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I couldnt tell you what my very first purchase from Amazon wasalthough I know it was a book and that I purchased it on my 7-pound laptop using a dial-up modem that took several minutes to connect me to Al Gores internet. Im certain I was delighted to receive my purchase about a week later, even though I was paying for shipping. Not only does this memory prove that I have officially reached my back-in-my-day! old codger years, but it also shows how quickly consumer expectations can shift. In less than 30 years, online shopping has gone from an occasional novelty that required some consumer effort (waiting on that modem connection was not for the faint of heart) to a rapid process so seamless that even next-day delivery can feel a bit slow. Much of Amazons success lies in its promise of fast shipping all across the country (and world). The online marketplace can deliver on that promise because of its massive delivery infrastructure, the logistics of which are truly mind-bending to contemplate. But Amazon would not have become the dominant shopping method if not for one simple thing: free shipping. The expectation of free shipping has helped solidify Jeff Bezos as one of the richest men in the world (with his own marital-aid shaped rocket, which seems to be standard issue for modern oligarchs). Unfortunately, that means free shipping has cost us a lot more than we could have ever imagined. Heres why Ive decided to pay for shipping moving forwardand would encourage you to do the same. ‘Free’ scrambles our brains In his 2008 bestselling book Predictably Irrational, behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely breaks down how Amazons sales increased when it began offering free shipping for purchases over $30. After instituting this policy in the early 2000s, Amazon customers would willingly spend more money to buy an additional item they didnt necessarily want or needjust to save themselves $4 in shipping costs. This is not a rational reaction, and yet most (if not every single one) of us has blithely spent more money on two items, one of which we didnt really want, to avoid paying for shipping. Whats more, when Amazon in France originally rolled out a similar shipping offer for purchases over a certain amount, there was no sales increase. Thats because the French division of Amazon offered shipping for one franc rather than free shipping if you spent more than the purchase minimum. Since one franc was equal to about 20 cents, youd think that French online shoppers would also jump at the chance to reduce their shipping costsbut pricing the shipping at one franc allowed consumers to recognize the true cost of adding an unwanted item to their shopping carts. Yet once Amazon in France switched to free shipping to match the rest of the company, sales increased dramatically. Prime suspicion Amazon is certainly not the only company to offer free shipping over a certain dollar amountand there are definitely times when that kind of shipping deal is good for the customer. But the introduction of the Amazon Prime membership in 2005 altered the calculation. For an annual fee of $139, Amazon customers get unlimited, free one-day shippingwith some same-day delivery available. If free shipping over a dollar threshold is a brain-scrambler, Prime membership makes it nigh impossible to recognize how much youre really paying. Think of it this way: More than 200 million people across the globe pay Amazon $139 annually for the privilege of buying stuff more conveniently from Amazon. Thats $27.8 billion we pay to Bezoss companyso that we can pay more money to the company when we need books, diapers, clothes, or anything else our little hearts desire. The true cost of free shipping It may seem that Im just ragging on a successful business vision that truly does save most consumers money. If youre going to buy things online, you probably would spend more than $139 per year in shipping fees, so why not take advantage of Prime membership? But money is not the only cost worth considering. By making free shipping an expectation, Amazon has also cost us the following: Workers rights: One of the ways to cut costs to offer free shipping is to underpay and overwork the workers who make it happen. Fast, free shipping comes with a serious cost to the warehouse workers and delivery drivers tasked with fulfilling that promise. Resourcefulness: When something is cheap and convenient, we tend to ignore other solutions. For example, when I realized my kid had outgrown his swim trunks the day before summer camp, I ordered several new swimsuits from Amazoneven though his older brother probably had something that would fit him. Small businesses: Any small or independent business cant afford to offer free shipping. Patience: American consumers have been taught to expect immediate gratification in a world where you can order something while sitting on the toilet and receive it within a few hours. Quality: Good things come to those who wait, but mediocre stuff can arrive on your doorstep via next-day delivery. Connection: Commerce used to require interaction with other people. I dislike talking to strangers as much as the next misanthrope, but reducing our need to connect with others can also reduce our ability to do so. The environment: If its cheap, easy, and quick to buy something, then its also easy to discard itnot to mention the environmental impact of shipping the item to you. The subversive politics of paying for shipping Many Americans have been troubled by the rise of oligarchs (to put it mildly) and have been working on divesting from them. Thats an admirable goal that can be difficult to pull off. But simply committing to paying for shipping will offer many of the same benefits. Specifically, recognizing that shipping is part of the cost of online purchases helps to level the e-tailer playing field. Amazon can afford to give their shipping away for free since the company is raking in your Prime membership dollars and knows that youll buy everything from their handy-dandy storefront and app. Small businesses that dont sell everything under the sun cant possibly compete. You can support small businesses by including the cost of shipping in your purchase expectations. Paying for shipping also forces you to think about your purchases in a way that one-click overnight free shipping does not. If youre not willing to pay the $4 required to ship a purchase to your home, do you really want or need that purchase? Additionally, when we look at shipping as a line item that can be cut, the loss of that money will most likely affect the workers responsible for delivering products to you. Deciding that you will pay for shipping helps to protect their jobs and rights and lowers their likelihood of injury. Finally, paying for shipping is a way to reject the culture of constant consumerism on which oligarchs have built their empires. We dont need to always buy-buy-buy to have a robust economy or a satisfying lifeand that is much easier to remember when were paying for shipping. Free shipping isnt free Were living through the consequences of cheap and convenient online shopping. We can take back our agency with one little changepaying for the cost of shipping.
