Kings Hawaiianthe maker of the sweet, buttery rolls that were a staple in many American childhoodsjust got a fluffy rebrand.
The updated identity, which includes a new wordmark, logo, color palette, and packaging, was executed by the creative agency Mrs&Mr for Kings Hawaiians 75th anniversary. The brand crests this milestone at a tricky time for the grocery industry, as inflation and the rising cost of living continue to dampen consumer spending. Based on a report from the market research firm Circana, bread and rolls sales have declined by around 1% in the past yearbut, in an interview with CNN, Kings Hawaiian chief marketing officer Raouf Moussa shared that the brands sales have actually grown year-over-year despite this overall downturn.
According to Kate and Daniel Wadia, the duo behind Mrs&Mr, the goal of the new look included a careful balance of two priorities: modernizing the brand while also reconnecting its identity with the decades-long heritage thats turned it into an enduring source of nostalgia. To do that, they started by turning to the classic rolls themselves.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
75 years of Hawaiian rolls
Before it became a packaged goods company, Kings Hawaiian was a small local bakery in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1950. Its founder, Robert R. Taira, was the Hawaiian-born son of Japanese immigrants, who ultimately perfected a more shelf-stable version of the Portuguese sweet bread hed enjoyed in his childhoodan invention that would later become Kings Hawaiians iconic packaged Hawaiian rolls. Kings Hawaiians current CEO, Mark Taira, is Roberts grandson. He worked directly with Mrs&Mr to help transform King’s Hawaiian’s branding.
[Photo: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
[Kings Hawaiian] saw themselves as this heritage brand that really needed to modernize, but also to stay true to its DNA and to its heritage, Daniel says. The impetus for the project was, How do we become relevant to new generations of Kings Hawaiian consumers, while building on our legacy as this iconic brand that’s been around since 1950?
[Photo: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
To answer that question, Daniel and Kate parsed through archival materials from the brands early days, including original signage, vintage packaging, and old advertisements. And, because Daniel grew up in London and Kate in Australia, they also had to actually try the product for the first time.
Once we experienced the fluffiness, the squidginess, it reminded me of a French briochemy mother’s brioche has that squidginess, Daniel says. We really saw an opportunity for both the crown itself and also the wordmark to reflect the puffiness and the softness of the product. We wanted it to feel as if it had been bakedlike, literally, the logo just came out of the oven.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
Kings Hawaiians former logo, adopted in 2018, included a thin, uppercase serif font, encased in a pointed crown and surrounded by a bursting floral motif. Kate notes that the look had a messy quality, but, more significantly, it also had a very regal, formal feel.
It felt almost a little standoffish,” Kate says. “This product is a family recipe, there’s such love and warmth and humanity that goes into this product, that we wanted it to feel a little bit more approachable.”
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
Baking the King’s Hawaiian brand
To give Kings Hawaiian a friendlier feel, Mrs&Mr started by metaphorically baking the brands core assets.
The crown logo, for example, has been given rounded edges and a chunkier feel. And, alongside lettering artist Alec Tear, Daniel and Kate developed a custom wordmark font that looks freshly risen. While the wordmarks font is still a serif, in keeping with the brands history, its now bubbly and weighty. The dots above each i, as well as the letters tails, are shaped to mimic a puffy Haiwaiian roll.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
Crucially, Daniel and Kate decided to keep the brands signature orange packaging, which has come to be strongly visually associated with the brand. To give the identity a brighter feel, though, they lightened the core hue a few shades and kicked up its vibrancy. They also expanded the brands usable color palette to include complementary colors like golden yellow and bright red. In place of the packagings former floral motif, Daniel and Kate opted to add in a more simplified pattern of illustrated hibiscus, monstera, and plumeria plants, all of which are native to Hawaii.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
The result is a versatile branding system thats now been applied across Kings Hawaiians entire portfolio of products, as well as on its website and social media.
It’s an iconic, beloved American brandand it’s something that people are very nostalgic about, Kate says. They sell Kings Hawaiian merch; people wear their T-shirts and hats and socks. So its really exciting, but there’s also a true responsibility when you rebrand these iconic brands that you dont give people design whiplash: it has to be familiar, yet updated.
Every entrepreneur faces challenges on their professional path. Many women, in particular, share experiences of doubt and difficulty in making their voices heard. But rest assured, there are tried-and-true ways to get you past these speed bumps and back onto the right track.
In my two-decade career at Christies auction house, I learned to navigate these dynamics. And when I eventually left to start my own talent agency, I had to use strategies I learned from my time in the male-dominated corporate world to get buy-in from new clients. My ability to speak up in rooms full of men, pitch ideas to them, and feel confident doing so proved to be critical.
The truth is, entrepreneurial life can have a higher barrier to entry for many women. But common obstacles dont need to stop you in your tracks. Here are five hidden roadblocks women should anticipateso you, too, can approach any business challenge confident in your ability to own it.
Decision-makers dont look like you
A common issue women face when they walk into a pitch meeting is a room full of people who dont look like them. As a result, when they start to pitch their product or idea, the people in the room cant relate and the deal falls apart quickly.
But knowing this will likely be the case gives you all the power. Do your research before you walk in the room so that you know exactly who you are going to be pitching tothat way, there are no surprises. Find out as much as possible about everyone who will be in the room so that you can find a natural point of synergy to connect you.
Since youve done the prework, you can ask leading questions that will steer the conversation in the way that you want. Dont hesitate to practice your pitch on friends who might be similar to the people you are about to pitch to, so they can punch holes in your presentation. The more prep work you do, the easier pitch day will be.
Juggling invisible labor
Are you drained at the end of the workday, only to walk in the door at home to find that you are in charge of everything there, too? The second shift is a common trap for working women. And it can stop today.
