International Business Profile Article

Name University Professor  Date Alphabet is one of the biggest tech companies in the world and Google's parent company. Alphabet operates in the international market, Google being one of the most popular brands in the world. An article in the New York Times by Satariano and Grant (2023) documents how Alphabet plans to cut 12,000 jobs. The article thus provides important insights into human resource management practices in the international market. According to the company, the layoffs, which represent 6% of the company's global workforce, are due to an economic slowdown. This is the biggest layoff in the company’s history and follows a hiring spree during the pandemic. According to CEO Sundar Pichai, the pandemic significantly raised the demand for digital services, prompting Alphabet to expand too rapidly. Other tech companies such as Twitter, Amazon, Salesforce, Meta, and Microsoft have also announced thousands of layoffs for the same reason: different economic reality compared to the pandemic period. Since the start of 2022, tech companies have cut over 190,000 jobs, marking the end of the expansion in the industry. According to Pichai, the layoffs would cut across different locations, product areas, and responsibilities as the company seeks to concentrate its talent and capital in areas of priority. Alphabet has also faced new competition from chatbot ChatGPT which offers customers new ways of searching for information on the internet. When ChatGPT was introduced, Google was forced to declare a "code red" as the company decided it was time to concentrate more on artificial intelligence (AI). One of the AI initiatives of the company, Google Research, cut responsibilities in non-priority areas like healthcare. Google for Clinicians, a tool for healthcare providers, is one of the areas the company seeks to focus more on. In Google Cloud, the company plans to cut roles unrelated to engineering, customer facing, and operations. Alphabet also has a "moonshot factory" known as X, which incubates new firms. For X, the strategy and business operations team members were fired as many new firms created struggled to become profitable. In the company's Fuchsia team, which had 400 employees working on operating systems, 16% of the workforce was fired. Although Alphabet and other tech companies fired a significant percentage of their workforce, they are still highly profitable. Alphabet made a profit of $76 billion and revenues of almost $258 billion in 2021. While criticizing the layoffs, the Alphabet Workers Union pointed out that with billions in profits and executive compensation, its members' jobs should not be touched. It is worth noting, however, that the tech industry is experiencing a slumping global economy and rising interest rates. Alphabet is also struggling in the advertising market and cloud computing, leading to a quarterly profits fall of 27%. Nevertheless, US employees who would be affected would receive considerable severance packages, while those outside the country would be compensated based on local laws. However, the latest ill feelings directed at Apple's little cutey seem beyond even anything heard in an elementary school.In a new TV spot, Droid asks an important question: "Should a phone be pretty?" To which ma...