Tuesday morning
January 10, 2023
Hello everyone,
Bed Bath and Beyond – a popular pitstop for those who are looking for a luxury look in sheets and towels and special decorative pieces – is now struggling to stay afloat. As of February 26, 2022, Bed Bath & Beyond had about 32,000 employees. In August, last year it cut about 20% of its corporate and supply chain workforce and closed about 150 of its stores. This week it is in the process of cutting costs by an additional $80 to $100 million, with some of those savings coming from a reduced workforce. A town hall meeting will be held on Wednesday to discuss its future. Unfortunately, the outlook is looking very grim for this company.
These are challenging times for many of us. And the Fed does not escape facing barriers of its own to stabilize the economy. Powell has stressed that he may have to make politically unpopular decisions to get the job done. Both sides of politics have been critical of Fed actions, but the Fed is outside political control and hence can act independently to stabilize prices. Just sit with the fact that we may have inflation for longer than most expect.
Have you heard of Chat GPT?
It’s an artificial intelligence interface, which was developed by San Francisco-based Open AI and is backed by Microsoft and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. The chatbot can generate detailed responses, hold a conversation, and answer questions just like a human. Is it a challenge for Google? Maybe, in the future.
Microsoft plans to invest $10 billion in Open AI.
It seems like all customer service will become robotic in the future. That may make business more efficient and cost-effective, but it also makes the relationship between the customer and the business very depersonalised.
Those businesses that keep some element of human interaction with their clients will be seen as dinosaurs, but celebrated and lauded for challenging the trend.
Happy mid-week.
Don’t forget to sign up for the Hawaii strategy luncheon. Looking forward to seeing you all there.
Cheers,
Jacque
“Motivation is what gets you started…”
