How does one even measure work wellbeing? Hint: It’s got little to do with the free company swag you get on orientation day.

Indeed, a leading global matching and hiring platform, has announced the inaugural 2023 Better Work Awards honoring the top 20 companies for work wellbeing.

Based on the largest study of work wellbeing fueled by millions of employee insights, the Better Work Awards spotlight companies in the US, UK, and Canada that prioritize their employees’ wellbeing—aka how they feel at work—based on happiness, stress, satisfaction, and purpose.

These awards help job seekers discover better work and help company leaders understand how winning companies foster environments where their people can thrive.

See the winners who are building better work to help attract, hire, and retain talent.

Here’s to hoping the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel flop was a learning experience. Disney said Tuesday it will spend $60 billion on its global parks and cruise line over the next 10 years, doubling its investments from the last decade, according to the New York Times.

What will that look like? Disney didn’t give specifics, but it will focus on adding even more IP into its in-person experiences. The Mouse House has packed Disney World, Disneyland, and other parks around the world with rides based on box-office hits like Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, but there are plenty of franchises that don’t yet have a footprint. Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, hinted at a potential new one in a company blog yesterday: “Wakanda has yet to be brought to life,” he said.

There’s always money in the Dole Whip stand

Disney’s parks rebounded nicely from the pandemic. They’re expected to generate about $10 billion in profit this year, almost five times what they earned 10 years ago. And while visitation to domestic parks is down following Covid shutdowns, the company’s international parks are booming. Roughly 121 million people visited a Disney park in 2022.

CEO Bob Iger said the parks will be one of three businesses that “drive the greatest growth and value creation over the next five years,” alongside Disney’s movie studios and streaming. Problem is, those other two businesses are in flux.

With the actors and writers strikes grinding on, investors are doubtful about Iger’s prediction that Disney+ will be profitable by 2024. Cable TV isn’t the reliable cash creator it once was, either. So, the company is doubling down—literally—on what it thinks is a safe bet: fans spending their vacations in Pandora.

Growth won’t be a teacup ride. Disney has made a powerful enemy by suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing him of stifling its free speech rights as retribution for publicly opposing his “Don’t Say Gay” law. The company already canned plans for a $1 billion corporate campus in Florida.—MM

The WGA resumes talks with Hollywood studios today. There’s some mild optimism that the two sides might finally get closer to a deal this time as the writers strike approaches its fifth month. One of several major sticking points in negotiations, which have been on pause since mid-August, is the WGA’s demand for streaming residuals based on a TV show’s viewership. With the studios bleeding money and extremely short on new content for the fall, observers think they could soon start making concessions to the striking writers.

Azerbaijan initiates “anti-terrorist” operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani military launched artillery and drone strikes on Tuesday in the disputed territory, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians. The Azerbaijani defense ministry claimed the strikes were in response to “systematic shelling” from Armenia’s armed forces, while Armenian officials said its presence in the region is only of a “humanitarian nature.” Russia is meant to be serving as peacekeeper but has been slow to protect its ally Armenia.

Amazon is hiring a ton of holiday workers. The e-commerce giant announced yesterday that it will add 250,000 warehouse and delivery workers for the holiday shopping season in order to deal with the expected rush. That’s up from the 150,000 Amazon added last year, when it touted record sales over the Thanksgiving weekend. The company also said it’s increasing average pay for those workers from $19 to $20.50 an hour. If these moves are any indication, Amazon is expecting a hectic season. You might want to lock in those portable blender preorders now.

President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are in the Big Apple this week for the world leader schmoozefest, aka the UN General Assembly. They aren’t in Manhattan just to create more traffic jams—they’re trying to unite nations around support for Ukraine’s war effort.

They mainly aimed their sound bites at low- and middle-income countries because many have refused to take sides so far.

• In his address to the assembly, Biden asserted that supporting Ukraine is about ensuring no other country gets attacked. He mentioned ongoing efforts to expand financial help for low- and middle-income countries, and touted progress made in reducing global poverty.
• Zelensky compared climate-change-induced natural disasters in places like Libya with “one unnatural disaster in Moscow that decided to launch a big war.”

