Latest news with #AspenIdeasFestival
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ford CEO Found Young People Didn't Want to Work There Because $17 Wages Left Them 'So Stressed' - Then He Made An Expensive Change 'The Country Needs'
Turns out, a $17-an-hour paycheck doesn't go as far as it used to—especially if you're young, exhausted, and juggling two jobs just to survive. Ford (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley heard this loud and clear from his own factory floors. And instead of shrugging it off or blaming "kids these days," he made a move that echoed the bold playbook of Henry Ford himself—one that he says America desperately needs more of. In a June interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival with Walter Isaacson—the renowned biographer best known for his books on Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, and Elon Musk—Farley peeled back the curtain on what younger workers were really telling him about life on a $17 wage. Don't Miss: 7,000+ investors have joined Timeplast's mission to eliminate microplastics—now it's your turn to $100k+ in investable assets? – no cost, no obligation. "The older workers who'd been at the company said, 'None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed,'" Farley recalled. "They've got to work at Amazon for eight hours, then they come over to Ford for seven hours, and then they sleep for three or four hours—and then they go back. And they're barely getting by." Rather than issue a tone-deaf memo or wait for another generation to settle for less, Farley made a decisive, expensive change: he converted every temporary worker into a full-time employee. "It wasn't easy to do," he admitted. "It was expensive. But I think that's the kind of changes we need to make in our country." Farley's move isn't just about better paychecks—it's about reviving an old-school idea that once turned Ford into a powerhouse: when you pay workers well, they can afford the products they help build. Trending: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. You can Quoting the legendary Henry Ford, Farley said, "'I'm doing this because I want my factory worker to buy my cars. If they make enough money, they'll buy my own product.'" Then he added, "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way." In 1914, Henry Ford famously raised factory wages to $5 a day—nearly double the going rate. It wasn't a random act of generosity. It was a smart bet that higher wages would lead to a more stable, productive workforce and—bonus—more people who could afford to drive off in a Model T. According to Farley, it worked then, and it can work now. He also pointed to deeper structural issues. For Farley, the wage issue is just one layer of a bigger challenge: the U.S. hasn't kept up in preparing young people for careers in skilled trades. "Our governments have to get really serious about investing in trade schools and skilled trades," Farley said. "You go to Germany—every one of our factory workers has an apprentice starting in junior high school. Every one of those jobs has a person behind it for eight years that is trained."Farley's big bet may not please Wall Street, but it's not aimed at them. "We decided as a company that a cooler problem than full autonomy in an urban setting was high-speed, eyes-off driving on highways—push a button, read a book," he told Isaacson, in reference to how Ford picks its battles. When it comes to labor, he's taking that same eyes-on-the-road approach—focusing on people, not just profits. And while turning temps into full-timers might not boost short-term stock prices, Farley's betting on a longer game: one where the people building America's cars can actually afford to drive them. Read Next: Warren Buffett once said, "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? FORD MOTOR (F): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Ford CEO Found Young People Didn't Want to Work There Because $17 Wages Left Them 'So Stressed' - Then He Made An Expensive Change 'The Country Needs' originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
19-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Here's what the biggest names in tech and business think AI means for white-collar jobs
Dario Amodei Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei kicked off the conversation by warning about how quickly large language models are advancing. "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Amodei told Axios. "I don't think this is on people's radar." Amodei said it can seem weird that the AI companies would warn about their own technology. Sam Altman OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said some jobs will go away, but society will adapt. "And the hard part about this is, I think it will happen faster than previous technological changes. But I think the new jobs will be better, and people will have better stuff," Altman said during a live episode of The New York Times' "Hard Fork" podcast in June. Altman said that even if it were true that such a large number of jobs were about to be wiped out, "the inertia of society" wouldn't allow for it. "And the take that half the jobs are going to be gone in a year or two years or five years or whatever — I think that's just — I think that's not how society really works," he said. "Even if the technology weren't ready for that, the inertia of society, which will be helpful in this case, is like — there's a lot of mass there." Jensen Huang Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang didn't mince words. "I pretty much disagree with almost everything he says," Huang told reporters of Amoedi's views at VivaTech 2025 in Paris. "He thinks AI is so scary, but only they should do it." Huang said that he's much more optimistic. "If you want things to be done safely and responsibly, you should do it in the open," Huang said, likening AI development to medical research, where transparency and peer review are essential. "I believe AI is not that expensive. Do I think AI will change jobs? It will change everyone's — it's changed mine." Marc Benioff Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said he's seeing no evidence of such a near-immediate upheaval. "That isn't how I see AI," Benioff said during a recent onstage interview at the 2025 AI for Good Global Summit. "Maybe