Author: sHq_LoGiNz

The entrepreneurial landscape has never been more challenging, or rewarding, for those brave enough to pursue their vision. In a world where small businesses face unprecedented obstacles, from supply chain disruptions to evolving consumer demands, programs that offer capital and comprehensive support have become lifelines for ambitious founders. The FedEx Entrepreneur Fund and Boost Camp program, presented in collaboration with Hello Alice and the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), provided 150 entrepreneurs with learning, networking and funding opportunities to scale their impact in 2025.

Beyond Funding: A Holistic Approach to Business Growth

While the promise of $10,000 in grant funding certainly catches attention, the true value of this program lies in its comprehensive approach to business development. Over 12 intensive weeks, participants don’t just receive financial support — they undergo a transformation that touches every aspect of their business operations. The curriculum is meticulously designed to address the most critical elements of sustainable growth: evaluating business vision and identity, developing robust marketing and sales strategies, and organizing finances for improved financial health.

The numbers speak volumes about the program’s effectiveness. Of the 150 entrepreneurs admitted into the latest Boost Camp cohort, 90% completed their initial Business Health Score™ assessment—a testament to participants’ commitment to growth. Even more impressive, 55% returned to retake the assessment, resulting in an average 46% increase in their scores. This dramatic improvement isn’t just statistical noise; it represents real businesses gaining clarity, focus, and strategic direction. 

Real Entrepreneurs, Real Impact

Take Omar and Laura Cardenas of Omar C Eco-Friendly Lawns LLC in Berwyn, Illinois. This husband-and-wife team built their business on the foundation of sustainability, providing pet-safe, eco-conscious lawn care and landscaping services to their community. Before joining the FedEx Entrepreneur Fund Boost Camp, and receiving the grant, they were already committed to environmental responsibility and community giving. With this foundation, the program provided them with the strategic framework to amplify their impact.

Omar and Laura exemplified engagement throughout the program, attending every session and actively participating in the online community. Their dedication wasn’t just about personal growth — they embodied the community-first entrepreneurship values that make small businesses the backbone of local economies. Through the program’s guidance, they gained tools to deepen their environmental impact while building a more robust business model.

The story of Charlotte Bowens from Phoenix, Arizona, illustrates how purpose-driven entrepreneurship can address significant market gaps. Through Conscious Gear, Charlotte identified and filled a crucial void in outdoor recreation: inclusive equipment designed specifically for plus-sized adventurers. Her business doesn’t just sell products; it creates belonging and accessibility in spaces where many have felt excluded.

“Being part of Boost Camp gave me the momentum to keep building something rooted in purpose and inclusivity,” Charlotte reflects. Her consistent advocacy for equity and accessibility, combined with sustainable operations and community giveback, demonstrates how modern entrepreneurs are redefining success beyond profit margins. During the program, Charlotte’s notable progress in her Business Health Score™ reflected her commitment to completing all curriculum while maintaining strong community involvement.

Innovation Meets Ancient Wisdom

Perhaps no story better illustrates the diverse range of innovation within the program than Steve Waddell’s journey with Nasoni, LLC in Suffolk, Virginia. Steve took inspiration from ancient Roman fountain design and transformed it into award-winning, water-saving faucet technology. His company, Nasoni, addresses two critical contemporary needs: water conservation and accessibility for people with mobility limitations.

Steve’s leadership through supply chain challenges while maintaining commitments to sustainability and employee wellbeing showcased the resilience that defines successful entrepreneurs. His major presence in the Boost Camp virtual community and one of the highest Business Health Score™ improvements in the program demonstrated how even experienced business owners can benefit from structured growth frameworks.

Technology for Sustainability

The fourth featured winner, Adriana Kao from Dallas, Texas, represents the intersection of technology and environmental responsibility. Through her company, usefull, Adriana tackled the massive problem of disposable takeout container waste by creating tech-enabled, trackable reusable alternatives. Launching during a pandemic required exceptional resilience and adaptability, qualities that served her well throughout the Boost Camp program.

Adriana’s partnerships with universities and cafes to eliminate landfill waste while making reuse seamless demonstrate how entrepreneurs can create profitable solutions to environmental challenges. Her constant presence in the Boost Camp community, helping fellow participants stay motivated while significantly improving her own Business Health Score™, exemplifies the collaborative spirit that makes these programs successful.

The Power of Community and Continuous Learning

The engagement metrics from the program reveal something profound about entrepreneurial learning. With 61% of participants joining Boost Camp sessions live and additional participants accessing content on their own schedules, the program accommodated different learning styles and business demands. The 12-week email journey maintained an impressive 68% open rate and 32% click-through rate, indicating sustained engagement with the learning curriculum.

Perhaps most telling is the completion of over 3,500 educational guides by the group—a clear indicator that participants weren’t just showing up but actively engaging with the material. This level of commitment suggests that entrepreneurs are hungry for structured, high-quality business education when it’s accessible and relevant to their immediate needs.

