FEI Weekly

June 15, 2018

Amazon has begun automating its white-collar jobs, Trump expected to list China tariffs, and the war over Fox begins.

Trump Expected to List China Tariffs

BBC

China will respond quickly to protect itself if the U.S. hurts its interests with fresh trade tariffs, a foreign ministry spokesman has said. The warning from Beijing comes as the U.S. prepares to levy new tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports. On Thursday, U.S. officials met at the White House to trim the original list of 1,300 categories to about 800.

The 4 Roles of Today's CFO

Forbes

Today’s CFOs are expected to play four diverse and challenging roles – the steward, operator, strategist and catalyst, according to Global CFO Program Leader at Deloitte' Sandy Cockrell. "The steward and operator “faces” are traditional in that they help get the books right and run an efficient finance operation. However, the strategist and catalyst challenge CFOs to take a seat at the strategy planning table and help influence their companies, while also executing change in the finance function."

After AT&T Ruling, The War Over Fox Begins

NYT - Paywall

Comcast announced an offer worth $65 billion for the bulk of 21st Century Fox’s businesses on Wednesday, setting up a showdown with the Walt Disney Company for Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.The all-cash bid by Comcast came a day after a federal judge approved a merger between AT&T and Time Warner (AT&T closed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner on Thursday night). Comcast executives had awaited the decision in that case before mounting their bid for 21st Century Fox.

Amazon Replacing Humans With Algorithms

Quartz

Amazon once relied on humans to predict demand of certain products, but a report from Bloomberg shows that the decision-making process has slowly transitioned towards automated ordering and communication with manufacturers, leaving humans in the lurch.

Why Leaders Should Pay Close Attention to Body Language

Ladders

When your body language doesn’t match your words, your verbal message is lost. For example, if you state that you are open to suggestions about implementing change, but as you talk about “openness,” you cross your arms in a “closed” gesture — you literally don’t make sense. And if forced to choose, people will believe what they see and not what you say.