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For the past decade I have volunteered at St. Francis Inn, a soup kitchen in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Kensington, for those not from Philly, has long had a reputation for potent but affordable street drugs. Interstate 95 and the Market-Frankford elevated commuter train line provide easy access to the neighborhood for buyers and sellers, and abandoned buildings offer havens for drug use and other illicit activity. St. Francis Inn Ministries, which was founded by two Franciscan friars in 1979, serves sit-down breakfast and dinner for thousands of people each year, many of whom suffer from poverty, homelessness, and substance use disorder. It also runs Maries Closet, a charity that provides free used clothing and housewares. These ministries are operated by a core team of nine full-time members, hundreds of volunteers from local high schools and colleges, and an ad hoc team of folks from many walks of life. In the years Ive been volunteering at St. Francis, significant changes have occurred in Kensington, including gentrification, soaring housing prices and increased police activity. Such changes can make it harder for people who suffer from poverty and homelessness to remain in the neighborhood. Around 2018, the number of guests visiting St. Francis Inn was already dwindling noticeably. I heard volunteers speculate on whether St. Francis Inn should relocate further north in Philadelphia where there are more people in need. Others wondered whether St. Francis Inn should create a mobile unit that traveled to people in need wherever they may be. As I listened, I realized that this was a business decision. As a professor of management at St. Josephs University in Philadelphia, I decided to present this decision to the students in my Management Honors Capstone Seminar. In January 2026, I published a business case study titled Dealing with Change in Kensington, Philadelphia: The Case of Saint Francis Inn. An interesting business case The capstone seminar I teach is the second of two strategic management courses that honors business students take in their senior year. Using the Harvard case study method, students identify the critical issues embedded in a variety of cases and find the information needed to evaluate those issues using seminal theories in strategic management. Students then propose a solutiona hypothesis they believe best addresses the situation. They test whether that solution works by building a plan of actioncalled a proofthat provides logic and evidence that their solution would work. Part of what I believe makes this case study interesting is that it involves some of the most vulnerable people in Philadelphia. I felt it was important to give students the opportunity to consider important issues of social justice when applying their business decision-making skills. Morally sound recommendations Among other material, the course covers two different perspectives that students can use to make informed decisions and propose solutions for St. Francis Inn. The first is the resource-based view. Using this framework, students identify the unique resources and capabilities that a firmin this case, St. Francis Innhas built over the years. Then they determine how to use those resources and capabilities best to carry out the firms mission. St. Francis Inns mission is to live among and serve the poor, following the example of St. Francis of Assisi. The organization has built decades-long relationships with food companieswhich share leftover meat, vegetables and other products with the innas well as with members of the community in Kensington. In addition, they have developed a network of hundreds of well-trained and motivated volunteer workers throughout Philadelphia and, indeed, the entire country. The second framework that students are expected to use is formal moral theory, which provides a set of different theories for determining moral rules. It enables us to make ethical decisions that are structured, rational, and logical. For example, using utilitarianism, students quantify all of the costs and benefits of a decision and choose the option that provides the largest net benefitor utilityto society. Rights theory requires students to make decisions that respect the intrinsic dignity of all persons. Students can use these theories to make morally sound recommendations on how St. Francis Inn can best serve the stakeholders in its community. Perhaps the most obvious people affected by St. Francis Inn are the people living in the neighborhood who struggle with homelessness and substance use disorder and receive food and other assistance there. Other groups of concern include longtime neighbors who have homes nearby but still live in poverty, new residents moving into the neighborhood, local property developers who generally want to see fewer homeless people in the neighborhood, and city officials who are responsible for various government functions. These include police and emergency medical services, city council members and social services organizations. Students must answer a two-dimensional question: Given what St. Francis Inn does best, how can it best address the needs of its most important stakeholders? Since they are business majors, many quickly gravitate to logical business decisions that St. Francis Inn can make, such as continuing its operation where it is, relocating, or creating a mobile service. Without fail, there are students each semester who argue that regardless of whats best for St. Francis Inn, the interests of the various people of concern in the neighborhood must be respected. To be honest, I enjoy watching them grapple with this problem with sincerity and care. Here, students must balance an organizations core competencies with the moral impact of its decisions, while prioritizing the rights and needs of diverse, nontraditional groups who have a stake in this decision. Thats a valuable skill for any futureor, for that matter, currentbusiness executive. Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack. Tim Swift is a professor of management at St. Joseph’s University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
