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Determining a business’ value is not all about adding up revenue and subtracting expenses. While an important piece, these hard numbers are only half the equation for computing what a company is worth. To come up with the true value, we also look at factors like the level of owner involvement, company goals and growth opportunities. When we use the complete equation, we get a comprehensive picture of a business and can better understand the story of its past, present and future.

Calculations may vary depending on the company, but in a healthy one, there is about a 50/50 split between the quantitative (financial) and qualitative (non-financial) sides of performance. If the business isn’t profitable, it’s more important to focus on the quantitative side and fix the numbers first. Many owners don’t want to hear that, but if they’re not hitting their numbers, it may mean the business is not working. They must fix the quantitative issues before moving to the qualitative side.

Related: What Is a Balance Sheet and Why Does Your Business Need One?

For healthy companies that want to maximize their value, the qualitative indicators can be bundled into three main categories.

Evaluating quality

1. The owner’s goals

We’ve found significant research showing that if an owner has defined goals and plans for the future that are in line with market expectations for their company’s value, they’re going to have a much stronger exit. What is the owner’s defined goal for exiting the business — to get the most money, to take care of their employees and to ensure a legacy? You must then get to the “why” behind the goals and devise a plan of action. It almost doesn’t matter what the answers to the questions are; having achievable goals and a strategy for reaching them can increase the company’s value because it keeps the owner focused on improving the other areas of the business.

2. The owner’s role

The extent of the owner’s involvement is a critical indicator, but perhaps not for the reason you think. The more involved the owner is in day-to-day operations, the more central they are to the business, the less the business will be worth down the road. If the owner is the linchpin that holds everything together, what will happen to the company when they leave? Evaluating operations is more about the system and the structure of the team. Look at the organizational chart and who’s on it – are they good employees or bad employees? Examine the company’s processes and procedures and how new team members are trained and onboarded. The owner sets the vision, but it’s the team that increases company value by carrying out the vision.

3. Growth opportunities

Nobody wants to buy a business and keep it exactly as it is. They want to see potential for growth in the future, especially the potential for return on their investment as a buyer. Whether it’s a simple price increase or new locations, whoever buys the business is going to ask about growth opportunities. Indicators like product or service diversification in both the company and the industry it’s in give a good sense of whether the company is moving forward or standing still (and at risk of going backward). The more potential you can show, the more upside there will be for the next owner — adding up to greater value.

Related: 8 Factors That Determine the Financial Health of a Business

Cycle of success

When the qualitative side of the equation is working, it all ties together. The owner knows the goals, which are aligned with where the company is going, and is leading the organization but working themselves out of the day-to-day operations; the business grows and creates more growth opportunities for the next owner. Paired with profitable numbers, it’s a cycle that builds a high-quality business.

For the best owners, it takes a minimum of three to five years to get that cycle working for you and have reliable indicators of your value. Making it part of a 10-year strategy is even better.

At Exit Factor, we have 62 different qualitative indicators that we use for determining company worth. We don’t use them all, or even close to that, for every business; it’s usually a matter of tweaking three to five of the 62 indicators. Figure out which of those 62 are essential for your company, and you’ll have a truly forward-looking strategy for profitable growth.

Google’s Chief Privacy Officer of over 13 years, Keith Enright, announced that he will be leaving the company this fall in a shocking move — and Google has no plans to refill his position.

Enright penned a lengthy notice on his LinkedIn page Tuesday announcing his departure, saying that he was “ready for a change,” and that he’s excited to be “trying something new” in the coming months, though he didn’t specify where he plans to go next.

Related: An Internal Google Database Tracking Years of Privacy and Security Issues Was Just Leaked to the Public

“Google set out to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, and it’s been an immense privilege to advance that mission while protecting individual privacy and putting people in control of their information,” Enright wrote. “With thoughtful legal counsel, we supported teams that helped make smartphones more accessible to billions of people all over the world removing economic barriers to the immense benefits of technology.”

Enright also noted that though it’s in early “nascent stages,” the Google privacy team has “tried to inform a foundation for responsible AI governance” among other accomplishments and accolades during his tenure.

“Perhaps the greatest epiphany I’ve had over the past few years is the realization that one’s legacy is not the things you build, the things you put your name on, or the laurels that others lay at your feet along the way,” he said. “It’s the relationships, the friendships you forge, your mentors and mentees, the positive impact you have on the lives of those around you, and the changes they bring about in you.”