Looking Forward: The Ripple Effect

The success of these entrepreneurs extends far beyond their individual businesses. Each represents a model for how purpose-driven entrepreneurship can address community needs, environmental challenges, and social equity while building sustainable, profitable enterprises. Their stories inspire the next generation of founders while proving that with the right support, entrepreneurial dreams can indeed become transformative realities.

The FedEx Entrepreneur Fund and Boost Camp program isn’t just creating successful businesses. It’s cultivating a community of entrepreneurs committed to making a meaningful impact in their communities and beyond. 

Stay tuned for the applications launching in October 2025 for the upcoming 2026 FedEx Entrepreneur Fund & Boost Camp program. 

Click here to learn about FedEx Cares, our global community engagement program.

In September, CARE participated in the 2025 UN General Assembly and NY Climate Week activities in New York City. From high-level convenings to musical celebrations, the week was marked by bold partnerships, sobering realities, and shared determination to build a more equal world.

The 2025 UN General Assembly Week and NY Climate Week spotlighted urgent global challenges and the innovative and unexpected collaborations needed to overcome them.  

Two truths stood out: 

1. Communities most in need are reeling from shrinking global aid.
2. These same communities, and those who support them, are not standing still. 

CARE and peers are finding new ways to innovate and increase economic opportunities, leaning into locally led solutions and change-makers.  

What women and communities need  

A consistent theme across the week’s discussion was, “Women want access, not aid.”  

This includes access to: 

• Clean, green, and affordable energy   
• Financial products that have been developed and designed specifically to meet the unique needs of women
• Affordable healthcare and childcare
• Safety in crises
• Stable jobs and livable incomes
• New climate financing, innovative agricultural techniques, and nature-based solutions 

Yet far too often, the needs of women and the most hard-to-reach communities are overlooked. For example, less than 10% of climate financing reaches local levels, where the impacts of climate change is being felt now. Moreover, too few of the women and people from the communities being discussed were present during the conversations.  

Corporate Council convening 

For CARE, the week was a moment to lead with vision and urgency.  

CARE started UNGA week with a meeting of our Corporate Council. This meeting brought together more than 30 forward-thinking companies committed to helping create equality for women and girls. The discussion centered on how global social impact programs can inform more equal and effective efforts in the United States. CARE and our partners explored how proven global solutions can address pressing domestic challenges, bringing our international experience home. 

Featuring insights from corporate leaders, the event previewed CARE’s expanding U.S. Programs, including new opportunities for employee engagement. We “unpacked” the updated CARE PACKAGE® for Emergencies and marked the launch of new working groups focused on employee volunteering, digital access, and strengthening communities across supply chains.  

Michelle Nunn takes the stage  

CARE President & CEO Michelle Nunn took the stage at Foreign Policy’s Reimagining Resilience session, where she spoke with journalist Stacey Samuel on how investing in women delivers lasting returns amid crisis and recovery.  

Nunn emphasized the need to expand work with private sector partners. “If we work with the private sector…to unlock the market for women entrepreneurs,” she said, “then we can create transformational engagement on their part and new capacities for women and girls.”  

CARE President & CEO Michelle Nunn spoke with journalist Stacey Samuel spotlighting proven approaches—access to finance, digital inclusion, safer supply chains, and local leadership—that turn commitment into measurable impact.

Nunn also spoke on an Economist Impact session sponsored by Cargill. Entitled, “From soil to shelf: a unified approach to building resilient food systems,” the session considered how agricultural producers, their communities, manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers can find new opportunities for collaboration that create a more sustainable and resilient food economy. She was joined by leaders from Cargill, Mars, and a producer from Brazil to discuss innovations that benefit people across the agricultural supply chain. 

Partnering with P&G at the Global Citizen Festival 

At Global Citizen Festival, one of the world’s largest gatherings of artists, leaders, and citizens united in action for positive change, CARE and longstanding partner Procter & Gamble came together to recognize a major milestone for the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program: 25 billion liters of clean water provided to children and families in more than 100 countries. 

Other highlights 

The event-packed week featured other special moments, including: 

• CARE joined the CIFAR Alliance to demonstrate our commitment to advancing innovative climate solutions for vulnerable people and the planet.
• CARE/WWF Alliance, Project Dandelion, Women’s Earth Alliance, and Daughters of Earth hosted a networking breakfast at The Nest Climate Campus.
• Michelle Nunn joined a lively debate at Devex on the future of sustainable development goals.
• CARE’s new head of Resilient Futures, Ann Vaughan, joined others at The Conference Board to discuss translating bold climate and societal aspirations into tangible, lasting impact and actions.
• CARE’s new brand campaign, Who Cares?, launched with an advertising takeover in The New York Times that reached more than two million people during UNGA/Climate Week. 

