facilitate business operations and open doors to promising investment opportunities.”The move to reopen comes as international restrictions on Syria’s financial systems begin to ease. The United States and Europe both last month announced the lifting of a wide raft of sanctions that had been slapped on Syria under the Assad dynasty’s rule.Last week, Syria inked a power deal worth $7 billion with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and U.S. companies for development of a 5,000-megawatt energy project to revitalize much of Syria’s war-battered electricity grid.The consortium led by Qatar’s UCC Concession Investmentsalong with Power International USA and Turkey’s Kalyon GES Enerji Yatirimlari, Cengiz Enerjiwill develop four combined-cycle gas turbines with a total generating capacity estimated at approximately 4,000 megawatts and a 1,000-megawatt solar power plant.
Ghaith Alsayed, Associated Press
(Corrects paragraph 3 to say 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, not April)
The founder of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, has asked a U.S. judge to reopen an auction for the genetic testing company, saying she has the support of a Fortune 500 company with a current market capitalization of more than $400 billion.
Wojcicki did not name the Fortune 500 company in court filings.
South San Francisco, California-based 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, seeking to sell its business at auction after a decline in consumer demand and a 2023 data breach that exposed sensitive genetic and personal information of millions of customers.
Last month, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy the firm for $256 million, topping a $146 million bid from Wojcicki and TTAM Research Institute, which was founded by Wojcicki and describes itself as a California non-profit public benefit corporation.
In a filing dated May 31, Wojcicki claimed that 23andMe’s debtors had attempted to tilt the sales process away from TTAM and in favor of Regeneron.
TTAM and Wojcicki said in the filing that 23andMes financial and legal advisers unfairly capped their maximum bid at $250 million due to misplaced concerns about TTAM’s “financial wherewithal”. The plaintiffs said the auction was prematurely concluded before they had the opportunity to submit a bid that would have exceeded $280 million.
The company’s debtors said the auction results came after an extensive and careful consideration by a four-member special committee of independent directors, according to the filing.
According to another filing, 23andMe is seeking court approval to let Wojcicki and Regeneron submit final proposals by June 12. 23andMe is also seeking a $10 million breakup fee for Regeneron if Wojcicki’s bid is ultimately accepted.
Regeneron said it does not comment on the ongoing proceeding and aims to close the acquisition as intended.
Lawyers for 23andMe’s debtors and TTAM parties did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Urvi Dugar, Reuters
More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remained active Sunday and diminished air quality in parts of Canada and the U.S., according to officials.Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week. About 17,000 people there were evacuated by Saturday along with 1,300 in Alberta. About 8,000 people in Saskatchewan had been relocated as leaders there warned the number could climb.Smoke was worsening air quality and reducing visibility in Canada and into some U.S. states along the border.“Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour,” Saskatchewan’s Public Safety Agency warned Sunday. “As smoke levels increase, health risks increase.”Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said firefighters, emergency crews and aircraft from other provinces and U.S. states, including Alaska, Oregon and Arizona, were being sent to help fight the blazes.“We are truly grateful, and we stand stronger because of you,” Moe said in a post on social media.He said ongoing hot, dry weather is allowing some fires to grow and threaten communities, and resources to fight the fires and support the evacuees are stretched thin.“The next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can find our way to changing weather patterns, and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the north,” Moe said at a Saturday news conference.In Manitoba, more than 5,000 of those evacuated are from Flin Flon, located nearly 645 kilometers (400 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg. In northern Manitoba, fire knocked out power to the community of Cranberry Portage, forcing a mandatory evacuation order Saturday for about 600 residents.The fire menacing Flin Flon began a week ago near Creighton, Saskatchewan, and quickly jumped the boundary into Manitoba. Crews have struggled to contain it. Water bombers have been intermittently grounded due to heavy smoke and a drone incursion.The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service deployed an air tanker to Alberta and said it would send 150 firefighters and equipment to Canada.In some parts of the U.S., air quality reached “unhealthy” levels Sunday in North Dakota and small swaths of Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow page.“We should expect at least a couple more rounds of Canadian smoke to come through the U.S. over the next week,” said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the U.S.Separately, a fire in the U.S. border state of Idaho burned at least 100 acres (40 hectares) as of Sunday, prompting road closures and some evacuations, according to the Idaho Department of Lands. The agency said in a news release that at least one structure was burned, but did not provide additional details about the damage.Strong gusty winds of 15 to 20 mph (24 to 32 kph) and steep terrain were making it difficult for firefighters battling the fire, which ignited Saturday.Evacuation centers have opened across Manitoba for those fleeing the fires, one as far south as Winkler, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the U.S. border. Winnipeg opened up public buildings for evacuees as it deals with hotels already crammed with other fire refugees, vacationers, business people and convention-goers.Manitoba’s Indigenous leaders said Saturday at a news conference that hotel rooms in the cities where evacuees are arriving are full, and they called on the government to direct hotel owners to give evacuees priority.Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said it was one of the largest evacuations in the province since the 1990s.“It’s really sad to see our children having to sleep on floors. People are sitting, waiting in hallways, waiting outside, and right now we just need people to come together. People are tired,” Wilson said at a news conference.Canada’s wildfire season runs from May through September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.
