Earlier this month, tech mogul Elon Musk, pledged to step down as CEO of Twitter. After conducting a “Twitter Poll” on the platform, 57.5% of respondents called for his resignation.
Boasting more than 120 million users, it goes without saying that Elon Musk had an enormous Twitter presence long before his majority share purchase. Post-purchase, Musk took it upon himself to restructure the entire company, top to bottom. Tweeting his plans into existence.
Within the first few days as head of Twitter, Elon would tweet public polls that decided on reversing the ban of select controversial Twitter accounts. Polarizing figures like Donald Trump and Kanye West headlined the polls, receiving over 50 million votes and 150 million views. After seeing the sheer number of user engagement, Musk tweeted another public poll on December the 20th. This new poll would give Twitter users influence over his fate as CEO.
Image from Twitter.com
With the power squarely on the shoulders of every Twitter user, majority of voters (57.5%) called for Musk’s resignation. As he said he would, Elon abided by the results of the poll and subsequently announced his departure from Twitter.
In just a few short months, Elon has made an enormous impact at Twitter, both structurally and publicly. It seems news outlets cannot survive a day without a segment on Musk. What will he do next and how does his rhetoric affect his ventures? Both shareholders and employees have seen instances where Elon has sent stock prices into a spiral. There has been looming uncertainty at Tesla and SpaceX many times due to controversial actions taken by Musk.
Which brings us to our next question.
How does a company’s leadership affect you as an employee?
Twitter has been a prime example of company leadership ideals not aligning with company employee ideals, and the subsequent consequences. I.e., major layoffs.
Every person has a wide range of factors that play into a decision to join or leave a company. At HPR, we believe leadership should be one of the dominating components. The same way trickle-down economics is described, we can say the same for internal corporate power dynamics. When decisions are made on the top floor, they are bound to affect the entire company, down to the mail room.
Similarly, we see that sports teams are also heavily affected by internal power dynamics. Ownership has a huge impact on team culture, directly affecting wins/loss column. The late Hank Steinbrenner of the Yankees ran the team with a “win at all costs” mentality. They now have the most world championships in history. Now take the Mets, previously owned by the notoriously cheap Wilpons, have only won two championships since ’69. They were recently purchased by the big spending Mets superfan, Steve Cohen. With the Mets being run with a similar mentality to that of the Yankees, fans have seen success as of late. It’s not just about payroll though. The well-run Pittsburgh Steelers has a history of stability under the Rooney’s, while the Washington Football team has always been under a cloud of uncertainty with Dan Snyder.
It is of the utmost importance to understand the power dynamic within a company before joining, otherwise you may be in the same position as those who feel unfulfilled in their current role. At Hire Point Recruiting we want nothing more than to have a candidate and a company gel. This truly ensures mutual happiness and continued success for all parties involved. When switching roles, don’t jump aimlessly for a bigger check. Take your time to consider every aspect of the company culture and their values.
Groceries Burning a Hole in Your Pocket?
Special Interview ft. Andrew Sigfrids, Sr. Manager of Supply Chain
Image from LinkedIn.com
I think it is safe to say everyone is feeling the pain when you go to the grocery store. It has been noted that all food prices have gone up in 2022 between 9.5% to 10.5%. Recently, I went to the store and picked up three bags of food for my family (4 people), which cost about $200. Trust me when I say, we are not eating extravagantly in my house.
Due to these increases, HPR decided to leverage our network to do some investigative journalism.
We connected with Andrew Sigfrids, an experienced Sr. Supply Chain Manager who has worked at top food and consumer goods companies like Nestle, Pepsi, and Lidl US. Here is some of his insight.
Rising Prices:
“Having worked at Pepsi Co., and now at Nestle which are two of the biggest CPG companies in the world, we have increased prices due to a number of different issues:
- Raw Materials – continue to increase due to a number of environmental factors.
- Labor Shortages – still hitting us from the coronavirus pandemic.
