Weekly reading – 3rd December 2022

What I wrote last week

My notes from the 2022 McKinsey Global Payments Report

Business

($) Adidas Top Executives Discussed Risk of Staff’s ‘Direct Exposure’ to Kanye West Years Ago. This mismanagement and scandal raise a serious red flag on Adidas. The influence of Kanye West impacts the company’s financials so much that it put up with the artist’s horrible and childish behavior for so long. Despite repeated complaints from employees. Is it really worth putting an iconic brand through the mud?

($) Why America Doesn’t Have Enough EV Charging Stations. “The government is pouring billions of dollars into developing a national highway charging network. But businesses aren’t sure how they will make money, and the nascent industry looks messy. Utility companies and gas stations are at war with each other over who will own and operate EV chargers. Rural states say some charging stations could operate at a loss for a decade or more. New companies that provide charging gear and services are contending with the equipment’s spotty reliability. The network’s build-out has a chicken-or-egg quality: EV advocates say many drivers will only be comfortable purchasing vehicles if rapid charging is as easy as using a pump at a gas station. Yet businesses interested in offering charging say they can’t make money until more EVs are on the road. Around 1% of U.S. drivers own EVs, but wait lists are growing and auto makers including General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are expecting EV sales to keep rising. Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative told the Biden administration in August that sparsely used chargers in the northern part of the state would likely “operate at a loss for years” and that rural areas need flexibility in planning. Maine officials said the operation of some sites may need government subsidies because they won’t turn a profit for a decade. Wyoming estimates that no rural charging station built to the requirements the federal government expects—four chargers placed every 50 miles along highways—would be profitable until the 2040s.”

It’s not your imagination: Shopping on Amazon has gotten worse. The article is a serious warning to Amazon, its executives and shareholders. It reflects my experience with the website lately. Search results are no longer authentic. Most are driven by ads. Items are delivered improperly. Wait times get longer. Prices are no longer competitive. It’s a far cry from what it was 2 or 3 years ago. Once consumers leave, what’s left for Amazon to hold on to?

($) Apple Makes Plans to Move Production Out of China. Trade wars and the unrest in China are making it difficult for Apple to continue to rely on the supply chain network in the country. It is not a surprise that Apple is hedging its bets by moving some production to other countries, but I don’t expect to see the fruits of this effort any time soon. Apple will have to find a country where it’s more stable and friendly to do business; to find partners that have the human and technology capital to handle the workload; to work out the logistics part to link every piece of the supply chain jigsaw. That’s not easy by any means

Cumulative Gross Merchandise Volume Processed By Shopify During Black Friday. Source: Tobi Lutke

Other stuff I find interesting

($) It’s Public Land. But the Public Can’t Reach It. Before reading this piece, I didn’t know that there were acres of public lands that could not be reached because they were surrounded by petty private land owners. In fact, there are 15 million acres of federal and state land that is “landlocked” by private properties. This phenomenon begs the questions: who gets to go where and how do citizens get to public land without being charged of trespassing?

The dirty road to clean energy: how China’s electric vehicle boom is ravaging the environment. People praise electric vehicles for their impact on climate change because they are not emitting carbon dioxide. Well, these EVs require batteries which force us to destroy the environment to build. When we tally up everything we do to get EVs on the roads, are they still a net positive to our life and environment? That argument looks shaky now

New energy storage technologies hold key to renewable transition. “Long duration energy storage (LDES) generally refers to any form of technology that can store energy for multiple hours, days, even weeks or months, and then provide that energy when and if needed. It is a technology that is essential if the world is to increase the proportion of renewable energy, given it is an inherently intermittent source. The Long Duration Energy Storage Council, launched last year at COP26, reckons that, by 2040, LDES capacity needs to increase to between eight and 15 times its current level — taking it to 1.5-2.5 terawatts (85-140 terawatt hours)— to enable a cost-optimal net zero energy system.“

Apple’s iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite Feature Saves Stranded Man in Alaska. Saving one life is already worth having this feature in my opinion.