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Forever 21 is facing another bankruptcy. The company that operates the fast-fashion retail brand, called F21 OpCo, LLC, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court. And while it plans to close its U.S. stores and hold going-out-of-business sales, there is still a chance for a sale that could keep some operations running. For now, Forever 21 stores and its website will stay open as the company sells off inventory and looks for buyers. The move mirrors a similar one made recently by Joann, the beloved arts and fabric chain, which had initially hoped to keep its stores operating before ultimately deciding to liquidate and shut its doors for good. Like Joann, Forever 21 is now in its second bankruptcy; it also filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2019, just months before the pandemic. What happens next for Forever 21? The apparel retailer is seeking a buyer to keep parts of the business alive rather than shutting down completely, although there’s no guarantee that will happen. As Forever 21 explained in a press release, “In the event of a successful sale, the Company may pivot away from a full wind down of operations to facilitate a going-concern transaction.” This means that if someone buys the business, Forever 21 might not shut down completely. Fast Company has reached out to Forever 21 for comment. The company has faced increasing competition from cheaper and faster brands, in particular China-based Temu and Shein. Forever 21 inked a deal with the latter of those brands in 2023 that would allow its clothes to be sold on the platform. In addition to competition, the company also cited rising costs and changing shopping habits as reasons for its precarious financial situation. Once a go-to store for trendy, affordable fashion, Forever 21 has struggled to keep up with online retailers and brands that move faster in the digital world. Forever 21’s international stores, which are run by different companies, are not affected by the bankruptcy. But in the United States, the future of Forever 21 depends on whether a buyer steps in. If not, this could truly mark the end of a fast-fashion era.
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E-Commerce
Getting an idea of how much a dental visit is going to cost can be difficult, even if its staring you straight in the mouth. One company hopes to change that, using artificial intelligence to give patients and dentists real-time cost estimatesall while the drills are still buzzing and fluoride is flowing. Overjet, a dental AI platform, just launched the Dental Clarity Network, a collaboration of dentists and health insurance providers that aims to give more clarity into dental billing. The first initiative of the Network is the deployment of ReviewPass, a program that helps deliver real-time cost estimates and insurance coverage information related to tons of dental procedureseffectively, helping dental patients avoid surprise bills that they werent expecting. Put another way, if youve ever found yourself at the dentist, and an issue is discovered that needs to be remediedbe it a filling, or something elseyou may not have any idea if your insurance will cover it, or how much youll be on the hook for, out of pocket. Yet, the work needs to be done, so you may tell the dentist to go ahead and do it, and then wait weeks for a bill to arriveor not. Thats what ReviewPass is hoping to clear up. The idea ropes in dentists (care providers), patients, and insurers, leveraging AI to quickly figure out if a procedure is covered under a patients insurance plan, and get an idea of how much everything will cost. This, as opposed to the dentist and insurer going back and forth for weeks, all while the patient waits in the dark with a sore jaw. The Dental Clarity Network is launching with some big partners on board, too. Including insurers like MetLife and Humana, and the Dental Care Alliance, which comprises more than 400 dental practices in 24 states. Overall, Overjet estimates that ReviewPASS should be able to reach more than 100 million dental patients in the U.S. What were introducing is a group of major dental payers and provider groups coming together to work on reducing costs and providing more clarity to patients, says Wardah Inam, Overjets CEO. What weve done is help payers build out the infrastructure for real-time claims to happen. While the patient is in the chair, theyll know whether a treatment must be covered, she says. The root of the issue is that most dentists dont know, off the top of their heads, the intricacies of each dental insurance plan. And, as such, cant tell a patient with certainty whether a specific treatment or procedure is covered by their plan. So, many times, they simply do the procedure, and then go back and forth with the insurer to determine whether it was covered by the plan, or if they need to bill the patient and have them pay out of pocket. People dont realize how much time payers and providers waste talking to each other, says Inam. It eats up a lot of time and money, inflating costs. As a result, Inam thinks that Overjet will help significantly reduce costs for insurers and providers, which might trickle down to patients. But a big question: Why the sudden urge to increase transparency into pricing, particularly from insurers, who tend to benefit from opaque billing practices? Inam says its because, over the long run, the potential cost-savings are too much to ignore. Everybody should win: Dentists and insurers reduce administrative and overhead costs, and patients get more clarity on what procedures may be covered or not covered, and how much theyre ultimately staring at in terms of dental bills. And once dentists and patients get a taste of it, Inam thinks itll be a game-changer. Its the first step, she says. When individuals have frictionless experiences, they dont go back. Once they start getting real-time information about their bills, theyre not going back.
