Written for the leaders, owners and professionals of the 11 million businesses with between $50,000 and $50 million in revenue.

Airbnb’s earned media strategy wasn’t built in a day. For years, the company has hosted lucky contest winners at a real-life Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse, the Moulin Rouge cabaret’s windmill, and even the X-Men’s mansion.

But Airbnb might’ve finally gone too far with its Gladiator II tie-in PR stunt, which offered 16 movie fans a chance to “become a gladiator” and do epic battle in Rome’s Coliseum “for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.”

Even though the fights would not be to the death, Rome’s culture minister protested the plans as “a demeaning use of our historical-artistic heritage” on grounds where actual people had died. Another local official added, “We are not in Disneyland… Every now and then someone seems to forget it.”

When in Rome, do as the Romans do … just not the ones from 180 A.D. Speaking of which, check out our guide to International Business Etiquette From Around the World.

Fast food: Craveworthy Brands CEO says chains got greedy

Pod-o-mation: Google can turn any document into an AI podcast

Casio: Watch brand’s glow-up from nerdcore to the red carpet

(Source: Craveworthy Brands)

Customers are fed up with how much it costs to dine out. With more Americans cooking at home to bring down their food budget, restaurant chains are suddenly offering a return to value menus.

Gregg Majewski, founder of Craveworthy Brands and former CEO of Jimmy John’s, believes it never had to be this way — and that many brands eroded loyalty by overextending their post-pandemic inflationary grace period. Majewski told b. how businesses can create real value and rebuild lost trust.

b.: You had a successful corporate career at Jimmy John’s before starting Craveworthy. What drove this entrepreneurial shift?

Majewski: My entire life has been entrepreneurial. Even at Jimmy John’s, it was an entrepreneurial position, even though I was working for somebody else … because I gave my blood, sweat, and tears to it. …

… Jimmy was an incredible man and leader — I owe him everything I could possibly do in this industry. … There was nothing that I didn’t believe we could accomplish. We wanted to be the No. 2 sandwich concept. We got there.

b.: How have you balanced the need for profitability with the demand for affordability?

Majewski: I think restaurants are stupid in the fact that every opportunity we get, we jack our prices up because our costs went up. What the grocery store does very well — and [why they’re] our biggest competitor right now — is when the cost of milk and eggs … fell back down, the consumer saw a price decrease. The cost of eggs did not stay at that new normal.

We, as restaurants, kept our prices at that new normal from what the height was, and we alienated the customer base. Two years ago, I was concerned that customers might push back too much, so I created … value propositions [like a $7.99 chicken thigh sandwich], but they were new items and we don’t call them “value.” … You don’t want to discount your brand. Once you start discounting, you’re telling your consumer that your product is really only worth the lower price. That’s what happened to pizza. You never order a pizza without a coupon. Well, that’s because the real price is B.S.

b.: How do you think more business owners can adopt that forward-thinking approach?

The biggest fault of every businessperson is you’re so in the weeds, worried about today and tomorrow. What will take your company to the next point is thinking years down the line, because you’re giving yourself something to work toward. …

… My greatest goal is to make my team millionaires. … If my team knows I want to change their lives, they’re a lot more willing to work 60 to 65 hours during tough times. … I’ve seen too many people not give back to those who have taken care of them, and companies never get to the next level because of it.

Read our full Q&A with Gregg Majewski at business.com

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(Source: Shutterstock)

Everybody has a podcast now, even robots.

NotebookLM, an AI tool from Google, can take a dry textbook chapter or other document and turn it into a lively, personable, eight-minute podcast. The podcasts are even complete with all of the personality — like dramatic pauses, interrupting, and riffing on digressions — you’d expect from an NPR host. It really feels like the male and female AI voices are thinking extemporaneously as they talk, breathing life into the most mundane of topics.

For now, the tool is detached from Google’s ad business, and the company promises any data you upload is kept private. 

While Google is encouraging users to turn their homework into podcasts, a Reddit user forced the bots to analyze an incredibly sophomoric prompt. But the hosts were onto them. “Can we find meaning in the seemingly meaningless?” asked one of the hosts. In the end, they sort of did.

(Source: Shutterstock)

From the CA-53W to the iconic G-Shock, Casio has sold some of the same digital watch models for almost half a century. While those products remain essentially unchanged, perception evolves.

In the 1980s, calculator watches were high-tech and sleek enough for Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future and Keanu Reeves in Point Break. In the smartphone era, however, they might’ve been the corniest accessory imaginable — clunky, nerdy, and totally obsolete.

But Barry Keoghan’s stainless steel G-Shock in Saltburn made the look cool and retro. Now Casio is gracing the wrists of Ryan Gosling, Eminem, Kristen Stewart, and other A-listers.

The calculator itself isn’t the selling point — the nostalgic vintage appeal is. Like the watches, Casio’s “comeback” is an exercise in durability and understatedness. They just kept doing what they did until everybody else took notice again.

Written by Antonio Ferme, Steven Blum, and Dan Ketchum.