​Resilient flooring refers to highly durable flooring, even in heavy-traffic areas. It can encompass any material that covers floors, excluding wood, concrete, ceramic, textile, or stone.

As a general rule, resilient floor options have a slight bounce-back upon compression and repeated traffic. They can handle high foot traffic, and people can walk on them comfortably.

Laminate, although similar to resilient flooring in its multilayer construction, also does not qualify since it has a wood base and lacks a bounce-back quality. Resilient flooring products span tile, sheet, and plank. Manufacturers sell sheet products in rolls since they have flexibility. Their length exceeds their width, which typically ranges from six to 12 feet. Common sheet materials include vinyl, linoleum, and rubber, with homogeneous characteristics crafted of a single layer top to bottom, or heterogeneous, with multiple layers. The material ranges in thickness from standard 0.050 inch to cushioned 0.10 inch.

Sheet vinyl combines waterproof qualities with few or no seams. When installed in small rooms with no seams, it provides 100 percent impermeability to most liquids. However, vinyl has bulky and heavy qualities that make it challenging to install without professional help, especially since the material requires precise and accurate cuts the first time. Modified loose-lay sheet vinyl, which does not require glue, has become the most forgiving option. Professionals can secure it with underlayment or subfloor using tape.

Since they have less flexibility, manufacturers cannot roll up tile and plank products. Instead, they pack them as flat pieces in cartons. Common materials include multilayered flooring (MLF), solid vinyl tile (SVT), rubber tile, and luxury vinyl tile (LVT). A variety of MLF types exist, such as solid polymer core (SPC) and wood polymer core (WPC).

The core luxury vinyl has become popular in the tile and plank category. The multi-ply product pairs rigidity with secure joinery, similar to laminate flooring, while also offering the durability and water resistance of vinyl flooring. The planks or tiles have a thickness of 8 mm (more than 1/3 of an inch), the same as many laminates. However, rigid core lacks the wood content of laminate and does not have vulnerabilities to mold and swelling.

With tight snap-lock joinery on all sides, rigid core luxury vinyl is highly water-resistant and easy to clean. Therefore, it becomes a good option for water-impacted kitchens, bathrooms, and homes with pets. Many who select rigid core luxury vinyl flooring also value its four- to five-layer construction, which addresses cold subfloors and makes walking barefoot comfortable. Thick construction adds possibilities for realistic textural embossing, giving the flooring a stone or wood-like appearance.

Flexible vinyl tile and planks offer a thinner option, as thin as 2 mm, and cost less than rigid core flooring. However, a drawback, the thinness makes them less stable at the joints, even though they have click-and-lock joinery. Thus, professionals must glue them to the subfloor to prevent shifting or pulling up.

An environmentally friendly option, cork flooring retains warmth and provides insulation, while offering a natural springiness and bounce to the step. Available in long planks or square tiles, manufacturers make it from recycled cork stoppers mixed with urethane. They bound the cork sheets with high-density fiberboard, creating strong and durable planks.

​Technology can help drive corporate efficiency and revenue growth. The value of implementing innovative, tech-driven transformations has reached a critical juncture, as demonstrated in various case studies, including Domino’s Pizza and Nike.

By the early 2000s, Domino’s Pizza emerged as one of the largest pizza restaurant chains worldwide. In 2007, the company’s stock price reached a record high of $32.25. However, as the global recession took hold, discretionary spending plummeted. Domino’s stock value fell sharply, reaching a low point of $5.95 only a year later. Most did not question the quality of its core product, but it had to figure out how to stand out from competitors in a hotly contested marketplace and provide extra value. Domino's sought to deliver “better service at the same price,” and it found that digital orders would propel the strategy. 

In 2011, Domino's decided to shift its business from 20 percent to more than 50 percent online within four years. It laid the infrastructure for seamless accessibility through Pizza Profiles, a platform that allowed customers to save their information, such as addresses and payment details, all bundled into an Easy Order. The concept combined a favorite set of menu choices with order type (delivery or takeout), favorite store, preferred payment method, and address.

Building on Pizza Profiles, the company engineered the transformative launch of Domino's AnyWare in 2015. It enabled seamless ordering through text, a smartwatch, a tweet, Facebook, or a click on the Ford Sync console. DominosAnyWare.com explained the various ways customers could order and accompanied it with a nationwide ad campaign, featuring spots where celebrities shared their opinions on their favorite way to order, highlighting its convenience. In addition, Domino's promoted AnyWare on shows like The Today Show and Jimmy Fallon. The suite of ordering technologies generated 2 billion earned media impressions and 500,000 visits to the Domino's AnyWare.com website.

