FEI Weekly

June 4, 2019

FTD files for bankruptcy, and 5 yoga principles for resetting your work goals.

Flower Delivery Co FTD Files for Ch 11 Bankruptcy

Bloomberg

FTD Cos., the flower delivery mainstay that operates ProFlowers and FTD.com, filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware after trying and failing to sell its entire business. Instead, the company will sell itself in pieces, it said in court documents on Monday. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to continue operating during the process of reorganizing.

Big Tech Face Antitrust Scrutiny

MIT Technology Review

The DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are preparing antitrust investigations into the Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook, and plan to divvy up the work. If any of the tech giants are found guilty of anticompetitive behavior, they’re likely to be hit with heavy fines and other sanctions. 

Does Diversity Training Work? Depends on Who You Are.

Fortune

Participants who were already most likely to support underrepresented groups in the workplace developed further changes in behavior from the training. But participants who started out without much consideration for diversity—mostly white men—didn’t change their behavior at all. It’s a disheartening result: the people who most need diversity training and hold the capital to enact change if they gain something from it aren’t absorbing its teachings.

AI Helps Finance Teams With Fraud, Compliance, and More

CFO

When a sponsor terminates an overfunded DB plan, it may take up to four “hits” to its financials: 1. Plan liabilities may have to be written up, reducing the company’s net worth as reflected on its balance sheet. 2. That write-up typically has to be run through the company’s income statement, generating a non-recurring expense that reduces net income. 3. Unrecognized losses may also have to be run through the income statement. 4. Any pension income generated by the plan surplus will disappear, reducing future net income.

5 Yoga Principles for Resetting Your Work Goals

Quartz

The yamas set us on course with five ethical principles that guide how we relate to other people and how we take care of ourselves. Consider each yama and how it applies to the modern business world: Ahimsa: “non-harming” or “non-violence.” Satya: “truth,” “honesty” or “not lying.” Asteya: “non-stealing,” not taking from yourself, others, or the environment what is not yours. Aparigraha: “non-possessiveness,” “non-grasping” or “non-hoarding.” Brahmacharya: moderation and balance, as a means to maintain one’s energy.