Inside EVs (June 30)
Ford CEO Jim Farley is impressed with China’s electric vehicle industry. Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Summit, he said, “it’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen.” He recognizes that EVs in China are far more advanced, “They have far superior in-vehicle technology.” American technology “in most cars amounts to a media player, a navigation system and maybe some smart cruise control. China has pushed the envelope far beyond that.” They also offer a better price and better quality than U.S. cars. “Their cost, their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West” said Farley who added, “We are in a global competition with China…. And if we lose this we do not have a future at Ford.”
Tags: Advanced, Aspen Ideas Summit, CEO, China, EV, Farley, Ford, Future, Global competition, Humbling, Impressed, Price, Quality, Technology, U.S.
CNN (November 20)
Major retailer Target is noticing customer behavior that “is causing it to cast doubt on its future sales.” Store traffic “grew by about 2% year-over-year,” but customer “spending per purchase shrunk by 2%.” According to CEO Brian Cornell, customers are “’becoming increasingly resourceful in their shopping behaviors, waiting to buy until (the) last moment of need, focusing on deals and then stocking up when they find them.’”
Tags: CEO, Cornell, Customer behavior, Deals, Resourceful, Retailer, Sales, Shopping, Spending, Stocking up, Store traffic, Target, Waiting
New York Times (November 12)
“Darren Woods, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, cautioned President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday against withdrawing from the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions, saying Mr. Trump risked leaving a void at the negotiating table.”
Tags: Cautioned, CEO, Climate-warming emissions, Exxon Mobil, Negotiating table, Paris Agreement, Trump, Withdrawing, Woods
Fortune (October 3)
“The boss of German carmaker Mercedes-Benz is bracing his company for a ‘Darwinian battle’ as Europe’s auto giants reel from falling demand and the onslaught of Chinese competitors.” CEO Ola Källenius and Mercedes-Benz are at “a pivotal moment of sink or swim.” As EV uptake slows in the Europe, “a similar demand glut in China and the emergence of cheap competitors from the region has left Europe’s carmakers fighting fires at home and overseas.”
Tags: Carmaker, CEO, China, Competitors, Darwinian battle, Europe, EVs, Falling demand, Germany, Glut, Källenius, Mercedes-Benz, Onslaught
Seeking Alpha (August 20)
“Harley-Davidson (HOG) is the latest corporation to back away from DEI initiatives following a backlash kickstarted by activist and political commentator Robby Starbuck. An online campaign against the 120-year-old motorcycle company accused the firm and its CEO, Jochen Zeitz, of embracing a ‘woke agenda of the very far left’ that does not align with the business’s core customers. It follows similar campaigns against Deere (DE) and Tractor Supply (TSCO), which both shelved their DEI protocols earlier in the summer.”
Tags: Activist, Align, Backlash, Campaigns, CEO, Core customers, Deere, DEI initiatives, Harley-Davidson, Kickstarted, Shelved, Woke agenda
Fortune (July 23)
The response of CrowdStrike has been “underwhelming,” symbolized by CEO George Kurtz’s failure to apologize immediately. With a bug that “hit less than 1% of Windows devices,” CrowdStrike “unleashed global chaos” last Friday. The fallout “grounded more than 6% of the world’s commercial flights. It also halted surgeries, broadcasts, money transfers, 911 call centers, train systems, stores, hotel reservations, mobile apps, and some government services. As of yesterday, many were still scrambling to recover.” CrowdStrike’s comeuppance may come as it enters “a risky period,” with its stock hammered “by almost a third” and angry customers reexamining their ties to the cybersecurity company.
Tags: Apologize, Apps, Broadcasts, Bug, CEO, Comeuppance, CrowdStrike, Customers, Cybersecurity, Failure, Flights, Global chaos, Hammered, Hotels, Kurtz, Money transfers, Recover, Response, Stock, Stores, Surgeries, Trains, Underwhelming, Windows
Wall Street Journal (June 15)
“Despite some CEO grumbling, businesses have thrived under Biden. Stocks are near records, corporate profits are up strongly, inflation has come down and the economy has so far managed a soft landing despite aggressive rate increases from the Federal Reserve. Industries like energy that appeared to be at risk from Biden’s policies have thrived.”
Tags: Biden, Businesses, CEO, Corporate profits, Economy, Energy, Grumbling, Inflation, Records, Soft landing Fed, Stocks, Thrived
CNN (April 2)
“GE once did almost everything for the typical American family…. No longer. With Tuesday’s split into two companies, the break up of the once mighty industrial icon is complete.” Founded in 1892 by Thomas Edison, GE was “built into the world’s largest and most valuable company by the once legendary, but now oft-criticized CEO Jack Welch” before floundering during the 21st century.
Tags: 1892, Break-up, CEO, Criticized, Edison, Floundering, GE, Industrial, Largest, Legendary, Most valuable, Split, U.S., Welch
Gizmodo (January 12)
“Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has broken the world record for the person to lose the largest amount of personal wealth in history.” After losing an estimated $182 billion since November 2021, Musk has displaced the previous record “set in 2000 by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son.” Nevertheless, “Musk still remains the second-richest person in the world, falling right behind LVMH’s CEO Bernard Arnault.”
Tags: $182 billion, Arnault, CEO, History, Japan, Lose, LVMH, Musk, Personal wealth, Richest, Son, Tech investor, Tesla, Twitter, World record
BBC (December 19)
The majority (57%) of votes cast in a poll conducted by Elon Musk were in favor of “Musk standing down as Twitter CEO.” The move “has either spectacularly backfired – if Musk was looking for an ego-boost – or it has been a huge success in getting him off the rather large hook he has found himself caught on since his purchase of Twitter.”