Associated Press reporter Julie Walker contributed from New York.
Associated Press
This week, home discount retail chain Big Lots will open dozens of additional stores, marking the culmination of the beloved brand’s dramatic turnaround after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last year. Heres what you need to know about Junes Big Lots store reopenings.
Big Lots bankruptcy was expected to be the end
In December 2024, Big Lots announced that it had filed for bankruptcy and would be closing all of its roughly 800 locations. But in a surprising turn of events, the chain was saved from completely going out of business after another discount retail chain operator, Variety Wholesalers, swept in and agreed to buy 219 Big Lots locations from liquidator Gordon Brothers.
Variety Wholsalers, which also owns discount retail chains including Bargain Town and Super Dollar, said it would not only keep the 219 stores alive, but that it would operate them under the Big Lots brand, after a period of renovation and re-merchandising.
Prior Big Lots reopenings
Variety Wholesalers said it would reopen the 219 Big Lots stores it acquired in four waves, with the first beginning in April. Heres how many stores Big Lots opened in each prior wave:
First wave: nine stores across six states in April
Second wave: 54 stores across 12 states in early May
Third wave: 78 stores across 13 states in mid-May
Now, Big Lots will be commencing its fourth wave of store openings.
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78 Big Lots fourth wave June reopenings
Big Lots fourth wave of store reopenings will happen this week, with 78 stores opening across nine states. The planned opening date is Thursday, June 5.
The states with the most store reopenings in the fourth wave include North Carolina, with 22 locations reopening; Ohio, with 13 locations reopening; and Pennsylvania, with 11 stores reopening.
Here is the full Big Lots store reopening list for June:
Florida
6247 Highway 90, Milton, FL 32570
2384 Commercial Way, Spring Hill, FL 34606
3401 13th St Ste 100, St. Cloud, FL 34769
843 W Bloomingdale Ave, Brandon, FL 33511
3048 E College Ave, Ruskin, FL 33570
13970 N Cleveland Ave, North Ft. Myers, FL 33903
4901 Palm Beach Blvd Ste 230, Fort Myers, FL 33905
Georgia
127 Commerce Ave, LaGrange, GA 30241
3111 Highway 278 NW, Covington, GA 30014
13 Lester Rd Ste C, Statesboro, GA 30458
Kentucky
3000 Scottsville Rd, Bowling Green, KY 42104
North Carolina
125 Weaver Blvd, Weaverville, NC 28787
273 Franklin Plaza Dr, Franklin, NC 28734
1176 Russ Ave, Waynesville, NC 28786
1639 US Highway 74A Byp, Spindale, NC 28160
1450 Andrews Rd, Murphy, NC 28906
1251 Burkemont Ave, Morganton, NC 28655
711 E Innes St, Salisbury, NC 28144
280 Concord Pkwy N, Concord, NC 28027
720 NC 24 27 Byp E, Albemarle, NC 28001
950 S Cannon Blvd Ste A, Kannapolis, NC 28083
1677 Westchester Dr, High Point, NC 27262
2531 Eastchester Dr, High Point, NC 27265
630 Lakestone Commons Ave, Fuquay Varina, NC 27526
2950 S Horner Blvd, Sanford, NC 27332
1371 N Sandhills Blvd, Aberdeen, NC 28315
1664 S Main St Ste B, Laurinburg, NC 28352
520 Berne Sq, New Bern, NC 28562
2750C N Roberts Ave, Lumberton, NC 28358
1110 Western Blvd, Jacksonville, NC 28540
2900 Arendell St Ste 19, Morehead City, NC 28557
6832 F Market St, Wilmington, NC 28405
4600 Main St Ste 1, Shallotte, NC 28470
Ohio
8489 Market St, Mentor, OH 44060
12588 Rockside Rd, Cleveland, OH 44125
1890 W Market St, Akron, OH 44313
405 Howe Ave, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
241 W Wooster Rd, Barberton, OH 44203
426 East Waterloo Rd, Akron, OH 44319
1336 Whipple Ave NW, Canton, OH 44708
10560 Harrison Ave, Harrison, OH 45030
3640 Werk Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45248
110 S 7th St, Marietta, OH 45750
9025 Ohio River Rd, Wheelersburg, OH 45694
400 Silver Bridge Plz, Gallipolis, OH 45631