Google confirmed Enright’s decision in a statement seen by Reuters.

“We regularly evolve our legal, regulatory and compliance efforts to meet new obligations and expectations,” a Google spokesperson said. “Our latest changes will increase the number of people working on regulatory compliance across the company.”

Per Forbes, the company does not plan to replace Enright, and many took the news of his exit as “a shock.”

Enright’s departure comes at a contentious time for the company’s security and legal departments.

Earlier this week, an internal Google database that tracked privacy and security issues leaked to 404 Media, showing a slew of problems that were hidden from the public for over six years, including Google making YouTube recommendations based on deleted watch history and Google Street View accidentally reading and storing thousands of car license plate numbers.

“At Google, employees can quickly flag potential product issues for review by the relevant teams,” a Google spokesperson told the outlet in a statement. “The reports obtained by 404 are from over six years ago and are examples of these flags—everyone was reviewed and resolved at that time.”

Related: Google Will Delete Chrome Incognito Browser History: Lawsuit

Last December, Google faced a $5 billion lawsuit, which alleged that the company had been tracking internet data from people using private web modes such as “incognito mode” on Chrome. In April, Google agreed to delete billions of records as part of the settlement.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was up over 39% over a one-year period as of Wednesday afternoon.

From a young age, Zac’s Sweet Shop founder Zac Coughlin had a passion for art, food and business. “I always say, I went to the mall not for toys or clothes, but I went straight to the food court, and I would study the food business,” he says. “I would go to places like Dairy Queen and Mrs. Fields, and I would not only eat the food, but I would also observe how they marketed, how they branded the products, how they would upsell.”

Coughlin couldn’t help but notice that many items sold in specialty sweets shops weren’t exactly affordable: $5 for a single chocolate strawberry? So he asked his mom if he could make his own, convinced he could whip up the delicious treats to enjoy himself — and potentially sell them for less than the going rate. She agreed, and at just 13 years old, Coughlin launched his own business.

It started with a 12-ounce chocolate melting pot, he recalls; he’d dip strawberries and cookies for his friends, and his dad would help him make deliveries. In seventh grade, during his first year at a new school, Coughlin’s peers got wind of his confectionery talents — and wanted to try his creations for themselves. “People would text me to pre-order [the treats], and I would bring these boxes of sweets in the hallways,” he says. “I started with four or five orders, then it was 20, and then 40.”

Related: He Started a Luxury Side Hustle at Age 13 — Now the Business Earns More Than $10 Million a Year: ‘People Want to Help You When You’re Young’

“Being adopted has really given me this unwavering urge of self-sufficiency to really prove my worth and my value.”

Now, Zac’s Sweet Shop ships its “fun, approachable and delicious” treats nationwide and aims to hit seven-figure revenue in the next 12 months (400% growth); it also boasts corporate clients like Google, Disney, Meta, Hulu, American Express, Lionsgate, Netflix and more. According to Coughlin, the sweets are “a take on nostalgic classics that we grew up with” and include hits like mini pretzel rods covered with caramel, milk chocolate and salt flakes, or s’mores bark with cinnamon graham crackers, vanilla marshmallows and dark chocolate drizzle.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Zac’s Sweet Shop}

But Zac’s sweet success all began with that early interest in entrepreneurship, one Coughlin says being adopted helped fuel. “Being adopted has given me this unwavering urge of self-sufficiency to prove my worth and my value to not only the people around me, my family, friends and colleagues, but to myself,” he explains. “That was something that was innately in me ever since I was very, very young, but I actually did not realize that until a lot later in life.”

Related: What’s the Biggest Lesson to Learn as a Young Entrepreneur?

Although Coughlin’s middle school ultimately stopped him from selling sweets to his fellow students, Coughlin continued to grow his business among family and friends, catering events like birthdays, communions and graduations. But when he left his hometown of Pittsburgh for Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, the business took a backseat — because he didn’t really know anyone in his new city, he no longer had a customer base.

However, when some of his classmates learned about his sweet history and wanted to know more, talking about the business helped Coughlin realize how much he missed it. It was time to revisit his lifelong dream of “building the next iconic American chocolate shop” — to become the role model he’d always wanted to see. “Growing up, I never really saw anyone who looked like me on TV,” Coughlin says. “I was growing up watching shows like Cupcake Wars and Cake Boss, and I never really saw myself. So I naturally just wanted to become that person.”

