Business

Since it was founded in 2010, WeWork has not once turned a profit. For years its cash-torching ways went unchallenged, thanks to the reality-distorting powers of its flamboyant founder, Adam Neumann, who succeeded in convincing investors, most notably SoftBank, that it was not an office-rental business but a zippy tech firm on a mission to “elevate the world’s consciousness”. Its slick office spaces, complete with free beer and table football, sprung up around the world. At the height of the silliness in early 2019, in the lead-up to an initial public offering (IPO), the company was valued at $47bn.The unravelling began soon after, as outside investors balked at its frothy valuation and questioned an unorthodox governance arrangement that gave Mr Neumann an iron grip on the company. The IPO was shelved, and Mr Neumann was offered $1.7bn to leave. Sandeep Mathrani, a real-estate veteran brought in to run the company, did his best to right the ship by cutting costs and renegotiating leases. In 2021 he listed the firm on the New York Stock Exchange through a special-purpose acquisition company, at a valuation of $9bn. Yet his efforts were undone by the slump in the office market brought on by the pandemic and an enduring shift towards remote working. On November 6th WeWork, which leases offices in 777 locations across 39 countries, filed for bankruptcy. Its equity will probably be wiped out.WeWork is not the only property business in turmoil. Days earlier, on the other side of the Atlantic, René Benko, a once celebrated Austrian property magnate, was ousted from Signa, the €23bn ($25bn) real-estate empire that he had built over the past two decades. Its portfolio includes icons such as the Chrysler Building in New York; the KaDeWe, a posh department store in Berlin; and a stake in Selfridges, another ritzy temple of consumption in London. It also includes luxury hotels, such as the Park Hyatt in Vienna; high-end developments, including the Elbtower, a 65-floor skyscraper in Hamburg; and a grab-bag of other retail companies. Many luminaries of European business hold shares in Mr Benko’s property group, among them Ernst Tanner, the chairman of Lindt & Sprüngli, a chocolate-maker, Hans Peter Haselsteiner, a construction entrepreneur, and Arthur Eugster, a coffee magnate.The two cases are not identical. Unlike WeWork, Signa has not declared bankruptcy, though it faces a liquidity crunch, and has brought in a prominent German insolvency expert, Arndt Geiwitz, to take the reins. Unlike Mr Neumann, Mr Benko, a self-made high-school dropout who started his career converting attics into penthouses in his home town of Innsbruck, was involved with Signa right up until his ousting. After a conviction for bribery in 2012, he stepped back from day-to-day operational duties, but later took over as chairman of the company’s advisory board. He gave his blessing to the appointment of Mr Geiwitz, who helped steer Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline, through insolvency, and formally handed over chairmanship of the advisory board to him on November 8th. The Benko family foundation will remain a major shareholder in the group. Mr Neumann, meanwhile, has been reduced to sniping at WeWork’s collapse from the sidelines, complaining that the company “failed to take advantage of a product that is more relevant today than ever before”.Yet the rise and fall of the two empires share similarities. For one, both relied on risky bets that went sour in a world of higher interest rates and slumping property markets. As he built his empire, Mr Benko accumulated a mountain of debt in order to purchase new assets while maintaining juicy dividends. That model worked only as long as interest rates were low and the value of prime property continued to rise. In WeWork’s case, the risk stemmed from a model of taking out lengthy leases on properties, sometimes for as long as 20 years, splashing out on snazzy refurbishments, then renting the space for periods as brief as a month at a time. When the office market turned, the company was stuck paying for leases that cost far in excess of what it could charge tenants, given the cheaper alternatives on offer.Nonetheless, both empires could just come out the other side stronger. Leonhard Dobusch of Innsbruck University reckons Mr Geiwitz will break up the sprawling Signa portfolio, selling off assets to bring in cash and pay down debts. The privately held business, comprised of hundreds of holding companies, could do with simplification. WeWork, for its part, has already gained backing from most of its creditors to convert its debt pile of $3bn into equity, giving its balance-sheet something close to a fresh start. It will also use its bankruptcy to break more than 60 leases in America and renegotiate others. David Tolley, WeWork’s new boss, has said he thinks it will remain in bankruptcy for less than seven months. Mr Neumann and Mr Benko are gone, but what they built may endure. ■To stay on top of the biggest stories in business and technology, sign up to the Bottom Line, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. More