367 County Rd 406 Ste B, South Point, OH 45680
Pennsylvania
750 Ohio River Blvd, Rochester, PA 15074
4717 McKnight Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237
2444 Philadelphia St, Indiana, PA 15701
11628 Penn Hills Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15235
254 Oak Spring Rd, Washington, PA 15301
6041 State Route 30 Ste 20, Greensburg, PA 15601
1425 Scalp Ave Ste 130, Johnstown, PA 15904
389 N Reading Rd, Ephrata, PA 17522
500 Lincoln Hwy Ste 4, Fairless Hills, PA 19030
2140 White St, York, PA 17404
1150 Carlisle St, Hanover, PA 17331
South Carolina
1206 Highway 9 Bypass W, Lancaster, SC 29720
9221 Two Notch Rd Ste 30, Columbia, SC 29223
6169 St. Andrews Rd, Columbia, SC 29212
1641 Church St, Conway, SC 29526
710 Hwy 17 S Ste D, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582
1370 S Kings Hwy, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
1013 Old Highway 52, Moncks Corner, SC 29461
431 Saint James Ave Unit G, Goose Creek, SC 29445
10150 Dorchester RdUnit 227, Summerville, SC 29485
328 Robert Smalls Pkwy, Beaufort, SC 29906
Tennessee
633 S Jefferson Ave, Cookeville, TN 38501
1301 S James Campbell Blvd, Columbia, TN 38401
1913 Sherwood Rd, Kingsport, TN 37664
3901 Hixson Pike Ste 157, Chattanooga, TN 37415
1426 N Gateway Ave, Rockwood, TN 37854
Virginia
180 Kents Ridge Rd, Richlands, VA 24641
1090 Bypass Rd, Vinton, VA 24179
6610 Mooretown Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23188
2318 W Mercury Blvd, Hampton, VA 23666
1851 E Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA 23518
1971 S Military Hwy, Chesapeake, VA 23320
No more Big Lots openings?
With the additional 78 Big Lots stores reopening in its fourth wave this week, Variety Wholesalers will have reopened all 219 stores that it said it would after acquiring them from Gordon Brothers.
While fans of the retail brand are undoubtedly happy to have hundreds of locations reopened, the 219-store count represents just over a quarter of the Big Lots locations that were open at the end of last year.
Privately held Variety Wholesalers has not publicly announced plans to open any brand-new Big Lots locations at this time. For now, if there isn’t a Big Lots location near you after the fourth wave of reopenings this week, it’s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
As a new crop of summer interns arrive at your company, its worth considering: Will one of them rise to CEO?
Deanna Strable, who became CEO of Principal Financial Group in January, interned at the company during college. After graduating from Northwestern University, she joined Principal as an actuarial assistant, the start of a 35-year journey that included a stint abroad and senior roles including chief financial officer (CFO) and president and chief operating officer (COO). (Disclosure: Principal is a longtime Inc. advertising and sponsorship partner.)
People love to ask, Whyd you originally come to Principal? but I think a fundamental question is, Why did you stay here for 35 years? Strable says of the insurance and benefits company, which last year reported $16.2 billion in revenue, up 18% from 2023. It ultimately comes back to the work, the company, and the people.
From entry-level to executive
The intern-to-CEO path isnt unheard of, especially at family-led companies. Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, whose father founded the cable company, first interned at its Storecast marketing unit in 1974. J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., CEO of Arthur J. Gallagher and Co., a global insurance brokerage founded by his grandfather, interned at the business in 1972. Some prominent CEOs are lifers, having spent their whole careers at one company. Tricia Griffith, CEO of the insurer Progressive, started as an entry-level claims representative, and Mary Barra, CEO of GM, started at the carmaker as a co-op student.