For more information on how your company can collaborate and innovate with CARE, by building unique solutions for the world’s most challenging problems, please contact Madden Manion at madden.manion@care.org. 

ATLANTA, October 20, 2025 /3BL/ – Double the Donation, the leader in matching gift software for nonprofits and educational institutions, has launched two new modules: the Volunteer Grants Module and the Payroll Giving Module. These updates bring enhanced functionality to its workplace giving platform, helping organizations maximize corporate giving opportunities and increase revenue.

Unlocking New Fundraising Streams: Benefits for Nonprofits

• Volunteer Grants Module:
  This new feature allows nonprofits to easily identify and promote volunteer grant opportunities. Through seamless integrations with volunteer management systems, nonprofits can connect with supporters and maximize generosity through volunteer grants and volunteer time off.
   
• Payroll Giving Module:
  The Payroll Giving Module enables nonprofits to engage supporters whose companies provide payroll deduction matching. By identifying eligible donors, organizations can increase their participation in workplace giving programs.

Integrated Platform for Smarter Fundraising

By integrating these new tools with its existing matching gift automation software, Double the Donation’s platform offers a seamless, all-in-one solution for nonprofits to grow their workplace giving programs. Organizations can easily manage payroll giving, volunteer grants, and matching gift opportunities from a single dashboard.

Empowering Nonprofits to Grow Revenue

With these new modules, Double the Donation provides nonprofits with the tools they need to increase engagement, streamline workplace giving processes, and drive additional revenue from corporate giving programs.

“Our mission has always been to help nonprofits and schools raise more through workplace giving,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “By expanding our platform to include payroll giving and volunteer grants, we’re providing organizations with the tools they need to unlock new revenue streams and build stronger relationships with their supporters.”

These modules are currently available for use by nonprofits and educational instructions. 

About Double the Donation

Double the Donation is the leading provider of matching gift automation software for nonprofits and educational institutions. Using innovative technology, organizations can identify and engage supporters eligible for corporate giving programs, maximizing revenue and fostering deeper connections with their communities. To learn more, visit doublethedonation.com.

Costa Rica has long stood out as one of the world’s greenest nations, a global reference point for sustainability, renewable energy, and climate leadership. From early investments in hydropower to pioneering environmental laws, the country has built a reputation as a living laboratory for climate resilience. Yet as the conversation with Carlos and Jose Dengo of CDG Environmental Advisors reveals, sustaining this leadership requires constant innovation, regional collaboration, and openness to new approaches.

This article explores Costa Rica’s unique path, the challenges it faces, and the lessons it offers for Latin America and beyond.

Foundational Values and Policies: Building a Green Republic

Costa Rica’s sustainability journey is rooted in history. After a period of political upheaval in 1948, the country entered what is often called its “Second Republic,” a golden era of planning and institution-building. Through ICE (the national utility) and MINAE, Costa Rica linked electrification, watershed conservation, and social access, creating a solidarity-based model that reached even remote communities. Several foundational decisions laid the groundwork for the nation’s environmental leadership:

• Hydropower and renewable energy: Starting in the 1950s, Costa Rica harnessed its abundant rivers for hydropower. By the 1970s and 1980s, it had begun exploring geothermal and wind energy—long before “renewables” were seen as a climate imperative.
• Public, solidarity-driven utilities: Energy and communications infrastructure were developed under state-led models, ensuring electricity and connectivity reached even remote communities. This fostered equitable development and embedded sustainability in national priorities.
• Environmental protections linked to energy security: Protecting watersheds feeding hydropower dams led to the creation of early national parks, aligning conservation with economic growth.

Later, a trio of landmark laws cemented Costa Rica’s environmental identity:

1. General Environment Law (1995) – guaranteeing a clean and healthy environment as a constitutional right.
2. Forestry Law (1996) – prohibiting land-use change for areas classified as forest, catalyzing widespread reforestation.
3. Biodiversity Law (1997) – protecting ecosystems, wetlands, and wildlife with an integrated approach.

*For more on Biodiversity in Costa Rica listen to the podcast episode

These reforms, coupled with the nation’s famous tourism slogan, “Costa Rica: No Artificial Ingredients,” helped brand the country as a green destination, tying environmental stewardship directly to economic prosperity.

A Family Legacy in Renewable Energy

For Carlos and Jose, Costa Rica’s green foundations are also personal. Their grandfather, Jorge Manuel Dengo, was a civil engineer who studied at the University of Minnesota in the 1940s. Inspired by U.S. hydropower systems, he returned to Costa Rica to co-found the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the state utility that electrified the nation and ensured universal access to clean energy.

His vision—that energy development should also serve social equity—remains central to Costa Rica’s solidarity-based model. Their father continued this legacy through a career at the United Nations focused on water development. For Carlos and Jose, stepping into environmental consulting was a natural extension of this family tradition of linking natural resources, infrastructure, and social well-being.