Food-delivery startup Wonder Group has gotten a $100 million investment from Nestle, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Together, the two companies plan to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and food to businesses such as hotels, hospitals and sports arenas.
Wonder recently struck a deal to buy meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million.

Food-delivery company Wonder Group has gotten a cash infusion from Nestle, as the startup looks to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and prepared ingredients to businesses such as hotels, hospitals and sports arenas.
The deal includes a $100 million investment from Nestle, along with a strategic partnership, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because financial terms of the deal are not public.

Nestle and Wonder confirmed the deal but declined to reveal transaction details.
The funding could get Wonder a step closer to its ambitions of making it easier, faster and cheaper for busy families to have high-quality meals at home. The startup, which was valued at about $3.5 billion when it closed a $350 million funding round in June, was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur and former Walmart e-commerce chief Marc Lore.
Wonder recently struck a deal to acquire meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million. It has also developed kitchen equipment that simplifies and speeds up cooking restaurant-quality food.
Prior to Wonder, Lore founded and sold e-commerce startup Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016. Walmart ultimately shut down Jet, but Lore oversaw the big-box retailer’s aggressive push into the online world and its race to close the gap with rival Amazon. He left Walmart nearly three years ago.
Lore sold Quidsi, another business he co-founded and the parent company of Diapers.com, to Amazon.

In an interview with CNBC, Lore said working with Nestle will help Wonder scale more quickly.

Marc Lore, former CEO of Walmart eCommerce
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Nestle, a food and beverage giant, makes ingredients, snacks and frozen meals carried by grocery stores, but also has a large food-service business and sells to clients including college campuses and cruise lines. Some of those companies may also want Wonder’s kitchen equipment, Lore said.
The partnership will start with Nestle making pizza and pasta tailored for Wonder’s kitchen equipment, along with selling the kitchen equipment to clients.
Melissa Henshaw, president of out-of-home for Nestle, said many of Nestle’s clients have struggled to keep up as customers seek convenient meals and bolder flavors, but the businesses lack the employees to make them. In many cases, that’s led to changes that limit sales opportunities and disappoint customers, such as whittled-down room service menus at hotels, limited hours at cafes or food that’s flavorless, soggy or cold.
“With our partnership with Wonder, there’s this opportunity to help operators across multiple out-of-home segments be able to improve their food quality, have consistency, and actually open up some additional revenue streams that have been pretty challenged post-pandemic,” she said.
Wonder began with a very different business model: A fleet of trucks with mobile kitchens that parked and cooked meals outside customers’ homes in the suburbs of New Jersey and New York. It pulled the plug on that approach in January and laid off hundreds of employees in a push to turn a profit quicker.
Instead, the startup pivoted to opening a growing network of brick-and-mortar kitchens where it can make menu items across cuisines that customers would otherwise find at restaurants with large followings or celebrity chefs, such as José Andrés, Bobby Flay and Michael Symon. It has bought rights from a growing number of those chefs and restaurants, which allows customers to mix and match — diners could get entrees from four different restaurants for four different family members in a single order.
The company currently has about 1,100 employees.
As of the end of the year, Wonder plans to have 10 locations in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Each of those locations has about a dozen seats where customers can dine in, but the majority of orders are delivered or picked up for at-home dining, Lore said. Next year, it plans to open at least 20 more locations, he said.
With the startup’s new push, Wonder is selling its white-labeled technology and the meal ingredients — specially made and prepared — that goes with it to other businesses. It’s already rolled out the business-to-business offering, called WonderWorks, at 50 locations, including convention centers, theaters and airports.
Ultimately, Lore said he wants Wonder to be a “super app for mealtime” with a variety of tiered options that fit customers’ budgets, dietary preferences and schedules. The choices would include kits from Blue Apron and hot meals from its kitchens.
Wonder competes with a diverse array of players in the food space. They range from delivery companies such as Uber Eats and DoorDash to quick-service restaurants including SweetGreen and Chipotle and even grocers such as Kroger and Amazon-owned Whole Foods, which have expanded prepared food offerings.
Wonder wants to differentiate itself by how it makes that food, so it can prepare a lengthy list of meals and elevate the taste of those menu items, even in a 2,800-square-foot kitchen with little equipment and labor.
“There’s no gas,” Lore said. “There’s no stove. There’s no fire. There’s no hoods. There’s no grease traps. This can go into a shoe store, a yoga studio or LensCrafters. It can go in anywhere. So it allows you to be very, very adaptable with the kitchen.” More