And while research suggests that CEOs hired from within an organization slightly outperformed external hires during the pandemic, and performed on par with one another before the pandemic, more boards are turning to outsiders to run companies. Spencer Stuarts 2024 CEO Transitions report found that 44% of all new S&P 1500 CEO appointments last year were external hires, up from 32% in 2023 and the highest rate since 2000, when the executive search firm started tracking the data.
The CEO role has never been harder or more complex, and I do believe that you really need multiple experiences to be an effective leader in todays world, says Janice Ellig, CEO of executive search firm Ellig Group. I dont want to predict that the intern-to-CEO [trend] is going to decrease, but Im not sure its going to increase.
Many roles, one vision
Ellig says boards and investors want their chief executives to bring a range of relevant experiences to the role. Insiders who get the top job have typically led different departments and excelled in areas that are important to the company. GMs Barra, for example, led manufacturing engineering, global human resources, and global product developmentcritical divisions at a major automaker with 90,000 employees in the U.S. alone.
Principals Strable helped build and lead the companys benefits and protection business, which encompasses employee benefits, business owner solutions (life insurance and disability insurance), and nonqualified deferred compensation. As CFO, she worked alongside previous CEO Daniel Houston to develop a growth strategy that included discontinuing the sale of consumer life insurance products and focusing on higher-growth businesses such as retirement and global asset management. As a result, Strable says, she was able to hit the ground running, adding: You know the people, you know the products, you know the business, you know the strategy.
The insiders double-edge sword
Strable, who retains the president title at Principal, counts the familiarity and support of longtime colleagues as a plus of being an internal candidate. But where it can be hard is there are times that people just expect that youre comfortable with things the way they are today, she says. Strable says she encourages the company to lean into its strengths but also evaluate the areas where Principal has not been effective. She strives to find ways to learn from people outside the company. I reinforce that with a lot of our leaders, too, she says. You need to have a network of peers outside of the organization, both within and outside the industry.
At a lunch meeting in New York shortly after she became CEO, Strable reflected on the corporate milestones shes observed throughout her three-decades-plus at Principal. Of note: Some of the first graduates of Principals on-site daycare center at its Des Moines headquarters, which opened 17 years ago, will soon be eligible for internships at the company. Perhaps one of them might even become CEO someday.
Are you an insider CEO?
Are you a company lifer who has ascended to the CEO role? What unique insights do you possess that outsiders or newcomers dont have? Please send your experiences to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. And while I have your attention, please spread the word that Fast Companys annual Brands That Matter program is extending its deadline to June 6. If your brand excels in making emotional connections, communicating purpose, and maintaining cultural relevance, consider applying via this link.
Read more: inside track
How Mary Barra remade GM and its culture
Should your board consider an outsider for CEO succession?
Former Nike intern Elliott Hill is ex-employees top CEO pick
Your time spent working has a real dollar amount attached to it. But I often find as a time management coach that people dont think about the expense of their daily work activities. If they did, they likely would be much more hesitant to spend the equivalent of hundreds of dollars a day on things like email.
If youre curious how much your time is worth and how to use that information to make choices about what you do and dont do on the job, here are three simple steps you can take today.
Calculate your hourly rate
In some professions, the value of your time is pretty straightforward to determine. When you bill clients per hour or get paid at an hourly rate, you know exactly what your time is worth. Making these calculations is a little bit more difficult in other situations, but not impossible.
For example, if you have a salaried job with paid vacation, this is how you figure out the value of your time:
Multiply how many hours you work per week by the number of weeks in a year. So for example, if you work an average of 45 hours a week, then you would multiply 45×52 to get 2,340 hours per year.
Then you divide your annual salary by those number of hours. So if you make $75,000 per year, the hourly rate would end up being about $32/hour.
And finally, if you get paid by the project, youll want to take your project fee, subtract expenses like materials, and then divide the remaining amount by the number of hours it takes you to complete the project. So if you got paid $1,000 for a project, had no expendable materials, and spent about 13 hours on it, then your hourly rate would be around $75/hour.
Evaluate your time spend
Once youve calculated how much your time is worth, then you can start to evaluate your daily time choices through that lens.
For example, maybe you have a mix between messages, tasks, and meetings throughout your day. If you find yourself frequently sucked into email, Slack, or other inboxes, ask yourself what percentage of your daily budget you think that communication is worth. Then try to limit your time in that area, such as I only give the equivalent of $250 a day to communications.