Regional Influence: A Model for Latin America

Costa Rica has often “punched above its weight” in shaping regional and global sustainability agendas. At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, it was among the first to champion ambitious environmental policies. Soon after, it pioneered carbon trading, signing an agreement with Norway that funded innovative conservation programs such as the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme.

Through PES, farmers were compensated to preserve or restore forests, transforming a nation once plagued by deforestation into one where tree cover now thrives. Costa Rica’s diplomatic and technical leadership continues, as seen in global initiatives like the “30 by 30” ocean protection pledge.

The lesson for neighbors? Leadership requires both bold legislation and practical mechanisms that align economic incentives with ecological goals. Yet, as Carlos cautions, influence must be renewed through action—“to remain a leader not only on paper.”

The Shifting Landscape: From Compliance to Strategy

Across Latin America, companies are moving beyond compliance toward more strategic approaches to sustainability. According to Jose, this shift is partly driven by multinational corporations bringing global practices into local contexts, and partly by market differentiation: sustainability sells. Adopt a simple litmus test: if a claim can’t be traced to policies, performance data, or third-party standards, it’s marketing—not strategy

But the path isn’t always smooth. Some firms mistake marketing claims for meaningful action, while others bristle when assessments reveal gaps in their strategies. Practitioners play a critical role in separating substance from “greenwashing” and guiding businesses toward authentic, integrated sustainability.

This evolution reflects a broader regional challenge: moving from improvisation and fragmented benchmarks to structured frameworks that elevate corporate responsibility across industries.

Businesses exploring how to adopt renewable energy at scale should see our article on the Just Energy Transition.

Climate Risks and Sectoral Responses

Costa Rica’s resilience story also carries cautionary notes. Its once-robust hydropower system, a pillar of national pride, now faces strain from climate variability. Rainfall patterns are increasingly unpredictable—short, intense storms replace steady seasonal rains—threatening water storage and energy reliability. Without scaling solar and wind, the grid risks losing its competitive edge.

The tourism sector demonstrates how sustainability can be both an asset and a tension point. Luxury eco-lodges and conservation-driven models attract international visitors and support biodiversity restoration. For example, one project is creating a scarlet macaw rehabilitation center to reintroduce the species to areas where it had gone locally extinct. The brilliant red, yellow, and blue birds not only restore ecosystems but also become a powerful draw for visitors. Yet the exclusivity of luxury tourism risks leaving local communities behind, making equitable benefit-sharing essential.

In agriculture, climate volatility is forcing adaptation. Rice farming is increasingly uncompetitive under shifting rainfall patterns, while coffee faces disease pressures such as leaf rust triggered by alternating humidity and heat. Farmers are turning to crop rotation, fallowing, and diversification to survive—measures that showcase both the vulnerability and adaptability of rural livelihoods.

Water infrastructure is another critical fault line. In Guanacaste, for instance, communities have clashed with large tourism projects over water scarcity. As Carlos noted, the issue is often not the lack of water itself but inadequate infrastructure to deliver it consistently. Without trust-building and transparent communication, such tensions can escalate, threatening both community well-being and investment viability.

The overarching lesson: resilience is not static. Success requires constant innovation, reinvestment, and attention to equity.

Regional Collaboration: Toward a Shared Resilience Framework

Central America is among the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world, facing hurricanes, tropical storms, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. For Jose, the answer lies in regional collaboration. Just as Costa Rica’s seismic building code has minimized earthquake damage, a regional climate-resilient infrastructure code could help safeguard public assets from increasingly extreme events.

Such standards would protect taxpayer-funded infrastructure, reduce economic losses, and build collective resilience. Cross-border collaboration is also vital for managing shared ecosystems and watersheds, which do not adhere to national boundaries.

Emerging Trends: Technology, Solar, and Social Engagement

Looking forward, two trends stand out:

1. Solar and storage: With abundant sunshine year-round, Central America is uniquely positioned to expand distributed solar generation. Lower costs and better battery technologies make this a transformative opportunity for both energy security and equity.
2. Community and social engagement: Traditional models treated social concerns as peripheral. Today, communities are informed, vocal, and mobilized. Social license is as critical as regulatory permits, requiring genuine, early, and ongoing engagement.

Technology, including AI-driven analytics, can enhance problem-solving and solution-scaling. As solar and wind grow, it’s critical to pair deployment with responsible planning, such as via EIAs — see our article Harnessing Renewable Energy Responsibly. As Carlos emphasizes, innovation must be paired with social sensitivity—listening to communities as partners rather than obstacles.

Advice for Companies: Open Minds and Long Journeys

For companies accelerating their sustainability journey in Costa Rica or the broader region, Carlos and Jose offer two key pieces of advice:

• Enter with humility and openness: Multinationals must adapt to local contexts. What works in California or the Philippines may not apply directly in Central America. Listening to communities and advisors builds trust and ensures alignment with real needs.
• Embrace sustainability as a journey, not a destination: Progress is incremental. Ambitious goals are important, but real transformation comes through continuous improvement, iteration, and cultural integration over time.