While the US and its allies committed at least $245 billion to help Ukraine in the first 17 months after Russia’s invasion, some countries stand to benefit from staying neutral. China and India have snapped up cheap Russian energy, while lower-income economies depend on Russia for affordable food imports.

The appetite for Ukraine aid is waning among some…hardline Republicans in Congress oppose Biden’s proposal to send another $24 billion to the country. And a recent poll shows that their stance aligns with the majority of GOP voters.—SK

MBA grads used to buy new suits for their desk jobs. Now, they acquire entire companies.

That’s part of a recent business phenomenon called “entrepreneurship through acquisition,” or ETA. Unlike the venture capital model, ETA involves buying an existing company rather than starting one from scratch. And it’s surging in popularity in business school lecture halls.

How does it work? MBAs are taught how to find a company to acquire (known in the biz as “a search”) and then go Jerry Maguire-mode to show ’em the money. Assuming they’re not one of the four lucky Wharton students who get $50,000 to jumpstart their ETA search, most students will either:

• Self-fund, usually with the help of a Small Business Association loan, or
• Use a “core” search fund, which includes two rounds of fundraising from investors.

Why is it popular? Hiring for elite MBA grads slowed in 2023, leaving some young people eager to flex their business bona fides in other ways. Grads say acquiring small businesses offers a sense of purpose they can’t get at most consulting or banking gigs. The timing works out: Lots of baby boomers are looking to sell their companies and retire.—CC

Stat: If the 8-minute-long masterpiece “Stairway to Heaven” debuted on Spotify today, it’d be lost in a sea of techno remixes and Christmas covers. That’s because now it pays for songs to be short. Music streaming services pay artists by the number of plays, and a play only counts if a user listens for 30 seconds. The algorithms also tend to recommend songs that are listened to all the way through. In response, artists are making their songs shorter and including the hook in the first 30 seconds. According to music blogger Michael Tauberg, the average length of hit songs has dropped by more than 30 seconds since 2000.

Quote: “Getting Nintendo would be a career moment.”

Could two of the world’s biggest gaming companies merge? Based on some leaked documents…maybe! Emails unearthed as part of the FTC’s lawsuit against Microsoft revealed that in 2020, Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox head Phil Spencer floated the idea of buying Nintendo, which he called “THE prime asset for us in Gaming” (emphasis his). It may be more than a dream: Spencer added that he held talks with Nintendo brass about “tighter collaboration.”

Read: Ski resorts are giving up on snow. (Wired)

Fall foliage: Become the High Priest of the Harvest Season with these six scenic autumn drives across the US.

Rock your body: At Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods’s new 22,000-square-foot NYC sports bar complete with golf simulators, bowling lanes, and a 200-inch TV.

“Now We Are Free”: With the Roman Empire back in the headlines for some reason, now’s a good time to listen to Hans Zimmer’s majestic Gladiator score.

Learn: The history of vanilla, the most misunderstood spice in America.

Superfan status: If it’s happening in sports, it’s on SiriusXM. Enjoy expert analysis, up-to-the-minute news, and play-by-play announcing for every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL game. Get 3 months free. See Offer Details.*

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Word Search: With the UN in town, Mary brewed up a Word Search that asks you to identify the countries of the world. Test your geography skills here.

Nutritional facts

An MB trivia classic: We’ll give you the ingredient list of a popular food product, and you have to name the product.

The list: Skim Milk, Water, Sugar, Modified Cornstarch, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Contains Less than 1.5% of Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Coconut and Palm Kernel Oils), Cornstarch, Salt, Calcium Phosphate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (for Smooth Texture), Sodium Alginate, Artificial Color, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D.

Jell-O chocolate pudding.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: smorgasbord, meaning “an often large heterogeneous mixture.” Thanks to Mita from Dallas and many others for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.