#strategy

It’s official! We are going public. Nice to see Michael’s strategy finally paying off. Excited to see what the future holds as an S&P 500 company.

It’s evident that Direct has no solid strategy to grow sales. It’s a surprise that the company has entrusted in a person with no business sense and market understanding to lead Direct Platform. Her only play is going to be to cut costs, rather than nurture. So many layoffs in 2025 and no continues in Jan 2026. The worst part is how it’s being quietly done.

AI??? More like incompetence. They couldn't get their AI platform off the ground as of the end of last year. They eliminated contractors who were working on datacenters related to automation and AI. All I saw was non-stop push back against progress while I was there from middle managers who do nothing but fudge reports. It's just more smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that the executives are out of touch. No one is driving the ship.

speaking only from my own expereince, i find myself conflicted about how easy it feels to change roles at amazon once you are inside the inner circle.
on one hand, that fluidity creates opprotunity and can feel empowering, but it also leaves me wondering whether rigor and claritiy are getting lost at senior levels...
i rarely see an l8 write a single one pager that clearly articulats direction or strategy, and instead watch strategy turn into a collage of documents owned by l6s and l7s defending their own space.

i may be missing context or blind to constraints, but it makes me question what strong leadreship really looks like here and whether i fully understand the system i am part of...

Mary is making things happen over at GM, actually announcing subscription REVENUE numbers. $2 BILLION current, $$5 BILLION future commitments.

From Business Insider:

Mary Barra, GM's CEO, boasted major gains in the company’s subscription base.

General Motors said its in-vehicle tech services generated nearly $2 billion last year.
GM sells three main subscription products: safety features, in-car internet access, and hands-free driver assistance.

GM told Business Insider it plans to add features through updates over time, reducing the need for new car parts.

General Motors has been pulling a Tim Cook and boosting its software and subscription business.

During the automaker's Tuesday earnings call, CEO Mary Barra highlighted the rapid growth of GM's in-vehicle software and subscription business.

In the past nine months, GM's software generated $2 billion, and customers have already signed up for about $5 billion in future subscriptions.

The company said it now has 11 million subscribers for its OnStar safety system, up 34% from a year earlier. Another half a million customers are also paying for Super Cruise, its hands-free driver-assistance system.

Now, that's still just a fraction of its total revenue, which was $45.29 billion in the last quarter alone. But the margins on those services are also higher than on cars sales.

GM says its software business keeps roughly 70 cents of every dollar it brings in. That's a rare level of profitability in the auto industry, as many car sales generate just four to 10 cents per sales dollar.

"We are also executing plans to grow software and services like OnStar and Super Cruise to generate even greater revenue during and after each vehicle sale," Barra said on the call. "We think there's a growth opportunity there with very attractive margins."

"Software and services are becoming increasingly important to how customers experience GM vehicles and how we deliver value beyond the initial purchase," a spokesperson told Business Insider.

The company also said it will keep adding features and services to vehicles over time, rather than relying on hardware upgrades.

"As vehicles become more software-defined, we can introduce new digital experiences through updates and optional services rather than hardware changes," the spokesperson added.

The subscriptions push comes as automakers look for new ways to make money after cars leave the dealership lot — especially as Detroit automakers roll out new electric vehicles.

... when it's talking about the 100th anniversary of its IPO. Is that even a thing? Has any other publicly traded century old company -- GE, GM, Coca-Cola, etc. -- ever "celebrated" its IPO? (What about the years when NCR was part of AT&T, shouldn't that be excluded? Current management probably doesn't even know about that.) How much did management spend on this NYC junket?! Did David and Eric come back?!

This company is in very bad shape. James Kelly's strategy is to load the company up with payments-related bells and whistles and sell it to Global Payments. But the payments industry -- any company that isn't Visa or Mastercard -- has also become a commodity.. Nobody's going to buy this dog, unless it's out of bankruptcy.

The way things are going, that just might happen.

The company announced a 20% dividend increase and a new $6 billion stock buyback program.

