Elon Musk is certainly teaching big tech a lesson in how to manage with determination. It’s only been four days since he took control of Twitter, but he’s said to be ready to push for mass layoffs while simultaneously ordering the pursuit of all new business ideas, such as charging users for the privilege. of having “verified” status, as The Verge reported. Other Silicon Valley CEOs could learn a thing or two from his willingness to cut costs and generally shake things up.
Instead, big tech companies have earned a reputation for bloat and lethargy — in particular Alphabet and Meta’s platforms, as investor Brad Gerstner’s message to Meta last week made clear. What does it say about their approach to cost management that even in the third quarter, when the advertising market was slowing down significantly, they both continued to hire! The quarterly numbers say it all: Alphabet’s operating expenses rose 17.8% on a 6% increase in revenue, while Meta’s rose 18.6% on a 4% drop in revenue. The fact that those earnings reports came the same week as Musk’s energetic arrival on Twitter underscored the contrast.