Conclusion: Costa Rica’s Living Laboratory

Costa Rica shows that sustainability is not the result of one policy or program, but a tapestry of history, values, institutions, and innovation. Its story underscores the power of bold legislation, the importance of community trust, and the risks of complacency in a changing climate.

For the region and the world, Costa Rica offers both inspiration and warning: leadership in sustainability is never “finished.” It is earned, renewed, and strengthened with each new challenge. The global community can learn from Costa Rica’s successes and struggles alike—adapting its lessons in energy, tourism, agriculture, and governance to build a more resilient future for all.

Inogen Alliance is a global network made up of over 70 of independent local businesses and over 6,000 consultants around the world who can help make your project a success. Our Associates collaborate closely to serve multinational corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and we share knowledge and industry experience to provide the highest quality service to our clients. If you want to learn more about how you can work with Inogen Alliance, you can explore our Associates or Contact Us. Watch for more News & Blog updates, listen to our podcast and follow us on LinkedIn.

Originally published by Cardinal & Pine

By Patricia McIlreavy, Lynette Bell
September 26, 2025

Saturday—Sept. 27, 2025—marks one year since Hurricane Helene flooded Western North Carolina with five months of rain in just three days.

The storm caused widespread damage, affecting homes, businesses, infrastructure and surrounding land, as well as countless lives. It was the worst storm in the history of the state. Survivors, many of whom are still working to fully rebuild, still feel the lasting impact of grief, trauma, and loss.

For those who lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods, every day is a reminder that recovery is a continuous process, not a finite time period with an end date.

Images of flooded streets, downed power lines, hollowed-out homes and abandoned vehicles made it easy to understand the immediate effects of a storm at the scale of Helene. But it’s harder to understand what a community goes through in the days, months and years after a disaster.

Destruction can be obvious to see, but it is also hard to measure. According to the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, rebuilding from Helene is expected to cost at least $60 billion, and state and federal resources allocated for Western North Carolina are anticipated to cover only a fraction—less than 15%—of that total need. In addition, a lack of data and resources can complicate the recovery process and slow the flow of recovery money to those who need it most, like residents who lost their homes, small business owners who have been unable to reopen, and others traumatized by their experiences.

Every day that a displaced family cannot return home or a small business owner cannot operate productively deepens the emotional, financial, and practical losses survivors suffer.

Immediate aid in the aftermath of a disaster is critical—but consistent, long-term investment is equally vital. Money is needed to rebuild homes, businesses and infrastructure. Essential services—mental health care, legal assistance and trauma-informed support—must be funded to help communities navigate the complex recovery process. Most importantly, recovery needs should be guided by those who live with the repercussions of Hurricane Helene every day. While some disaster grants will take years to be implemented, we need alternative solutions that are accessible and actionable now.

This is one reason the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) works to mobilize philanthropy for more effective disaster giving. We often say a disaster happens when a hazard meets a vulnerability, and by that, we mean: the more vulnerabilities that exist, the more communities are susceptible to natural hazards. And those vulnerabilities could be physical, like poor infrastructure, environmental, including degraded ecosystems or societal, such as underserved neighborhoods. Recovery should not merely aim to restore what was lost—it presents an opportunity to rethink and redesign communities and systems to address those vulnerabilities, so they are stronger and better prepared for future challenges.

Vulnerabilities often compound over time if unaddressed. For example, Asheville lost hundreds of thousands of trees, leaving mountainsides bare and exposed. Trees aren’t just scenic attractions; they are natural ground stabilizers that provide cool in extreme heat, cover in severe storms, and protection from wind and floods. Ecosystem repair is not a luxury—it is an important part of recovery for resilience.

Unfortunately, analyses have shown that the scale and frequency of natural hazards are increasing. We cannot predict when and where they will occur, but we can help communities mitigate their susceptibility to them by facilitating investments in housing reconstruction, small business restoration, ecosystem repair and the replacement of critical infrastructure to shore up vulnerabilities to future disasters.

Philanthropy isn’t meant to supplant the scale of state or federal funds, nor can one single philanthropist do it all. However, the philanthropic community can help channel support directly to communities. This is one reason we recently announced a second round of grants from CDP’s Truist Foundation Western North Carolina Recovery and Resiliency Fund. These funds, totaling nearly $6.8 million, will go directly to local and community organizations actively leading recovery efforts. The money is a portion of a $21 million partnership between CDP and Truist Foundation to support medium- and long-term community needs. The partnership is part of Truist Cares for Western North Carolina, a three-year, $725 million commitment from Truist and Truist Foundation to support critical small business, housing and infrastructure recovery.

