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Snapchat CEO Spiegel's aloof management style leads to him becoming unresponsive to the views of his team. A new design fails to win customer approval and the share price of the company falls 76%. He decided to launch a redesign of the messaging site which sends photos and videos to friends as "snaps" that disappear in a few seconds- was once seen as a competitor to Facebook. He called for a redesign unexpectedly after visiting China in 2017.

Spiegel, 28, a designer, tends to push ahead based on instincts.  He ignored the pleas of his executive team for more time to do the redesign. A gut decision was made and a schedule was set that pushed an aggressive timeline, dismissing concerns of team members.

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Very little is known about executives in AI who were till 2018 unknowns. Murati is from Albania, went to high school in British Columbia and on to a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering at Thayer School of Dartmouth in 2012. She worked at Tesla and a startup on augmented reality before joining OpenAI in 2018, according to Wikipedia. Much controversy was generated in 2024 with ouster of Sam Altman and reinstatement generating concern how AI is being used for profit by individuals without a role for government and leaders of major world nations and setting rules and guidance. The world of AI pioneers is fragmented with different views and it is not clear if the US, Europe, India, China or other countries can delegate such important technologies to a few individuals with little experience. The recent AI conference chaired by Macron of France and Modi of India was intended to bring leadership of major countries in advanced technology to take the lead in managing AI instead of leaving the field to unknown individual players.  ...

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Andy Grove makes this passionate plea for the dignity of workers in America in 2010. It is worth reading in 2020 what this founder of Intel Corp and pioneering spirit of Silicon Valley has to say. Andy Grove of Intel says there is something seriously wrong when the unemployment rate in the Bay Area is higher than the 9.7% national average for the USA. American companies have added jobs like crazy in Asia, but things are sputtering back home. Hon Hai has 800,000 employees and makes most of the electronic and computer products for American companies. Grove says startups are not the answer, unless they scale up and create jobs the way Intel did starting back in 1968, with a $3 million capital infusion by investors. The move from the first production model to mass production is critical, as companies hire thousands of people. Innovation and scaling up have to go together. He makes his point clearly by pointing out that Apple has 25,000 employees. For every Apple employee there are 10 employees in China working on Apple iMacs, iPods, iPhones. And he adds that the same 10 to 1 relationship applies to other U.S. tech companies. And here Grove asks the tough question by first posing an answer. He says it sounds like- no big deal, we keep the high paying jobs, we keep most of the profits, but what kind of society are we going to have with highly paid professional workers and lots of people unemployed? And he doesn't mention that there are a lot more young people unemployed. He says the US has become very inefficient at creating tech jobs, and it would be a great mistake not to act decisively early on. And adds that the investments in such areas as solar power and electric car batteries have to be made early on to maintain leadership in these areas. Grove faults academics like Alan Blinder and others who say loss of manufacturing jobs and whole industries was no big deal. The U.S. has forgotten the value of manufacturing jobs. He wants to see America focus on jobs and rebuild its industrial base. And less of transferring engineering knowhow and new technologies overseas, technology that can help bring innovation and scaling up of factories at home. In his view individual companies doing their own thing, in a misguided fashion that jobs don't matter, is not the answer to the situation we face. The industrial economies of Asia, China at the present day, have focussed on jobs and technology, and scaled up. Grove reminds readers of the situation in America in 1932, when jobless veterans demonstrating outside the White House in large numbers were dispersed by soldiers with live ammunition and fixed bayonets. This makes him shudder at the very thought of it, and brings back memories of his early years in Hungary, as a young man in 1956. Are we listening? ...

