Good morning.
Twelve years ago, I wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal called “The End of Management,” arguing that the 20th-century corporation was rapidly becoming obsolete. Those companies were organized on logic laid out in 1937 by British economist Ronald Coase, who said such cumbersome bureaucratic structures were necessary to deal with the high “transaction costs” of coordinating vast resources and thousands of people to accomplish big, complicated tasks. But in the 21st century, digital technology was breaking down that logic, driving Coase’s transaction costs toward zero.
I was reminded of that article yesterday, during a conversation with PwC U.S. Chair Tim Ryan. Ryan is announcing today an effort to revolutionize the way work is done at his firm by allowing workers to manage their schedules and their careers on a smartphone app. If someone wants to work just three days a week, or switch jobs, or work extra hours to accelerate their career trajectory, or get the training necessary to change career direction, they can do just that…within certain boundaries set by the firm. Think of it as the Uberfication of work.
“We started working on this even before the pandemic. We talked to several thousand of our people. Dozens of clients. Ten academic institutions. We don’t believe the war for talent is going to abate. We think we are going to be in a period for the next 10 years of labor shortage.
“And what came through loud and clear is that people want choice, in every sense of the word. Hybrid is just the tip of the iceberg. The best talent wants choice. So we asked ourselves: Are we going to nibble around the edges? Or go big.”
The “go big” plan calls for a three-year transformation effort and a $2.4 billion investment, which will build the technology, the learning assets, and the corporate systems needed to make this work-on-demand system actually work. It’s a big bet, but Ryan believes it is “where all corporations will go—some faster than others. We have the technology to do this. Shame on us if we don’t do it.”
More news below. And check out today’s must-read story on the mega stock grant that made Tim Cook a billionaire and kicked off the current era of oversized CEO pay.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Stocks and Bitcoin plunge
Yesterday was the worst day for U.S. stocks since the pandemic exploded into everyone’s consciousness. The Dow fell by 1063 points (3.1%) and the S&P 500 by 3.6%. The Nasdaq was down by almost 5%. Bitcoin had a slightly worse fall. Recession fears are high, and today’s markets still look pretty gloomy. (Bonus read: Bernhard Warner on the “new FAANG” that BoA is pushing, with the now-less-high-flying tech companies replaced by essential sectors.) Fortune
Twitter CEO
Tesla CEO and SpaceX CEO and Neuralink CEO Elon Musk is reportedly also going to become Twitter’s CEO after he takes over the company—at least, temporarily. Musk yesterday announced more than $7 billion in new financing commitments for the deal, with backers including Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, who has committed a cool billion. Bloomberg
U.S. vs. Russia
Earlier this week, U.S. officials made sure Moscow knew U.S. intelligence had helped Ukraine kill Russian generals, but the Pentagon then said the U.S. did not intentionally participate in the generals’ targeting. Now, officials claim the U.S. gave Ukraine the location information that helped its forces sink Russia’s flagship Moskva cruiser. And again the Pentagon stepped in, denying it had given Kyiv “specific targeting information.” CNN
Facebook tactics
Facebook’s nuking last year of Australian government pages about COVID vaccinations and the weather—which occurred when it was blocking news websites in defiance of a bill that would have forced it to pay news providers—was in fact deliberate, according to whistleblowers. Facebook claimed at the time that the collateral damage was “inadvertent,” but the whistleblowers say the company deliberately implemented a sloppy process to pressure the government. Wall Street Journal
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Tech regulation
So, about that report earlier this week that said the British government wasn’t going to give tough new powers to the new digital markets unit within the Competition and Markets Authority. Actually it is: The government just confirmed the unit will be able to fine Big Tech firms up to 10% of global turnover for the most serious “predatory” antitrust violations. However, that report wasn’t quite wrong; the government isn’t introducing the necessary legislation just yet. BBC
Cotton analysis
You weave some forbidden Xinjiang cotton into your garments, hoping no one will notice—but it turns out they will. Researchers doing isotopic analysis on fabrics have discovered that German brands such as Adidas, Puma, and Hugo Boss have all been using the human-rights-abuse-linked resource in their clothes, despite their promises to clean up their supply chains. Guardian
Hacktivists vs. Russia
The Financial Times has a great piece on how Russian companies and government bodies are being hammered by Ukraine-supporting hackers from around the world, who have swamped websites with denial-of-service attacks and leaked millions of confidential emails. Financial Times
Amazon development
The high court in South Africa’s Western Cape province has upheld the halting of a major new development that would include Amazon’s new African headquarters. The court dismissed an appeal application. News24
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