“I had to learn a lot about how to scale from making a couple dozen sweets to hundreds and thousands at a time.”

Coughlin “went to the drawing board” and looked into what it would take to open a chocolate shop in Los Angeles. But he realized the immense cost would be prohibitive and pivoted to a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model instead, recognizing that some of his favorite bakeries, like Milk Bar and Baked By Melissa, successfully shipped nationwide. What’s more, going DTC would allow his friends and family back in Pittsburgh to start ordering from him again.

After a year and a half of research and preparation (“I spent every day that I wasn’t in class learning every aspect [of the business]”), Coughlin raised about $27,000 through a small Kickstarter campaign in February 2019. It was enough for him to set up a commercial kitchen and acquire the initial licenses and necessary packaging.

“I [was] also learning how to scale product,” Coughlin recalls, “which I actually didn’t really get to learn until two weeks before I launched, to be honest, because there [are] so many things that are so intricate with chocolate, with tempering, humidity, and then shipping and perishable. So I had to learn a lot about how to scale from making a couple dozen sweets to hundreds and thousands at a time.”

Zac’s Sweet Shop opened for business in October of that year. Between then and March, the company did about $1,000 in monthly sales, with a spike during the holidays. That changed in June 2020 after the shop received a shoutout from Beyoncé: Coughlin did $20,000 in sales in just two weeks, at which point he really needed to figure out how to scale, he says. Fortunately, Coughlin’s community rallied around him; friends helped out in the kitchen until 3 a.m. to fulfill all the orders.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Zac’s Sweet Shop}

Related: The Sweet Side Hustle She Started in an Old CVS Made $800,000 in One Year. Now She’s Repeating the Success With Her Daughter — and They’ve Already Exceeded 8 Figures.

“It took a long time for this business to start to really make money, but I’ve always stayed true to who I am and who I wanted to be.”

Although it was a very exciting time for Coughlin and his business, it was also a “really heavy time,” he says, explaining that “it was one of the first times that I realized who I am and the opportunity that I had and the impact that I could make.” After the Beyoncé moment, Zac’s Sweet Shop experienced a “domino effect,” landing corporate clients and catering movie premieres. In March 2022, Coughlin took the side hustle full-time.

Up until that point, Coughlin’s day job made use of his communication major and music industry minor: He was the manager for a girl group. And, as it turns out, there’s some crossover between that work and running Zac’s Sweet’s. “I always say I market my products as if I’m marketing a pop music campaign,” Coughlin explains. “Loud, colorful, fun, engaging, social-media-heavy.”

Related: Does Social Marketing Really Make Dollars and Cents?

Now, Coughlin is preparing for an exciting brand relaunch that will involve growing the team (currently, it’s just Coughlin, one other person and freelancers) and putting more money into branded packaging — something the 100% bootstrapped business didn’t have the capital for in the past, despite Coughlin’s artistic inclination and creative drive. “An early mentor told me to always address what you need for the business versus what you want,” he says.

And for any young entrepreneurs who want to follow in his footsteps and see some sweet success of their own, Coughlin has some hard-won words of wisdom: “It’s a little cliche, but do what you’re passionate about, and money will always come,” he says. “It took a long time for this business to start to really make money, but I’ve always stayed true to who I am, who I wanted to be and where I wanted the business to go. It took some time, but I definitely feel like I got there, and I’m still working on that.”

This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.

A proposed merger between Paramount and Skydance, which was agreed to on Monday, per CNBC, is in limbo until approval from Paramount majority shareholder Shari Redstone. But the company revealed on Tuesday that it has a plan should the deal not go through — and it’s not looking great for employees.

The plan, revealed Tuesday at Paramount’s annual shareholders meeting, includes cutting costs by roughly $500 million and removing “duplicative teams and functions across the organization, real estate, marketing, and other corporate overhead categories.”

Related: ‘I’m Smarter Now…But Also Poorer’: Warren Buffett Says Berkshire Hathaway Ditched Its Entire Stake in Paramount at a Big Loss

After Paramount’s former CEO Bob Bakish was ousted in April, executives Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks, and Brian Robbins were placed in a position to temporarily share the role as an “Office of the CEO.”

“To be clear, $500 million in cost savings is just the beginning,” Cheeks said on the call, per CNBC.