Planet Fitness reported earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s expectations.
The gym chain also boosted its revenue outlook for the year.
Shares of Planet Fitness jumped after the earnings report.

A person works out at Planet Fitness as they re-open at 25 percent capacity in Boston’s Dorchester on Feb. 1, 2021.
Jessica Rinaldi | Boston Globe | Getty Images

Planet Fitness shares surged double digits after beating expectations on both lines for the third quarter and raising its outlook for the year.
Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street analysts’ expectations, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

Earnings per share: 59 cents, adjusted, vs. 55 cents expected
Revenue: $277.6 million vs. $268.2 million expected

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Planet Fitness posted a profit of $39.1 million, or 46 cents a share, up from $26.9 million, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, the company reported per-share earnings of 59 cents.
Revenue jumped nearly 14% to $277.6 million.
The company said it now expects to post 14% revenue growth for the year, up from its previous guidance of 12% and higher than analysts’ expectations of 11.6%.
Interim CEO Craig Benson led the company’s quarterly earnings call with analysts and investors following the abrupt departure of former Chief Executive Chris Rondeau.
The gym chain’s board ousted Rondeau in mid-September, stunning both investors and employees. The company didn’t share additional details on his departure during the earnings call, but Benson confirmed the search for his successor is “going well.” Planet Fitness shares have recovered since Rondeau’s departure, but remain down more than 20% year to date.

Benson outlined Planet Fitness’ forward-looking growth strategy in the company’s press release.
“We’re adjusting our store-level return model to further improve the attractiveness of opening and operating Planet Fitness stores in a new macro-environment,” Benson said. “The changes include decreasing certain capital investments by extending the timing for replacing equipment and completing remodels, to set us and our franchisees up for continued long-term sustainable growth.”
New and existing franchise owners received updated agreement details in mid-October that included key changes to the business structure, including:

an increased franchise agreement from 10 years to 12 years to eliminate the initial $20,000 franchise fees.
shortening grace periods for franchisees from 12 to six months.
reequip periods extended to free up capital and reduce store spending.

“We think ultimately this was the best set of changes that we could develop to improve to free up some cash,” CFO Tom Fitzgerald said on the call. “To invest in new store growth, improve the store returns of those new stores.”
Fitzgerald also confirmed the company is experimenting with price increases for its “Classic Membership,” from $10 to $15, in more than 100 test markets.
“At the end of the day, our criteria is we don’t want to sacrifice member growth,” he said.
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Stellantis plans to produce an industry-first pickup for its Ram Trucks brand that’s equipped with an onboard gas engine and electric generator.
The truck can operate as a zero-emissions EV until the vehicle’s battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle after its initial charge.
Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis characterized the new Ram 1500 Ramcharger pickup as the “ultimate answer for battery-electric trucks.”

2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten

DETROIT — Automaker Stellantis plans to produce an industry-first electric pickup truck called the Ram 1500 Ramcharger that’s equipped with an electric generator and a gas engine.
If that sounds like an oxymoron, here’s how it works: The truck can operate as a zero-emissions EV until its battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 27-gallon, 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle.