Category:
E-Commerce
Almost 23 years ago, an employee at Apple described Steve Jobs to me as one of the worlds few rock star CEOs. At the time, I didnt understand why anyone would talk about the head of a company in that way. A rock star was an artist who defined the cultural moment and attracted a legion of rabid fans. A CEO was just a CEO, right? In my defense, I was young. I knew little about Jobss personal background or his impact on tech sectorthis was just over a year after Apple had introduced the original iPod, and the device hadnt yet completely taken over the world. Still, I smiled and nodded appropriately. After all, the rockstar CEOs company had just hired me in a sales role. However, over the next five years that I worked for Apple, I came to understand what that person meant. My job at Apple was low-level and non-technicalnothing anyone would find too interesting. Yet when someone discovered that I worked for the company, their eyes lit up, and one of their first questions was, inevitably, So, what is Steve Jobs like? I never met Jobs personally, but I once saw him inside Caffe MacsApples employee cafeteria at 1 Infinite Loop. I recall relaying this mere fact to someone who had asked me if I met him, and to this day, I remember their reply: Count yourself lucky. Very few people will ever be in the same room with a historical figure. They went on to explain that listening to their iPod mini was often the best part of their dayand asked me to tell Jobs, if I ever did meet him, that they were thankful there was someone like him inventing such cool devices. That’s when I realized that Jobs really was a rock starrevered even by complete strangers. Now, 20 years after that encounter, having witnessed how technology has infiltrated every facet of our lives in ways even he probably couldnt have foreseen, I have come to believe Steve Jobs will likely be the last nearly universally beloved tech leader the world will ever have. And thats probably a good thing. The Musk Factor This realization didnt just come out of the blue. Id been thinking about tech CEOs a lot latelyone in particular: Elon Musk. Ill fully admit that back in the early 2010s, I was a big fan of Musk. I admired how he was bringing electric vehicles to the masses and popularizing more climate-friendly means of transportation and energy distribution. It seemed that his products could genuinely change the world for the better. It also struck me that he was, in my then-opinion, the most charismatic tech leader since Jobs. When he spoke, people listened. Like Jobs, he appeared to be a visionaryand that was inspiring. During the early 2010s, I was convinced that he would be the worlds next Steve Jobsa tech luminary who would change the world just as Jobs did and, like Jobs, be nearly universally beloved for it. Boy, was I wrong. Ive never been in the same room as Musk, much less met him, so I wont try to explain what has seemingly happenedwhy he changed so much over the past few years (or decided to reveal his true self). However, seeing furious people across the world picketing at his stores, I am certain that he will never be the next Steve Jobs. And there is no other tech CEO in the running, either. And I believe there are two main reasons for this. Big Techand its role in the worldhas changed For one thing, Big Tech has become fairly toxic since Steve Jobs died in 2011. Silicon Valley used to inspire the general public. Every month in the early 2000s, it seemed like some new product or service was launched that truly improved our lives. However, in the last 15 years, many people feel that Big Tech has begun to cause more harm than good For all their convenience, e-commerce giants like Amazon undermine small businesses, which can be a contributing factor in their closure. When that happens, local communities become more barren, and people struggle to pay the bills. That breeds resentment towards Big Technot love of their billionaire CEOs. Similarly, while social media was once touted as a democratizing force that would unite people and facilitate the sharing of ideas, it is now widely recognized to have negative implications for individuals mental health, serve as a breeding ground for bullying, and is today a significant way misinformation and political polarization spreads. As Pew Research noted, most people also think social media giants have too much influence in politics. Again, none of this is going to endear the CEOs of these companies to the population at large. And the latest tech revolutionartificial intelligenceisnt generating a lot of love from the general public, either. AI is likely to eliminate millions of jobs over the next three years alone. Its also taking the humanity out of art. No wonder a YouGov poll last year found that the majority of Americans were cautious, concerned, and skeptical of AI. If youre the CEO of a company that works on a technology that most people are leery of, youre not going to find a lot of universal adoration. Yet theres another reason why todays tech leaders will