Have conversations with your partner early and often about dividing invisible work at home. The sooner you get into a rhythm where youre both aware of what it takes to keep a household moving, the less time you will spend arguing about it. Together, list out everything that has to get done around the house, and allocate it according to the things you are good at or like to dountil you get to the tasks neither of you want to do. Tackle those together. You cant do it alone, nor should you.
Limited access to funding
Women have access to less than 3% of venture capital money; its a shocking disparity that bears repeating. So be loud. This statistic will only improve the more we talk about it.
Tell anyone and everyone who needs to hear it that women need more access to capital. If youre a woman seeking VC money, get in touch with organizations like Female Founder Collective or Female Founders Fund, who help connect women with potential investors (and invest as well). Make the issue known, and align yourself with communities working to solve it.
Limited access to networks
My father always says network or diemeaning not that youll die if you dont network, but your network certainly will. Fewer women than men in positions of business leadership means that curating connections is essential. If you find that your network isnt growing, or your world seems small and you need a larger reach, its time to take matters into your own hands.
Organize a breakfast with a friend and ask her to invite six people you dont know. Do the same with your network. Make it meaningful, not just transactional. At the event, let each person talk about their work and life, then ask a question that everyone at the table has to answer.
Artificial timelines
The world of constant updates that we live in can make success seem easyas though if you arent killing it all the time, you arent successful.
If you find yourself scrolling on social media, concerned that everyone else is miles ahead of where you are supposed to be, say this to yourself as often as you need to: I am living life on the timeline I am supposed to be on. Things will happen when they are meant to happen and not before. I am exactly where I need to be. You will arriveroadblocks in your rearview mirror.
Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles is one of the countrys busiest general aviation hubs, as residents nearby can attest. Those who live near the airport say they hear a relentless roar of planes overheadbut none of those flights are commercial. Instead, Van Nuys serves private air travel, and its where celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk store their private jets.
Van Nuys is also the third most polluting private airport in the world, according to a new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Its also just one example of the way private jet use has been growing, particularly in the United States. Of the 20 largest airports for private jet use, 18 are located in the U.S., including Van Nuys, Palm Beach International Airport, and New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport, which is just 12 miles from midtown Manhattan. (The other two top airports for private jets were located in France.)
[Image: ICCT.org]
Private jets come with a huge carbon footprint. One typical private jet emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses per year as 177 cars. And the use of private jets has been increasing. ICCT estimates that private jets produced up to 19.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, a 25% increase over the past decadeand equivalent to driving nearly 50 billion miles in an average gas car.
Aviation overall accounts for 2.5% of the worlds emissions. But how you fly can change your personal carbon footprint. On a commercial flight, those spacious business-class seats are responsible for up to five times as many CO2 emissions as seats in economy. That means people who take private jets, which typically have between six and 19 seats, are responsible for an even bigger share of emissions.
[Image: ICCT.org]
Private jet use accounts for about 2% of global aviation emissions. In 2023, global private jet flights collectively emitted more greenhouse gasses than all flights departing from Londons Heathrow Airport, which is the busiest airport in Europe.
Private jet flights also tend to be quick jaunts: less than 900 kilometers, and lasting fewer than two hours. (Short haul flights produce a disproportionate amount of emissions, accounting for about a third of aviations total carbon footprint.)
[Image: ICCT.org]
And most of the private jet flights happen, or at least start in, the U.S. Two-thirds of all private jet flights in the world departed from U.S. airports in 2023, accounting for 55% of all private jet emissions globally. Private jet use here has made headlines multiple times, as people have tracked Taylor Swifts personal plane journeys or the fact that Starbucks CEO Brian Niccols would be using a business jet (a type of private jet) to commute from his home in Newport Beach, California, to the companys headquarters in Seattle.
The U.S. is so flush with private jets that Florida and Texas together were the source of more private jet flights and greenhouse gas emissions than the entire European Union.
When it comes to curbing private jet use, some policymakers have floated the idea of taxing private jet emissions or fuels. In 2023, Congress introduced legislation to raise private jet fuel taxes from $0.22 to $1.95 per gallon, which would essentially be $200 per metric ton of a private jets CO2 emissions. While that proposal didn’t gain much traction, the tax proposal has recently been reintroduced.
Such a tax, the ICCT report estimated, could generate $3 billion annually for decarbonization efforts. Given the slow pace of technological progress, said Dan Rutherford, ICCTs Senior Director of Research, in a statement, its reasonable to charge ultrawealthy travelers more for their pollution.
For some in Hollywood, as Silicon Valleys AI models have become impossible to ignore, its better to have a seat at the table as these new technologies emerge, rather than sitting back and letting the tech titans take full control.
This, at least, is the impetus behind Asteria, the generative AI studio cofounded by the filmmaking couple of Bryn Mooser and Natasha Lyonne, who promote their company as using ethical AI. Lyonne has justified her embrace of the technology by explaining: Its better to get your hands dirty than pretend its not happening. The company has faced some backlash, both because Lyonne (tastelessly, her detractors would argue) claimed the late David Lynch had endorsed AI, and because its flagship model is proprietarymeaning we have no way to verify that it is indeed trained only on licensed material (as Lyonne and co. say it is).
Meanwhile, James Cameron is on Stability AIs board, and has expressed his hope for using AI to make blockbuster filmmaking cheaper. Jason Blums Blumhouse Productions has partnered with Meta for AI testing and chatbots. Lionsgate signed a deal with Runway, an AI startup valued at $3 billion, to let the company train its model on the studios 20,000+ films and TV series; Runway also signed a deal with AMC.
This embrace of AI, though, puts the James Camerons and Natasha Lyonnes of the world at odds with industry peers who are opting to push back on these would-be robot overlords before they take over.