The outcome is a truck with the benefits of an EV, such as fast acceleration and some zero-emissions driving, without the range anxiety synonymous with most current electric vehicles, according to Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis.
“This is the ultimate answer for the battery-electric truck. No one else has got anything else like it,” Kuniskis told reporters during an event. “This is going to be a game changer for battery-electric trucks.”
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger is expected to go on sale in late 2024 alongside a previously revealed all-electric Ram 1500 truck without a gas-powered engine or range-extending electric generator.
Stellantis estimates the range of the Ramcharger to be up to 690 miles, including up to 145 miles powered by a 92 kilowatt-hour battery when fully charged without the extended-range power from the gas engine and 130 kilowatt electric generator.
That range compares with up to an expected 500-mile range of the all-electric Ram 1500 REV pickup. It also tops the current Ram 1500, which has a 3.6-liter V-6 engine and an up to 26-gallon tank with a total range of up to 546 miles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Stellantis did not announce pricing of the Ramcharger, which was revealed Tuesday as part of a redesign of current gasoline-powered Ram 1500 pickups for the 2025 model year.

‘Not a PHEV’

Kuniskis said the Ramcharger is meant as a bridge between traditional trucks with internal combustion engines and all-electric ones, which currently face significant hurdles regarding charging infrastructure and range anxiety, especially when the vehicles are towing — a main reason to purchase a truck.
Such improvements could be a differentiator for the brand, according to Stephanie Brinley, associate director of AutoIntelligence for S&P Global Mobility.
“It works to address the fact that right now the industry and the pickup truck segment in particular is not ready to just flip to EVs 100%,” she said. “It addresses some of those performance and range anxiety concerns, and it’s strong.— But the difficult part is going to be getting consumers to really understand what it does.”

2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten

Similar propulsion technology — referred to as extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs — is available in overseas markets, specifically China. It’s also similarly been offered in vehicles such as the discontinued Chevrolet Volt sedan from General Motors.
Stellantis engineers said the main difference between the technology of the Ramcharger and the Volt is that the truck is being exclusively propelled by electric motors, not the vehicle’s engine, once the battery dies. It’s also expected to be the first application of it in a production full-size pickup truck.
The Ramcharger features 663 horsepower and 615 foot-pounds of torque and can achieve 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds, Stellantis said. The truck will be capable of bidirectional charging, where the vehicle acts as a generator to power appliances or even an entire home, the company said.
Kuniskis, who also leads Stellantis’ Dodge brand, declined to comment on whether the technology of the Ramcharger will be used in other vehicles. Other Stellantis brands include Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat in the U.S.
The Ramcharger operates differently from current plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, that offer a range of all-electric driving, followed by an engine powering the vehicle after the battery is depleted.

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis unveils the Charger Daytona SRT concept electric muscle car on Aug. 17, 2022 in Pontiac, Mich.  
Michael Wayland / CNBC

“The Ramcharger is not a PHEV,” Kuniskis said. “It’s a battery-electric truck with its own onboard, high-speed charger.”
“There’s no connection between the engine and the wheels,” he said. “The gas generator is only there to charge the battery.”
Ram’s truck strategy is different from its leading competitors GM and Ford Motor. The latter is offering traditional, hybrid and all-electric versions of its F-150 full-size truck, while GM has said it plans to transition from traditional trucks to electric ones without the use of hybrids.
Stellantis currently offers PHEV versions of vehicles such as the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee SUVs.

Bye-bye Hemi

The design of the Ramcharger is a mix between the all-electric Ram 1500 REV and the refreshed gas versions of the traditional trucks, which will be available early next year.
The Ramcharger includes illuminated lines across its grille from the headlamps, new badging that debuted on the all-electric truck and other design and facia elements between the two.
For the traditional Ram 1500 models, the biggest change is the company is dropping its well-known Hemi V-8. Replacing the current 5.7-liter Hemi engine offered in the truck will be a twin-turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder engine called the Hurricane.