Robbins also noted on the call that the company had been “aggressively exploring” different options that have a “great deal of inbound interest” for streaming partnerships to join with the company’s Paramount+ platform, which currently has around 70 million subscribers.

“Let me be clear, we’re not talking about marketing bundles. This is a deep and expansive relationship,” he said.

A new streaming partnership could potentially emulate the paths of other rivals like Hulu which was acquired by Disney in 2019 or HBO Max which merged with Discovery+ last spring to become “Max” streaming service.

Paramount laid off an estimated 800 employees just days after Super Bowl LVIII this year in an effort to “return the company to earnings growth” amid mounting debt.

Last month, meanwhile, Warren Buffett revealed that Berkshire Hathaway had offloaded all of its shares in Paramount during the company’s annual shareholder meeting, noting that he had lost “quite a bit of money” in the process.

“I think I’m smarter now than I was a couple years ago, but I also think I’m poorer because I acquired the knowledge in the manner I did,” Buffett said regarding the decision.

Related: Paramount Is Laying Off Hundreds of Employees Just Days After ‘Blockbuster’ Super Bowl LVIII Success

Paramount reported a strong Q1 2024 with a 51% year-over-year increase in revenue on its Paramount+ streaming platform.

Redstone is expected to decide on the merger within the next week.

The former senior leader of a Pentagon unit that studied UFOs is releasing a highly anticipated book this August — and some have already mistakenly ordered from deceptive Amazon listings and received superficially convincing fakes of the book.

Luis Elizondo led the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a U.S. governmental unit that looked into UFOs before he resigned in 2017.

In late May, Elizondo announced a book called Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs, stating that the book “underwent a 9-month U.S. Government security review.” Imminent is slated for release on August 20 and has already jumped to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list in the military aviation history, UFOs, and unexplained mysteries categories — but some who pre-ordered the book on Amazon have already received fakes.

One Amazon shopper who pre-ordered Imminent received a book last week with a cover as expected. When they opened it up, though, it was full of blank pages.

I asked my wife to add/pre-order @LueElizondo book to our Amazon list. I was shocked when she said it arrived two days later lol.

Needless to say we were scammed.

Read the Amazon description everyone!!#ufotwitter #ufoX pic.twitter.com/3Bxf2LduxZ

— Joe (@shock_then_awe) May 27, 2024

A post from another X user shows that a fake copy of the book existed on Amazon under a different author name (Didier Alarie) but with the same book cover. The fake was listed at a cheaper price.

Just fyi, there’s a non-@LueElizondo version of Imminent on Amazon – please be aware ?? and…maybe check the release date/author before buying anything ?

Assuming that this is NOT associated with you, Mr. Elizondo and would like to confirm when you get a moment – thanks!! ? https://t.co/0JmLkITr1z pic.twitter.com/2W45vbxKP1

— Kaleen (@lucyskye318) May 27, 2024

Though Elizondo clarified that he was the only author behind the book, the problem of scam book postings on Amazon extends beyond Imminent.

“Scam books on Amazon have been a problem for years,” Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, told NPR in March.

Every new book seems to spawn others that try “to steal sales,” according to Rasenberger.

Related: How a Self-Published Author Sold 500,000 Copies of Her Book

With ChatGPT, the problem multiplies. AI-generated summaries masquerading as ebooks are currently oversaturating Amazon, per a January Wired report, especially ahead of major book releases.

The issue persists even though Amazon currently allows sellers to upload a maximum of three books per day.

Copyrighted books are also allegedly being used to train AI.

Author and comedian Sarah Silverman filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT-maker OpenAI last year, along with authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on their copyrighted books.

Related: Authors Are Suing OpenAI Because ChatGPT Is Too ‘Accurate’ — Here’s What That Means

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted an unannounced raid of national corporate landlord Cortland Management on May 22, ramping up an investigation into an alleged rental price-fixing conspiracy that may have already impacted millions of Americans.

The surprise search was reportedly part of a criminal antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into RealPage, a $9 billion software company that recommends rent raises on millions of housing units across the U.S.

Per RealPage blog posts, Atlanta, Georgia-based Cortland, which owned nearly 85,000 apartment units as of June 2022, used RealPage’s algorithm to “ensure consistent vendor pricing for their communities from Arizona to Georgia.”

RealPage’s effects can be seen most noticeably in Atlanta, where software-based pricing affects more than 80% of rentals. Since 2016, rents in the city have grown by 80% — and higher vacancy rates have not driven prices down.

