Hey Snackers,
Big day for the lactose-tolerant. First Chipotle revealed plans for a queso blanco. Then Pizza Hut kicked things up a notch with a Kellogg collab: Cheez-It Pizza is happening...
Markets rebounded up as oil prices rebounded down. Saudi Arabia assured investors it plans to have all its oil production back online by the end of this month after the weekend drone strikes.
LinkedIn unveils "Skills Assessments" so you can prove that you're actually skillful
CTRL + Shift + F1... If you get it, you're officially "proficient" in Excel. LinkedIn just launched "Skills Assessments" (feedback: work on the name) to evaluate you on 75 skills your resumé softly implies, then knight your profile with a "verified" badge. LinkedIn quietly acquired a quiz startup last year to make Skills Assessments happen:
- You'll notice a prompt under your profile's "Skills & Endorsements" to validate the "Financial Modeling" capabilities claim.
- Pass the test? Get a badge.
- Fail the test? Wait 3 months to retake — or enjoy the conveniently placed LinkedIn training on the topic.
- Fyi, come back in a year — that's when you've got to retake the exam to keep the creds.
We endorse LinkedIn for "Smart Move"... The pro social network has a credibility problem — 650M users and a mess of unsubstantiated and embellished talents. Skills Assessments can fix that — and differentiate it from rivals ZipRecruiter and Indeed. That could earn LinkedIn more revenue from job recruiters searching for Excel's verified finest.
But has LinkedIn been a good acquisition by Microsoft?... It was acquired in 2016 to bring the "vibrant network" of LinkedIn to Microsoft's un-vibrant products (sorry, Outlook). Since then, we think Skills Assessments is the most relevant feature yet:
- For LinkedIn: It deepens engagement by gamifying your FOMO-desire to show you can actually do statistics.
- For Microsoft: It highlights Microsoft products by creating a hierarchy around using them.
- For the bottomline: Skills Assessments becomes its own revenue-generating feature head-hunters crave.
Strike Day #3: General Motors is losing up to $100M/day
- 30 US factories
- 46K workers
- 0 cars produced in 2 days
We haven't seen production that low since Tebow... General Motors' unionized workers are practicing their right to assembly with a nationwide strike. 14K vehicles could've been produced in its American plants Monday & Tuesday, but weren't — the United Auto Workers wants better pay, fewer factory closures, and more job protection first.
This goes back to the financial crisis... That's when GM went bankrupt. It was reborn thanks to a government bailout and workers agreeing to sacrifice pay and job guarantees for the greater good. 9 years later, GM issued a press release titled "GM Accelerates Transformation" in which it "unallocated" 5 plants.
- Translation: GM's laying off 14K American workers.
- Salt in the wound: GM also announced it'll produce its new Chevy Blazer in Mexico.
Companies don't love organized labor... Negotiating a pay raise is tough 1:1 with your manager. It's easier when you're represented 46K-strong in awesome union T's. But we rarely see labor strikes in America because of the long, steady decline of unions. Here's how much the percentage of US workers who are union members has fallen:
- 30% in the 1950s
- 20% in the 1980s
- 10% from the 2000s through today
What else we’re Snackin’
- Named: Comcast's NBC enters the Streaming Wars with a creatively non-made-up name: Peacock
- Sharp: Facebook is stealthily working with the maker of Ray-Bans on secret "Orion" smart glasses
- Over: Juul's e-cigarette sales just launched in China — and China just shut that down on fresh health worries
- Beached: Sandals Resorts is trying to sell itself for $4.5B
- Swipe: Corning probably makes the glass covering whatever smartphone you're using right now — so Apple just invested $250M
Wednesday
- Fed Chairman Jay Powell is expected to cut interest rates (again).
- Earnings from General Mills and Olive Garden-owner Darden Restaurants.
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