Ram’s 2023 Super Bowl ad debuts the production version of the Ram 1500 REV electric pickup that is expected to go on sale in late 2024.
Screenshot

“Some customers are going to be upset that you’re not going to have a Hemi in there,” Kuniskis said. “Sure, the Hemi’s an absolute legend. Americans love the Hemi, but this thing flat out outperforms the Hemi.”
The 3.0-liter Hurricane engine is rated at 420 horsepower and 469 foot-pounds of torque, while a high-output version of the engine is rated at 540 horsepower and 521 foot-pounds of torque. That compares with the current V-8 Hemi at 395 horsepower and 410 foot-pounds of torque.
Inline-, or straight-, six-cylinder engines have been used in U.S. vehicles by automakers such as BMW and Jaguar, however, they’re far from mainstream in the U.S.
Other changes to the trucks include a new luxury model called Tungsten and a performance variant called RHO replacing Ram’s high-output TRX pickup that is equipped with a Hemi 6.2-liter V-8 capable of 702 horsepower and 650 foot-pounds of torque. More

Hollywood actors aren’t totally on board with the latest labor agreement pitch.
SAG-AFTRA said there were still “several essential items” that it was not in agreement with, including AI guidelines.
It is unclear if the AMPTP will return to the table to continue bargaining or if talks will officially shutdown.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 31: Rebecca Damon joins SAG-AFTRA members on strike during Halloween on October 31, 2023 in New York City. The strike, which began on July 14, entered its 100th day on October 21st as the actors’ union and Hollywood studios and streamers failed to reach an agreement. (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images)
John Nacion | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

SAG-AFTRA actors aren’t totally on board with Hollywood studios’ latest labor agreement pitch.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said there were still “several essential items” that they couldn’t agree with during their negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, including artificial intelligence guidelines.

Studios put forth this “last, best and final offer” over the weekend, with top executives making clear that they would not make further concessions. SAG-AFTRA spent time Sunday and Monday evaluating the deal.
It is unclear if the AMPTP will return to the table to continue bargaining or if talks will officially shutdown.
Representatives from the AMPTP did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Hollywood actors initiated a work stoppage in mid-July as initial negotiations broke down with studios including Disney, Paramount, Universal, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. They resumed talks for a short period of time in early October, but those broke down for several weeks.
Later in the month, talks resumed again, but so far, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have been unable to reach a deal.

Television and film performers were looking to improve wages, working conditions, and health and pension benefits, as well as establish guardrails for the use of AI in future television and film productions. Additionally, the union sought more transparency from streaming services about viewership so that residual payments can be made equitable to linear TV.
The 116 day strike has disrupted marketing campaigns and prevented production from commencing on a significant portion of Hollywood’s film and television projects.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. More

Delta Air Lines, Pepsi , Philip Morris International and Darden Restaurants are among the companies facing questions about how GLP-1s are affecting their bottom lines.
Only a fraction of people with obesity in the US currently take a GLP-1. That could rise to 13% by the end of the decade, creating a $100-billion market, according to one analyst estimate.
Unpleasant side effects and insurance coverage could influence how many people actually take the drugs and how long they stay on them.

A worker organizes cans of PepsiCo Inc. soda on a shelf inside a grocery store in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., on Thursday, July 6, 2017. PepsiCo Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on July 11. Photographer: Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

If you listen to third-quarter corporate earnings calls, it might seem like everyone is taking weight-loss drugs. 
Delta Air Lines, PepsiCo, Philip Morris International and Darden Restaurants are just some of the companies that faced questions from analysts about how the drugs are affecting their bottom lines. Executives are mostly brushing off the effects, saying it’s too early to quantify any real changes. Some – like Hershey, Conagra and Nestle –  are assuring investors they’ll adapt, if necessary. 