By funding a wide variety of needs—from mental health services to economic revitalization and sustainable rebuilding solutions—philanthropy is helping address the gap between immediate relief and what residents still need, one year after the disaster.

True resilience isn’t only rebuilding what previously existed; it’s also about reimagining newer, stronger systems that consider what we’ve learned from the past, in anticipation of future tests that are sure to come.

To hear more about this partnership, join Lynette and Patricia at Philanthropy Southwest’s 77^th annual conference in Colorado Springs, Col. on Oct. 23, as they discuss “Disaster Philanthropy: Strategies for Resilience and Recovery.

Authors

Patricia McIlreavy is president and CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

Lynette Bell is President of Truist Foundation.

Originally published in Principal Financial Group 2024 Sustainability Report

Engaging our employees

Attracting and retaining talent

Our employees are our most valued asset. We take a comprehensive approach to attracting top talent and prioritize the health and wellness of our employees.

Our approach

To deliver on our purpose, we must equip our teams with the best talent in the market. We do this by actively engaging with top candidates, providing strong opportunities for development and growth, and enhancing our employment brand to attract top talent, particularly in priority hiring areas.

We are dedicated to bringing out the best in our employees by investing in what matters most to them. This approach enables us to proactively engage and retain a high performing workforce at Principal. Our employee value proposition emphasizes the key elements that matter most to our employees, including a flexible approach to work-life balance, opportunities for development and growth, and a deep sense of connection to our purpose.

Learn more about our careers at Principal®

Attracting the right talent

We believe every candidate deserves an equal opportunity to be considered for their desired position, and we are committed to providing a fair interview process that selects the best-fit candidate. We achieve this by training interviewers to mitigate bias and use a consistent set of questions for all candidates, ensuring a fair and unbiased interview experience.

Our actions and performance in 2024

Talent attraction

In 2024, we launched a revamped career site to provide prospective employees with an easier and more engaging way to explore life at Principal, showcasing our employer brand and values. Additionally, we focused on enhancing our Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and refining our employment brand to attract top talent, particularly in technology and sales, through targeted campaigns highlighting our culture, values, and growth opportunities.

To enhance our hiring experience, we provided comprehensive training for leaders equipping them with skills to evaluate candidates based on key competencies. To streamline hiring, we adopted texting for scheduling interviews and introduced self-scheduling tools, enhancing efficiency and candidate experience. We also introduced candidate surveys to gather feedback from both hired and non-hired applicants, helping us improve the talent acquisition process.

Employee Engagement Index

Our Engagement Index measures employee satisfaction across our global workforce. In 2024, our engagement index had a score of 77%, shy of our goal of 79% with an increased response rate of 86% from 85% in 2023. Our score indicates that across the questions that make up our Engagement Index, there were 77% positive responses. We assess the results in a variety of ways to ensure we are creating a work environment for employees to thrive and a consistent employee experience that aligns with our employee value proposition and core values.

Engagement Index (%)
(2020-2024)

• 2020: 83%
• 2021: 79%
• 2022: 78%
• 2023: 79%
• 2024: 77%

In 2024 both our female and male employee base had 77% engagement, which is consistent with results in prior years. Our goal remains to reach an Engagement Index of 79% in 2025.

In 2024 in the U.S., our engagement index score for employees of color was 77% and 75% for white employees. This is the second consecutive year that POC engagement index results have been greater than or equal to their white counterparts. POC response rates have continued to increase from 57% in 2021 to 78% in 2024.

When setting our annual goals, we take into careful consideration our historical engagement performance data, as well as internal and external trends we’ve observed over the past several years to inform our future goal. We also collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure our goals align with other enterprise and business level goals.

Engagement and retention

As we respond to the challenging talent landscape, we continue to use employee and leader exit survey insights to guide retention tactics and inform decisions around talent planning, employee value proposition activation, and employee experience. Since the global exit survey was launched in 2022, we’ve been able to positively impact the engagement and retention of our workforce through various initiatives.

We continue to invest in programs that have measurable impacts on engagement and employee retention like our global mentoring program. The mentoring program is open to all employees and helps individuals achieve outcomes like expanding their network, building leadership skills, and improving business acumen. Collectively, since we began measuring in 2021, this program has resulted in a 47% improvement in retention for mentoring participants compared to non-participants. We also invest in critical talent development for select employees. Our enterprise high potential talent program, for example, shows a 92% overall retention rate for participants since 2021.

In February 2024, we conducted a comprehensive worksite employee experience survey at our world headquarters. The valuable feedback gathered has given us a clear understanding of how we can further enhance the in-office experience. Our goal is to ensure that employees benefit from purposeful design, innovative solutions, top-notch food services, and seamless technology across the workplace. With these new insights we are excited to make targeted improvements that will elevate the employee experience in 2025 and beyond.

