Henry Ford dreamed of mass-producing cars. So he started the Detroit Automobile Company … and it flopped. Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job at a TV station. Before she dominated the world of fashion, Vera Wang failed to realize her original dream — making it as an Olympic figure skater.

Hangman’s Tree closed in 2008, when the building was deemed unsafe, and the structure was unoccupied until Sue and Tim Taylor purchased it and the adjacent Herrick Building in 2012 and began restoring both buildings.

Silos can be formed when making sure employees’ time is spent only on their expertise or when everyone in the company is so busy they feel they don’t have time to reach beyond their domain. 

I bet you a cup of coffee that you are reading this just before a meeting, or maybe just after. Another bet: You feel that there are too many meetings. A third: This gauntlet of meetings can make it tough — or impossible — to finish your work.  

With tens of thousands of undergrads applying each year for limited spots, California’s college systems have approved admission criteria for assessing incoming freshmen. While the strength of a student’s academic record is one of its top considerations, the University of California system has established 14 factors — both academic and nonacademic — for undergraduate admissions.

PairAnything, run by an eight-person team, won the $10,000 Food + Agriculture Sector Award at the 2019 Big Bang Business Competition at UC Davis.

The idea of open-space offices has been with us since the start of the tech revolution. It seems we are under the mistaken belief that the early technology companies — such as Google, Wikipedia, eBay — were onto something when they tore down office walls, removed cubicles and allowed workers to float in a sea of open access. Teamwork became the goal.

The walls of Conscious Creamery’s commercial kitchen in Sacramento’s Del Paso Heights neighborhood are lined with stainless steel freezers, constantly humming loud and keeping chef Andrea Seppinni’s plant-based gelato frozen. 

The Fair Labor Standards Act has strict rules regarding paying nonexempt employees, and California is even stricter; one of the key components is that employees must be paid for every hour they work

Next year, voters will be asked to amend Prop. 13 through a ballot measure that will upset more than 40 years of that steadiness and a “no surprises” business environment. It’s a tax hit businesses can’t afford, especially in an economy with flat consumer spending and trade tariffs.