Studios are understandably wary of copyright infringement, especially since generative AI models trained on publicly available data can reproduce intellectual propertyfor example, creating an image of Elsa from Frozen upon request.
That concern is at the heart of several ongoing lawsuits against AI companies, including one from Disney and Universal against Midjourney, which includes dozens of side-by-side pictures comparing the studios own IP to Midjourneys outputs.
Meanwhile, last year Disney formed an Office of Technology Enablement to oversee how the company can responsibly use AI in postproduction and VFX, among other initiatives. This demonstrates the balance Hollywood is trying to strike, with attempts to protect whats theirs while ensuring they are not left behind by these technological developments.
Tensions are running high. Are you on board, or standing in the way? Nuanced decisions being made by studios, producers, investors, and talent right now will determine whether Hollywood will look recognizable in a decade.
Similar tensions have sprung up before in Hollywood. Past introductions of television, cable, streaming, and more have sent shivers down the spines of studios and their labor forces alike. In each instance, when you are fighting for the right to continue running your business, its understandable that you would leave no stone unturned, says Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics.
The issue is finding the right approach, as the use of AI in the creative industries remains deeply contentious and presents a different sort of multitiered threat. As Katz understands it, the studios are trying to preserve as much as they can before the machine takeover, as it seems clear that this technology is inevitable. This means everything from licensing content to train AI, cutting production costs by streamlining visual effects, dubbing and subtitling more efficiently to serve global markets, and flirting with full generative production. It is that final one, of course, that tends to draw the most scrutiny.
We are enduring a painful contraction of the entertainment industry, Katz says, because legacy media doesnt have the same money to play with that they once did, so these companies need to figure out cost-cutting moves. It is unfortunate that the result is not only job cuts but reliance and embracement of technology that might otherwise replace some of the creative human labor force.
With this in mind, Hollywoods unions are unsurprisingly deeply invested in how AI use in the industry develops, and the technology was key to the writers and actors strikes in 2023, when they won protections from nonconsensual cloning of actors and from AI scripts. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of the Screen Actors GuildAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists, tells Fast Company that since then, the industry has largely taken a more cautious approach to the technology. He notes that people think they have a right to their own image, but they donthe should know, since he himself was subject of a deepfake video during the strikes. The union is advocating for the No Fakes Act in Congress, to protect individuals from the misuse of their likeness (some argue the Act could actually do more harm than good). As efforts like Asteria and Runway have emerged, he adds, we want to make sure to talk to every single company that wants to use this technology.
Meanwhile, various courts are regularly issuing (often contradictory) decisions, including a recent win for AI companies in California which ruled that these companies do not violate fair use law when they train their models on copyrighted material. As both the tech itself and the discourse and legislation around it rapidly develops, Crabtree-Ireland recognizes that the union represents vast swaths of performers with different attitudes, as many want to find ways to use AI as a tool, while others (he estimates 10 to 15%) would prefer to prohibit it completely. From the unions perspective, though, what were able to do best is focus on the core principles of informed consent and intended use, so performers not only give their consent but are also told exactly how their likeness or image will be used by the technology.
The bigger question is whether audiences will accept what these companies intend to do with AIand the way these backlashes have played out is not going unnoticed. Crabtree-Ireland says performers have been protected by the uncanny valley for longer than we expected, as even the best models today still look rather unnatura. Nevertheless, itd be irresponsible to keep counting on that, or to assume that audiences wont [start to] respond to it.
Were focused on making the right push, contractually and legally, he adds. We want to be able to channel how this technology is going to be used.
Katz points out that AI is also a boon to the creator economy, and will almost certainly help to further close the gap between professional and amateur productions, as YouTubers like MrBeast have already proved. Can they approximate 50 to 75% of what a Warner Bros. can do for a fraction of the cost? Katz says about how online creators will make use of AI. What kind of bite does that take out of Hollywood?
The only thing that is certain as workers of all kinds struggle to carve out their place in the future of entertainment is how little anyone seems to know.
With more and more people moving to urban areas, there’s an ever-growing need for people who can think at the scale of a city in order to solve problems. Experts in urban design are very much in demand.
Fast Company’s new analysis of job listings across several design disciplines puts a number on it: job postings for urban designers are up 102% compared to the previous year.
This boom may reflect the increasing relevance of the kind of work urban designers do, which is to create functioning communities and regions. Spanning architecture, city planning, landscape architecture, and urban development, urban design takes in the whole picture of a city and looks for ways that interventions at all scales can improve the system.
“It’s really a field of integration,” says Tyler Patrick, chair of the planning and urban design department at Sasaki, a large multidisciplinary design firm. Patrick says that Sasaki has been hiring more and more urban designers every year, and including their input on nearly every project. “It’s a field that continues to add a lot of value.”
Part of rise in demand for urban designers may stem from the fact that the way cities operate is inseparable from the issues of the day. From sustainability to community health to economic development, some of society’s biggest challenges canand perhaps mustbe addressed at the urban level. “Every project we go into we try to understand, How does this fit into the system? How does it change the system?” says Nick Leahy, co-CEO of the design firm Perkins Eastman.
Urban designers are typically trained to use sophisticated data analysis tools, including geographic information systems (GIS) and site planning software like Autodesk Forma. These programs and visualization tools help to quantify the ways design decisions play out at the level of a city system. Leahy says this type of analysis is increasingly critical in projects, whether it’s a 2,000-acre plan in Mumbai or the redevelopment of a key parcel in a city’s downtown.
And there’s plenty of work to do. Kris Krider, chair of the urban design and preservation division of the American Planning Association, says that the rise in urban design job postings is not surprising, especially in the U.S. “We’re looking at a lot of redevelopment within our existing cities and our communities, and it gets complicated pretty quick,” Krider says.