^{Apartment buildings. Credit: Getty Images}

The problem with RealPage, according to multiple lawsuits filed in the past two years in California, Arizona, New York, and other states, is that its algorithm increases rental prices in response to data collected from landlords — not according to demand.

Landlords “were not competing at all,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes stated in a February lawsuit announcement against RealPage.

“They were colluding with one another,” Mayes said.

According to the Arizona lawsuit, and others filed, landlords gave RealPage detailed information about rent prices, lease terms, amenities, move-out dates, and occupancy rates.

“Using this sensitive data RealPage directed the competitors on which units to rent, when to rent them, and at what price,” Mayes stated. “This was not a fair market at work, this was a fixed market.”

Related: State Attorney Generals Sue RealPage, Landlords Over ‘Astronomical’ Rent Hikes: ‘This Was Not A Fair Market At Work’

RealPage’s reach is undeniable. A D.C. lawsuit showed that 60% of apartment buildings in the area set prices using RealPage. In Phoenix, Arizona, 70% of apartment units were owned or managed by companies using its software.

Over 16 million rental units across the U.S. used RealPage’s algorithm as of a 2020 blog post.

“That’s a very large chunk of the total inventory in the country when you consider that there are about 22 million investment-grade apartments in the US today,” Tracy Saffos, industry principal at RealPage, said in the same post.

Related: Where Are Rents Dropping the Most in the U.S.?

RealPage’s impact on renters has been noticeable — even to executives at the company.

When asked about the role RealPage’s technology played in rising apartment rents, company executive Andrew Bowen said that the software was “driving it.”

“As a property manager, very few of us would be willing to actually raise rents double digits within a single month by doing it manually,” Bowen said.

Even though RealPage told CNBC that its landlord customers aren’t required to use the rent increases its algorithm recommends, a 2022 investigation by ProPublica revealed that landlords accepted 80-90% of the algorithm’s suggestions.

RealPage sent out “pricing advisors” to meet with landlords in person to follow up on their use of its recommended rates, according to the February Arizona lawsuit against the company.

In the past ten years, rent inflation has outpaced overall inflation numbers by 40.7%.

Related: CPI Report: Rising Rent, Gas Prices Keep Inflation Up

Joe’s KC Bar-B-Que was made famous by serving ‘que from a neighborhood gas station.

But it’s their dedication to the craft that has made them legends.

Joy Stehney, co-founder of Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, exemplifies the true spirit of entrepreneurial grit and passion. Alongside her husband Jeff, a BBQ Hall of Famer, they transformed a modest gas station kitchen into a legendary barbecue destination that now stands as a beacon of excellence in Kansas City’s storied culinary landscape.

The Stehneys embarked on their barbecue journey as competitors in the renowned Kansas City Barbecue scene.

Their success in BBQ competitions built a fanbase that encouraged them to begin a catering business. This led them to lease a kitchen space in a local gas station and partner with Joe Don Davidson (Oklahoma Joe’s Smoker Company).

Their venture began with a restaurant in Stillwater, Oklahoma, followed by their iconic Kansas City location in 1996. Despite early challenges and a subsequent name change from Oklahoma Joe’s Bar-B-Que to Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, they successfully established themselves in the barbecue community.

“My husband had the crazy idea to quit his job and we’re going to go into the restaurant business,” Joy Stehney shared with host Shawn Walchef of Cali BBQ Media. “We opened our second restaurant in Kansas City in the gas station in 1996. And we’ve been going ever since.”

Maintaining high food quality has been paramount for the brand, especially in its catering business.

Related: The Restaurateur Who Created a Safe Space for Celebrities to Eat in Peace in NYC

Despite her personal aversion to takeout, Stehney and the team have perfected the art of delivering exceptional food and service to their customers. Through rigorous testing and experienced staff, they ensure that their barbecue reaches guests in perfect condition, maintaining the high standards that keep people coming back.

“Good food and good service. It’s so important when the food is going to leave the building,” she explained. “We have great quality control at our restaurants and the food quality is the most important thing.”

Joe’s KC Barbecue has become a beloved staple in Kansas City, attracting fans from all walks of life, including Kansas City Chiefs superstar and Super Bowl Champion Travis Kelce. Stehney is ready to extend her hospitality to Kelce and his superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift, should they decide to tie the knot.