Or if you notice some tasks on your list are time-consuming but not super high value, you may want to consider delegating them to someone else. If your time is worth about $60 an hour and a task takes five hours, thats $300 of time. But if youre paying an entry-level employee $15 per hour, that same task ends up only costing $75. For you to do the task might not make sense.
And finally with meetings, youll not only need to consider your hourly rate, but also the hourly expense for each additional person in the meeting. Depending on how many people are attending and their particular level of compensation, a single meeting could cost $1,000 or more. By starting to look at meetings through this filter, you can better determine whether or not you should go to meetings, as well as when youre hosting, how many people really need to come, and how long the meetings need to be.
Dont forget the opportunity cost
Finally, to most accurately assess the value of your time, youll need to determine not only your hourly rate, but also the opportunity cost of spending your time in different ways.
This varies quite a bit depending on your compensation structure. But here are a few examples of ways to consider the financial opportunity cost of different time choices.
If youre in sales and choose to fill your calendar with current client meetings to the point that you dont have enough room for meeting with prospects, your client meetings could be costing you thousands in missed opportunities for sales commissions.
If you own a business and only focus on day-to-day activities without investing in business development, those routine tasks could be at the expense of large amounts of unrealized business growth.
If youve been told that you need to hit certain goals to receive a promotion or bonus, and you spend your time in areas that dont allow you to hit those goals, then youre missing out on all of that potential compensation.
There are certain activities that you need to do for your job no matter what. But if you evaluate how youre spending your time with the mindset that every hour has a dollar amount attached to it, then you can make better choices on how much time you spend in different areas of your work as well as whether certain activities are even worth your time at all.
Care.com launched in 2006 as a platform that helps parents find babysitters and nannies. But nearly two decades later, the company came across some disconcerting data: According to Pew, 64% of young women and 50% of young men don’t want children, a figure that has been rising in recent years.
As Care.com conducted its own research, it discovered that one significant reason for this phenomenon is that young people are overwhelmed by all the different forms of care they must provide. In a survey, the company found that 28% of people have caregiving responsibilities for parents, grandparents, and other loved ones; 35% say this makes them less likely to have children. Indeed, by 2034, the number of seniors will outpace children.
“So many of us are living in the ‘sandwich generation,’ caring for both kids and aging parents,” says Brad Wilson, Care.com’s CEO. “There’s a compounding effect.”
Care.com believes it can better position itself to be a resource at this cultural moment, providing much more than just childcare, but also senior care, pet care, home services, and even finding summer camps for kids. Today, it’s unveiling a new brand identity that highlights a more comprehensive approach to caregiving. It also launching new tools that help families manage the mental load of juggling all these different caregivers.
But the company also acknowledges that the caregiving crisis in America is also rooted in systemic issues, including the high cost of raising children and the lack of government support for families. So Care.com is also playing a role in advocating corporate and government policies that bring down the cost of caregiving.
[Image: courtesy Care.com]
A Compounding Burden
Care.com has observed the growing burden of caregiving, as society has evolved in recent decades. For one thing, as women’s workforce participation has increased, more families are looking for daycare, nannies, and babysitters. Also, Americans no longer live in multigenerational families. “Families no longer feel like they have a ‘village’ to raise their child,” says Meiling Tan, Care.com’s VP of Brand. “Grandparents often live across the country. We don’t live in places where we can ask a neighbor for help in a pinch.”
Wilson points out that the pandemic exacerbated this situation. During the lockdowns, parents had to work while also taking care of their children, leading to overwhelm. Many professional caregivers also felt burnt out and left the industry altogether. And the cost of care kept increasing. “There’s a lot of mental anguish around caregiving,” he says. “People are losing sleep about all of this.”
[Image: courtesy Care.com]
Care.com allows users to search for caregivers for free; it also offers a premium membership that costs between $13 and $40 gives you more features like unlimited messaging and access to a broader range of caregivers. The company has been steadily adding new services to meet the needs of its customers. In the realm of childcare, for instance, the platform offers tutoring, night nurses, camps, and help finding pre-schools. But importantly, the company now offers more forms of care for adults, from housekeeping services to help with post-surgery recovery to dog walking. When it comes to senior care, it offers everything from hospice support to memory care.
And yet, the company says most people still see Care.com as a platform that specializes in childcare support, which is why it has invested in a comprehensive rebrand to help change this perception. Today, it unveils a new logo: It’s a green box with a large letter “C” with a smaller letter “c” nestled inside it. The font and the green color scheme is a change from previous coral palette. The imagery on the site, as well as in the new advertising campaign, will emphasize different types of care. “Before the site definitely felt more childlike,” says Tan. “We wanted to redesign our homepage to make it look more sophisticated, and show that we provide more holistic care.”