Someone ran a piece a few days ago about Chinese automaker BYD raising $5 billion to expand all over the place. New factories, new dealerships, very aggressive moves to increase global market share.

General Motors has even bigger plans - a giant new Stock Buyback and Shareholder Dividend Flimflam! Yay! USA! USA! USA!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rj-young-announces-partnership-agreement-163900752.html

RJ Young company has partnered with Xerox for sales and service

Vicki made a huge bet on DAC. To me, the business case was always shaky even if it works PERFECTLY. I’m told it is over schedule and over budget, and we just got rid of OxyChem, which could have been a critical resource.
What if it doesn’t work? Do we have to pay back all of the companies that bought credits? Write off the purchase of Carbon Engineering? Write off the DAC complex?

Pipe in to share your opinions of current oil industry leadership both positive and negative attributes. It’s crystal clear that many companies are only after shiny and short term goals. Also crystal clear that drilling to prosperity is more challenging then ever.

Humana 2026 Outlook: Financials, Retention, and Compensation
Company Health & Financials

As of January 2026, Humana is in a "rehab" mode, focusing on a transition from aggressive expansion to profit-focused stability.

• Margins: Targeting a move from 1% to 2% pre-tax margins in Medicare Advantage.

• Market Adjustments: Exited 13 Medicare Advantage markets and 198 counties, impacting approximately 500,000 to 560,000 members.

• Star Ratings: A current headwind, with only 20% of members in 4-star plans or higher, though recovery is expected by 2027.

Employee Retention

• General Sentiment: Humana remains in the top 25% of large companies for retention, though RTO mandates are causing friction.

• Workforce Changes: Implementation of limited layoffs and voluntary early retirement packages to "right-size" the organization.

• CenterWell: Clinical staff show high mission-based satisfaction but report challenges with work-life balance.

RTO, Compensation, and Bonuses

• Return-to-Office (RTO): A 3-day in-office requirement for most corporate roles is leading to turnover in remote-heavy departments like Tech and Admin.

• Compensation: Annual merit increases are averaging 3.0% to 3.2%. "Skill-based pay" offers higher premiums (4-5%) for AI, Actuarial, and Clinical Management roles.

• Bonuses: Performance-Based Incentives (PBI) are now heavily tied to the company's 2% operating margin target and Star Rating recovery.

• Benefits: 2026 updates include eliminated copays for in-network mental health, modular benefit options (e.g., trading perks for HSA contributions), and an emergency savings match program.

watch it here: https://s.hbr.org/3STBqBM

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman with conversation on HBR Exec during WEF Davos 2026

AK spewing his typical stuff at the WEF in Davos. For the CEO of an American corporation, he seems real concerned about India's AI sovereignty.

"US AGI Is Overhyped": IBM CEO & India's IT Minister Talk India's AI Sovereignty At Davos 2026 --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqb29BAxTrs

Is India Behind US, China In AI? IT Minister, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna Respond At Davos --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4bARzQmqkU

What a joke, fido has ~91 different flavors of the same thing, what a clown camp! Is the marketing team wagging the investment management team or what holy shxt!

Hmmm, how many asset allocations can we make up....how about our next attempt to saturate the product market with the same thing is the stock allocations all have red prospectuses and the bond has white prospectuses and any cash has blue prospectuses, well will call it the Fidelity Red, White and Blue allocations.
"Bravo you are promoted"

Freedom Index
Freedom Blend
Freedom Fund
Freedom Retirement Index
Fidelity Sustainable Target Date

But Mr. Customer do you want us to do the same thing in a managed account and pay us a separate fee...

dahhhhhhhhh

I am having a hard time understanding some of the layoffs. Is it just targeting highly compensated people, and replacing them with cheaper, less qualified labor? Not quite sure how G plans to pull this one off.

Any info on the ITK workshops going on strategy in P&O

I’ve participated in ESPP for several years, and the lack of a consistent strategy is becoming hard to ignore.

Leadership keeps reacting on short-term measures instead of planning; repeated layoffs every few months erode trust internally and externally.