- High Fuel Costs – starting to come down though (I saw gas at $3.07 today)
- Shipping Costs – fuel price increase
All of these inputs go into the finished package product. Labor shortage means a higher labor rate, if price of sugar goes up 2% globally then every product with sugar will go up. Anytime there’s increases in raw materials and energy (your two primary drivers) along with lingering supply chain disruptions from Covid, it will have an impact today. Also, the war in Ukraine is affecting commodities like oil and wheat.”
Will the prices slow down?
“Overall, the price of food is decreasing but it’s going up in certain categories like:
- Eggs – Avion flu is affecting bird population.
- Orange Juice – hurricane hit Florida, invasive insects causing disease.
- Dairy – grain to feed cows is going up, labor shortage, supply chain disruption.
- Wheat – war in Ukraine
- Frozen Prepared Foods and Frozen Vegetables – labor intensive items
- Soft Drinks – high cost of aluminum used for cans.
Yogurt is up 21% in Q3 YOY, cereal is up 20% which is enormous. Soft drinks like Pepsi used to be 3 for $9 (12 pack). Now 3 for $18 is a deal. So, retailers are trying to offer value to the customer but also passing along the price increases.
Year-over-year (YOY) prices are up 12% according to the consumer price index, but month-over-month they’re slowing down, which is a good indicator.”
What are companies doing to keep prices down and how are consumers adjusting?
“Companies are implementing ‘shrinkflation’ which is when they downsize a product in order to keep the price the same. Consumers are shifting spend by:
- Buying Fresh Food Over Frozen
- “Value Snacking” – buying cheaper private label brands.
- Cooking Snacks – popping your own popcorn, baking raw packaged cookies.
- Limited Expensive Items – only buying an expensive protein like salmon once a week or when it goes on sale.”
I also want to add that companies are rebranding “shrinkflation” as portion-control, so be on the lookout.
Hopefully, this article will provide us all a glimmer of hope. At this rate, I am going to get a 2nd job to afford the food bill in my house!
What’s Going on at Hire Point Recruiting?
Here at Hire Point, January has been a busy, busy month! We just acquired our new office in Sparta, NJ and moved in last week. This is a momentous step for Hire Point, and we couldn’t be more excited to start our next chapter at 25 Centre Street. Big things are coming for us in 2023!
With the grand opening of our new office, we have been actively interviewing recruiters and interns to fill some roles we have open! If you or someone you know may be interested in a new role with us, please reach out to info@hirepointrecruiting.com or dial 860-360-2200.
ESG Initiative
Hire Point Recruiting is closely following updates about potential reporting requirements for the ESG initiative. The expected timing on reporting requirements will be posted as of April 2023. This initiative will have a substantial impact on companies across the United States.
So, what exactly is an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiative? Essentially, it is an initiative that addresses a company’s performance with regards to minimizing its impact on the environment. Or it can be an initiative that fosters greater responsibility to employees, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which the company operates. It could also be an initiative that fosters accountability and transparency around the company’s leadership, executive pay, shareholder rights and auditing. Environmental initiatives may measure and improve how a company minimizes its carbon footprint, deals with waste, conserves natural resources, or reduces pollution. Hire Point Recruiting has seen a number of partnering clients make changes to business as usual, such as utilizing recycled ocean plastics for their products.
If you follow us on LinkedIn, you probably have seen we just moved into a new office building. If not, be sure to go check out our recent posts! During our location move, we couldn’t believe the amount of cardboard, packing material, and plastic wrap used to ship our new office furniture. On one of our several trips to the recycling dumpster, our office came to a collective consensus, “There has to be a better way to do this!”
If you want to learn more about how you can gear up for ESG reporting initiatives, please reach out to us. Hire Point Recruiting can serve as a valuable resource when seeking talent in ESG initiative roles.
Our Team
Kate Donato – kate@hirepointrecruiting.com
Anthony Carrea – anthony@hirepointrecruiting.com
Michael Plemenos – mplemenos@hirepointrecruiting.com