they have AI, I don't have. But in the AI I have, it's not going to be some huge mass layoff of white-collar workers, it is a radical augmentation of the workforce." Benioff encouraged people to "shed their fear" about AI. "When I'm talking to our customers, I'm not hearing them say, "Oh, now I'm laying off these people because this A,B,C technology increase because of AI.' So, I think we need to somehow shed the fear of what that all means." Jim Farley Ford CEO Jim Farley said he sees problems ahead. "Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US," Farley said during an appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he's concerned that too much of the American education system is focused on four-year degrees instead of trades. Mark Cuban Mark Cuban said the situation will be the opposite of Amodei's warning. "Someone needs to remind the CEO that at one point there were more than 2m secretaries. There were also separate employees to do in office dictation. They were the original white collar displacements," Cuban wrote on in a post on Bluesky. "New companies with new jobs will come from AI and increase TOTAL employment," he continued. Brad Lightcap Like Altman, OpenAI's COO Brad Lightcap doesn't see the sky falling. "We have no evidence of this," Lightcap said during the "Hard Fork" podcast taping. "And Dario is a scientist. And I would hope he takes an evidence-based approach to these types of things." Lightcap said that every technology changes the job market. "I think every time you get a platform shift, you get a change in the job market," he said." I mean, in 1900, 40 percent of people worked in agriculture. It's 2 percent today. Microsoft Excel has probably been the greatest job displacer of the 20th century." Andy Jassy Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that AI is already changing workflows. He said it will soon lead to a reduction in some jobs. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done," Jassy said in a memo posted to the Amazon website. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs." Sebastian Siemiatkowski Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said AI may cause a recession due to the sheer number of job cuts. "I don't want to be one of them," Siemiatkowski said of CEOs who downplay the changes AI will bring. "I want to be honest, I want to be fair, and I want to tell what I see so that society can start taking preparations."
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Penny Pennington of investment advice firm Edward Jones: ‘We're a health and wellbeing company'
In today's CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to Penny Pennington of Edward Jones. The big story: Trump and Epstein. The markets: All is calm. Analyst notes from ING on the Fed, Oxford Economics on jobless claims, and WARC on Reddit's revenue and user growth. Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune. Good morning. The U.S. economy has been surprisingly resilient while the tariff wars rage even though prices may go up as inventories dwindle, consumers are becoming more value conscious, and investors are by turns sanguine and skittish. (Witness their reaction to the specter of President Trump potentially firing U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, as my colleague Jim Edwards noted in this piece.) I had a chance to speak with several business leaders at a roundtable convened by Edward Jones Managing Partner Penny Pennington recently at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Her concern was, 'how do we help future generations build wealth in this uncertain economy?' With challenges like high home prices and an uncertain job market, she takes a holistic view of the customer. 'We're a health and wellbeing company.' The theme of investing took many forms. Bev Anderson, CEO of BECU credit union, focused on creating financial opportunities, while Gallup CEO Jon Clifton talked about the need for better global indicators of how we feel amid a rise in negative emotions. Southern Company CEO Chris Womack is expanding his energy infrastructure amid surging demand at the country's second-largest utility. Optimism about the power of technology and innovation was mixed with worries about geopolitics and the state of civil society. In an era of growing complexity and rapid change, face-to-face conversations have become even more important for sharing ideas and building trusted relationships. That's why the dinners hosted by CEO Initiative members around the country have been so valuable. It's why I'm excited by our upcoming Fortune Global Forum on October 26 and 27 in Riyadh. Among the CEOs who have confirmed their attendance, so far, are Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, Ed Bastian of Delta Air Lines, Tony Elumelu of United Bank for Africa, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Mahindra & Mahindra Anish Shah, Catherine MacGregor of ENGIE, Honeywell's Vimal Kapur, Gilberto Tomazoni of JBS, and Jenny Johnson of Franklin Templeton. You can find out more here and click here if you'd like to apply to CEO Daily via Diane Brady at This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
IOL News
15-07-2025
- Automotive
- IOL News
Chinese cars are delivering a wake-up call to the West, Ford CEO Jim Farley admits
Ford CEO Jim Farley is under no illusion about the challenges that lie ahead. Image: Ford via AFP It's no secret that Chinese car manufacturers pose a significant existential threat to the 'established' carmakers from Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea. For the most part their leaders are hugely concerned about the path ahead, but none are as bluntly honest and vocal about the position that 'western' firms find themselves in, as Ford's Chief Executive Jim Farley. The CEO has previously stated his admiration for the new wave of Chinese vehicles, even admitting last year that he loved the Xiaomi SU7 that he had been driving at the time. Speaking at the recent Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, Farley again expressed his deep admiration for Chinese cars. He even suggested that Ford may not be around in the future if it cannot keep pace with competition from the east, CGTN Europe reported. 'It's the most humbling thing I've ever seen. 70% of all EVs in the world (electric vehicles) are made in China,' Farley said. 