A ruling by US District Judge Ada Brown has halted the Federal Trade Commission's ban on noncompete agreements, citing the agency's lack of statutory authority. The ban, intended to promote competition and prevent wage suppression, faced immediate legal challenges from business groups. FTC spokesperson Victoria Graham has hinted at an appeal.

Core & Main, a distributor of infrastructure supplies, has acquired Green Equipment Co., a Fort Worth-based distributor of damage prevention and utility locating equipment. The move aligns with Core & Main's strategy to enhance product offerings and customer service capabilities. Core & Main recently purchased HM Pipe Products and said it planned to acquire GoGreen Solutions.

More than 9,000 Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City employees have been locked out following unsuccessful labor negotiations with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. The work stoppage is expected to have significant economic repercussions, potentially costing Canada up to $250 million daily and disrupting supply chains across North America. Key industries, including agriculture and chemicals, are already impacted, with concerns over delayed shipments and depleted stockpiles.

FourKites, a supply chain technology business, plans to partner with Eaigle to use its platform to improve warehouse visibility through continuous yard monitoring and data collection. Automating gate and yard operations in a more comprehensive way will help cut down on lost loads, use labor more effectively and make operations more efficient, says FourKites founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal.

Robotics, AI and internet of things technologies are helping develop a more connected supply chain, and two-dimensional QR codes will allow manufacturers and retailers to provide easier access to the entire history of a product, said Liz Sertl, senior director of supply chain visibility for GS1 US. "End-to-end recordkeeping and data exchange between trading partners supports transparency and enables real-time, accurate monitoring of products in the supply chain for fast response to any issues that arise, such as a potential contamination," Sertl said.

AI will power marketing tools for 62% of business-to-business brands, Forrester reports, predicting that the proportion will reach 75% before 2025. Benefits include increased personalization, campaign optimization and the automation of repetitive work.

Marketers can mitigate the risks of AI adoption by conducting audits across data, ethics and governance, compliance and content, advises Andrew Rowe, chief marketing sciences officer at Rapp, who explains the steps to take. "The key to success with AI is to take a tactical approach and think about how to use AI in a way that's strategic and sustainable for the business," Rowe writes.

A survey by the New York Federal Reserve finds that workers' satisfaction with their compensation, benefits and advancement options has deteriorated, especially among women without college degrees. The reservation wage that prospective employees say they would need to take a job has risen dramatically in the past year to $81,147 but salary offers have fallen to $65,272.

Chris Cavallini, the founder of Nutrition Solutions, holds his employees to high standards and doesn't hesitate to deliver brutally honest feedback. "If someone can't take direct feedback about something they're not exceptional in without getting their ego bruised, they forfeit their ability to grow and certainly can't be part of my team," Cavallini says.

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