It’s time for a proactive plan that lasts longer than a calendar quarter. Credibility matters.

Train wreck in every org coming. We struggle to manage operations with current staffing, and no way in he!! will HIH provide % of 1% support to keep lights on, nevermind manage strategy. All those on the 20 to 25% cut list, remember you followed their lead, they created the mess...I hope they bought stock in the mops they will need to clean up the slop on the floors.

How is Financials are gonna be impacted. I heard business was a negative margin business and VZ deciding to double down on a losing business.

Sounds like a winning strategy to me. For competitors I mean

2.5 years/10 Qtrs into Rahuls reign and the company is struggling to grow, thats what they say in meetings and Turnover keeps on shrinking even though the company is highly profitable by squeezing employees pay contracts will eventually run off.

What can be done? Rahul and the team need to take big cuts until they grow, or a new leader needs to be brought in, this can't continue.

What's even the strategy anymore? We keep losing customers and value, but all we hear are excuses. The big transformational plan they promised has been a total failure. Instead of fixing the core issues, they just cut more people and shuffle org charts. It makes you wonder if anyone at the top has a clue how to stop the slide or if they even care.

I’m on board with that, bring in the new blood with innovation and forward thinking. Bring in the visionaries. This includes Jane. She’s old guard, right? The Citi vision needs to be more than ‘wait and see what the other banks are doing, then play catch up’.

Let’s bring in some new blood. How is this a bad thing?

Well for those fortunate enough to keep their jobs, hearing RTO 5 days a week is coming as part of the new strategy going forward. Gone are the Friday through Monday "4 day weekends" many have been enjoying. Covid is long over...time for everyone to get back in the saddle 5 days a week.

The direction couldn’t be clearer anymore: the company is consolidating aggressively into Plano. Everything outside of Plano is being phased out unless you’re considered “critical” and already local. Even employees currently assigned to the Dallas HQ are being told they’ll move to Plano once the new office is ready, which says everything about the strategy.

Notices are starting to hit teams in St. Louis, LA, and other non-Plano locations, with more expected to follow. This isn’t a rumor or a one-off—it’s the plan. If you’re not in Plano, the message is blunt: relocate or prepare to exit. The days of distributed hubs and geographic flexibility are effectively over at AT&T.

Dan, you have taken the pledge, have an obligation, thus to be resilient and NOT RUTHLESS.

Outage, valuable 2026 lesson(s) learnt, difficult as-is, thus formulate a to-be "savvy and realistic" turnaround strategy.

Mission (make it better): Customers first and then employees second!!!

Goal (image is everything): Do not allow the competition to eat and take Verizon's lunch.

Irony (sorrow): Wednesday's Outage, formerly Hans the network SME and also formerly Shank (Shankar) the IT SME, causes and effect??

Lions, led by donkeys… “classic”
https://www.printweek.com/content/news/xerox-s-darren-cassidy-steps-fully-into-new-role

At CES this year, analysts delivered one of the bluntest assessments the PC industry has heard in decades. While Apple and Lenovo are projected to become mega giants by 2030, far larger and more dominant than they are today, HP and Dell face a very different trajectory. Experts described both companies as “too large to pivot quickly, but too dependent on legacy PC economics to compete at the cutting edge.”
The consensus across panels and private briefings was clear. HP and Dell will not disappear, but they will be significantly smaller by the end of the decade. Multiple analysts forecast that each company will be less than half the size they are today by 2030, a direct result of structural disadvantages that intensify between 2026 and 2030.
The forces driving this contraction are the same ones powering Apple and Lenovo’s rise: AI acceleration, unified memory architectures, and a global shortage of advanced DRAM and HBM that favors vertically integrated giants.

