What’s up?
Andy Jassy – CEO of AWS discussed how AI and cloud (my key takeaways) will shape our future and and his perspective to manage information security
What’s special about clouds?
Andy elaborated on two benefits of cloud to enterprises
- More flexible cost structure. With cloud, enterprises can turn the capital expense that laying out for servers and data centers into a variable expense (pay-as- you- go model). If they run on their own, their utilization rate is only 20%, a huge loss, right?
- Agility and speed to solve problems. This is the first-and-foremost reason that enterprises and government agencies switch to cloud service for their businesses.
- #insurance Prudentials has a new directions (Finimize)
What’s up?
Activist hedge fund Third Point has bought an almost-$2 billion stake in Prudential – and plans to use its newfound power to split up the insurer’s Asian and US businesses.
Why should I know?
Third Point -the hedge fund wants the insurer to separate its fast-growing Asian business from its small US business. It’s also pushing Prudential to move its costly head office away from the UK – a change that could save the business $260 million a year.
- Goal: Two more valuable separate insurers than one Prudential. Currently, Prudential has a lower valuation multiple than some of its Asian rivals
- Obstacles: There will be resistance elsewhere. The company has a large number of British investors who currently enjoy the London-listed stock’s hefty dividend.
What’s up?
Monica McGurk, former McKinsey partner – Kellogg’s CGO since early 2019 revealed what drives plant-based protein market, the reason why big food manufacturer invests directly in it without acquiring star-ups and how retail landscape is evolving to accommodate the increasing demand.
Zooming out
- The market drivers: religious and cultural drivers, concerns about health, concerns about sustainability, government regulations, and so on.
- Reason why incumbents go after the opportunity organically: (1) They can be flexible with blended products and (2) The end-to-end value chain is really important to get right
- The movement of retail landscape: They are expanding the space they allocate to plant-based products, starting in the frozen case and now encroaching into the fresh-meat case.
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