In April 2024, we launched a streamlined and automated onboarding process across the U.S., India, and the Philippines, significantly enhancing the global onboarding experience. By centralizing onboarding tasks and introducing an engaging interface, the new process has simplified navigation and delivered a seamless onboarding experience for both new hires and their leaders. As a result, we have seen notable cost savings, driven by improved time efficiencies for new hires, internal teams, and leaders globally.

Overall, between 2023 and 2024, our global turnover remained at 17% and increased slightly from 10% to 11% in the U.S.

For a full tenure breakdown see the appendix

What’s next

As we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited to continue enhancing the employee experience by making thoughtful improvements to both our digital and physical workplace environments. Based on valuable feedback from our 2024 worksite employee experience survey, we’ve already taken steps to elevate our onsite dining offerings. Starting in January, a new service provider will bring a wider variety, better quality, and competitive pricing to our menus, alongside exciting employee engagement initiatives such as pop-ups and chef’s table events throughout the year.

Our efforts to improve the physical workspace, combined with upgrades to digital interactions, are designed to foster a more collaborative, welcoming, and efficient workplace. These changes will not only streamline daily tasks but also enhance engagement, productivity, and overall satisfaction, driving positive outcomes for both our employees and the organization as a whole.

To learn more, read the Principal Financial Group 2024 Sustainability Report.

Insurance products issued by Principal National Life Insurance Co (except in NY) and Principal Life Insurance Company®. Plan administrative services offered by Principal Life. Principal Funds, Inc. is distributed by Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. Securities offered through Principal Securities, Inc., member SIPC and/or independent broker/dealers. Referenced companies are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.

20887-092025 

by Carrie Browen

In our second blog post, we explored the architectural evolution from domains to zones, uncovering how this shift lays the foundation for software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Now, we turn our focus to the broader transformation that SDVs demand, not just in technology, but across the entire business. From architecture to cybersecurity to evolving business models, the SDV transformation touches every part of the organization. It’s not just about building a new type of car—it’s about redefining what a vehicle is, what it can become, and how value is created across its lifecycle. To stay competitive, automotive companies must fundamentally rethink how they innovate, collaborate, and operate.

Business Requirements: What the Industry Must Achieve

To remain competitive, automotive companies must meet three strategic business objectives:

1. Shorten development and innovation cycles: Traditional 5-to-7-year product cycles are no longer sustainable. The industry is moving toward agile, software-driven development with 1-to-3-year cycles from concept to start of production (SoP).
2. Enhance safety and cybersecurity: As vehicles become more connected and software-defined, there are more interfaces, drastically extending the attack surface. Protecting systems and users is mission-critical.
3. Enable smart mobility and continuous business: Vehicles must seamlessly connect with infrastructure, users, and the cloud to support new features, services, business models, and continuous operations.

These requirements are ambitious, and they come with significant challenges.

Critical Challenges on the Road to SDV

The SDV transformation introduces a new level of complexity across the entire value chain. Four high-level challenges are particularly critical and summarized here:

1. Collaborative Integration: SDVs require the integration of diverse software components, hardware systems, and cloud services from multiple vendors. Ensuring compatibility and interoperability across this ecosystem is a major hurdle.
2. Development Transformation: The shift from hardware-centric to software-first development demands scalable computing, function virtualization, and real-time processing. It requires not only significant investment and cultural change, but also a rethinking of development practices. Embracing a native DevSecOps approach is important, as it embeds security and operational considerations directly into the development lifecycle, enabling faster, safer, and more reliable software delivery.
3. Regulatory and Compliance Pressure: Companies must navigate a growing web of safety, privacy, and government regulations across different regions. Compliance is no longer a checkbox; it’s a strategic capability.
4. User Trust and Acceptance: As vehicles become more autonomous and data-driven, building and maintaining customer trust is essential. Concerns around data privacy, cybersecurity, and the reliability of automated features must be proactively addressed.

These challenges are not isolated; they are deeply interconnected. And one thing becomes increasingly clear: they cannot be tackled alone.

Strategic Partnerships: The Backbone of SDV Business Operations

To address these challenges effectively, strategic partnerships are becoming the backbone of the SDV transformation. According to Deloitte, over 80% of SDV leaders are already engaged in partnerships, particularly in areas such as cybersecurity, autonomous driving, and advanced operating systems.

These collaborations allow OEMs to:

• Access specialized expertise in fast-evolving domains like AI, cloud platforms, and high-performance computing.
• Share development costs and risks, which are especially important given the high R&D investments required for SDV transformation.
• Accelerate innovation and time-to-market by leveraging joint development environments and shared infrastructure.
• Enhance customer experience through integrated services and seamless OTA capabilities.

Deloitte estimates that strategic partnerships can reduce SDV-related R&D spending by up to 16%, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in savings per OEM. In the SDV era, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on the strength of an organization’s ecosystem and partners.