HP: The Enterprise Giant Without a Silicon Strategy
By 2030, HP remains a recognizable brand, but primarily because of its enterprise contracts an government relationships, but the printing ecosystem completely collapses. Its consumer PC business, once a global leader, shrinks sharply during the second half of the decade.
Analysts at CES highlighted three core weaknesses:
• No proprietary silicon
HP depends entirely on Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA for AI acceleration. As AI PCs shift toward unified memory and custom neural engines, HP cannot differentiate.
• Thin margins in a tightening consumer market
Memory shortages hit HP’s mid‑range systems hardest. With HBM and advanced DRAM diverted to AI servers, HP’s consumer lineup becomes less competitive.
• Slow transition to AI‑native design
HP’s attempts to retrofit AI features into traditional laptops fall short of the performance delivered by vertically integrated competitors.
By 2029 and 2030, HP begins exploring carve‑outs and strategic restructuring to protect its enterprise business but the consumer footprint is gone.

Dell: A Server Powerhouse Dragged Down by Its PC Division
Dell enters the late 2020s with a booming server and data‑center business driven by global AI infrastructure demand. Yet this strength exposes the weakness of its PC division.
CES analysts pointed to several structural challenges:
• PCs lose strategic relevance inside Dell
As AI servers dominate revenue, the PC division becomes a low‑margin legacy business.
• Dependence on third‑party memory and GPUs
When HBM shortages intensify between 2027 and 2029, Dell prioritizes servers, leaving its PC lineup underpowered and overpriced.
• Enterprise buyers shift to AI‑native devices
Corporate customers increasingly choose AI‑accelerated systems from Apple and Lenovo, which offer better on‑device inference and unified memory designs.
By 2030, Dell’s PC business survives only through mergers, joint ventures, or partial divestitures, allowing the company to focus on its profitable AI‑server empire.

The New Hierarchy by 2030
CES analysts agreed on the broad outline of the decade ahead:
• Apple and Lenovo become mega giants, far larger and more dominant than they are today
• HP and Dell shrink to less than half their current size
• Acer and MSI exit the market entirely
• AI PCs replace traditional laptops
• Control of silicon and memory determines survival

Apple business represent 40% of modem business for Qualcomm. Qualcomm fooling its way into the GPU datacenter business is a fantasy. Insider information suggests Qualcomm is offering their solution to a relative unknown Humain for free just to test their solution. In other words Qualcomm is doomed.

No wonder there are so many layoffs! 30000 employees laid off to recover $10B.
Increase the price of Prime!

All tech shares saw a drop today. But SAP's is a small drop in the bucket. Wait for the 29th when the quarterly financial results are out and you'll see how much faith investors actually have at SAP.

Investors are realizing two important things: (i) that SAP is abandoning its core revenue generating businesses for stupid AI features that do not work and no one wants to pay for, and (ii) that SAP has no real strategy to grow the company revenue. They're only focused on saving some operating costs using layoffs and by cutting down on employee salary budgets and benefits. But there is no real plan to make the company more profitable. There are better companies to invest in and that's where shareholders are focusing their wealth.

Also there has been a talk between SAP executives to restart share buybacks. Maybe that's why some of the millionaire executives are dumping their shares.

An on point post from @a9+1keyr10dv.

Phillips 66 presents itself as an integrated downstream energy company—one designed to balance cycles, allocate capital across segments, and deliver more durable returns than simpler peers. On paper, that strategy is sensible. The challenge is that the benefits of integration remain difficult to see in either operating results or market valuation.

Under Mark Lashier, integration is frequently cited as a core advantage. But integration is not defined by asset mix or corporate structure. It is defined by whether complexity earns its keep.

So far, the evidence is mixed at best.

If integration were working as intended, it would show up in at least one of three ways:

1) Meaningfully lower earnings volatility than pure-play refiners

2) Superior capital efficiency driven by portfolio-level optimization

3) Consistently stronger shareholder returns than simpler competitors

Phillips 66 has not reliably delivered any of the three.

Refining continues to dominate quarterly performance and investor sentiment. Volatility in one segment regularly overwhelms stability elsewhere in the portfolio. The diversification benefit that is central to the integration story often feels theoretical rather than observable. When one business sets the tone for the entire enterprise, the portfolio is diversified in name only.