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E-Commerce
Few topics are simultaneously so celebrated and misunderstood as human potential. On the one hand, we have an influx of near-perpetual articles urging people to unlock or fulfill their own potential, saying essentially that anything else equates to failure. On the other hand, if we ask an average leader or HR professional how to define or explain potential, we are unlikely to get a logical, rational, or scientifically valid answer. And yet, there is a well-established science on human potential, with decades of empirical research resulting in replicable generalizations to predict and explain why some people perform better than others (across different work settings), and why some people develop more than others. What is talent? To understand these findings and their implications, we must start with a basic understanding of talentsince we cant fully grasp the meaning of potential unless we properly define talent to begin with. Although definitions vary, talent is the ability to display extraordinary levels of performance, irrespective of luck or effort. In any area of competence, measuring the collective output of a team or group of individuals will identify a Pareto-like distribution whereby 20% or so of individuals account for 80% or so of results, output, or productivity. That 20% is comprised by the vital few, and while effort and luck may play a role in shaping their performance, in environments where everyone is motivated and incentivized to give their best, consistent differences between the vital few and the rest will largely boil down to talent. So, if talent is how we explain someones inclusion among the vital few, when luck and hard work arent viable explanations, such that talent is basically performance minus effort (the more talented you are at something, the less effort you need to exert to achieve high levels of performance), then what is potential? Potential = nascent talent Potential is talent before you can see it, or nascent talent. That is, talent in the making, or talent waiting to be unfolded. For example, at 25, Mozart, Messi, Picasso, Serena Williams, and Nina Simone displayed such levels of talent that you didnt even need to have much expertise in their fields of competence to admire their performance and be impressed by their achievements. At age 5, however, they were already giving signs of their extraordinary potentialparticularly to the trained eye (e.g., scouts, teachers, mentors, and critics) they appeared to show evidence of an enormous capacity for developing future talent, turning them not so much into a promise, but a rather safe bet. Although most humans lack Mozarts, Messis, Picassos, Serenas, and Simones talentseven when we look at the proportionate talents they may exhibit in their own strongest field of competencethe general rule still applies: Their potential is generally not limited to what they have already accomplished, or even their current talents. Indeed, due to lack of incentives, motivation, external politics, and unfairness, not to mention poor career choices (and a lack of accurate constructive feedback), it is rather common for people to punch below their weight and spend much of their professional lives not fulfilling their potential. How can you work out if you may be one of them? Consult with brutally honest experts If you want a clear-eyed assessment of your progress, stop asking friends or colleagues who will sugarcoat their feedback. Instead, seek out: Someone who knows your industry deeply (not just a general career coach) Someone who has no problem telling you the truth, even if it hurts Someone who has achieved what you want to achieve and can compare you to real benchmarks, not just make you feel good And, even if you go to the right person for this, it will help if you probe or prompt them in an effective way, namely not fishing for compliments, but rather encouraging them to provide you with a reality check. Ask direct, uncomfortable questions like: Based on my skills and progress, would you hire me? If not, why?; If I keep working the way I am now, where will I be in five years? Listen. Dont argue or make excuses. If they say you lack a skill or need to network more, entertain the notion that these suggestions can make you better. And, if you cant find someone willing to be brutally honest with you, thats already a red flag. Look at whos passing you by One of the clearest signs that youre not fulfilling your potential is when people with similar or even fewer skills surpass you in career, income, or occupational prestige. How to do it? Here are some ideas: Make a list of 510 people in your field who started around the same time as you. Compare their progress to yours: Are they getting promoted faster? Are they earning more? Are they building more meaningful industry connections?If theyre ahead, ask why: Is it better skills? More risk-taking? Stronger networking? A better ability to sell themselves? A stronger work ethic? If less talented people are doing better than you, its not always because theyre lucky (though luck always helps). More likely, theyre doing something youre not. Identify what theyre doing better and assess whether you should emulate itif not, then come up with your own strategy for doing better. Measure growth in real terms, not effort Every culture values hard work, yet at the same, when it comes to career success (especially the type that is dependent on other peoples assessment of your performance) you rarely get points for trying hardonly for getting results. Many people feel like theyre working at full capacity, but when you measure actual output, it turns out theyre just spinning their wheels. Perhaps this is why, as Microsofts CEO Satya Nadella pointed out, theres a big discrepancy between how employees evaluate their own work ethic, and how their bosses do, with 85% of managers believing that employees are slacking, while 85% of those employees feeling overworked. How to improve your self-assessment of both input (work ethic) and output (results): Instead of asking Am I working hard?, ask What measurable improvements have I made in the last 6 months?, What can I do now that I couldnt do a year ago? Track concrete progress in key areas. For example: If youre a writer, have your pieces improved in quality and impact? Have you increased your actual productivity? If youre a salesperson, have your numbers improved? If youre a leader, is your influence on the team growing? Are you actually making your team better, more productive, and so on? It is often helpful to keep a monthly log of tangible progess on your tasks and deliverables. If youre not moving forward, adjust immediatelychange your strategy, skill set, or work habits. Find the bottleneck thats holding you back Every person who isnt fulfilling their potential has at least one critical flaw that is limiting thema “bottleneck” that prevents success, no matter how hard they work. What you can do: Identify the one thing that, if improved, would unlock the most progress. Be honestwhats your biggest career liability? Weak technical skills or a lack of expertise? Are you falling behind in your industry? Lack of confidence? Are you bad at self-promotion? Poor networking? Do people with less skill get better opportunities because they know the right people or are better than you at office politics? Inability to execute? Do you start things but never finish? Fix the bottleneck first. For instance, if networking is the issue, dont waste time improving technical skillsgo to industry events and meet the right people first. In short, though there is no clear-cut answer to the perennial question of whether you are fulfilling your potential or not, you can try to gather credible evidence and data points to at least get a better sense of the likely answer, and pinpoint improvement areas. A final consideration: If this exercise makes you uncomfortable, thats a good sign. Just like physical pain is a useful signal that something is malfunctioning and needs to be attended, so too the psychological pain we experience when we notice we are not as good as we would like to be opens the gateway and pathways to development and improvement.
Category:
E-Commerce
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