[Images: courtesy Care.com]
This rebranding is designed to spur growth for Care.com. The team hopes it will attract customers who may not know all the services the company provides, while also introducing existing customers to new kinds of caregiving. Care.com built its user base with the help of venture capital: It received a total of $156.8 million in funding between its 2006 launch and 2012. Then, in 2019, it was acquired for $500 million by IAC, the conglomerate that also operates DotDash and People Magazine. Over the past two decades, it’s faced a growing array of competitors, from platforms like UrbanSitter and Sittercity, to Facebook groups which enable babysitters to connect with parents in a particular neighborhood.
[Image: courtesy Care.com]
A Mental Burden
Along with this rebrand, the company is also focused on helping manage the complexity and stress of juggling all these different forms of care. For instance, creating a shortlist of nannies then interviewing them is a laborious task. Care.com has launched a messaging platform that allows you to easily eliminate caregivers from a search or keep them in the running. Soon, it will launch a hiring hub where you can take notes on the backend and sort through candidates more efficiently.
It is also unveiling an AI search function so you can lay out what you are looking for in a caregiver in your own words. The platform will then search for the right person using descriptions from the caregivers’ profiles. “You can ask for a meal prep guru or someone who loves art so they can do crafts with your kids,” says Tan. “And we’ll deliver results tailored to your needs.”
Care.com users have also said that safety is a big cause of concern. So the new website will feature a safety center that explains the platform’s robust background checks, from an initial criminal check to continuous monitoring of caregivers. It also allows you to pay for more comprehensive background checks. (There’s also a dedicated safety team at Care.com that is available around the clock for users to call in the case of a crisis.)
Systemic Problems
Wilson points out that while Care.com can be helpful to Americans struggling with all their responsibilities, the caregiving crisis is a product of many systemic issues. Paying for caregivers is very expensive, and many families feel crushed by these costs.
One solution Care.com has developed Care for Business, where it partners with companies who can pay to give employees free premium Care.com memberships and also subsidize the cost of caregivers. Employees can get access to “backup care” for days when regular caregiving falls through; a caregiver can be sent at the last minute so the employee can return to work. “We’ve found that employees with caregiving benefits are more likely to stay at their job and not miss days of work,” says Wilson. “This is great for the employee, but it’s also great for the employer.”
But ultimately, Wilson says that part of the burden American families feel has to do with the lack of government support. Care.com does policy work, advocating for child tax credits, for instance. And Wilson himself is the co-chair of the Future of Care Economy at the World Economic Forum, where he advocates for leaders around the world to prioritize the care sector.
For Tan, part of her work as head of branding is to elevate the role of caregivers in society through the brand’s website and advertising. “From personal experience, many of our caregivers talk about themselves as just a babysitter or just a nanny,” she says. “We’re trying to change the narrative so that caregiving is a respected, celebrated profession. Caregivers do more than help families; they are what keeps our economy going.”
As a manager, its easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of fixing processes, eliminating bottlenecks, and streamlining workflows. We focus on reducing frictionthe things that get in the way of people doing their best work. And sure, thats important. But heres the thing: Reducing fear is just as, if not more, important.
A comprehensive two-year study by Google identified psychological safety as the most important factor in high-performing teams. This environment allows team members to take risks and be vulnerable without fear of negative consequences. Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson emphasizes that psychological safety enables employees to speak up, make mistakes, and learn from them, which is essential for innovation and growth.
Lets face it. The best processes in the world wont help much if your team is afraid to speak up, take risks, or challenge the status quo. Fear can stunt creativity, shut down communication, and make people avoid the very risks that lead to growth. So, as leaders, we need to think beyond just fixing processes. We need to also focus on creating an environment where people feel safe and confident enough to acteven if it means making a mistake along the way.
Why Fear Matters More Than You Think
Fear is a powerful force. It can make people double-check their work, avoid taking risks, and be extra cautious. But when fear becomes the driving force behind decisions, it also leads to silence. When people are afraid to speak up, they hold back good ideas, overlook problems, and avoid making necessary changes.
Neuroscience backs this up. When we experience fear, our brains go into fight or flight mode, which limits our ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. When were scared, we become reactive instead of proactive. This is why a culture of fear isnt just uncomfortableits downright unproductive.