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Greg Ip, Chief Economics correspondent of the WSJ, says there is a disconnect between falling stock markets in Jan 2016 and the economy. This is true not only for the U.S. economy but for China as well, says Ip. He points to the 6.9% growth rate in China for 2015 as close to the target set by China's government. Reports of economic output and exports show China's economy stabilizing. This contrasts with weakness in the way the government and the central bank have managed financial markets since the summer of 2015, sending confusing signals and hurting investor confidence. One difference as the stock markets decline worldwide- the Fed in the U.S has little room to cut rates and plans to gradually increase rates, the Chinese govenment and planners do not plan stimulus as they look for ways to reduce debt in the economy. This means less support for financial markets and less support for high valuations in the tech and startup sectors, which could provide stability in the long run.

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The old NASDAQ in 2000 cannot be compared to the new NASDAQ in 2015 because the companies in the index have changed, and the proportion of tech and health care companies has also changed. Healthcare and consumer companies are now 37% on the index compared to 18% in the NASDAQ index in 2000. Tech is a much smaller component of the NASDAQ, declining from 64% to 43%. And three companies Apple, Google and Microsoft, makeup 20% of the index, with Amazon, Facebook and Intel added making that 30% of the entire 2015 NASDAQ index. Only 3 of the top ten companies in the 2000 NASDAQ are around in 2015 NASDAQ index- Intel Corp., Microsoft, and Cisco Systems. Yahoo, Oracle, Dell, Sun, JDS, WorldCom are no longer the top 10 companies in the index as they were in 2015. The speculative momentum stocks such as Netflix and Tesla make up 0.38% and 0.33% of the NASDAQ in 2015. In healthcare part of NASDAQ 2015 companies such as Gilead Sciences and Amgen are in the top ten.

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The increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index to 4000 by November 2013. In contrast to the period in 1999 the Nasdaq Index now has companies in the Index in a broader number of tech fields including medical technology, pharmaceuticals and consumer. Tech companies in the Index now have reliable tested products and generate significant revenues and profits. Apple has 8.02% representation in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Other companies are Microsoft with 5.15%, Google 4.80%, Amazon 2.88%, Intel 1.95%, Qualcomm 2.09%, Gilead, 1.88%, Amgen 1.42%. The Index is more diversified in 2013. B/E Aerospace and First Solar are part of the Index. About 13.5% are in Health Care technologies, including Celgene and Myriad Genetics. And 7.1% in Telecom, including SBA Communications. Priceline, Amazon are part of consumer internet companies in the Index. Tech based companies make up only 45% on the Index Composite compared to 66% in 1999, with these companies on stronger revenue and profit footing and not bid up speculatively as they were in 1999....

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Amazon expands during the pandemic when retail on line delivery has helped people reduce trips to the grocery or retail stores. Amazon hired 427,000 people to expand its workforce to 1.2 million people by November 2020, 9 months into the pandemic. Almost doubling the employee workforce. These workers are mostly at warehouses, with some software engineers and hardware specialists. This includes hiring in India and Italy and is worldwide hiring. This does not include 100,000 temporary workers for the holidays, and 500,000 delivery drivers working for contractors.  Only hiring of 230,000 people by Walmart about 2 decades a ago in one year comes close. Walmart hired 180,000 people during the pandemic. Walmart has 2.2 million employees. With the expansion underway Amazon looks to become the largest private employer in the world in 2 years, say experts.  Amazon pay is $15 an hour after an increase of $2 recently. Its coronavirus safety practices have been upgraded after early criticism in April and May. Recent expansion in Italy and in India are also part of worldwide expansion after Walmart has pulled back from its worldwide expansion. This also shows how quickly major aspects of life are changing during the pandemic as some companies in online business are becoming more prominent than others. Target and Walmart have also increased in size. Best Buy has changed its focus with its conversion into a company that leads with personal service in online plus store hybrid retail and a focus on seniors and older people for healthcare service and product delivery. Companies are changing the way they run or getting a new life in remaking their business. This is also a time when other aspects of business such as social media are becoming evident. Subtle aspects such as reports of higher rates of mental depression through use of social media platforms. There is also the awareness that information technology companies in Silicon Valley generate most of their money in advertising and this advertising of $100 billion is only a small fraction of the $12 trillion U.S. economy. Should Silicon Valley based in California decide priorities on where capital allocation should go through the part it plays in moving startups based less on America's priorities than other considerations. Healthcare, education, cities, and infrastructure have not received funding they need and capital allocation by financial markets has failed the American people, as it has failed in Europe and other parts of the world for similar reasons. This has hit hard communities and people across the U.S. and Europe and also in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with the loss of manufacturing to China and other countries from the U.S. India and Europe. ...