Related: How Do You Start a Successful Restaurant? Obsess Over the Tiniest Details, Says This Entrepreneurial Chef.

“I do want to say this. Travis and Taylor, I’ll cater the wedding. I’ll cater the rehearsal dinner. Whatever you want. Okay? Call me,” Joy enthusiastically offered.

From humble beginnings in a gas station to becoming barbecue icons, Joy Stehney’s dedication to quality and hospitality has solidified Joe’s KC Bar-B-Que as an exemplary family business and stand out in the industry.

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Organizations often find themselves with a mix of employees who possess a wide range of talents, experiences and expertise. Among them are those who may be overqualified – individuals who believe they possess talent and skills that exceed what is needed or required in their job. The presence of such employees reflects a widespread phenomenon, with some estimates indicating that nearly a third of the global workforce views themselves as possessing surplus qualifications. This trend is only likely to continue as factors such as educational attainment outpacing market demands, continuous shifts in skill requirements driven by technological advancements, and increasingly selective hiring practices lead individuals to take on roles that do not fully utilize their qualifications. We may, in fact, be barreling toward a future of mass overqualification.

Such realities make understanding the potential consequences of employing overqualified workers critical for organizations, as their presence could make or break productivity. While intuition suggests having overqualified employees can be problematic, it may also present unique opportunities for both employees and their organizations. Research on the matter, while extensive and insightful, has at times provided inconsistent findings, which has complicated our understanding and hindered the development of effective strategies to address the issue.

Interested in getting a clearer picture of the consequences of employee overqualification, my colleagues and I conducted a meta-analysis (a study of studies, if you will) to shed some light on the matter. We analyzed data from more than 200 studies involving over 85,000 employees. The study was recently published in the Journal of Management. Here’s what our review of the literature suggests:

How they interpret their situation matters

What drives people to commit to performing their tasks effectively, assisting their colleagues when needed, and exercising self-restraint to prevent behaviors detrimental to their organization’s success? Numerous explanations abound, but research suggests that they generally fall into one of three buckets: having compelling motives, feeling enthusiastic and possessing confidence in one’s abilities. In other words, people are likely to engage positively with their work when they have sufficient reason to, feel energized to and believe they can do the work.

This framework helps explain why, in our study, we found that overqualified employees can be either harmful or helpful to the companies they work for.

On the one hand, our results suggest that some overqualified employees interpret their work situation negatively, focusing on how their job is deficient or lacking in some way. Generally speaking, people expect to obtain a job commensurate with their experience and educational level. Failure to do so is understandably bound to result in feelings of frustration and demotivation. They may blame their organization for failing to provide sufficient opportunities that match their skills, lack interest in their tasks, or feel resentful of those who they see as better off. These feelings may spill over into their work, affecting the way they view their job, perform their tasks, and interact with others. This explains why, in our study, we found that overqualified employees can be poor performers and may even engage in counterproductive work behavior.

On the other hand, our results also suggest that overqualified employees can be an asset, particularly when they interpret their situation positively. That is, while viewing oneself as overqualified may at times be frustrating and even disappointing, it nonetheless signals that one is indeed capable of executing one’s tasks effectively and performing at a high level. When leveraged, such confidence can empower employees to develop effective coping strategies and regulate their behavior in productive ways. This explains why we also found that some overqualified employees perform at high levels, go the extra mile when needed, and avoid behaviors that can harm their organization.

Related: Your Employees are Demotivated and You Could Be Responsible — Here are 6 Ways to Keep Your Team Energized and Engaged

It not only affects their productivity

How overqualified employees interpret their situation matters not just for the bottom line but also for their own psychological wellbeing. We found that those employees who view their surplus skills as an asset tend to enjoy better mental and physical health, as well as greater overall job satisfaction. This offers an important insight for employees: While feeling overqualified might be frustrating, how you interpret your circumstances plays a crucial role in your mental and physical wellness, which can enable more effective coping strategies that can put you in a better position to eventually improve your situation.

As is often the case, culture is key

How, then, can you help your overqualified employees interpret their situation in more productive ways? One obvious way is to provide them with opportunities to apply their skills, whether through challenging work assignments, leadership training or pathways for advancement.