Urban designers, who are skilled in interdisciplinary thinking, are well suited to this messy job, able to weave new elements into the fabric of a living city. “This is not a greenfield site where you can design the perfect town square,” Krider says, using an industry term for undeveloped land. “You’ve got to fix stuff.”
The increased demand is likely to continue, especially given trends in American cities to try to move away from the car-centric planning of the past, and to make even suburban areas more vibrant, walkable, and livable. It would be hard to argue that most communities in the U.S. yet check all those boxes. That’s part of the reason, he says, that this type of designer can expect job security. “Urban designers never run out of work to do because there are so many mistakes to correct.”
This article is part of Fast Companys continuing coverage of where the design jobs are, including this years comprehensive analysis of 170,000 job listings.
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
Wes Lowe uses so much Claritin that he started an Amazon subscription to avoid running out. His kids take two asthma medications. This reflects the normalcy of pollution in Californias San Joaquin Valley, where residents breathe some of the dirtiest air in the nation.
Lowe lives about 20 miles outside of Fresno, in the valleys heart. More than a dozen highways, including Interstate 5, run through the region, carrying almost half of the states truck traffic. The sky is usually hazy, the air often deemed hazardous, and 1 in 6 children live with asthma. You dont realize how bad it is until you leave, Lowe said.
He understands Californias urgent need to clear the air by electrifying the trucking industry and pushing older, more polluting machinery off the road. That would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 17.1 tons annually by 2037, significantly reduce the amount of smog-forming ozone,and go a long way toward meeting federal air quality requirements. But as a partner at Kingsburg Truck Center, a dealership in Kingsburg, hes seen how difficult this transition will be.
More than 15 percent of medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold statewide in 2023 were zero-emission. But the road has been bumpy amid growing uncertainty about Californias regulations and the Trump administrations hostility toward electric vehicles, the clean energy transition, and the states climate policies.
The Golden State started its trucking transition in 2021 when it required manufacturers to produce an increasing number of zero-emission big rigs, known as Advanced Clean Trucks, or ACT. The following year, it mandated that private and public fleets buy only those machines by 2036, establishing what are called Advanced Clean Fleets, or ACF.
The Environmental Protection Agency granted the waiver California needed to adopt ACT in 2023. But it had not acted on the exemption required to enforce ACF by the time President Donald Trump took office, prompting the state to rescind its application as a strategic move to keep options on the table, according to the California Air Resources Board.
The U.S. Senate threw the fate of the Advanced Clean Trucks rule into question when it revoked the states EPA waiver on May 22, stripping the state of its ability to mandate the electrification of private fleets, though it can still regulate public ones. Now the one bright side for the states efforts to clean up trucking is the Clean Trucks Partnership, under which several manufacturers have already agreed to produce zero-emission rigs regardless of any federal challenges.
All of this limits Californias ability to ease pollution. The Air Resources Board has said the Advanced Clean Fleet rule would eliminate 5.9 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions in the San Joaquin Valley by 2037. Another rule, the In-Use Locomotive regulation, bans internal combustion trucks more than 23 years old by 2030 and would reduce those emissions by another 11.2 tons. Even with those rules in place, the state would have to cut another 6.3 tons to bring air quality in line with EPA rules.
With the fate of Californias campaign to decarbonize trucking in question, even those who want to see it succeed are wavering. Kingsburg Truck Center started selling battery electric trucks in 2022, but saw customers begin to cancel orders once the state was unable to enforce the Advanced Clean Fleet requirement. Lowe has had to lay off seven people as a result.
We got heavy into the EV side, and when the mandate goes away, Im like, Shit, am I gonna be stuck with all these trucks? Lowe said. If I were to do it all again, Id probably take a lot less risk on the investment that we made into the zero-emission space.
California remains committed to cleaning up trucking. But the transition will require creative policymaking because the Trump administrations hostility to the idea makes it extremely difficult for the state to hit its goal of 100 percent zero-emission truck sales by 2036, said Guillermo Ortiz of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Still, he sees ways the state can make progress. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give the Air Resources Board authority to regulate ports, rail yards, and warehouses. That would allow regulators to mandate strategies to advance the transition, like requiring facilities to install charging infrastructure. Several state programs underwrite some of the cost of electric trucks, which can cost about $435,000about three times the price of a diesel rig.
Thats not to say California isnt fighting back. It plans to sue the Trump administration to preserve its right to set emissions standards. Losing that will make it impossible to ease the Valleys pollution enough to meet air quality standards, said Craig Segall, a former deputy executive director of the Air Resources Board. Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Trucks arise out of some pretty hard math regarding whats true about air pollution in the Central Valley and in California, which is that its always been largely a car and truck problem, he said.
Even if the state loses the ability to regulate vehicle emissions and require electrification, Segall is confident market forces will push the transition forward. As China continues investing in the technology and developing electric big rigs, he said, companies throughout the rest of the world will need to do the same to stay competitive. He also said that trucking companies will see zero-emission trucks as an opportunity to lower maintenance and fueling costs. The Frito Lay factory in the Central Valley city of Modesto has purchased 15 Tesla electric big rigs.
Ultimately, the economic argument for ditching diesels is simply too appealing, said Marissa Campbell, the cofounder of Mitra EV, a Los Angeles company that helps businesses electrify. She said the states decision to table the Advanced Clean Fleets rule hasnt hurt business.
No one likes being told what to do, she said. But when you show a plumber or solar installer how they can save 30 to 50 prcent on fuel and maintenanceand sometimes even moretheyre all ears.
