Rochester Business Journal Leading source of business news and information in Rochester, N.Y.

The start of the new year is the perfect time to develop or revisit your organization’s corporate strategy.

Compeer became an integral part of my journey four years ago, when I met my first peer match, Kathy. As a person who dealt with agoraphobic tendencies, I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, and I certainly didn’t know at the time just how much of an impact our friendship would have on me.

In early 2022, NYSDEC also issued draft revisions to the regulations governing the BCP (6 NYCRR Part 375).  NYSDEC’s proposal contained several problematic provisions that, among other things, potentially limit eligibility for the program, reduces the availability of tax credits for cleanup costs, adds burdensome new reporting and notification obligations, and expands the NYSDEC’s ability to terminate a Brownfield Cleanup Agreement. 

A 2019 Pew Research Center report on social media use in the United States showed that 72% of American adults use social media. In 2005, that number was only 5%. But how many of those 72% understand the business model of social media? I certainly didn’t – at least not well – until recently.  

The Fed’s biggest enemy today is the labor market. Given that we have seen prices start cooling in many sectors of the market, the remaining piece of the puzzle is wage growth. While wage growth has cooled since July, it is still up more than 6% over the last 12-months. While wage growth is fantastic for the employee, the issue is it is sticky and can get baked into prices over time; meaning while we are seeing prices cool now, if wages were to continue rising it is likely we would need to see a subsequent increase in prices in order to offset labor costs.

In the business world, “purpose” was all the buzz in 2022, impacting everything from hiring and retention to productivity and profits. Purpose was such a big deal that it became the subject of numerous research projects with striking findings. For example, Great Place to Work reports that team members who find purpose in their jobs are three times more likely to stay with the company. McKinsey & Company says “purposeful” employees are four times more engaged. Cone/Porter Novelli found that 66% of consumers would switch and 57% would pay more for a purpose-driven brand. And Dynata calculated that 85 million U.S. consumers make buying decisions based on brand purpose.

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As a business owner, you may be getting bombarded with emails and telephone calls urging you to apply for federal tax credits related to employment and COVID initiatives. Be cautious about these too-good-to-be true offers. Many tax credit companies and ...

In November of 2022, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce was reaccredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with a five-star rating. We are thrilled to be one of only three chambers in New York State and among the top 2% ...

Simply put, the FTC’s proposal is a very big deal and, if it takes effect, it will send shockwaves throughout the business world. In this case, the “IF” is critical, and there are many reasons to doubt that the proposed rule will ever take effect.

“A Guest at the Table” is a column that highlights a particularly interesting, informative or entertaining guest on the “No Nonsense Roundtable” that I host Saturdays from 10 to 11 AM on NewsRadio WHAM 1180. The No Nonsense Roundtable is about ...

When it comes to information about climate change, it can be truly challenging to figure out what to believe and who to trust, but the causes of that challenge are no mystery.

In a noteworthy work published 2007, Richard Bookstaber recounts his experience with two financial crises of the late twentieth century – the 1987 stock market crash and the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund debacle that occurred eleven years later. In A Demon of Our Own Design: The Perils of Financial Innovation, Bookstaber provides readers with an insider’s perspective on the evolving complexity of our financial markets, as well as his own possible contributions to that complexity.

With the turn of the calendar, it’s a good time of year for employers to review developments in employment law and to make sure their policies and handbooks are up to date. In New York, there are a couple of ...

No question, Slack can present a lot of awkward and even weird situations for teams and their leaders.  As the use of this messaging app has increased, so have the questions surrounding its use and misuse, ranging from problems with misinterpreted messages to oversharing to office gossip to rage and the correct/incorrect use of channels and emojis and on and on. 

Many will be happy to see 2022 come to an end, mostly because of a difficult economic and market environment that resulted in negative investment returns spanning across most asset classes, including bonds, through November.  The problem up to this ...