Adios Brother Tucker! The Real Reason Fox’s Firebrand Was Fired. Incredibility Gap India – And a Secret Macro-Economic Indicator! #162
Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck, and welcome to this newsletter featuring seven things that caught my attention this week.
Also in this edition – why online meetings actually suck, and on the job training makes a comeback.
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1️⃣ Adios Brother Tucker!
What a TV firing tells us about what we really know.
Whatever you think of Tucker Carlson, his firing tells us some interesting things about corporate life and death at the top.
For starters, do we really know why a man earning millions a year, with a fan base of a couple or million or so viewers, was let go by his employer, Fox News?
Was it the Dominion lawsuit that cost Fox hundreds of millions? Or the next legal claim? Others probably contributed more.
Was it accusations of bullying and anti-semitism? Fox denies them.
Was it an unhinged after-dinner speech?
Was it just working for an “erratic” billionaire owner?
Carlson – a millionaire used to claiming that things are shut down, cancelled or silenced – is suddenly free to tell all.
But so far, only silence.* And then Mr Murdoch’s WSJ carries a story with this nugget buried within:
“While Mr. Carlson’s ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was popular, it was also repellent to blue-chip advertisers.
“The lack of advertiser demand meant the commercials in many cases weren’t being sold at a premium or at a rate commensurate with its audience size, which meant it wasn’t providing a financial windfall to the network...”
Fox’s leadership chose car manufacturers over conspiracy theorists.
*Well this popped up.
⏭ Markets still wiped half a billion dollars off Fox stock.
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2️⃣ The India Conundrum
Does economic hype match demographic reality?
Veteran commentator Vivek Kaul has an interesting piece about soaring valuations for his country’s startups.
Kaul’s conclusion?
“A huge population is not the same as a huge consumer market”
Kaul says when you dive beneath the hype:
“1% of Indians take 45% of flights, 2.6% of Indians invest in mutual funds. 6.5% of users are responsible for 44% of UPI (online payment) transactions. and 5% of users account for a third of the orders placed on (restaurant delivery service) Zomato.”
“Much of the consumption is driven by a tiny super-user set... (The) broad user base narrows sharply when it comes to paying users.”
Markets aren’t listening, though.
⏭ Meanwhile rising heat waves also threaten India’s economic prospects.
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3️⃣ There’s a Secret Economic Indicator
And ‘they’ don’t want you to know about it.
Well ‘they’ talk about it on earnings call. So maybe they’re not that bothered.
CEOs worry about the macro economic picture a lot. Here’s the McDonald’s CEO on a recent earnings call:
“Our job is to make sure that no matter what the environment, whether you’re in a boom cycle or whether you’re in a more challenging macro-environment.”
But how? What are the secret economic indicators?
Things like did someone add fries to their order ... we’re seeing that go down in most of our markets around the world slightly, but it’s still going down.
You read that right. Want fries with that? Say no, and you’re crashing the economy.
The corporation that supplies McDonald’s with its frozen french fries has a more technical term for this phenomenon.
These are the things they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School.
⏭ Other odd economic indicators? Paint buying.
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4️⃣ All You Can Eat?
The corporate disconnect between health and wealth.
Nestlé, a $300bn+ corporation, is trying to do the right thing by consumers. It recently audited its products and found fewer than half could be called ‘healthy’.
Activist investors point to trouble coming from government regulation. Experts accuse corporations like Nestlé of feeding the obesity crisis.
Meantime, Nestlé just launched a chocolate breakfast cereal in the UK that’s about a quarter sugar.
It says the cereal is an ‘occasional, indulgent’ treat – so presumably it stays fresh in your cupboard to be pulled out once a month for a glucose spike.
The pressure is undoubtedly on. Obesity is a major public health crisis facing cash-strapped governments.
Between middle management wanting to make a buck, concerned investors, critical experts, and consumers seemingly unable to pass up a chocolate-coated sugary cereal opportunity – you have the ‘S’ in ESG.
Welcome to life in the C-suite.
⏭ A pharma company with an anti-obesity drug is now worth more than Nestlé.
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5️⃣ Need More Skilled Workers?
Try something old-fashioned – ‘on the job’ training.
⏭ US firms have also been ‘upskilling’ to retain staff.
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6️⃣ Don’t Interrupt!
The real reason we hate video meetings...
⏭ Unnecessary meetings could cost big companies $100m a year.
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7️⃣ Facetime a Parrot
In case you’re feeling Norwegian Blue*
Parrots have been taught to communicate via video calls – but don’t worry – soon they’ll just be texting the odd emoji.
Not all calls were a success. Parrots can get angry. In case you’re tempted to teach own avian pal, researchers warn:
“Larger parrots have beaks more than capable of cracking an iPad into pieces.”
*Monty Python reference.
⏭ Parrot-free reading on Bea’s book club podcast.
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If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!
Best,
Adrian