'They have far superior in-vehicle technology. Huawei and Xiaomi are in every car. They have facial recognition. You get in, you don't have to pair your phone, your whole digital life is mirrored in the car. You have an AI companion that you can talk to - ChatGPT equivalent in China. All the automatic payment is already there. You can buy movie tickets. It has facial recognition so it knows who's in which seat and which media you like.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading When asked why Ford cars don't have that, the CEO said part of the reason was that Google and Apple were not in the car business. But beyond that, he said, their cost and quality were becoming superior to what we were seeing in the 'west'. 'I mean, we are in a global competition with China and it's not just EVs, and if we lose this we do not have a future Ford.' Sobering words, those. But at least the Ford CEO is prepared to face the facts. In a prior interview with Robert Llewellyn's podcast, Farley said that when a new technology comes (referring to EVs in this instance) there is a fitness test for cost. Whoever has the lowest cost, like Henry Ford did with the Model T, would ultimately win the battle in global markets. The Ford CEO, in a separate interview with CNBC in 2024, said that making electric vehicles profitable would require radical change. 'The first thing we have to do is really put all of our capital toward smaller, more affordable EVs. That's the duty cycle that we've now found that really matches. These big, huge, enormous EVs, they're never going to make money. The battery is $50,000… The batteries will never be affordable.' To that end, the company is working on a new affordable electric vehicle platform that will be a 'major step forward' in its strategy to bend the cost curve of electric vehicles. These vehicles will also offer more personal digital customisation. The first product off this platform, a midsize pick-up (bakkie) is due in 2027 in the US. For the time being Ford will also be focusing its EV game on larger and more expensive vehicles. In August 2024, Ford announced that it was broadening its electrification strategy to reach more customers and improve profitability. Thus Ford will focus its next generation of electrified and digitally advanced vehicles where it currently has competitive advantages, namely commercial vans, midsize and large pick-up trucks and long-range SUVs. This will see an electric commercial van entering the market in 2026, followed by two pick-up trucks in 2027. Ford also plans to realign its US battery sourcing plan to reduce costs and maximise capacity utilisation. 'An affordable electric vehicle starts with an affordable battery,' Farley said. 'If you are not competitive on battery cost, you are not competitive.' IOL Motoring
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Goldman Sachs doesn't have to hire a $180,000 software engineer—meet Devin, its new AI-powered worker
Goldman Sachs just hired Devin, an AI-powered software engineer that's capable of coding just as well as humans—minus six-figure salaries. The company also has plans to potentially unleash it by the thousands and expand workers' productivity with AI tools by over four times. While the firm's tech leader sees a future that's a 'hybrid workforce' between humans and AI, leaders like Ford CEO Jim Farley warn of a decrease in white-collar work. The newest hire at Goldman Sachs won't be able to have a coffee chat with co-worker Rishi Sunak, or attend the firm's after-work happy hour—rather, it'll be working all day on its coding assignments. The Wall Street investment bank recently unveiled it had hired Devin: a new AI-powered autonomous software engineer, created by AI startup Cognition. With the tool being capable of conducting end-to-end coding tasks, Goldman hopes it will improve worker productivity by up to three or four times the rate of previous AI tools, according to Goldman's chief information officer Marco Argenti. 'We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who's going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers,' Argenti recently told CNBC. Goldman Sachs plans to launch Devin by the hundreds—maybe eventually even by the thousands, Argenti added—joining the nearly 12,000 existing software engineers at the company. He said this move will hopefully help usher in a 'hybrid workforce' era where humans and AI coexist. 'It's really about people and AIs working side by side,' Argenti said. 'Engineers are going to be expected to have the ability to really describe problems in a coherent way and turn it into prompts … and then be able to supervise the work of those agents.' Fortune reached out to Goldman Sachs for comment. Despite the push to launch Devin, Goldman is continuing to hire software engineers, with dozens of open roles around the world. The salary of some New York-based associate roles start out at around $115,000 annually—and can even extend to $180,000. But business leaders have warned that these early career roles are the ones that AI might make obsolete the soonest. For example, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley went even further, and warned that all white-collar work could disappear in the U.S.—beyond those early in their careers. 'There's more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education,' Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last month. 'Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. Is that really where we want all of our kids to go? Artificial intelligence is gonna replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.' For the banking industry in particular, this AI-driven workforce transformation could lead to 200,000 fewer people on Wall Street within the next three to five years, according to Bloomberg. However, Argenti said that those who choose to embrace AI will be best equipped for a successful future—and it's especially important for young talent facing dwindling entry-level roles. 'The AI shift is happening in years, not decades,' Argenti wrote in a commentary piece for Fortune. 'Workers who lack proficiency in leveraging AI tools will fall behind, and those who have learned to harness it to elevate their work will advance,' he added. This story was originally featured on