The Nancy Guthrie investigation is now in its third week, which means it was only a matter of time before the case piqued the interest of online armchair detectives. Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on Feb. 1. In the weeks since, the street outside her home in Tucson, Arizona, has become a destination for true-crime livestreamers. Online sleuths have dissected the publicly available details of the ongoing case while spreading far-fetched conspiracy theories. Some have filmed themselves driving through Guthries neighborhood. The hashtag #nancyguthrie currently has more than 16,000 posts on TikTok, where users analyze Ring doorbell footage and excerpts from Savannah Guthries 2024 memoir, capitalizing on public interest in the case and often drawing hundreds of thousands of views. @thedreydossier its all connected man #investigation #truecrimetok original sound – Drey These posts across social media platforms have forced law enforcement to repeatedly set the record straight and dispel rampant rumors and misinformation, particularly as it pertains to Guthries family members. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced Monday that Guthries children and their spouses had been fully cleared from the investigation. The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case, Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a statement posted on X. A statement from Sheriff Chris Nanos on the Nancy Guthrie Investigation: pic.twitter.com/YfhQSPkrFJ— Pima County Sheriff's Department (@PimaSheriff) February 16, 2026 His statement appeared to indirectly address those speculating online and reporting irresponsibly about the case. Influencer content is, by nature, unwieldy, reactionary, and unbeholden to the same standards as traditional news outlets covering ongoing investigations. Former Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Lt. Gil Carrillo told 13 News that online speculation has the potential to inadvertently hinder investigations. With all of these people that are getting on social media rendering their opinions and their thoughts, investigators have to take time from their investigation and assign people to follow those leads up because they all have to be followed, Carrillo said. Every one of them has to be vetted out. Members of the true-crime community counter that more eyes on an active case can help, something authorities themselves have acknowledged. As a person involved in the Guthrie investigation told CNN last week: The breakthrough tip could come from anyone, from anywhere. In 2021, online sleuths credited themselves with helping locate the remains of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old who went missing during a road trip with her boyfriend. As the internet became consumed with the case, sharing images, analyzing Petitos YouTube uploads, and speculating about timelines, YouTubers Jenn and Kyle Bethune spotted Petitos van in their own travel footage. This helped point authorities to the area where Petitos body was ultimately found. Since then, similar episodes have played out across the hugely popular true-crime corner of the internet. Inspired by those successes, influencers and amateur sleuths are increasingly inserting themselves into both active and cold cases. But even well-meaning intervention can risk doing more harm than good.
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E-Commerce
The deadline to claim the early-bird rate for Fast Companys Best Workplaces for Innovators is quickly approachingFriday, February 20, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time. This marks the eighth year Fast Company will be recognizing companies and organizations from around the world that most effectively empower employees at all levels to improve processes, create new products, or invent whole new ways of doing business. In addition to ranking the worlds Best Workplaces for Innovators, we will also recognize companies in 19 categories, including a brand new category that focuses on skilled laborcompanies that depend heavily on talented employees with the kinds of increasingly coveted technical expertise acquired through vo-tech training and trade schools. Other new categories this year include: Cybersecurity and enterprise software Industrial and manufacturing Technology and science Advertising, marketing, and PR Biotech, healthcare, and life sciences Financial services and fintech What differentiates Best Workplaces for Innovators from existing best-places-to-work lists is that it goes beyond benefits, competitive compensation, and collegiality (mere table stakes in todays competition for talent) to identify which companies are actively creating and sustaining the kinds of innovative cultures that many top employees value as much as or even more than money. Places where they can do the best work of their careers and improve the lives of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people around the world. Every application receives careful review by Fast Company editors. Start your Best Workplaces for Innovators application here. For more information on applying, see the FAQs. The final deadline to apply isnt until March 27, but all applications submitted by Friday, February 20, at 11:59 pm Pacific time receive the preferred rate.To sign up for Best Workplaces for Innovators notifications, register here
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E-Commerce
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