likely never achieve Jobsian status. Big Tech is now inextricably entwined with politics and power in a way it never was in Jobss time. Elections are fought and won on social media, wars are carried out with the help of the hardware and software Silicon Valley builds, and Big Tech is spending tens of millions of dollars a year in political contributions and lobbying efforts in an attempt to influence government policy on everything from taxes to regulationsnot to mention curry favor with politicians. Politics and power are, by their very nature, divisive. And America is more polarized today by orders of magnitude than during Jobss early-2000’s professional prime. If you love that Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg were honored guests at President Trump latest inauguration, you can bet that at least half the nation hates it. The Steve Jobs legacy All this is not to suggest that Steve Jobs was a saint, of course. Its been well-documented that he could be difficult to work with and short-tempered in his pursuit of creative perfection. He was beloved as much as he was because he operated in a world before Big Tech was viewed as a Big Villain. And, unlike many of todays tech leaders, Jobs chose toor could afford tokeep his politics private. And he was beloved because nearly all of the products he helped unleash seemed to bring joy to the majority of their users, like the individual I met two decades ago who was grateful to Jobs for the simple everyday pleasure he derived from using his iPod mini. Given how the worldand Big Techs role in ithas changed since Jobss passing, I dont believe well ever have another tech leader as beloved as he was. And, again, I think that is probably a good thing. As much of a fan as I was of Jobs, the deification of any one individual is dangerousespecially in todays environment, where modern tech leaders already wield significant influence over the platforms we use, the narratives we encounter, and even public policy itself. But in Jobs’ time, it was much more palatableand harmless. The person who explained to me that Steve Jobs was a historical figure is now correct. Jobs was a product of a bygone era: a beloved leader in tech.
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E-Commerce
Rasmus Hougaard is the founder and managing partner of Potential Project. In 2019 he was nominated by Thinkers50 as one of the eight most important leadership thinkers in the world. He writes for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and Fortune and is the coauthor, with Jacqueline Carter, of Compassionate Leadership and The Mind of the Leader. Jacqueline Carter is a senior partner at Potential Project. She has more than 20 years of experience working with leaders in large global companies to unlock potential. She writes regularly for Harvard Business Review and Fast Company and is a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator. She is the coauthor, with Rasmus Hougaard, of Compassionate Leadership and The Mind of the Leader. Whats the big idea? AI has the power to transform leadership and work, but whether it enhances or erodes the human experience depends on how we use it. In More Human, Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter argue that AI, when harnessed wisely, can strengthen leadership by enhancing awareness, wisdom, and compassion. Drawing on insights from top executives, AI experts, and global research, they reveal how leaders can delegate tasks to AI while amplifying human connection and performance. With deep insight and practical strategies, this book offers a road map for making AI a force for more meaningful and human-centered work. Below, Hougaard and Carter share five key insights from their new book, More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead. Listen to the audio versionread by Hougaardin the Next Big Idea App. 1. AI wont replace leadersbut AI-augmented leaders will replace those who dont adapt. In essence, AI is reshaping leadership, but not in many ways that people fear. Its not that machines will replace humansits that leaders who use AI will replace those who dont. Take Ellyn Shook, the chief leadership and human resources Officer of Accenture, as an example. When AI started generating performance reviews, some leaders worried it would dehumanize the process. But Shook saw the real opportunity: Instead of spending 45 minutes compiling feedback, AI did the heavy lifting in seconds, freeing her up to have more meaningful, human-centered conversations with employees. This is what it means to be an AI-augmented leader. AI can automate repetitive tasks, analyze vast amounts of data, and offer insight that leaders might not have time to find on their own. But the best leaders will use AI to elevate their human leadershipnot replace it. Imagine having AI summarize your teams well-being trends, highlight potential burnout risks, or even suggest how to tailor your leadership approach to different individuals. These insights dont diminish leadershipthey enhance it. The future of leadership really belongs to those who can blend the best of AI and human strengths. The choice is clear: Leaders who embrace AI will thrive. Those who ignore it will be left behind. 