Valerie Thorsen leads the San Joaquin Valley office of CalSTART, a nonprofit that has, since 1992, pushed for cleaner transportation to address pollution and climate change. She sees the Trump administrations recalcitrance as nothing more than a hurdle on the road to an inevitable transition. But any effort to ditch diesels must be accompanied by an aggressive push to build charging infrastructure. You dont want to have vehicles you cant charge or fuel, she said.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District won a $56 million federal grant in January 2024, to build two solar-powered EV charging sites along Interstate 5 with 102 chargers specifically for big rigs. About 45 percent of Californias truck traffic passes through the region, which has, over the past 25 years, eased nitrogen oxide emission from stationary sources by more than 90 percent. A majority of the remaining [nitrogen oxide] emissions and smog-forming emissions in the valley come from heavy duty trucks, said Todd DeYoung, director of grants and incentives at the district.
The Trump administration quickly halted grant programs like the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program that would have expanded charging infrastructure. But DeYoung remains confident that construction of the truck chargers will proceed because work started almost immediately. Similar projects are underway in Bakersfield and Kettleman City.
Not everyone is convinced the infrastructure needs to roll out as quickly as the trucks. Ortiz said emphasizing the adoption of the trucks will pressure the market to ensure chargers come online. That sends a signal to charging infrastructure providers, to utilities, saying, These vehicles are coming, and we need to make sure that the infrastructure is there to support it, he said.
That support is crucial. Bill Hall is new to trucking. He spent decades as a marine engineer, but during the pandemic decided to try something new. He runs a one-man operation in Berkeley, California, and as he carried loads around the state he noticed a lot of hydrogen stations. Intrigued, he reached out to truck manufacturer Nikola to ask about its electric hydrogen fuel cell rigs.
His engineering background impressed the startup, which thought hed provide good technical feedback. Hall bought the first truck the company sold in California, augmenting his personal investment of $124,000 with $360,000 he received from a state program in December 2023. Despite a few initial bugs, he enjoyed driving it. As an early adopter, Nikola gave him a deal on hydrogen$5.50 per kilogram, which let him fill up for about $385 and go about 400 miles. I proved that you could actually pretty much take that hydrogen truck to any corner of California with a minimal hydrogen distribution system that they had, Hall said.
But weak sales, poor management, and other woes led Nikola to file for bankruptcy in February. Without its technical support, Hall no longer feels comfortable driving his truck. The companys collapse also meant paying full price for hydrogen, about $33 per kilogram these days. Hall is still paying $1,000 a month for insurance and $225 a month for parking. He says the state shares some of the blame for his predicament because it didnt do enough to support the technology. He would have liked to see it distribute 1,000 hydrogen trucks to establish them and subsidize fuel costs. I did the right thing, which ended up being the wrong thing, he said.
Beyond the obvious climate implications of ditching diesel lie many health benefits. In addition to generating a lot of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the transportation sector is responsible for 80 percent of Californias ozone-forming emissions. Theres no question that the transition away from combustion trucks to zero-emission would save lives, prevent asthma attacks, and generate significant, significant public health benefits all around the state, said Will Barrett, senior director for nationwide clean air advocacy with the American Lung Association.
The state has come a long way in the decades since smog blanketed Los Angeles, and the San Joaquin Valley has enjoyed progressively cleaner air over the past 25 years. But people like Luis Mendez Gomez know there is more work to be done, even if the air no longer smells like burning tires. He has lived alongside a busy highway and not far from a refinery outside of Bakersfield for 40 years. It has taken a toll: His wife was hospitalized for lung disease earlier this year, and he knows 10 people who have died from lung cancer.
This pollution has been going on for years, Mendez Gomez said. Nobody had cared before, until now. Were pushing the government and pushing companies to help us.
But just when it looks like things might change, the federal government appears willing to undo that progress, he said. All the ground they gained is going to go away. Benton Graham
This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/transportation/california-rolls-on-with-electric-trucks-despite-trumps-roadblocks/.Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org
In 2019, a midsized company used a familiar tool: the classic 2×2 scenario matrix. They mapped two axes of uncertainty: economic stability and technological innovation. From that, they built four polished narratives of the future. At the time, it felt rigorous and strategic.
Then everything changed.
Generative AI erupted into public consciousness. With the release of GPT-3 and a cascade of tools that followed, a technological tidal wave reshaped industries, workflows, and public discourse. Billions of AI-generated images, voices, and texts flooded the digital world.
At the same time, resistance grew. Workers voiced concerns about job displacement, regulators scrambled to keep pace, and the public began questioning the speed and direction of changes ahead.
Not one of the companys four boxes accounted for this kind of multidimensional disruption.
The Future Didnt Fall Into One of Four Boxes
Why did their scenarios fall short? Because the 2×2 model, and much of traditional scenario planning, was designed for a more linear, less entangled world. It reduces complex systems into binary trade-offs and often fails to consider the social, emotional, and symbolic forces that drive real transformation.
Todays world is shaped by what we call SuperShifts, nine deep, structural transformations that are changing how we live, learn, and work. These include forces such as IntelliFusion, where human and artificial intelligence merge; Techceleration, where technology evolves faster than regulation or adaptation; and Reality Remix, where the physical and digital worlds merge.
These are not isolated trends. They are interconnected systemic changes that defy prediction and demand a more sophisticated strategic response.
In a world of SuperShifts, planning for the most probable future is no longer enough. We need approaches that embrace complexity, expand foresight, and prepare us for disruptions that do not fit neatly into grids or quadrants.
The Problem: Classic Scenarios in a Complex World
Traditional scenario planning emerged in an era that felt more stable and linear. The 2×2 model simplifies uncertainty by forcing it into four tidy boxes. For a long time, that structure helped organizations think beyond the status quo. But in todays world, it misses the mark.
Leaders now face overlapping disruptions in climate, technology, society, and geopolitics. These arent isolated variables; they are interconnected forces that influence and accelerate one another. Trying to capture this level of complexity within a binary framework reduces rich dynamics into simplistic either-or choices. The result? Shallow narratives that feel disconnected from reality.