While some analysts are making sweeping claims about how obesity drugs will reshape the industries they cover, the medicines are still in the early days. It’s not yet clear how many people will actually take them and for how long, or what long-term effect they will have on food producers, restaurants and other industries. 
Known as GLP-1s, the drugs were first approved for diabetes and are now also being used for obesity. Demand has spiked, as Novo Nordisk can no longer make enough of its drug Wegovy to keep up.
But even so, only a sliver of eligible people are actually taking the drugs at this point, said Goldman Sachs analyst Chris Shibutani. 
That number could rise to 13% of the roughly 100 million Americans with obesity by the end of the decade, Shibutani estimates, which would translate to about $100 billion in sales. The actual total could end up being higher or lower depending on multiple factors, including one especially important one: how long people stay on the drugs.

Hershey’s and other brands of chocolate bars.
Dondi Tawatao | Reuters

That question “is very much at the forefront of thinking about the size of the market, as well as what might be the material changes that we see in other industries that might be affected, such as food and beverage industries, consumption, even the competition for discretionary spending and luxury goods,” Shibutani said. 

A month’s supply of Wegovy costs around $1,400, and insurance coverage varies, a lofty expense for many potential users. Wegovy and similar drugs can also cause some unpleasant side effects like vomiting and diarrhea that can turn some people off. 
Only about one-third of people who start the drugs still take them one year later, according to data provided by RBC Capital Markets. That suggests the effects of the drugs on other industries might not be as far-reaching as some people expect, said RBC analyst Brian Abrahams. 
“Sometimes people go in with the idea that you have these drugs that seem like a miracle cure and what if 50 million or 100 million people take them and everybody loses a quarter of their body weight. What does that mean for all these sectors? The reality is pharmaceutical products have limitations – reimbursement, compliance – and the reality often ends up not exactly matching,” Abrahams said.
At the same time, the story is just beginning to unfold. Wegovy was approved only two years ago.
Dozens more weight-loss drugs are in development, and Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide is expected to be approved before the end of this year. 
“Let’s see how these drugs really play out as the manufacturing progresses, the next-generation mechanisms come through and payers make decisions,” Shibutani said. “For all practical purposes, I think this theme is going to be with us for awhile.”
— CNBC’s Patrick Manning contributed to this report. More

Fenway Sports Group Chairman Tom Werner confirmed that the company has had “conversations” with the PGA Tour.
The talks between Fenway and the PGA Tour raise concerns about the golf organization’s proposed business combination with Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Fenway Sports Group Chairman Tom Werner on Monday acknowledged that the company has held talks with the PGA Tour as the golf organization’s framework agreement with Saudi-backed LIV Golf faces new doubts.
“We confirm that we’ve had conversations,” Werner told CNBC’s Scott Wapner during “Halftime Report.” He declined to comment further.

Werner, who spoke alongside PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy, said that the players “will decide the direction the tour goes.”
There’s growing speculation that Fenway, which owns the MLB’s Boston Red Sox and soccer team Liverpool FC, could come through with an offer that could top the Saudis’ bid. The PGA Tour-LIV Golf combination was never finalized beyond a framework agreement. Veteran golf journalist Alan Shipnuck last week posted on X that Fenway Sports Group has put in a “monster bid to usurp the PIF.”
Monday’s interview with Werner and McIlroy came days after a Endeavour Group Holdings executive said the PGA Tour turned down a strategic partnership with the company, which owns a majority stake in WWE and UFC parent TKO.
The PGA Tour-LIV deal was announced in June. It was a surprising development that came after months of bitter legal feuding and lobbying. The agreement triggered its own share of anger and criticism, triggering Senate hearings to investigate the deal. Critics claimed that the deal was a means for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to gain influence in the U.S. through sports investments. Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman controls the PIF.
McIlroy had been outspoken in his disdain for LIV Golf, saying in July that if LIV Golf was “the last place to play golf on earth, I would retire.”

