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Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

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Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#71

Post by wheelinsupial »

globalise83 wrote: post #42
CityOfThrowaway wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that they say: > At Flexport, 2023 is going to bring extraordinary velocity – we are in the process of doubling our software engineering talent and moving to single threaded business organizations to build world class products faster, and we will continue to invest in delivering best-in-class operational execution for our customers. Looks like they are laying off non-tech workers who they have made (or wi…

moving to single threaded business organizations What does that even mean? They are only able to do one thing at a time? Doesn't sound like a recipe for business success to me...

"A single-threaded leader is a leader who is 100% dedicated and accountable to a specific product, such as your mobile application, customer account, or the search capability in your e-commerce store. The single-threaded leader is responsible for turning strategy into real results, and they are empowered to do so."

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/two-pizza-t...

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#72

Post by newaccount2021 »

lmm wrote: post #65
marcosdumay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you expect easy money to come back? Nearly all of the companies laying people off are the unsustainable ones. I can imagine a lot of companies struggling to hire in a few months. But I can't imagine they being the same ones that are just firing.

I think easy money is coming back. There's still a bunch of wealth that doesn't know anywhere to find returns, that hasn't changed.

[dead]

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#73

Post by pinewurst »

saysAl0t wrote: post #69
greatpostman wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These people just got into amazon early and rode the wave to the top. Some of them are truly talented, most were in the right place at the right time

Right place and time (era of cheap money) explains the majority of our so-called genius tech CEOs. A handful of ideas from info theory coupled with government desire to hype nation state brand does not a genius make. None of these people have established net new ideas. Just borrowing from Gödel, Shannon, Turing, and the like. Computer networks put the visibility, routing of logistics within reach of the masses. But w…

Not just CEOs, a lot of upper management all over. My own employer just hired a bunch of ex-Microsoft & Google people who are hardly the sharpest pencils (other than politically) and it seems all about the name on the resume.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#74

Post by xienze »

willcipriano wrote: post #25

Remember when everyone cut jobs and canceled orders at the beginning of the pandemic and it really bit them? I'm like 49% sure that's going to happen again. Something funny is in the air.

It’s slightly different dynamics. At the beginning of the pandemic, people thought the world was going to end (either in literal terms or just economic ones). The massive hiring came after people realized that life would go on.

What’s happening today is a result of the free money spigot being turned off. The layoffs and hiring freezes are going to be a bit more sticky.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#75

Post by epa »

willcipriano wrote: post #25

Remember when everyone cut jobs and canceled orders at the beginning of the pandemic and it really bit them? I'm like 49% sure that's going to happen again. Something funny is in the air.

In this case the maritime shipping industry has a huge oversupply of boats (compared to last year which had a huge undersupply). Consumers are slowing their spending and retailers have a lot of inventory.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#76

Post by brianwawok »

blacklight wrote: post #66
brianwawok wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only a 4 minute uncertainty window seems ok to me? If you were CEO how would you lay off 20% of your company?

Probably I wouldn't lay off 20% of my staff at all, unless I was really sailing in stormy waters with no way out. And Flexport isn't: there's been a slight dip in global supply chains caused by the uncertainty in China, but nothing so dramatic nor permanent that you should run and fire 1/5 of your staff - you only do that if something happens like China attacking Taiwan, and you know that for years to come trade won'…

The "I would never do X" is a classic response of someone who hasn't had to be there and do that. I suspect if you ever make it to that position, you will reach a point where you either have to do a big layoff - or your company will fold. So it's rather likely that you will fold, and no longer be a CEO.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#77

Post by dilyevsky »

iab wrote: post #18
akavi wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC-funded freight forwarding company. Basic thesis is by using tech, you can dramatically lower the labor costs of forwarding, and since freight forwarding has huge returns to scale, the benefits compound. They raised 2 G$ from 2019-2022, and their CEO used that warchest to expand counter-cyclically through the pandemic. TBD if either of the two theses pan out. Freight forwarding itself is the industry of coordinatin…

They raised two gillion??

Two googols

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#78

Post by pbalau »

greatpostman wrote: post #57
whatever1 wrote: post #54

The AMZN logistics ceo first ruined AMZN with the over expansion and then took the ceo role in flexport to do exactly the same thing. Amazing incompetence.

These people just got into amazon early and rode the wave to the top. Some of them are truly talented, most were in the right place at the right time

You are phrasing this as most of these people were simply lucky to be there, when the reality is that most of these people are the reason why Amazon is the top dog in online retail...

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#79

Post by saysAl0t »

pinewurst wrote: post #73
saysAl0t wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right place and time (era of cheap money) explains the majority of our so-called genius tech CEOs. A handful of ideas from info theory coupled with government desire to hype nation state brand does not a genius make. None of these people have established net new ideas. Just borrowing from Gödel, Shannon, Turing, and the like. Computer networks put the visibility, routing of logistics within reach of the masses. But w…

Not just CEOs, a lot of upper management all over. My own employer just hired a bunch of ex-Microsoft & Google people who are hardly the sharpest pencils (other than politically) and it seems all about the name on the resume.

Indeed: https://hbr.org/2016/09/excess-management-is-costing-the-us-...

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#80

Post by kyllo »

akavi wrote: post #58
bambax wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Basic thesis is by using tech, you can dramatically lower the labor costs of forwarding, and since freight forwarding has huge returns to scale, the benefits compound Is this remotely true though? Aren't the main costs of forwarding simply fuel? At some point I was importing goods from China (really small volume though) and I did ask them for a quote, and they were twice the price what the Chinese factory could get…

Freight forwarders merely subcontract to the underlying carriers, who, theoretically, are pretty commoditized. In this model, the differentiating costs for a freight forwarder is in the labor required to organize the various subcontracts, which is what Flexport attempts to drive down via tech. That said, I can't really vouch for the soundness of this argument one way or another. It's been a long time since I worked t…

Yes, a freight forwarder is sort of like a travel agent for freight--it's a middleperson role, in contrast to carriers, which are "asset-based" and operate vessels/planes/trucks.

Another significant cost factor for a freight forwarder is IT integrations with customers and carriers--many of which are very old-school and use EDI, SOAP, or even CSV-over-FTP to communicate shipment instructions and statuses.

I'm not sure to what extent Flexport implements these kinds of integrations with their partners, but there is definitely a significant hurdle to breaking even on investment in this kind of automation vs. just hiring clerks to process everything manually with e-mails and phone calls, especially in countries with lower labor costs.

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