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This editorial in the Economist points to the long term effects of a crash in China's stock markets. This would reduce access to equity markets for corporate funding. It would pose larger risks because of the increase in total debt in the Chinese economy from 150% in 2008 to more than 250% in 2015. The fallout would not be as large as in the U.S. after a stock market bubble collapsed in the U.S., because market capitalization is about 40% of GDP, and households have put about 10% of their wealth in stock markets. Coming at a time when China's economy is slowing, and it faces other problems such as addressing pollution, healthcare and other issues, this could lead to a further slowdown for a prolonged period. Most economists from Krugman to Summers, say China is no exception to basic rules of finance and economics. The indexes have accelerated in the past year- CSI300 index of China's largest mainland stocks doubling in the past year, and ChiNext market for startups tripling in the past year, and at P/E ratio of 140 times prior year earnings. 4 million new brokerage accounts opened in one week of April 2015, and a study shows about 66% of people buying stocks for the first time have no schooling beyond the age of 15. Margin financing has increased to 2 trillion yuan or $325 billion. Clearly unlike the U.S. investors and stock market authorites have not experienced the collapse of a bubble with all the economic distress for a prolonged period....

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James Hagerty of WSJ provides this exceptional account of a company that proves it can be done if only you learn from setbacks, and innovate, even in a declining industry. In rural Arcadia in western Wisconsin, an unlikely person trained for farming in an unlikely location, Ron Wynek has built the largest furniture maker in America, growing at 10% a year! This story tells how it started, the setbacks, the resonse and how it is done. Speed in decision making comes from Ashley Industries being a family owned operation with Ron and his son Todd very attuned to the manufacturing process for keeping costs down, and attuned to the opportunities in providing value to customers in America. As furniture makers in the South withered under the impact of Asian manufacturers, Ashley thrives with 60% of manufacturing done in highly efficient American midwest factories with costs kept down, and an efficient delivery system of its own that helps retailers keep low inventory. The imports come from three factories in Vietnam to Prince Rupert in B.C., Canada and are shipped by rail containers to Wisconsin, with grain and hide shipped back in the same containers. Ron Wynek was destined to be a farmer, but his wife preferred to stay in town, where he decided to go into the furniture business. The business faced Asian imports with half the cost of manufacturing, and Wynek took the advice of his Congressman not to look for government protection but find new ways to compete. He started importing from Taiwan, moved into furniture products such as bedroom furniture that faced less intense competition in the early days. He invested heavily in logistics, technology and manufacturing efficiency, to come up with a model that could withstand and grow in the face of Asian competition. Ashley is now larger than Lazy Boy and Ethan Allen combined, with sales close to $4 billion, and is expanding with a large store opened in Shanghai, China. ...

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See Hamm 6/25/07 BW for how hiring by the likes of wipro and infosys in the US is reversing outsourcing phenomena. For Infosys it helps to be closer to customers in the US as it expands further. In this case of startups and smaller companies that setup shop in Bangalore to tap the lower wages there this is turning out to be no longer true as wages are rising and have reached 75% of US wages in the example given here.

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How would you describe the internet to a medieval farmer, is the kind of odd question one gets asked in tech startup interviews says Anna Weiner in her book "The Uncanny Valley" about the tech landscape. This review says the analogy could be that of relationships of landlords and serfs- such is the feeling today of the waste, exaggeration and misguidedness that has happened in some areas of the tech scene.