SuperShifts expose the limits of these old tools. Consider the rise of decentralized governance, AI-human collaboration, or the fragmentation of global systems. These are not subtle evolutions; they are foundational shifts that rewrite the rules of society, economics, and identity. No quadrant can contain that.
In a world shaped by systems thinking, nonlinear change, and emotional complexity, traditional scenario methods often flatten what needs to be multidimensional. They strip away nuance, ignore lived experience, and fail to account for emerging tensions that matter most.
We need scenario tools that reflect the world we are in now: fast-moving, emotionally charged, and shaped by forces that dont sit still.
Enter the Spectrum Foresight Framework
Instead of jumping straight into scenarios, Spectrum Foresight Framework begins with what we call Spectrum Shaping, vivid, layered vignettes of possible futures. These arent just speculative stories. They are grounded in Spectrum Layer Analysis (SLA), a seven-layer method that brings emotional, systemic, and symbolic depth to each imagined world.
Each Spectrum Shaping is a microcosm, a lived moment in a future shaped by shifts that are already underway. They reflect not just what happens, but how it feels, who it impacts, and what tensions emerge.
For example, a Spectrum Shaping built around the rise of AI in mental health might feature:
Headlines about virtual therapists replacing human counselors.
Systemic drivers, such as underfunded healthcare or surges in AI investment.
Power struggles between tech firms and clinical boards.
Emotional responses range from relief to existential dread.
Cultural narratives about vulnerability and machine empathy.
Going Deeper: Spectrum Layer Analysis
Within the Spectrum Shaping stage, it utilizes Spectrum Layer Analysis to uncover the layered forces that shape how futures are experienced, not just predicted.
SLA is the deep-structure engine behind immersive futures. Rather than crafting flat narratives based on trends, SLA challenges foresight teams to analyze each Spectrum Scene across seven interlocking layers, from observable events to unconscious cultural metaphors. These layers create the world-building scaffolding that turns weak signals into richly textured future scenes.
SLA moves foresight from descriptive to dimensional. It moves beyond surface speculation to construct futures that account for identity, power, emotional context, and systemic drivers. And these layers can fall into seven categories:
Surface Events and Discourse: Observable signals like headlines, memes, or emerging technologies
Structures and Systemic Drivers: Institutional, technological, or infrastructural dynamics beneath the surface
Power and Agency: Who holds power, who is excluded, and how agency is negotiated
Cultural and Psychological Frames: Collective mindsets, fears, values, and assumptions
Conflicts and Tensions: Fractures, resistance, and ideological friction
Narratives and Beliefs: Deep-rooted stories that guide behavior and justify decisions
Archetypes and Deep Metaphors: The symbolic frameworks and recurring motifs that shape perception
By scanning each layer in tandem, organizations can trace how a surface trend, such as AI regulation, may be driven not just by policy shifts but also by deeper stories of control, freedom, fear, and trust. This layered analysis reveals not only what might happen but also why and how it could unfold differently across cultures, industries, or generations.
Making business strategy more flexible
SLA ensures youre not just reacting to whats visible. It helps you understand why shifts are occurring and how they might evolve differently across cultures, markets, or generations. It bridges foresight and strategy, anchoring each insight in emotional, symbolic, and structural realities.
SLA makes strategy stretchable, robust acros multiple futures, yet flexible when the unexpected hits. Its the world-building tool that prepares Spectrum Shaping for their next evolution: full-fledged Spectrum Scenarios.
Why you should look at business scenarios with layers
Spectrum Scenarios are not just upgraded narratives: theyre a sophisticated, next-generation foresight method that moves beyond the constraints of traditional scenario planning.
Each scenario reflects a different way of living, interpreting, and engaging with a future shaped by shared underlying shifts.
Unlike traditional scenarios that often rely on archetypes, quadrant-based methods (like 2×2 matrices), or linear forecasts, which produce a limited number of binary outcomes based on two critical uncertainties, Scenarios are multilayered, emotionally resonant, and systemically grounded. They reflect the contradictions, power asymmetries, and diverse worldviews that make strategic planning more human and more real.
What Makes It Different
Think of these scenarios as parallel lived realities within the same domain, sometimes in the same city, company, or policy environment, but experienced radically differently depending on power, identity, worldview, or system position.
Instead of reducing uncertainty to polar opposites like “AI will be regulated” versus “AI will not be regulated,” this approach examines the full range in between. It considers possibilities from tightly controlled AI ecosystems to completely open-source models with minimal oversight. These spectrums are not just visual enhancements. They fundamentally change how leaders think about uncertainty, complexity, and strategic risk.
Traditional Scenario MethodsSpectrum ScenariosArchetype-based (e.g. best/worst)Perspective-based (different stakeholder experiences)2×2 or Manoa GridSynthesized from multilayered Spectrum ScenesAim for distinct storiesAllow coexistence and conflict between scenariosEmphasize system-level futuresInclude lived, emotional, and symbolic dimensionsSingle lens or narrative per futureMulti-voiced: scenarios contain inner contradictions
How It Works in Practice
Organizations begin by identifying key uncertainties, trust in AI, geopolitical realignments, and data autonomy, and mapping them across spectrums, not binary opposites.
These drivers are then embedded into SLA-powered Spectrum Scenes. From these scenes, teams synthesize plural Spectrum Scenarios that reflect differing levels of disruption, adoption, identity alignment, and strategic challenge. Each scenario doesnt just describe a world; it invites stakeholders to emotionally inhabit it, question their assumptions, and prototype resilient strategies in response.
How to Apply It
Spectrum Scenario Design isnt just a thought experiment; its a practical tool set that organizations are already using to rethink strategy, stress-test innovation, and reimagine risk.