Speculation mounted that Mcllory’s efforts to launch the PGA Tour-blessed TGL golf league with Tiger Woods was a response to LIV Golf’s encroachment on the sport. LIV lured PGA Tour players, like Phil Mickelson, to with deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Last month, Disney’s ESPN snagged the broadcast rights for TGL. Fenway backs McIlroy’s TGL team, Boston Common.
McIlroy sounded a friendlier note Monday, when asked about the potential for a renewed rivalry between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
“I feel like we’ve got a fractured competitive landscape right now,” McIlroy told CNBC. “But hopefully when this is all said and done, I sincerely hope the PIF are involved and we can bring the game of golf back together.” More

There is no “i” in team. But there is one in “autopilot”. Despite the growing importance of teamwork in organisations, the processes used to manage employees have carried on much as before. Bosses may wax lyrical about collaboration, but the way they reward, review and recruit has not caught up.People in organisations have always worked in concert with others. But the emphasis on teams is growing, for a variety of reasons. Technology has made the sharing of ideas and information easier, while hybrid working has made it more vital. (There’s a reason it’s not called Microsoft Silos.) The software industry has spread the gospel of teams—agile, scrums, OKRs and all the rest of it—into all kinds of places.Teams, it turns out, are better at solving complex problems, according to a recent paper by Abdullah Almaatouq of the MIT Sloan School of Management. Research also suggests that people have a greater attachment to their work group than to their organisation; you’re less likely to go for lunch with a logo.Knowledge is also accumulating as to what makes teams tick, the subject of this week’s episode of Boss Class, our new management podcast. Project Aristotle, a famous bit of research by Google into the characteristics of its best-performing teams, identified “psychological safety”—comfort to speak one’s mind—as the most important ingredient, alongside things like dependability, role clarity and meaningful work. Different teams excel at different things. Analysis by Lingfei Wu of the University of Chicago and his co-authors found a correlation between team size and types of scientific research: larger teams develop existing ideas and smaller ones disrupt the field with new ones.But a greater emphasis on, and understanding of, teams does not generally translate into matching management practices. Recruitment processes focus on the achievements of the individual rather than the collectives they have been in. Performance management is still largely a one-player sport. Reviews are usually based on individual targets, as are bonuses. Metrics are often confined to concrete outputs rather than softer team-based measures, such as how trusted people are. It doesn’t help that many bosses have little idea what their teams really do. Soroco, a software firm, and academics at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania asked managers to describe the processes that they thought took up most of their teams’ time. On average they did not know or could not recall 60% of what their team members did, making them more like high-functioning goldfish than bosses.There are good reasons for much of this. People move jobs and get promoted one by one, not as battalions. Rewarding people on the basis of team performance can lead to unfairness: free-riders might get too much recognition or hard workers might be penalised for someone else not pulling their weight. It’s difficult to quantify team contributions. When teams are made up of people from different departments—or form for limited periods—managers find it harder to know what their direct reports are up to.But these problems are not insurmountable. When hiring people, it is possible to assess traits that make for good group members: scoring well on a test that asks participants to determine what people are feeling from a snapshot of their eyes is correlated with being a good team player, for example. Peer reviews can give a good sense of how people are seen within teams.The worry that team-based bonuses may encourage free-riding also seems to be overblown. A recent study by Anders Frederiksen of Aarhus University and his co-authors looked at the impact of introducing group-based incentives at a manufacturing firm, and found it sparked a big leap in performance. That jump was not just because the scheme incentivised existing workers to be more efficient, but also because it attracted more productive new hires.Employees are individuals; managers should never forget that. But if teams are where a lot of the magic happens, bosses should have better ways to get the most out of them. Working out what they do all day might be a good place to start.■Read more from Bartleby, our columnist on management and work:How to get the lying out of hiring (Oct 30th)Would you rather be a manager or a leader? (Oct 23rd)How big is the role of luck in career success? (Oct 19th)Also: How the Bartleby column got its name More