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In January, Fortune Brands Innovations, whose portfolio includes home and security brands such as Moen and Master Lock, announced it was consolidating its regional U.S. offices into one state-of-the-art campus in Deerfield, Illinois. As part of that effort, they are requiring the majority of corporate employees to move to the Chicago suburb. When asked to relocate, most of these employees declinedbut the company said it expected that, and in a conversation about the transition, CEO Nicholas Fink framed the changes ahead as a positive for the company. He added that while many opted out of relocation, the company still exceeded industry benchmarks for the number of people who said yes to the move. To be candid, its a big change for a lot of people, says Fink, who declined to share more specific figures. There are people who are committed to their communities and their families and arent interested in a move. . . . And then there are people who are very excited to be a part of this. The company asked employees from eight sites across the U.S., as well as some remote employees, to relocate. It will eventually ask employees from a ninth site to relocate as well. The companys manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, and international sites, as well as its digital-focused San Francisco office, will remain open. Among the Fortune Brands sites that will be closing are Master Locks headquarters in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Moens headquarters in North Olmsted, Ohio, and Therma-Tru Corps headquarters in Maumee, Ohio. The larger return-to-office push Fortune Brands isnt alone in its desire to bring employees together after a pandemic that isolated many and led to the remote-work boom, which some employers are now rolling back via return-to-office mandates. In April, CNBC reported that Google had asked remote employees to begin reporting to a Google office three days per week in order to keep their jobs amid cost cuts. Amazon has also asked some corporate employees to relocate amid its full time return-to-office push, prompting a number of workers to resign. While RTO mandates arent unusual, whats less common is requiring a full relocation to a central headquarters. Last year, in a somewhat similar move, Walmart required employees to relocate to its Arkansas headquarters or another main hub, prompting some executives to resign, according to Quartz. Organizing a mass relocation Employees who were asked to relocate were offered an expenses-paid visit to Deerfield, relocation assistance, and, in most cases, an increase in base pay to account for higher cost of living in the Chicago area. Employees who opted out of relocating are receiving severance packages and at least a 90-day notice of their last day of work, the company said. The moves will happen in phases, beginning at the end of this summer. By the end of 2027, Fortune Brands says it will have room for over 1,000 employees at its new headquarters. That includes relocated employees as well as new employees the company is currently in the process of hiring. The move will create about 400 new jobs for professionals in the Chicago area, an exciting prospect for Fink. Were seeing a level of talent applying very proactively to join our company that we really hadnt seen when we were dispersed, he says. There are some jobs that have had 1,400 applicants. Fink adds that he wants to be crystal clear about how much the company values its current talent, though he feels new hires will help give the company a technological edge. In a press release about the new headquarters, the company also announced simplified leadership changes that involve eliminating the role of group president. Creating a central headquarters The location in Deerfield, about 30 miles north of Chicago, was selected based on the potential talent pool in the area as well as tax credits given by the state of Illinois, the company says. The new campus, formerly home to a pharmaceutical company, occupies two buildings connected by walkways, and boasts an on-site gym, daycare center, cafeteria, coffee bar, and recreational activities including golf simulators and a bowling alley. With the move, Fink says he hopes employees who were previously scattered across the countryand across the company’s various brandswill be able to connect more easily and quickly. In fact, hes already seen it happen in the temporary space the company is currently occupying. Im having members of my team walk into my office and say, I just bumped into so-and-so, or, I just ran into someones office and we made a decision in five minutes, Fink says. That might previously have been: Schedule a meeting, someone prepares a deck, someone presents the deck, then you have a conversation about it, and maybe you make a decision or maybe you dont, then you get off the Zoom . . . Fink believes the streamlined communication will allow for higher productivity and greater innovation, which will drive products and services. The company reported mixed financial results in a first-quarter earnings call earlier this month. Sales fell 7% year-over-year, with the company attributing the drop in part to softer consumer demand. However, earnings per share met analyst expectations. In response to the earnings release, the companys stock price dropped 2.78%, closing at $54.31. While Fink believes strongly in the importance of having employees in one headquarters, he says there are no plans to change his companys current hybrid-work policy, which requires three days a week in-office. Thats created a lot of value for people, he says. But theres also value in being together, so were trying to find the perfect balance. Some of the people who arent making the movefor us have found other jobs where they can work remotely. I would think that, over time, that will lead to underperformance relative to the people who are getting together and making decisions much faster. Its a hypothesis, but one were eager to prove out.
