A future as store managers

Walmart is stepping up efforts to woo college grads amid a labour crunch by introducing a fast track to jobs as store managers, which typically pay over $200,000 a year. Top performers in its “College2Career program” will be offered a newly created role of an “emerging coach” — which pays at least $65,000 a year — and a speedy path to becoming a store manager within two years. The latest step highlights a heightened sense of urgency as Walmart seeks to increase the supply of managers for its more than 4,700 US stores. The company also recently boosted starting pay for its truckers to as much as $110,000. Walmart Inc surpassed Wall Street’s quarterly profit expectations and unveiled an upbeat sales outlook for the current fiscal year despite persistent cost pressures and flagging consumer sentiment.

(Adapted from “Walmart Woos College Grads With $210,000 Future As Store Bosses,” by Brendan Case, published on May 15, 2022, by Bloomberg)

The high cost of war

People have become familiar with the idea of a cost-of-living crisis, but that does not begin to capture the gravity of what may lie ahead. The war in Ukraine is battering a global food system weakened by Covid-19, climate change and an energy shock. Ukraine’s exports of grain and oilseeds have mostly stopped and Russia’s are threatened. Wheat prices, up 53pc since the start of the year, jumped a further 6pc on May 16th, after India said it would suspend exports because of a heatwave. Together, Russia and Ukraine provide 28pc of the globally traded supply of wheat, 29pc of barley, 15pc of maize and 75pc of sunflower oil. Ukraine’s food exports normally feed 400m people worldwide. The high cost of staple foods has already raised the number of people who cannot be sure of getting enough to eat by 440m, to 1.6bn. Nearly 250m are on the brink of famine.

(Adapted from “The Coming Food Catastrophe,” by The Economist, published on May 19, 2022)

Depreciating Indian rupee

Early last week, the Indian rupee nosedived 51 paise, hitting an all-time low of INR 77.41 against the US dollar. It was followed by another record low for a second time last week at INR77.55 against the US dollar on May 12, 2022. The week before, the Indian rupee had appreciated eight paise after India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, increased interest rates by 40 basis points on May 04, only to tumble further below this week (100 basis points make one per cent). The Indian rupee has been staggering since the beginning of the year. Foreign investors have already pulled out over INR6,400 crore (about $63bn) from the Indian equity markets in the first four trading sessions of May when the Reserve Bank of India and US Federal Reserve raised interest rates.

(Adapted from “Rupee Continues To Fall To Record Lows And It Might Affect Your Food, Education, Healthcare And Other Expenses,” by Karuna Sharma, published on May 13, 2022, by Business Insider India)

Changing workplace behaviour

Anyone who’s genuinely interested in helping society prosper should stop applying sexist criticisms to women, and start applying useful criticisms to change male behaviour who have, after all, long led the system. The questions that more men should ask themselves are: 1) How are you using your voice in meetings? There is no correlation between confidence in one’s voice and one’s actual capabilities. The world would benefit more if men lowered their voices, and started to ask more questions rather than give unsolicited affirmations. 2) Are you afraid to say sorry? The world will be a happier place when men start saying sorry a whole lot more. 3) Do you value empathy over aggression or dominance? Any sign of assertiveness from women is all too often critiqued as “aggressive,” or “abrasive.” However, since men are generally more openly aggressive than women, it would make more sense to ask men to be less aggressive.

(Adapted from “Stop Criticising Women And Start Questioning Men Instead,” by Cindy Gallop and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, published by HBR Ascend)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, May 23rd, 2022