As a leader, its your job to create a culture where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and challenge the status quo. Thats why reducing fear should go hand in hand with reducing friction.
Fixing Processes Doesnt Fix Everything
Lets look at a real-world example: the United States Postal Service. In the early 2000s, the USPS faced a significant drop in productivity, rising operational costs, and declining employee morale. To address these issues, management introduced new technology, upgraded processes, and streamlined workflows to improve efficiency and reduce errors. They invested in automated sorting systems and revamped scheduling to make operations run more smoothly.
However, despite these process improvements, the results werent as dramatic as expected. Productivity wasnt increasing, and employees still seemed disengaged. The reason? Fear was still very much present in the workplace. Employees were afraid to speak up or share concerns about the new processes. If workers noticed something wrong with the new systems or had ideas to improve efficiency, they didnt feel comfortable offering suggestions or challenging the way things were done.
This is a perfect example of how reducing frictionby fixing processesdidnt have the full impact it could have had because fear was still holding back the team.
How could USPS have tackled both issues at once? They could have started by actively working to reduce fear within the organization. Management needed to create an environment where employees felt safe to make mistakes, raise issues, and offer constructive feedback. Employees who feel safe and supported are more likely to speak up when somethings not working and more likely to suggest creative solutions. They become partners in progress rather than passive participants.
Balancing Both: Reducing Friction and Fear
SEB, a Nordic financial services group, implemented a five-month training program focusing on psychological safety and perspective-taking for its investment banking leadership team. This initiative aimed to overcome transformation challenges and foster open communication. As a result, the team achieved revenues 25% above their annual targets in a strategically important market segment.
A multi-industry case study followed businesses whose team members were hesitant to voice concerns. All participants implemented psychological safety workshops emphasizing active listening and constructive feedback. This initiative led to improved conflict resolution, enhanced communication, and increased productivity, positively impacting the company’s bottom line.
To be an effective leader, you cant just focus on fixing processes. Thats a quick fix, but it doesnt address the deeper issues that impact team dynamics. Reducing friction is important, yes. But reducing fear is essential if you want to create a truly high-performing, innovative, and engaged team.
Simon Brown, global learning and development leader at EY, has spent years building critical skills and behaviors in high-performing teams. He shares: You cant automate courage. While systems help things run smoothly, its the culture that inspires people to run toward challenges instead of away from them.
Real-world application
So, what does this balance look like in practice? Reduce friction: Simplify workflows, cut out unnecessary steps, and ensure your team has the tools and resources they need to do their jobs efficiently.
Reduce fear: Foster a culture of psychological safety, where mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, where feedback is welcomed (not feared), and where team members feel confident enough to take risks and innovate.
You/me/we: Adopt a decision-making framework that defines what decisions employees can make on their own without fear or reprisal. This cuts down on back-and-forth decision-making bottlenecks and helps people feel more empowered in their roles.
Model a hands-off approach: Is your leadership decreasing the number of mandatory meetings but still attending themselves? Making outdated rules optional instead of obsolete? Without buy-in from the top, team members will be too afraid to take action on simplification initiatives that can free up time and decrease unnecessary mental distress.Leadership isnt just about improving processesits about improving peoples ability to act within those processes. If you want your team to truly thrive, youve got to focus on both reducing friction and reducing fear. When you do, youll create an environment where people feel empowered to make decisions, try new things, and speak up when somethings not working. Thats when the real magic happens.
Loving Pinterest has long been a part of my secretly middle-aged personality. I have 16.1k pins to my name to prove it. I started my account in middle school eight years ago, and Pinterest has been a dear companion to me ever since. I used to log on every day to tuck away precious ideas and artworks into my boards, which I could take out to admire every time I needed advice, a joke, or a drawing lesson.
I am not alone in this. Pinterest says that 42% of its global user base is Gen Z. I think Gen Z has really latched onto Pinterest as a safe platform to use, especially with so much happening around other social media platforms, says Lois, whose Tiktok videos about Pinterest under the username dandydemon have garnered over six million views. Pinterest is a very atypical social media platform. It’s not like Instagram, it’s not like TikTok, where youre actively scrolling. It’s a very personalized social media platform, and it feels almost like a journal of sorts for people.