Category:
E-Commerce
China blasted the U.S. on Monday over moves it alleged harmed Chinese interests, including issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and planning to revoke Chinese student visas.“These practices seriously violate the consensus” reached during trade discussions in Geneva last month, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.That referred to a China-U.S. joint statement in which the United States and China agreed to slash their massive recent tariffs, restarting stalled trade between the world’s two biggest economies.But last month’s de-escalation in President Donald Trump’s trade wars did nothing to resolve underlying differences between Beijing and Washington and Monday’s statement showed how easily such agreements can lead to further turbulence.The deal lasts 90 days, creating time for U.S. and Chinese negotiators to reach a more substantive agreement. But the pause also leaves tariffs higher than before Trump started ramping them up last month. And businesses and investors must contend with uncertainty about whether the truce will last.U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop the 145% tax Trump imposed last month to 30%. China agreed to lower its tariff rate on U.S. goods to 10% from 125%.The Commerce Ministry said China held up its end of the deal, canceling or suspending tariffs and non-tariff measures taken against the U.S. “reciprocal tariffs” following the agreement.“The United States has unilaterally provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations,” while China has stood by its commitments, the statement said.It also threatened unspecified retaliation, saying China will “continue to take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”And in response to recent comments by Trump, it said of the U.S.: “Instead of reflecting on itself, it has turned the tables and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts.”Trump stirred further controversy Friday, saying he will no longer be nice with China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the United States.Hours later, Trump said in the Oval Office that he will speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and “hopefully we’ll work that out,” while still insisting China had violated the agreement.“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump posted. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”The Trump administration also stepped up the clash with China in other ways last week, announcing that it would start revoking visas for Chinese students studying in the U.S.U.S. campuses host more than 275,000 students from China.Both countries are in a race to develop advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, with Washington seeking to curb China’s access to the most advanced computer chips. China is also seeking to displace the U.S. as the leading power in the Asia-Pacific, including through gaining control over close U.S. partner and leading tech giant Taiwan. Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Going into my time reviewing the Google Pixel 9a, I had this grand idea to transform myself into “AI Man.” Google has made a big to-do about how it’s reimagining Android with AI at the core, and the $500 Pixel 9a is now the cheapest entry point into Google’s Gemini AI ecosystem. In the past I’ve found all those AI features easy to ignore, but this time I was going to dedicate myself to making the most of them. It didn’t really work out as planned. While Gemini is a better assistant than it used to be on Pixel phones, it can also be a big a waste of time. And for all Google’s talk of reinventing all of Android around AI, some of the best Pixel AI features require a more expensive phone then the 9a. [Photo: Jared Newman] Gemini’s promise and pitfalls I’ll give Google credit for this much: Gemini on the Pixel 9a is no longer a trainwreck. When Google started shipping Gemini as the default voice assistant on the Pixel 9 series, it was worse than the old Google Assistant at common tasks like creating to-do list items, checking local store hours, and getting directions. Google has patched in a lot of that missing functionality over the past nine months. In some ways, Gemini even more useful now. I can ask for directions with a specific stop along the way, for instance, or have a back-and-forth to manage the items on my Google Keep grocery list. Being able to converse with Gemini about widely understood topics can be helpful as well, and unlike with Assistant, there’s a chat history you can look through for future reference. Still, leaning on Gemini for anything important feels like a crapshoot. [Photo: Jared Newman] While on vacation in Florida, for instance, I asked Gemini to look up the time for my flight home. It first informed me that I had two flights scheduled (I only had one), and when I asked to put the correct flight info on my calendar, Gemini added a completely invented flight to New York instead. (I live in Cincinnati.) Gemini also failed to account for traffic when I asked what time to leave for the airport, even though Google Maps provides this info on its own. And because Gemini can’t search through secondary calendarslike the one my wife and I use to coordinate pretty much everythingit’s been largely worthless for looking important dates. Gemini Live, the conversational voice mode you can use it without touching the screen, had some issues as well. I tried using it to research a story on satellite messaging, only to later discover in my own research that Gemini got a half-dozen facts wrong. Later I asked Gemini to act like a stenographer, transcribing some thoughts of mine for this story, but it kept interrupting and failed to capture large chunks of what I said. [Photo: Jared Newman] Even Gemini Live’s ballyhooed Camera Mode feels a bit like a parlor trickalbeit an impressive one. While pointing your camera at the real world, Gemini can identify and answer questions about what it sees. It recognized a mango tree on the aforementioned Florida trip, for instance, and told me that none of the fruit looked ripe enough to eat. But when I asked why my aloe plant at home looked red and droopy, the insight was no different than if I’d just asked the same question in a Google search. (Too much water, or maybe not enough, Gemini said.) Camera Mode’s ability to understand your surroundings may ultimately be a better fit for smart glasses that can easily ingest more information. Keep in mind that none of these features are Pixel-exclusive. Gemini is also the default assistant on Samsung’s latest flagships, and it’s a free download on iOS. Meanwhile, the Pixel 9a doesn’t support some of the exclusive features Google does offer, like transcript summaries in the Recorder app, phone call summarization, and an app for organizing your screenshots. Oddly enough, the Pixel AI feature I used the most is one that predates the ChatGPT era: When you get a call from an unknown number, tapping “Call Screen” asks the caller to explain who they are, and then shows you a transcript of their response. It’s an immensely satisfying way to deal with spammers and telemarketers, most of whom just hang up. [Photo: Jared Newman] For Gemini to really make a difference on phones, it will need to interact with more apps and services, handle data from Google’s own services more reliably, and be better at not making stuff up. I don’t feel like the Pixel 9a is much closer to doing those things than previous Pixels, it just has a few more AI tricks bolted on. Still a fine phone Odd as it may seem to relegate the actual phone features to an afterthought, that pretty much reflects how I feel about the Pixel 9a. For $500, it’s a pretty good phone that I’ve been using in place of my usual flagshipsan iPhone 16 Pro Max and a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5largely without complaint. Yes, there are trade-offs. The camera array is less sophisticated, which mostly became an issue when I really wanted to zoom in on something. Battery life, while better than the Pixel 9, doesn’t match Google’s and Apple’s “Pro” level phones and led to some charging anxiety on long days. The bezels around the display are thicker. The edges are aluminum and not stainless steel, and the rear panel is plastic instead of glass. The front glass, meanwhile, is less resistant to drop damage. Still, I never felt like the Pixel 9a was hindering me from doing what I needed to do, which was to see how Google’s AI-first vision for Android has manifested over the past year. And the verdict, so far, is that it mostly hasn’t.
Category:
E-Commerce
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