The Market Stall, Free Speech & Designer Bags
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #168 ❤️
This week we’ll be getting into the latest tech news, discussing why TikTok is the new destination for bargain hunters or sellers with the gift of the gab, Elon Musk’s newest disaster – this time it involves him taking a charitable organisation to court, classy – and how AI is changing the internet.
And as always, we’ll also be bringing you some people expertise, from the secret life of a McKinsey consultant and why it’s not all that it seems, to the companies giving “micro bonuses” all year round.
Let's get into it.
Were you forwarded this? Not a subscriber? 👉 Sign up here
#1 - Is TikTok The New Market Stall?
As TikTok rev up to turn their new e-commerce platform, which hopes to replace Amazon and newest rivals Temu by selling Chinese-made “stuff” (think kitchen gadgets, kids toys, the general Amazon stuff) we took a closer look at their existing shopping feature, which allows creators to sell directly through their videos.
In a recent Guardian article, journalists spoke to various TikTokers who make a career from selling their products via video.
One of the weirdest ones was a run of the mill sweet shop in Galveston which had become so famous from their TikTok videos that people literally come to the shop to pose for photos with the owner, a completely normal guy, and ask for his autograph. After going viral once, the owner now makes TikTok videos every day, going live for at least two hours, and sometimes as many as six hours per day, showing new stock, chatting to customers and packing orders. Customers place orders directly through the app – with up to 140 orders being placed over one stream.
Another popular genre of video sales is clothes and makeup. One couple, Mike and Nikia Marshall, spend all day selling clothing that they buy from “all over Europe” live from their TikTok account rather than in an actual shop. Nikia models the clothes, and answers questions in real time from people wondering if the dress will fit them, or if a certain item will be too long for them, too short for them etc.
These sellers believe that live shopping is the future, and not a fad, and while marketing experts have been sceptical, they do admit that live selling is effective because it makes you want to buy now before you miss out.
Flicking through TikTok live you’ll hear sellers roll out phrase like “flash sale” “don’t miss out” and “get them before they’re sold out” while chatting with customers, some of whom they know by name. What does that remind you of? A bustling market, a la Eastenders. If we’re spending our time online now, like Mark Zuckerberg always dreamed we would, isn’t it only natural that the literal market stalls would move online too?
#2 - Elon Musk vs. Sensible Charity
In a not at all shocking continuation of his obsession with free speech, however damaging it may be, Musk has decided to sue the CCDH.
The CCDH, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, is accused in the lawsuit of driving away advertisers, although the CCDH and legal experts say otherwise.
Musk has always been obsessed with censorship, that’s why he spent 44 billion dollars that we’re still unsure if he actually had on Twitter last year, when it was still called Twitter, and still actually worked (kind of) and his issue with the CCDH stems from his belief that even hate speech should be free speech.
X Corp, parent company of X, formerly Twitter, accuses the campaign group of “advocating for internet censorship” and trying to “prevent public dialogue and the public’s access to free expression in favour of an ideological echo chamber that conforms to CCDH’s favoured viewpoints”.
Now, what are these “favoured viewpoints”? Basically not being part of hate groups, engaging in hate speech, being against online abuse, bullying, trolling, the sort of just generally not cool stuff that Musk apparently loves.
Their complaint accuses the CCDH of being directly responsible for the loss of tens of millions of dollars in ad revenue, as advertisors have paused spending on the platform after reading CCDH reports (reports which the CCDH have defended by describing them as simply pointing out things that actually happen) and asks for reparations.
The founder of advertising consultancy firm AJL Advisory, however, says that CCDH research is simply one data point in a “very long list” of points that are pushing advertisers away. Delivering the sick burn that he believes advertisers “long ago decided that Twitter was not a safe place for their advertising investments, strictly because of the antics of Elon Musk.” Ouch.
Ironically, the CCDH are accusing Musk of censorship, stating that he wants them to “shut up”, because he doesn’t like what THEY are saying. How the tables have turned, and how surprising that he can give it, but he can’t take it…
#3 - Is AI Making Our Internet Experience More Difficult?
Basically, yes, so let’s just get straight into the how and the why.
Number one, captchas. They’re so annoying, right? Well, they’re about to get even more annoying, as HBO max users found out over the weekend when while trying to log into their accounts, they faced the seven trials of Hercules. Regular old captchas are no longer secure enough, as AI bots have already been trained on them. Now, users are being bamboozled by increasingly impossible puzzles like identifying nonsensical objects that don’t actually exist, like a horse made out of clouds.
