Tesla CEO Elon Musk has dashed 1,10,000 employees’ hopes to continue working remotely, ordering them back to offices or else put in their papers. He also ordered a hiring freeze at Tesla and could fire over 10,000 workers in the coming days. In other news, Meta’s COO Sheryl Sandberg stepped down after 14 years as Zuck’s deputy, and a Qualcomm-led semiconductor industry consortium plans to acquire Arm for an undisclosed sum. Deloitte Consulting’s John Brownridge and Greg Vert also discuss how AI is already impacting the workforce today and how it will continue to shape future strategies.
Elon Musk orders workers back to the offices, initiates a hiring freeze
Notwithstanding his recent tryst with Twitter’s acquisition, Elon Musk has grabbed the headlines again. The world’s richest tech magnate has effectively canceled the remote work culture at Tesla and has mandated employees to work at least 40 hours a week at the company’s gigafactories.Â
What’s more, Musk has admitted to having a “super bad feeling†about the state of the economy and has initiated an across-the-board hiring freeze at Tesla. An internal email accessed by Reuters also indicates that Musk is open to firing at least 10% of Tesla’s workforce, or about 11,000 people, to keep the financials steady.
Check out why Musk is not a fan of remote work and what led him to plan a hiring freeze.
Sheryl Sandberg calls it quits, but keeps her place at the Meta board
Meta’s COO Sheryl Sandberg has decided it’s time to hang up her boots following a 14-year journey with Facebook. However, she won’t disappear from the limelight yet as she plans to stay on till this Fall to ensure a smooth transition and will continue to keep her place on Zuckerberg’s board.
As per whispers coming in from Meta’s corporate alleys, Sandberg’s departure isn’t much of a surprise for those who have been working alongside her. CEO Zuckerberg is already looking ahead. “I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products,†he said. We’re sure Sandberg agrees.
As for her future, Sandberg is heading towards a good night’s sleep, focussing on her foundation Lean In and philanthropic work. However, in the Big Tech world, it would be foolish to assume we’ve heard the last of her.Â
Check out our in-depth coverage of Sandberg’s departure from Meta.
How will AI impact the future workforce?
AI promises to deliver a powerful and versatile set of capabilities with the potential to drive transformative change for organizations. In an in-depth piece, John Brownridge and Greg Vert at Deloitte Consulting offer us a bird’s eye view of how AI and other technological advances could significantly impact and shape the future of work.Â
Automation is usually the first word that comes to one’s mind when the topic of AI is breached. However, as the two experts lay down, AI could power many more use cases to make workers more productive and create capacity. For instance, the ability to create better digital experiences, unlock insights and create new outputs will help organizations improve the well-being and engagement of the workforce and improve deliverables.
But these changes won’t happen overnight. Brownridge and Vert believe organizations would have to proactively develop a talent strategy to support the transition to the AI-enabled future of work. They also need to establish the AI vision, strategy, and roadmap by keeping cultural, talent, and operational shifts in mind.
Click here to read more about how AI would influence and support the workplace of the future.
Qualcomm-led consortium plans to acquire Arm as the semiconductor feud intensifies
In 2021, the semiconductor industry witnessed much unrest involving key players worldwide after NVIDIA announced its intent to acquire British semiconductor design company Arm for about $40 billion. After an intense uproar and regulatory arm twisting, NVIDIA finally aborted the deal this February, costing Arm’s then CEO his job.
In a bid to prevent another company from cornering the lion’s share of the semiconductor design and manufacturing market, a powerful consortium of key industry players, led by Qualcomm, of course, has announced its intent to acquire Arm in the coming days. “You’d need to have many companies participating so they have a net effect that Arm is independent,†said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.
SoftBank, which acquired Arm for $31.4 billion in 2016, plans to hold on to its controlling stake in Arm even after a planned Initial Public Offering in 2023.
Click here to read more about the planned acquisition of Arm.
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