Fortune

We’ve all been there, scraping together pleasantries around the watercooler. While sometimes conversation flows with ease, other times you might find yourself playing proverbial wall ball by asking a helpless co-worker “what did you get up to this weekend” back and forth for eternity. https://lnkd.in/e6eR49-s But there’s no need to truly fear your inability to connect with others, an acronym is here: Known as the FORD method, some experts suggest sticking to the following topics—family, occupation, recreation, and dreams—to feel less strung out by small talk. Breaking it down, FORD represents surface-level but pleasant conversation. Or in other words, it’s “the big four topics of small talk,” ZipRecruiter Career Expert Sam DeMase tells Fortune. From there, one can ask follow-up questions about each topic. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e6eR49-s

One might think that the likes of Bill Ackman and Tim Cook don’t need help managing their wealth. But the billionaires are raving about one personal finance book. Hedge fund mogul Ackman took to X to share one of just two books he recommends people read: The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life by entrepreneur Sahil Bloom. “In short, the book is a guide to how to live your life. The earlier in your life you read it, the better your life will be,” Ackman raved. “I like asymmetric investments and I don’t know of a better return than this book. Read it. You will thank me and Sahil.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/ei3bAAQR

Sergey Brin believes Google can win the race to artificial general intelligence and outlined his ideas for how to do that—including a workweek that’s 50% longer than the standard 40 hours. In an internal memo seen by the New York Times, the Google cofounder told employees working on Gemini, which develops the company’s suite of AI products, that he recommends being in the office “at least every weekday” and that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity.” He also warned against working more than 60 hours a week, saying it could lead to burnout, while calling out those who work less. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eqRygF28

Japan is facing a population crisis—so Tokyo, its largest city, will try to solve the problem with something new: a four-day workweek. https://lnkd.in/edH9rTWp Starting in April, the Tokyo Metropolitan government, one of the country’s largest employers, is set to allow its employees to work only four days a week. It is also adding a new “childcare partial leave” policy, which will allow some employees to work two fewer hours per day. The goal is to help employees who are parents balance childcare and work, said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/edH9rTWp

Warren Buffett says not many people will know the name Pete Liegl, and yet he is a man who contributed “many billions” to the wealth of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. In his annual letter to shareholders, 94-year-old Buffett paid homage to “one-of-a-kind” Liegl, who died in November at the age of 80. Liegl was the CEO of Forest River, an RV maker nestled in Indiana, which turned out to be one of Berkshire Hathaway’s soundest investments. Buffett told shareholders he was contacted on behalf of Liegl in June 2005: The introductory letter said Liegl would sell only to Berkshire, and outlined the price that the RV boss—the 100% owner of the brand—expected to be paid. “I liked this no-nonsense approach,” Buffett recalls in the letter, and responded in kind. A week later Buffett and Liegl met, with the man now worth $150 billion on the spot offering to pay Liegl whatever salary he wished for. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eNTpUBVC

“We work the facility, so for us, these are great investments.”⁠ https://lnkd.in/eFzNW6cA ⁠ In an interview with Fortune, David Arena, Head of Global Real Estate at JPMorgan Chase, shared that the company's new headquarters will offer desk delivery for employee lunches.⁠ ⁠ “We serve thousands of meals to people. We want them to be terrific,” Arena said.⁠ ⁠ “We also offer delivery to your desk if that’s important to you,” he added.⁠ ⁠ Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/eFzNW6cA

Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett doesn’t care where his CEOs have gone to school, if any at all. In his 2025 annual letter to shareholders released on Saturday, he recalled Berkshire’s 2005 acquisition of RV manufacturer Forest River. It was helmed by the late Pete Liegl, who received his MBA from Western Michigan University.  “During the next 19 years, Pete shot the lights out,” Buffett said. “No competitor came close to his performance.” He added that there are very few owners or managers like Liegl, but his example prompted Buffett to opine on educational credentials. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eJRc33iG

When Leena Nair accepted the global CEO role of luxury giant CHANEL in 2022, she had worked at Unilever for three decades and had ascended to the HR chief role. But the journey to get there started on a train. In a recent interview at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Nair spoke about how she was met with nay-sayers every step of the way—from when she chose to pursue engineering to when she decided to build a corporate career at Hindustan Unilever, the Indian arm of the consumer goods behemoth Unilever. Getting her MBA was a key step that paved the way for her to pursue her ambition. There was one problem: her university of choice was on the east side of India, while she was based in the west. A 48-hour train journey away. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ejUcSWm3

Job-seekers already have to jump through flaming hoops to land a gig, navigating dinner tests and a mountain of ‘ghost’ postings. Now they’re being handed personality tests. https://lnkd.in/e2prW4zr Prospective workers describe being given online personality assessments during their job interview rounds, and how uneasy it can make them feel. The tests can range from questionnaires that are based on peer-reviewed research, to sleek-looking assessments without much psychological backing. ‘Passing’ the test—or hitting the personality traits the hiring manager is looking for—can be very ambiguous. It’s given some job-seekers pause. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e2prW4zr

Return-to-office mandates continue to feel like high-level math equations that even the business world’s brightest can’t solve. Amazon, JPMorgan, and AT&T are among the most recent companies to require a full-time RTOs. But some of these mandates have faced obstacles, including a lack of office space and dissatisfied employees. Amazon, for example, said in September, it wanted its 350,000-person workforce in the office by early January. As of February, many of their offices didn’t have enough desks to accommodate the return, leaving many employees continuing working from home. What’s missing from some of these RTO plans is the recognition of a cultural change, said Jennifer Moss, workplace strategist and author of Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants. The post-pandemic workplace should combine lessons from the pre-pandemic and pandemic-era models, she said. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ehbwAAsb