2. AI generates answers. Wisdom asks the right questions. In todays world, leaders arent struggling to find answerstheyre drowning in them. AI can analyze billions of data points, generate instant insights, and predict trends with incredible accuracy. But heres the catch: It cant ask the right questions. Thats where wisdom comes in. Take Cameron Hedrick, Citibanks chief learning officer. He wanted to understand his own blind spots, so he created an AI-powered version of himselfa digital model that analyzed his leadership approach. The AI provided feedback without bias, fear, or hesitationsomething many human colleagues might hesitate to do. But AI alone wasnt enough. Cameron had to use wisdomto ask deeper questions, interpret the insights, and apply them in a way that made sense. AI provided the data. He provided the discernment. This is what AI-augmented wisdom looks like. AI is a powerful thought partner, but its up to leaders to challenge its outputs, explore whats missing, and ensure decisions are grounded in both data and human judgment. 3. Awareness is the antidote to AIs blind spots. AI can see patterns, but it cant see the bigger picture. It can process billions of data points, but it doesnt understand meaning. Thats where human awareness comes in. Many of our clients leaders use AI-powered tools to analyze employee well-being. AI helps identify stress patterns, flagging teams that may be at risk of burnout. But heres the catch: AI cant understand why employees feel the way they do. It lacks context. For example, imagine AI detects that a team has had a 15% drop in engagement. Without awareness, a leader might assume their employees are losing motivation. But a truly aware leader asks: What else is happening here? Maybe the drop is due to a company-wide restructuring. Or a major project deadline. AI might flag the problem, but only human awareness can interpret it correctly. Thats why AI-augmented leaders develop deep awarenessso they dont just act on AIs insights blindly. Instead, they combine AIs speed with human perspective. AI can provide content, but only humans can provide context. AI can highlight patterns, but only leaders can apply meaning, ethics, and judgment. The leaders who thrive in an AI-powered world wont just accept AIs answers at face valuetheyll bring the bigger picture into focus. 4. Compassion is leaderships greatest differentiator in an AI-driven world. Some people believe AI will eventually replace human leadership. But heres what AI will never do: truly care. AI can simulate empathyit can recognize emotional cues, adjust its tone, and even predict human responses. But it doesnt actually feel anything. It doesnt experience human emotions. And it doesnt understand the weight of its actions. True compassion isnt just about responding to emotions; its about genuinely understanding and caring about people. Thats why AI cant replace human leadership. But it can help make compassionate leaders even more effective. Imagine a leader who uses AI to analyze employee well-being data, but instead of just reviewing the numbers, they use those insights to have deeper, more meaningful conversations. Imagine a leader who lets AI flag burnout risks but then personally checks in with their team to see how theyre feeling. Compassion is what makes leadership human. AI can assist in making decisions, but it takes a human leader to make people feel seen, valued, and understood. The best leaders will leverage AI to enhance, not replace, their ability to care. In a world increasingly shaped by technology, compassion is the ultimate competitive advantage. 5. The future of leadership isnt either/or. Its both/and. For too long, leadership has been framed as an either/or choice. Either data or intuition. Either efficiency or empathy. Either technology or human wisdom. But the truth is,the best leaders will embrace both/and thinking. Take Sage, a fictional leader in More Human, who finds herself drowning in information, moving too fast, and unable to see clearly. Her breakthrough comes at a leadership retreat called Mountain Wisdom, where she learns the power of awareness and reflection. She realizes AI can offer answers, but she must provide clarity, meaning, and vision. The best leaders wont choose between AI and human leadershiptheyll combine them. Theyll use AI to process vast amounts of informationbut theyll apply human wisdom to interpret it. Theyll let AI enhance efficiencybut theyll bring compassion to decision-making. Theyll trust AI to challenge their thinkingbut theyll have the awareness to question its conclusions. The future belongs to leaders who can toggle between AIs intelligence and human intuition, leveraging both to lead in a way thats more human than ever before. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
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