Besides these factors, our study found that culture matters. We looked specifically at national culture — and found that employees from more collectivist and flexible cultures tend to interpret their situation more positively — but the insights can nevertheless be applied to organizational culture as well. Specifically, cultivating a sense of belonging and fostering a mindset focused on learning and growth can shift overqualified employees’ focus towards the positive aspects of their situation, leading to better work outcomes. Implementing such a culture takes time, but a good place to start is by opening up both vertical (up the hierarchy) and horizontal (across departments) channels of communication, offering mentorship programs, and providing opportunities for continuous learning and development.

A leading AI researcher has publicly called out Elon Musk for his “blatantly false” AI predictions as the clash between the two continues after a week of back-and-forth.

In a Sunday post on Musk-owned X, Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun said that he disagreed with Elon Musk’s treatment of scientists and approach to the AI hype.

“I mean, expressing an ambitious vision for the future is great,” LeCun wrote. “But telling the public blatantly false predictions (“AGI next year”, “1 million robotaxis by 2020”, “AGI will kill us all, lets pause”,…) is very counterproductive (also illegal in some cases).”

My opinion of @elonmusk
I like his cars (I own a 2015 S, and 2023 S), his rockets, his solar energy systems, and his satellite communication system.
I also like his positions on open source and patents.

But I very much disagree with him on a number of issues.

I disagree with…

— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) June 2, 2024

Musk has made those predictions. In April, he said that AGI, or artificial general intelligence smarter than the most intelligent human, would arrive “probably next year, within two years.”

He also promised 1 million robotaxis by 2020 on a 2019 call with investors and said at an AI safety summit in November that “there is some chance, above zero, that AI will kill us all.”

^{Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta. Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

LeCun also disagreed with how Musk treats his scientists, pointing out that research needs publications and openness to advance.

“Secrecy hampers progress and discourages talents from joining the effort,” LeCun wrote.

Musk’s startup, xAI, raised $6 billion last week and stated that the money would go towards bringing its first products to market. The AI startup only has one public-facing product so far: an AI chatbot called Grok that is only available to premium X users.

xAI made the AI model behind Grok publicly available in March.

Related: Jack Dorsey Announces His Departure from Bluesky on X, Calls Elon Musk’s Platform ‘Freedom Technology’

Musk did not directly respond to LeCun on Sunday but posted a meme on the same day parodying LeCun’s posts.

I just wish Yan Lecan’t would stop sending me this sh$t ? pic.twitter.com/5X6aecfDsD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2024

LeCun and Musk’s disagreement started last week when LeCun responded to an xAI job posting and criticized Musk’s leadership.

Musk then taunted LeCun’s research background, telling him to “try harder” after LeCun said he published over 80 technical papers since January 2022.

LeCun did not respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.

Related: ‘We Can All Agree Elon Isn’t Serious’: Mark Zuckerberg Slams Elon Musk as Feud Continues

The Washington Post has confirmed that executive editor Sally Buzbee stepped down from her role Sunday in an unexpected decision that will change the publication’s editorial landscape.

Buzbee’s exit was reported to employees via an internal email from CEO William Lewis who called the decision an “abrupt shake-up at the top” and noted that former Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray will temporarily take over Buzbee’s position.

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“We’re troubled by the sudden departure of our executive editor Sally Buzbee and the suggestion from our Publisher and CEO Will Lewis that the financial issues plaguing our company stem from the work of us as journalists instead of mismanagement from our leadership,” the Washington Post Guild told USA Today in a statement. “We are also concerned about the lack of diversity at the top levels of the organization, especially as the Post seeks to reach new audiences while continuing to cover the most pressing issues in the nation and the world.”

Murray is set to depart following the 2024 U.S. presidential election in November and will be replaced by Robert Winnett, who will serve as the top editor. Winnett was previously the deputy editor of Telegraph Media Group.

“I’m deeply honored to join such a storied news institution with its long, rich history of memorable and impactful journalism and want to thank Sally for her great leadership,” Murray told the Washington Post. “I am excited by Will and Jeff’s vision for The Post’s next era of growth and reinvention and can’t wait to get started.”

The Post will also change its organizational structure by adding a third newsroom focused on service and social media journalism that will exist separately from the publication’s core news coverage.

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“The aim is to give the millions of Americans – who feel traditional news is not for them but still want to be kept informed –compelling, exciting, and accurate news where they are and in the style that they want,” the Post said.

The publication will also continue to use AI and video storytelling to reach a broader range of readers in the changing landscape of the industry.

The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, who purchased the publication in 2013 for an estimated $250 million in cash.