This is not an asset-quality issue. Phillips 66 owns strong positions across refining, midstream, and chemicals. Nor is it an employee issue—teams across the company execute in difficult, cyclical markets. The problem is structural: complexity has not translated into resilience or premium valuation.

Markets tend to be blunt about this. Companies that combine multiple businesses without producing clear cross-segment advantages are typically valued at a discount, not because investors misunderstand them, but because the burden of complexity outweighs the benefits. Phillips 66 continues to be priced like a company where scale and breadth dilute focus rather than amplify it.

Leadership compensation underscores this tension.

Lashier’s most recently disclosed compensation, at approximately $22.6 million, places him near the top of the energy peer group. That level of pay implicitly signals confidence that Phillips 66 is being run at a leadership premium—that integration is working, that capital is being optimally allocated, and that complexity is being actively converted into value.

Shareholder outcomes tell a more restrained story.

Over the past year, Phillips 66 delivered solid but not standout returns—better than the broader energy sector, but trailing several refining-focused peers operating with far simpler portfolios and fewer internal trade-offs. For a company that argues its structure creates advantage, delivering merely “good” performance relative to best-in-class peers raises an uncomfortable question: what is the complexity buying?

There is also a less quantifiable—but critical—dimension of integration: leadership proximity to execution.

Integration is not forged in earnings calls or strategy decks. It is built where trade-offs are resolved—between segments competing for capital, between systems that don’t fully align, and between teams asked to move in sync without shared incentives. Sustained senior leadership presence in those environments matters. When that presence is limited, integration remains conceptual rather than operational.

None of this diminishes the effort of employees. Phillips 66 has capable people doing hard work in volatile conditions. The gap lies between strategy and operating reality.

Until integration demonstrably reduces volatility, improves capital outcomes, or delivers consistently superior returns, it will remain a promise rather than a proven advantage—and markets will continue to treat it accordingly.

I have to give credit where credit is due. T-Mobile leadership made a smart move by getting rid of phone subsidies and acquiring Sprint but the rest of their strategy was very straightforward. They waited until the 5G standard was finalized then deployed it with a standalone 5G core starting with low band so they could maximize coverage. Their 5G customers have all been on the standalone 5G core since 2020!

Contrast this to the unforced errors of Verizon leadership. They started by deploying small islands of coverage using mmWave weighed down by the old 4G core. They added unnecessary complexity to the network then proceeded to let go of a lot of experienced people through multiple rounds of VSPs and layoffs. And now they managed to loose their hard earned reputation as the most reliable network.

T-Mobile leadership didn’t do much that was extraordinary. They just avoided rookie mistakes but they now look like absolute geniuses.

Seems to be happening

Intel has a track record of sinking infinite amount of money.
Is LBT still trying to fix it, or just feed it with more money, this time from Uncle Sam?
Is Intel still on track to be split up?

"Our future is not in the print industry but in semiconductors".

Kind of saying the quiet part out loud there.

I wanted to understand whether the market is actually buying our integration narrative—or whether repeating it is meaningfully changing how investors who trade PSX perceive the company.

To test this, I analyzed daily share price correlations between PSX and a set of peers—MPC, VLO, DINO, and PBF, with XOM and CVX included as examples of truly integrated energy companies—across 5-, 3-, 2-, and 1-year periods.

The results are clear and consistent: PSX trades most like Valero, and that relationship is stable across every time horizon. Only in the most recent one-year period does PSX trade marginally more like MPC, but even then, its correlation with refining peers increased, not decreased. In contrast, correlations with XOM and CVX remain materially lower and largely unchanged over time.

The market is telling us something straightforward: PSX is viewed as a refiner, and that perception is not evolving.

Rather than fighting that reality, we should consider embracing it—making the hard choices required to present PSX as a pure-play refining and marketing company, one that investors can clearly benchmark against peers and value accordingly.

TRP is so behind our peers in so many ways. Those who have spent their careers here often don’t see the issues or aren’t willing to challenge them. It’s time to bring in more new blood at the top levels to turn the ship around. The focus should be on innovation and operational efficiency.

Need new leadership