Two, scams are levelling up. AI will make online scams harder to detect because it can be used to tailor the scams to the target much more easily. Data from cybersecurity firm, Darktrace shows a 135% increase in scam campaigns since the beginning of 2023, as criminals increasingly turn to bots to write phishing emails and send longer messages with no errors in, which are much less likely to be caught by spam filters. Not to mention the potential for deepfakes…
And finally, AI could apparently just make the internet a less useful, less entertaining and less fun place to be. At least, while it’s all everyone can think about. Tangible examples of this are more and more content created by bots, and Reddit, which used to be the cornerstone of the internet and home to most online communities that have been building up over years completely decimating their user base by getting rid of plugins in order to be able to sell data to AI?
Let’s cross our fingers for a slow-down on the negative effects of AI, so we can have some time to enjoy some of the actual uses.
#4 - The Dark Side Of McKinsey Consulting
Now, we love to use McKinsey reports to advise our newsletters, their research is second to none and their articles have informed our knowledge of The Great Resignation and the changing scene of work since the pandemic, but this “tell-all” (it’s a bit less salacious than that, but still) from an ex-McKinsey consultant who left after an intense burn-out is an interesting look into the consultant lifestyle, and a confirmation that younger generations have a different perspective on work.
Angelina Lu, a former business analyst at McKinsey, left her $130,000 yearly rate to work at a tech start-up, and proves the old adage that money isn’t everything by being much happier in her current role.
She suffered a serious burnout from long work hours, including travelling to see clients, exacerbated by periods of the year where work intensified, like the “two-week due diligence period”. This is when a consulting firm thoroughly investigates a client's business, and during that time Lu says that they would work until the early hours, then begin again at 8am.
Hey, that’s why they get paid the big bucks right? Well, it turns out, that may no longer be enough to keep talent in such demanding roles. Interestingly, McKinsey along with the other consulting firms in the “big three” have raised their salaries for the first time in a long time – with starting salaries increasing by up to $20,000.
One unexpected point Lu makes about how her time at McKinsey had a negative effect on her is less to do with the burnout she experienced and more how working in such a prestigious role changed her personality.
She describes noticing herself losing her “humility” and “patience”, realising that her “well-manicured” lifestyle as a consultant was moving her further away from real life when she got excessively frustrated while waiting in a slow-moving line.
Consultants stay in the best hotels, get food credits of over $100 a day and don’t have to bother with day-to-day administrative tasks – they have someone to do that for them. If you’re wondering why some of those businessmen you see in the airport seem like unbearable people, they never realised what Lu did – corporate life isn’t real life.
Another thing that locked her into her lifestyle at McKinsey is the fact that consultants are all recruited from the “best of the best” – highly intelligent graduates, often from similar backgrounds. Lu was too proud to admit that she was suffering from burn-out because she didn’t want to look like she didn’t have enough “grit” to tough it out.
One thing she appreciates about her new role as a project manager in a tech start-up is the opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds – i.e. not the top 1% of graduates, along with the fact that she actually executes the work that she used to simply advise on.
An interesting take from the inside of the consulting machine that we haven’t heard before, and a confirmation that for today’s workforce, pay isn’t everything.
#5 - Companies Spending Big Bucks on Bonuses
Despite the Great Resignation apparently being over, the war for talent is still underway, with some companies stepping up their bonus game to ensure their people stay happy, and stay put.
More companies are choosing to put in place a “micro rewards” system, in addition to yearly bonuses and performance reviews, and it seems to be an effective way to foster a positive workplace culture and has had a tangible effect on employee engagement and employee retention.
There are different kinds of micro-rewards programmes, but the most commonly used set-up works on points. Sometimes they can only be gifted by managers, but in other cases employees can send points to one another. The points can then be redeemed for gifts at a range of retailers, such as a $950 handbag, in the case of London-based comms manager Jackie.
In Jackie’s case, the points came from her manager and team members, and although she was happy with the bag, stating she’d never spent that amount on herself usually, what really stuck with her was the feeling of being valued by her peers, which lasts all year round as the points can be given at any time.
In one company, all employees are allocated a certain number of recognition points that they can give out to team members throughout the week, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. In this case, the gamified approach has really incentivised employees to show gratitude to each other, fostering a positive culture and apparently resulting in tangible savings in turnover costs for the company.
In a context where culture is more important than ever, and more difficult to create in a context of remote work and with more people “leaning out” of their corporate lives, these little perks and notes of gratitude are going a long way to make employees feel valued, and at the heart of it, connecting people.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Top Of The Flops
We all need a little pick me up sometimes, and this list of the biggest product flops inhistory from the biggest companies in the business really hits the spot.
From Google glass to a hoverboard, sit back and enjoy.
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.