Heres how to begin putting it into practice:
Start with Spectrum Scenes: Choose a strategic domain, such as trust in AI, climate migration, or workforce automation, and build 46 potential future moments in your business using the Spectrum Layer Analysis framework. Dont aim for consensus. Aim for divergence.
Scan the seven layers: Analyze not just the surface trends, but the deep drivers: Who holds power? What beliefs shape resistance or adoption? What metaphors are unconsciously driving behavior?
Synthesize multiple perspectives: Group your Spectrum Scenes into 35 full scenarios. Each should represent a lived future experience, not an abstract trend line. Ask: Who thrives in this world? Who doesnt?
Prototype the future: Bring each scenario to life with tangible artifacts, such as mock headlines, speculative product ads, or user journey maps. These tools help stakeholders feel the future, not just imagine it.
Pressure-test your strategy: Now ask the hard questions. What breaks in this future? What thrives? Where are you resilient, and where are you exposed?
Spectrum Scenario Design is not a onetime exercise; its a mindset shift. A capability. A practice that builds organizational agility, not by narrowing focus, but by expanding awareness. In a world where change is nonlinear, emotional, and layered, this is how tomorrows leaders build foresight that aligns the future.
Scenarios in practice
A midsized health tech company specializing in AI-powered diagnostics found itself on the edge of profound disruption. Regulatory regimes were shifting. Public trust in AI was eroding. Traditional strategy tools werent keeping up.
The companys existing scenarios failed to anticipate that patients would begin withholding deeply personal data from diagnostic systems. Nor had they accounted for the convergence of conflicting global regulations, or the outright cultural rejection of AI health tech in conservative regions.
To better navigate this complexity, the company adopted Spectrum Scenario Planning, beginning with a foundational phase of Spectrum Scenes. The team generated scenes across domains: one spotlighted AI backlash in North America; another imagined spiritual resistance to synthetic diagnostics in Southeast Asia; a third depicted radical health data sovereignty movements in the EU. Each Spectrum Scene captured not just what might happen, but how it might feel, whom it might benefit, or leave behind.
Next, the team synthesized these scenes into five Spectrum Scenarios, exploring what it would mean to leverage the SuperShift BioNexus from the book, SuperShifts. These futures ranged from:
The decentralization of healthcare into local, AI-supported cooperatives
To global frameworks for ethical AI certification
To geopolitical blocs forming competing standards for biotech governance
Each scenario reflected the different experiences of various stakeholders, including patients, regulators, engineers, and investors; each was analyzed to identify emotional tensions, power dynamics, and system-level risks.
To activate strategic imagination, the team created fictional news stories, speculative product packaging, and even AI ethics training modules from imagined futures. These tools allowed executives and stakeholders to connect with the worlds they might soon inhabit emotionally. Finally, the team ran premortems on each scenario, identifying strategic blind spots and stress-testing assumptions.
The result? A strategic transformation.
The company created a volatility-ready innovation road map, formed alliances based not just on tech compatibility but on shared values, and reoriented its go-to-market strategy toward emergent belief systems around health, autonomy, and trust.
They didnt just future-proof their road map. They learned to future-make.
From Future-Proofing to Future-Making
W cannot predict the future. But we can prepare ourselves to see it more clearly and design for it more confidently.
The truth is: traditional scenario planning isn’t broken. It’s just out of breath. In a world of cascading shifts and competing truths, quadrant models are too shallow and too singular. They flatten what should be felt.
The next disruption wont fit inside a box. It will emerge from a cultural ripple, a shift in trust, or a story we didnt yet know we were telling ourselves.
Scenario planning is dead. Long live Spectrum Scenarios.
Summertime is vacation season. The weather is wonderful, the warm days are conducive to taking a break and getting away for a week or two. Plus, it is often easier for families with children to get away when school is not in session.
Vacations from work are not only fun, theyre also important. They are a chance to reconnect with family or friends. Theyre also a way to get a break and reset.
Because vacations are important, it is useful to think about what youre trying to get out of them, so that you plan them appropriately.
A vacation or a trip?
I like to distinguish between two kinds of getaways: vacations and trips. A vacation is focused on relaxation. The most difficult choices on a vacation should be where to eat, and whether to read by the pool or the ocean. A trip is busy. Youre there to see new things, meet new people, and explore the world.
Both vacations and trips can be rewarding. Vacations provide a true oasis from a packed daily life. The aim is to sleep late, relax, catch up on pleasure reading, and enjoy a slower pace. Vacations are most valuable when the fast pace of life has gotten to you. If youre living a life when every minute is scheduled, then a vacation can remind you that time spent without an agenda has its benefits. It is also useful when you feel like youre always living on the edge of exhaustion.
Trips are opportunities to create memories of experiences. They require a lot of advance planning in order to decide exactly where to go and what to do. Just about every day of a trip involves an itinerary in order to maximize what you get out of the place youre visiting. Indeed, many trips are a little stressful while youre on them, but they reward you with memories that you can look back on for a lifetime.
Another value of both vacations and trips is that they can slow time down. You have probably noticed that when youre engaged in your normal routine that the days and weeks fly by. That is because your brain is able to predict what is going to happen next, so it doesnt need to store a lot of new information. As a result, the moments go quickly as they are happening, and they dont leave a lot of information behind, so they dont seem that long even when you look back on them.
When you break up your routine, the days feel like they slow down, because your brain doesnt know exactly what is going to happen next. Plus, if you are visiting a new place, you have lots of new memories to create, which makes the time feel long when you look back on it as well.
Plan to connect
Your relationships can suffer during the normal course of life. Running from one thing to the next means that you may not spend as much quality time with your partner as you should. You may miss out on time with children, parents, or friends.
As you plan a vacation, think about people you need to connect with and how to use your break to renew these connections. If you have family or friends that live far away from you, consider spending some of your vacation with them. Those moments of reconnection help to refresh relationships that are hard to maintain just with email, calls, and social media. Those visits will also help to create continuity between your life now and your past, which gives you a greater sense of coherence to your life story. That can help you to feel more grounded.
