Sonos visionary hears call to mentor successor
In his typically understated way, Sonos founder John MacFarlane has quietly stepped away from his role as chief executive of the Santa Barbara-based audio company. MacFarlane, who has built one of the largest enterprises in the tech sector on the Central Coast, took to the Sonos blog on Jan. 10 to post the fact that Read More →
Targeted marketing key to loyal customers
By Sarah Fischbach Consumerism gets a bad rap, particularly during the holiday shopping season, which has just drawn to a close. It is often defined as frivolous buying of products just for the purpose of buying. But consumerism does not have to be negative; it can be defined as an informed decision-making process in the Read More →
Legislators should help manufacturing rebound
While the South Coast is reveling in its waterfront makeover, tri-county tourism is getting stronger and economists are heralding a boom in craft spirits, the manufacturing core of the region is looking more and more hollowed-out. Large sections of Simi Valley and west Ventura County and North Santa Barbara County are losing head-of-household jobs. San Read More →
Self-driving cars: Disruptions on the road ahead
By Paul Witman Self-driving cars and trucks are making their way from the lab to city streets and highways. Projects from Google, Audi, Tesla and others have made considerable progress in enabling the “driver” just to tell the car where to go and the car does the rest. Uber, the taxi alternative, is testing these Read More →
Kurland stepping down but influence continues
PennyMac Financial’s Stanford Kurland has a habit of working in mysterious ways. A veteran of Countrywide Financial, he joined that company in the late 1970s and rose through the ranks to become its president, leaving without fanfare in 2006 — just as the excesses in the mortgage market were beginning to become apparent. In 2009, Read More →
Supervisor’s defense of SOAR misleading
By John Krist In her Dec. 2 commentary criticizing a Pacific Coast Business Times article about the effect of Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources on property values, Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks accurately but selectively quotes from Farm Bureau of Ventura County’s Land Use Policy. Her cherry-picking of a single passage from this five-page document Read More →
Lumps of coal for employers’ holiday stockings
By Jonathan Light There is great uncertainty about whether proposed federal wage and hour laws are going to be implemented in 2017, but there are plenty of other things to worry about on the employment law front in California. Regardless of the federal implementation, we won’t see much federal effect in California. Here are just Read More →
