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Good morning. <\/strong>The C-suite drama at Saks Global was one of our most popular stories with subscribers last week\u2014and it\u2019s no wonder why. It had risky dealmaking, a failing real estate scion, and luxury chains flailing even though consumers are spending like never before. Now there\u2019s a new twist\u2014Saks Global has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and luxury executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck will have the job of turning around the luxury retail group.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an area where van Raemdonck certainly has relevant experience: In 2018, he became CEO of Neiman Marcus Group (which included Bergdorf Goodman), then struggling under the weight of heavy debt from years of private equity ownership. This time around, as CEO of Saks Global, which also piled on debt stemming from the $2.7 billion union in 2024, he\u2019ll have an even tougher job with multiple chains to fix.\u00a0<\/p>\n During his six years running Neiman Marcus, he succeeded in protecting its market share from the industry headwinds facing luxury department stores and <\/strong>returned it to profitability. As CEO of Neiman Marcus Group, he often called his management philosophy \u201cleading with love,\u201d a term that often won him snickers at conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n What it really meant was making sure luxury was not merely transactional but more about a deeper connection with the consumer, whether inspiring their loyalty from highly personalized service or making them feel like they were at the forefront of fashion. (He famously landed in controversy in 2023 after he told Fortune<\/em> that his plan was to focus on the well-heeled, much more than on those aspiring to be part of the elite.)<\/p>\n But you can\u2019t woo customers if you have stale or low inventory, so winning AWOL customers, which should be van Raemdonck\u2019s top priority, will certainly have to begin with mending fences with beleaguered vendors. Between sluggish business and its cash crunch, Saks has in the last two years delayed payments to many vendors. Many of the suppliers, particularly smaller ones that could give Neiman and Saks tastemaking cachet, have stopped shipping to its stores. Nordstrom and Bloomingdale\u2019s have wasted no time in swooping in and grabbing some of that market share.<\/p>\n Indeed, one of the reasons van Raemdonck got the job, on top of his experience heading Neiman, was his many years of management experience as<\/em> a vendor, including years at Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton; he speaks their language.<\/p>\n His hands-on experience guiding a company through a bankruptcy reorganization will be a huge help. He knows how to talk to financiers, vendors and employees all at once. That\u2019s a good place to start in the quest to get these historic brands back to health.\u2014Phil Wahba<\/em><\/p>\n Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\n A \u2018watch and see\u2019 approach to Iran<\/b><\/p>\n President Donald Trump said Wednesday that <\/span>Iran had stopped killing anti-government protestors<\/span>, which seemed to dial down his earlier threats of a military strike. Trump has vowed to attack Iran if it killed demonstrators. U.S. troops were starting to mobilize from a base in Qatar as human rights groups reported hundreds of such deaths. The president said Wednesday, \u201cwe\u2019re going to watch and see what the process is,\u201d when asked whether a strike was now off the table. <\/span>Oil prices sank<\/span> on the apparent deescalation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dimon\u2019s break with Trump<\/b><\/p>\n Jamie Dimon has worked to repair his relationship with President Donald Trump, often expressing support for the administration while watering down criticism of specific policies. But now the JPMorgan CEO\u2019s criticism of the DOJ\u2019s Federal Reserve investigation <\/span>threatens to derail the relationship again<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n TSMC earnings boost confidence<\/b><\/p>\n Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. <\/span>reported blowout earnings Thursday<\/span>, posting higher profit and revenue in the last three months of 2025. The world\u2019s largest contract chip maker indicated it could meet surging demand for AI chips,<\/span> reassuring tech investors<\/span> who had <\/span>moved away from the Magnificent 7<\/span> in recent days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another visa crackdown<\/b><\/p>\n The U.S. <\/span>will pause immigration visa processing<\/span> for applicants from 75 countries, including Russia, Iran, Brazil, Egypt, and Thailand as it tries to block foreign nationals who may rely on public services. The government will still issue short-term visas.<\/span><\/p>\n AI\u2019s risk to London jobs<\/b><\/p>\n In an address tonight, London Mayor Sadiq Khan <\/span>will warn that AI could lead to \u201ca new era of mass unemployment\u201d<\/span> in the British capital and call on lawmakers to establish guardrails that ensure AI is used for \u201cpositive transformation\u201d and not the \u201cdestruction of jobs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Citigroup CEO issues stern employee memo<\/b><\/p>\n Citigroup CEO Jan Fraser <\/span>stressed<\/span> to employees that \u201cthe bar is raised\u201d in a new internal memo, reported previously by <\/span>Bloomberg<\/span><\/i>, that emphasized to employees that they are \u201cjudged on our results.\u201d The bank plans to cut about 1,000 jobs this week.<\/span><\/p>\n Coinbase CEO throws wrench in Senate crypto act debates<\/b><\/p>\n Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong abruptly <\/span>came out<\/span> against the Genius Act, a landmark crypto bill that is set for debate by the Senate Banking Committee. Armstrong named a number of specific critiques in his X post, including disagreements over offering rewards on stablecoin holdings and asserted that \u201cwe\u2019d rather have no bill than a bad bill.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n S&P 500 futures<\/b> were up 0.34% this morning. The last session closed down 0.53%. <\/span>STOXX Europe 600<\/b> was up 0.36% in early trading. The U.K.\u2019s <\/span>FTSE 100<\/b> was up o.52% in early trading. Japan\u2019s <\/span>Nikkei 225<\/b> was down 0.42%. China\u2019s <\/span>CSI 300<\/b> was up o.2%. The South Korea<\/span> KOSPI<\/b> was up 1.58%. Indian markets are closed today. <\/span>Bitcoin<\/b> was at $97K.<\/span><\/p>\n Peter Thiel makes his biggest donation in years to help defeat California\u2019s billionaire wealth tax<\/span> by Nick Lichtenberg<\/span><\/p>\n Whole Foods cofounder says his hardest ever business decision was firing his father from his company board: \u2018That was when my mentorship was over\u2019<\/span> by Sasha Rogelberg<\/span><\/p>\n Rural America is getting a bailout, but not from Trump\u2014billionaires are riding to the rescue<\/span> by Nick Lichtenberg<\/span><\/p>\n The job market is broken, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is \u2018fairly confident\u2019 that AI will increase productivity and therefore, hiring\u2014but there\u2019s a catch<\/span> by Preston Fore<\/span><\/p>\n CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Claire Zillman and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #CEO #leading #Saks #Global #bankruptcy #management #philosophy #leading #love<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning. The C-suite dram… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[4432,529,451,326,882,1676,2010,8951,7815],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\nTop news<\/h3>\n
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