I invite you to register for the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA to master the future which is before us. This is the #best school. Begin here.

Singularity is a “hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization”. During the Tekedia Mini-MBA, for one week, we will assume the world has entered the age of singularity. But instead of panic, we want to examine the promises and business opportunities when machines possibly become smarter than humans!

Edward Hudgins, PhD
Chogwu Abdul, PhD
Gennady Stolyarov II
Brent Ellman

When reality sets in, deals are reworked and revised. There is  no need to fight on such issues. Yes, Amazon and Rivian will revise their EV exclusive deals since market conditions have made it hard for Amazon to meet targets: ” Amazon has been Rivian’s sole EV van customer since 2019, but the retailer has recently “underwhelmed” Rivian with small orders”. Indeed, while we work to respect business agreements and contracts, people have to be flexible and pragmatic if we want to transition from just holding CEO titles to being leaders of organizations.

What Amazon and Rivian are doing here would have been endless litigation in places where companies read only legal lines, and not the core missions of firms: fix frictions in markets. Pragmatic leadership advances companies, sectors and nations.

Rivian and Amazon are revisiting their exclusive electric delivery truck deal, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. Amazon has been Rivian’s sole EV van customer since 2019, but the retailer has recently “underwhelmed” Rivian with small orders, The Wall Street Journal writes. Amazon said it wanted only 10,000 new vehicles this year as part of the 100,000 EVs it promised to buy by 2030, leading Rivian to reconsider its exclusivity agreement through ongoing talks. Amazon is Rivian’s largest shareholder and a has a seat on Rivian’s board of directors.

Of course, Amazon being the largest shareholder of Rivian will like the company to do well, even if that does not come from Amazon itself. It is winning via strategic partnership.

That explains why Microsoft has already made all the truckloads of money it invested in ChatGPT after the chatbot helped Bing to nearly double its annual revenue – and surpass 100 million daily active users threshold: ““We are pleased to share that after a number of years of steady progress, and with a little bit of a boost from the million plus new Bing preview users, we have crossed 100 million daily active users of Bing.”  Google has a big fight ahead.

“For every 1 point of share gain in the search advertising market, it’s a $2 billion revenue opportunity for our advertising business,” said

The Verge noted that Microsoft has boosted its ad business – growing it to $18 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, compared to $10 billion in the previous fiscal year. But the growth, which is largely attributed to Bing, still falls significantly short of Google’s $200 billion revenue within the same time period.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that the company plans to reduce its workforce once again by laying off around 10,000 employees and closing about 5,000 job openings that have not been filled.

The move came amid growing economic turmoil in the tech industry, pushing companies to cut headcounts as part of measures of cutting costs.  Meta was severely hit by revenue drop, which saw the social media behemoth lost more than half of its market value in 2022.

Zuckerberg disclosed the plan in his “Year of Efficiency,” announcement, where he outlined steps Meta is taking to reduce increasing losses as the company’s digital ad sales slows down.

“Over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates,” the CEO said in a statement posted to his Facebook page.

Zuckerberg said he will let members of the company’s recruiting team know if they are impacted by the decision by tomorrow. But tech team members won’t know the status of their jobs until April, while business group employees won’t find out until May. Some workers won’t be told if they’ll keep their jobs until the end of the year.

“At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years,” Zuckerberg said. “Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation. Given this outlook, we’ll need to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success.”

The CEO said Meta will support people in the same ways it has before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve. He added that he wants managers to take on up to 10 employees as their direct reports and is calling on workers to meet in person moving forward more often.

In November, Meta announced it was cutting 11,000 jobs, joining other tech giants reducing headcounts as the pandemic-induced economic boom dies down. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter and others have also been forced to cut workforce. The tech companies had over-hired during the pandemic as life shifted online, creating massive digital economic boom.

Gingered by the economic boom, tech companies went on hiring spree. Meta grew its headcount by 93.5% from Q4 2019 to Q3 2022.

However, the economic growth saw a drastic drop as in-person activities grows, following the removal of safety restrictions designed to halt the spread of covid-19.

But Zuckerberg’s major move to save its fortune came in 2021 when he changed the company’s name from Facebook to Meta. He has also unveiled other plans, which includes a shift of focus to short-form videos and developing metaverse, as part of efforts to revamp Meta.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms will lay off roughly 10,000 employees over the next couple of months and close off a further 5,000 open jobs, the company announced in a blog post. The move marks the social media giant’s second major round of job cuts in recent months after it laid off 11,000 workers, or 13% of its staff, in November. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Meta — which owns Instagram and WhatsApp — is looking to “make its organization flatter” by removing multiple layers of management and cutting certain projects, as part of “the year of efficiency.”

Recruitment teams will be impacted first, followed by restructuring and layoffs in tech groups in April and cuts on business teams in late May. Meta had dramatically expanded its employee base over the pandemic but has since seen a slowdown in advertising revenue. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off across the tech sector this year. (LinkedIn News)

However, analysts have hailed his cost-cutting plans as the best way to turn Meta’s fortune around. Yahoo Finance noted Jefferies analyst, Brent Thill, applauding Meta’s decision to cut more jobs as a necessity.

“We believe more headcount reductions are needed to offset the last 2 years of excess hiring,” Thill wrote on March 7. “Meta grew its headcount by 20% in ’22, which led to revenue per employee declining 21%. Hence, Meta’s reported plans to right size its headcount, laying off ‘thousands’ of employees are warranted.”

Zuckerberg said during Meta’s last earnings call that the company will execute its “Year of Efficiency” plan by implementing “flatter” and “learner” measures in running the company.

“As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs — and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long term vision,” he said.

Meta shares jumped more than 6% at the market open on Tuesday.