The new device- and console-integrated ordering approach drove a 10.5 percent year-over-year sales growth, as Domino’s quickly surpassed its goal of receiving half of its orders online, with the stock price approaching $400. A JP Morgan analyst stated, “We have found ourselves describing the 'new' Domino's as a technology company disguised as a marketing company disguised as a pizza company… and dominant outperformance bears that comment as true.”

Next, Nike, which historically expanded its business as a wholesale brand that supplied third-party sportswear retailers with products such as shoes and athletic wear. In 2017, with wholesale accounting for 80 percent of its profits, the company adopted a new strategy of directly connecting with clients through innovative e-commerce channels.

It launched apps that extended services, such as Nike Training Club and Nike Run Club. They built a core community of fitness-focused users who gained practical value from vitals- and performance-tracking training programs, along with options to purchase lifestyle-relevant gear online, through a simple click within their profile. Nike acquired Zodiac, a data analytics brand, which enabled tracking of individual purchases and behavioral data points. This accurately predicted future consumer activity and delivered hyper-local personalization in product suggestions.

In 2019, Nike also announced that it would no longer offer products on Amazon, the dominant e-commerce platform of the era. It afforded Nike greater control over consumers' experiences and harnessed the increased profits associated with direct sales, but helped halt the proliferation of counterfeit goods. The direct-to-consumer retail strategy paid off during the pandemic, as its business increased by 82 percent and digital sales rose to 42 percent of total sales. Correspondingly, the wholesale revenue segment declined to around 60 percent, still important, but no longer critical, to corporate success.

​Documentary filmmaking depicts real events, people, and places. Documentaries may eschew or embrace traditional narrative structures. The narrator of a documentary may never appear on screen or may play a driving role in the film. Types of documentaries include biographies and nature films.

The first documentary, Nanook of the North, was released in 1922. It depicted the lives and struggles of indigenous people in the Canadian Arctic. Since that time, countless documentaries have left lasting impacts on American culture and the global box office.

The highest-grossing documentary film of all time is Michael Jackson's This Is It. The film grossed just over $72 million in the United States and nearly $190 million internationally for a worldwide box office haul of $261.18 million. Released in 2009, the documentary came together somewhat haphazardly. Director Kenny Ortega was capturing footage to promote and chronicle Jackson's This Is It concert residency at the O2 Arena in London. However, Jackson's health declined during preparations for the concerts, and he passed away in June 2009. Ortega assembled the footage, mostly from the Staples Center and The Forum in Los Angeles, into the film released in October 2009. While many critics and fans praised the film, others believed the filmmakers were profiting from Jackson's death.

Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets remains the second highest-grossing documentary. The 1984 film grossed $52.8 million in the United States, for the No. 5 all-time documentary at the domestic box office but is one of just three documentaries to break $100 million at the international box office, resulting in a $239 million worldwide box office gross. The film, a travelogue exploring the Grand Canyon, is only 34 minutes long and is not always included on lists of the highest-grossing documentaries. However, it was a breakout hit at IMAX theaters, which were relatively new at the time.

American documentaries experienced a boom in the early to mid-2000s with the release of three highly successful films. Fahrenheit 9/11, released in 2004, made over $119 million in the US and approximately $102 million internationally for a worldwide box office total of $221.14 million, third all-time for the documentary genre. The film explores America's controversial war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Filmmaker Michael Moore's previous documentary, Bowling for Columbine, is another of the top 20 highest-grossing documentaries.

One year after Fahrenheit 9/11, National Geographic Films and Bonne Pioche collaborated on the French nature documentary La marche de l'empereur, known in the US as The March of the Penguins. Morgan Freeman narrated the English version of the film, which depicts the lives and challenges of the emperor penguin. Unlike other successful documentaries, The March of the Penguins initially had a limited release, screening in just four theaters. By comparison, This Is It and Fahrenheit 9/11 opened in 3,481 and 868 theaters, respectively. The penguin film grew in popularity, ultimately expanding to more than 2,500 theaters and grossing $133,27 million at the global box office. Other financially successful documentaries include 1998's Everest, which grossed approximately $128 million, and 2002's Space Station, which grossed $126.51 million.