Plan to disconnect
If youre going to take a vacation, you should also use that time to disconnect from work. One question you need to ask is how long you can go away before you will feel like you need to check in on work. For example, in my role, I find it easy to disconnect from work for a week, but if I were to go away for longer than that, I would feel like I need to check in on decisions that may require my attention. As a result, I tend to go away once toward the beginning of the summer and a second time toward the end rather than taking a single two-week vacation.
It is important to really get away from your work. If you check your email every day while youre away, then part of you is being dragged into the context of work on a daily basis. You may not be physically present at work, but mentally you havent gotten the distance you need. By leaving work behind for the duration of your vacation, you create the conditions to feel refreshed and ready to return when the vacation is over.
In order to make this work, you also need to ensure that tasks that normally require your input can either be held until your return or that someone else can step in to address your responsibilities in your absence. Make sure you train people to do your job, so that you can leave without having to worry that things will fall apart while youre away. That means you may need to start getting people at work ready now for your absenceeven if your trip is weeks away.
What does it take to lead through complexity, make tough decisions and still put people first? For me, the answer became clear during a defining moment early in my careerone that changed my path entirely.
Today I am a business-school educator, but I began my career in the corporate world. I faced a challenge so intense that it motivated me to go back to school and earn a Ph.D. so I could help others lead with greater purpose and humanity.
Back then, I was working for a multinational home goods company, and I was asked to play a role in closing a U.S. factory in the Midwest and moving its operations abroad. It was, by every business metric, the right economic decision. Without it, the company couldnt stay competitive. Still, the move was fraught with emotional and ethical complexities.
Witnessing the toll on employees who lost their jobs, and the broader effects on their community, changed how I thought about business decision-making. I saw that technical skills alone arent enough. Effective leadership also requires emotional intelligence, ethical reasoning and human-centered thinking.
That experience was a turning point, leading me to higher education. I wanted to fulfill a greater purpose by equipping future business leaders with critical human-centric skills. And to do that, I needed to learn more about these skills why they matter, how they shape outcomes, and how we can teach them more effectively.
Often called soft skills or people skills, these are also, more appropriately, referred to as power skills or durable skills. And they arent just nice to have. As my own experience shows and as research confirms, they are central to success in todays business world.
Power skills: Underappreciated, yet in demand
Research on power skills dates back to at least 1918, when the Carnegie Foundation published A Study of Engineering Education. That report concluded that 85% of engineering professionals success came from having well-developed people skills, and only 15% was attributed to hard skills. These early findings helped shape our understanding of the value of nontechnical skills and traits.
Today, employers arguably value these skills more than ever. But while demand for these skills is growing across industries, theres not enough supply. For example, nearly 7 in 10 U.S. employers plan to prioritize hiring candidates with soft or power skills, according to LinkedIns most recent Global Talent Trends report.
Yet 65% of employers cite soft skills as the top gap among new graduates, according to Courseras 2025 Micro-Credentials Impact Report. New hires are struggling in the areas of communication, active listening, resilience and adaptability, the survey found.
Power skills are transferable across roles, projects and industries, which makes them especially valuable to hiring managers. And research continues to show that these skills drive innovation, strengthen team dynamics and help organizations navigate uncertaintykey reasons why employers prioritize them.
Three power skills to prioritize
So what does it look like to lead with power skills? Here are three key areas that have shaped my own journeyand that I now help others develop:
Adaptability: Adaptability goes beyond simply accepting change. Its the ability to think, feel and act effectively when the situation changeswhich, in todays business environment, is all the time.
Consider a company expanding into a new international market. To succeed, it must invest in cultural research, adapt its operations to regional norms and align with local regulationsdemonstrating adaptability at both strategic and operational levels.
Thats why adaptability is one of the most in-demand skills among employers, according to a recent LinkedIn study. Adaptable workforces are better equipped to respond to shifting demands. And with the rise of artificial intelligence and rapid tech disruption, organizations need agile, resilient employees more than ever.
Empathy: As I learned firsthand during my time in the corporate world, empathyor the ability to understand and respond to the feelings, perspectives and needs of othersis essential.
Empathy not only fosters trust and respect, but it also helps leaders make decisions that balance organizational goals with human needs. More broadly, empathetic leaders create inclusive environments and build stronger relationships.
At Western Governors University, we have an entire course titled Empathy and Inclusive Collaboration, which teaches skills in active listening, creating culturally safe environments and cultivating an inclusive mindset.
Inclusivity: Effective communication and teamwork consistently rank high as essential workforce skills. This is because organizations that excel in communication and collaboration are more likely to innovate, adapt to change and make informed decisions.
While managing a global transition, I saw how hard and necessary it was to listen across cultural lines, to foster collaboration across borders and departments. When teams collaborate well, they bring diverse perspectives that can foster creativity and efficiency. The ability to communicate openly and work together is crucial for navigating complex problems and driving organizational success.
The business landscape is evolving rapidly, and technical expertise alone is no longer enough to drive success. Power skills like adaptability, empathy and inclusivity are crucial, as both research and my own experiences have taught me. By prioritizing power skills, educators and businesses can better prepare leaders to navigate complexity, lead with purpose and thrive in a constantly changing world.
Sandra Sjoberg is a vice president and dean of academic programs at Western Governors University School of Business.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Stephanie Mehta, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Content Officer of Mansueto Ventures, speaks with Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg as he reflects on the companys 25-year journeyfrom its groundbreaking innovations to its leadership in 5G technology. Vestberg also shares insights into the future of AI, the next phase of Verizon’s legacy, and his bold vision for the next 25 years of connectivity.