Process & Technology Enablers: Turning Challenges into Progress

So, how can companies move forward? It starts with adopting the right process and technologies, those that make it possible to innovate faster, stay secure, and scale with confidence. In this blog, we focus on four fundamental enablers that are shaping the transformation:

1. Scalable and modular architecture
2. Data analytics and monetization
3. Cybersecurity and Zero Trust principles
4. OTA Updates

One of the most foundational enablers in the SDV transformation is the implementation of a scalable and modular architecture, and this goes far beyond flexible hardware and software platforms. What’s emerging is a new generation of global R&D collaboration and automation platforms that support continuous development and validation across distributed teams and systems.

To accelerate innovation and ensure seamless integration of third-party applications, companies are building automotive DevOps software factories. These environments enable continuous integration, testing, and delivery, supported by workflow, process, and test automation. Real-time collaboration in connected test spaces ensures that development and validation are no longer siloed activities.

A key principle in this transformation is the adoption of shift-left testing, which brings validation activities earlier into the development process to detect issues sooner, reduce costs, and improve quality. This approach is closely tied to the evolution of the traditional V-model into DevOps which enables a more continuous, iterative, and automation-driven development cycle, where testing is no longer a downstream activity but an integral part of every phase.

Central to this approach is the use of XiL (X-in-the-Loop) testing environments, including Model-in-the-Loop (MiL), Software-in-the-Loop (SiL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL), even Vehicle-in-the-Loop (ViL) and (HITL) Human-in-the-Loop. These enable teams to validate functionality, performance, and safety across different abstraction levels, long before physical prototypes are available. Combined with automation and real-time feedback, this facilitates faster development cycles, higher software quality, and the ability to deploy new features across various vehicle models and markets, while maintaining consistency, traceability, and compliance throughout the development journey.

Equally essential in the SDV transformation is the ability to collect and analyze vehicle data at scale. This data forms the backbone of predictive maintenance, performance optimization, and increasingly personalized in-vehicle experiences. But its value goes far beyond operational efficiency. It also unlocks entirely new business opportunities.

As the industry shifts from one-time vehicle sales to ongoing, service-based business models, data becomes a strategic asset. Companies must build digital platforms that support feature activation, subscription management, and dynamic monetization models. This marks a profound cultural and operational shift, one that redefines how value is created and delivered over the vehicle’s lifetime.

According to a Deloitte study, the potential is enormous: 81% of OEMs expect to generate significant revenue from car-data monetization, with average projections around $720 million over the next five years. Real-world use cases — such as in-car voice assistants enabling purchases during a drive — highlight how mobility is converging with digital commerce, creating seamless, user-centric ecosystems.

As the software stack becomes the core of the vehicle, cybersecurity must be embedded at every level. This includes secure boot processes, trusted execution environments, and robust over-the-air (OTA) update systems with rollback capabilities. To manage growing threats, companies are adopting Zero Trust architectures, which incorporate continuous authentication, least privilege access, data encryption, and micro-segmentation. In parallel, SecOps practices such as incident response automation and compliance management are becoming essential to ensure resilience and regulatory alignment.

Over-the-air (OTA) updates are a cornerstone of SDV agility. They enable manufacturers to continuously improve vehicle functionality, deliver new features, fix bugs, and enhance security, without requiring physical intervention. This capability not only reduces service costs but also extends the vehicle’s lifecycle.

According to Deloitte, 60% of respondents believe that regular OTA updates could prevent 50–75% of vehicle recalls, highlighting their potential to significantly improve quality and customer satisfaction. However, delivering on this promise requires a robust technical foundation. OTA systems must be supported by:

• High computing and data throughput
• Extended reliability and robustness
• Low latency and high accuracy
• Resilient and always-on connectivity and secure cloud integration

Only with this level of infrastructure can OTA updates become a reliable enabler of post-sale innovation and long-term customer engagement.

Finally, AI and perception technologies are becoming central to SDV functionality. From autonomous driving to personalized and intelligent infotainment, AI, like so many other industries, will also shape the future of mobility, turning the vehicle into a smart companion and copilot that proactively helps the driver. However, as AI becomes increasingly embedded in vehicle systems, testing and validation of those AI models becomes critical. Regulatory frameworks are emerging, and companies must be prepared to demonstrate explainable and trustable AI enabling transparency, safety, and compliance in AI-driven features and their deployment across safety-critical systems.

Conclusion: A Strategic Reinvention

The SDV transformation is not just a technical upgrade – it’s a strategic reinvention. It affects every part of the organization and processes, from R&D and compliance to customer experience and business models. Success requires more than just new tools; it requires a new mindset. This transformation is a team sport: embracing agility, security, and ecosystem thinking will be essential. The companies that lead will be those that collaborate, adapt, and innovate continuously.

In the final blog post of this series, we’ll explore how Keysight is actively supporting this transformation – and how we can help you succeed in the SDV transition.