But for many users like Lois, a worrying pattern has emerged over the past couple of years. There is so much AI on the platform . . . that it’s hard to determine what [posts are] AI, and where it is coming from, she says. Other people like Reddit user InterationInternal agree. I was looking for hair color inspo and it was all AI. I couldn’t find a single human!! Then [I] typed in nail inspo, interior design – same thing. Is this platform dead? they wrote in a thread titled Pinterest is 100% AI now? R/Pinterest hosts hundreds of posts with similar complaints.
Frustration over AI content and the recent mass deletion of user accounts is boiling over to the point where many users are leaving the platform for alternatives. Andy McCune, cofounder and CEO of the curation app Cosmos, says that after launching in August 2024, Cosmos has already gained millions of users. And, in the couple of days after Lois shouted out the platform as a Pinterest alternative in her a video discussing the Pinterest bans, McCune noted that Cosmos saw tens of thousands of new users join the platform.
Pinterest says AI slop is not a problem on its platform. Pinterest’s systems are designed to prominently surface high-quality, inspirational content says a spokesperson for the company. Low-quality Gen AI content is therefore not broadly recommended by our systems or widely seen by users.
Still, to help address user concerns about the presence of AI generated content on the platform, Pinterest rolled out a new feature to tag AI content in April. To help people determine whether a post contains AI-modified or generated content, Pinterest now analyzes the metadata of its images to look for AI markers. For those that fall through the cracks, Pinterest has also developed classifiers to detect AI generated content automatically. If Pinterest determines that an image is AI generated, it adds an AI modified label when users view it in closeup. As we refine these classifiers, our labels will become even more helpful and accurate, says the spokesperson.
Not everyone thinks this fix will be enough. Lois believes that the existence of the AI pins in the first place undermines the utility of Pinterest. I use Pinterest for home decor reasons, she says. I love to imagine what my future home would look like, and also get decor items from Pinterest, and there’s no way to get a decor item that was made by AI . . . the whole point of Pinterest, to me, as far as the commerce side of it is seeing products that I can buy because they exist within reality.
Pinterest is piloting a solution for this as well. The company is currently experimenting with a see fewer option for Gen AI pins in categories prone to AI modification or generation such as decor and food. We believe that AI should enhance, not replace, the value provided by our creators. Pinterests algorithms will continue to prioritize content that is inspirational, actionable, and most relevant to individual users, says the spokesperson.
Deeper questions about AI on Pinterest
Although these features may help users declutter their homepages of AI content, the overall amount of AI generated content on Pinterest will likely keep growing. After studying Pinterests monthly data and trend reports for January through April 2025, the technology-focused newsletter Garbage Day wrote for Sherwood News that every trend that Pinterest has specifically reported as growing since January 2025 has been saturated with pictures created by AI models. In fact, the article asserts that all 16 trends in Pinterests April trends report contained multiple AI generated images in the top 20 search results.
The continued encouragement of AI generated images is worrying for many people working in the arts. It’s the sort of indiscriminate use of [AI] that bypasses the very valuable and hard work and the very sophisticated and complex work and creative processes of artists says Robert Brinkerhoff, Department Head of Illustration at RISD. I think one of our chief worries is that visual culture will diminish ultimately because with capitalism as a driving force, quality is not as important as money.
Brinkerhoff notes that it is getting more and more difficult for artists to compete with the speed and increasing accuracy of AI generated content. For instance, an exploding area of practice for illustrators in recent years has been in visual development for film, for games, for animation, and many of our students are interested in that, he says. But those industries . . . are losing jobs and they’re being replaced by AI because it’s quite easy to generate that stuff and [AI is] very readily capable of creating stuff quickly.
This concept is exactly what AI slop farmers on Pinterest such as Jesse Cunningham bank on. Cunningham openly admits to flooding Pinterest with AI content to make revenue. “I’m talking $10,000 per month on Pinterest . . . using AI images, using AI text,” he says in a YouTube video explaining his process.
“On my page, we do 50 to 80 [posts] a day,” he says. We are presenting Pinterest with unique images every single time. This is why its hard to compete with AI.
Not to mention that despite launching their new filters on AI content, Pinterest itself continues to use users’ information to train their own AI models. When you save or upload content to Pinterest, we may use it to improve the accuracy, safety and overall performance of Pinterest Canvas, says Pinterest on its Help Center website.
What happens when a platform uses AI to train tself to better help people find inspiration to create a life they love, when an increasing number of uploads are AI generated? The more you subtract human beings from making things like art . . . the more dehumanized we become as a society, I think, says Brinkerhoff.
