What I wrote last week
Business
Nike Broke Up With Retailers. Now It’s Trying to Win Them Back. In short, it’s hard to convince folks to buy new shoes without fitting and 70-cent margin on a dollar is better than 40-cent margin on half a dollar.
Disney finance chief Christine McCarthy to step down as Iger reshapes the company. We may never know the real reason that she is leaving, unless somebody writes a book about Disney and what has happened in the last few years. Iger left to make room for Chapek. Chapek was pushed out and almost written off of Disney’s history like he had never served as CEO. Christine revolted against Chapek and worked to bring Iger back, only for herself to leave. The comment that Christine no longer has Iger’s trust is interesting. I get that he may fear she will stab him in the back like she did to bring him back. He may even want to shake things up himself. But the company put out a press release praising the departing CFO and retains her on a $20-million-a-year salary till 2024. It sounds like she may be leaving on her own before Iger could really throw down the ax.
Mark Zuckerberg Was Early in AI. Now Meta Is Trying to Catch Up. A look into the chaotic process within Meta to implement AI. Lack of an umbrella strategy led to disorganized and uncollaborative initiatives around the company. Key personnel were frustrated and subsequently left. Some models came alive only to be scrapped merely a few days later. Days, not years. Millions of dollars in investments sat around unused and mostly underutilized. This begs important questions: what is Meta really world class at? Are they at risk of complacency and falling behind competition in the future? Given the total control of Zuck, how could investors hold the leadership accountable?
How restaurants such as Panera and Chipotle are dipping into A.I. to streamline food prep and ordering. I have more confidence in the impact of machine learning on streamlining supply chain than on chatbots. Have you ever had consistent customer experience with smart chatbots or answering machine? I always go for the “talk to an agent” option
How Instant Pot went from coveted appliance to bankruptcy. Low margin, low purchase frequency and market saturation contributed to the demise of Instant Pots
Retail media & private label are helping boost Kroger’s margins. It’s a given that every retailer or grocer will rely on advertising and private labels to boost margin. Every single one. Consequently, there will be tailwinds for the manufacturers of private labels.
Other stuff I find interesting
The workers quitting digital nomadism. Study after study proves that established relationships determine one’s happiness. I am not saying that life as a digital nomad doesn’t forge strong bonds, but it’s really hard. Through this article, a few digital nomads echo that sentiment.
How Batteries Work. I had never known how batteries worked before reading this article. Absolutely fascinating.
17 fatalities, 736 crashes: The shocking toll of Tesla’s Autopilot. Self-driving is hard, especially in the edge cases. I applaud Tesla and Musk for taking on a challenging task that would have sizeable impact. However, losing 17 lives and injuring others is incredibly sad. What’s worse is that he and Tesla keep lying to the public about the true state of their driverless capabilities. For that, they should be held accountable
How a Chip Guru Left South Korea and Wound Up Accused of Leaking Tech to China. Imagine China had managed to get key semiconductor technology. “The core project, as alleged in Monday’s indictment, was Choi’s attempt to build a semiconductor plant in Xi’an, China, using illegally obtained Samsung Electronics’ factory blueprints and other engineering secrets. Choi is charged with actively ordering employees of his Singapore-based firm to procure the technology. Choi had an agreement with a Taiwanese company to receive an investment of roughly 8 trillion won, or $6.2 billion, to help finance the Xi’an plant and recruit more than 200 semiconductor workers from South Korea by offering massive salary increases, according to the indictment. The agreement ultimately fell apart and, because of the lack of investment, the chip-making facility didn’t get built, the person said.“
Behind Elon Musk’s Management Philosophy: First Principles. Musk is a polarizing figure. His behavior is at times weird, annoying and to some extent disgusting, but you have to acknowledge his achievements and how he attained such incredible success. I admire his first principle thinking. I don’t see that a lot, even among seasoned executives.
As war rages in Sudan, small startups are helping people find food, money, and flee. Another amazing story on how technology and entrepreneurship help people in the most dire situation
Stats
The top 100 most valuable brands had a combined value of $6.9 trillion this year
Minh Quang Duong 
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