Today's Topics
The chart à la carte today:
- Want to be the next CEO of a major company? You may need to wait a little longer than you thought.
- Locusts are swarming Africa - just how big are the swarms?
- The market has great expectations for Tesla - but are they too great?
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If you solely followed the world of tech you'd be forgiven for thinking that every CEO was a 20-something hotshot who sold their first app when they were still at school. But outside of the Silicon Valley bubble it's actually been the older generation that's been surviving and thriving in the top jobs as CEOs have been getting older and older.
According to data from Crist Kolder Associates, the average age at hire for a CEO was almost 57 years old in 2019. That's up more than 10 years since 2005, when the average CEO was hired at around the age of 46.
Okay boomer, the job's yours
The fact that the boomer generation is snapping up a lot of the top jobs is perhaps a bit surprising given how many tech companies, often led by young founders, have emerged in the last 20 years. So why is experience having such a renaissance?
One major contributing factor could be the economy. In 2007/08 the global economy was in upheaval. Replacing your CEO with a young new leader sent out a strong signal that things were going to change - and it was borne out in the data as the average age of a hired CEO fell in 2007-08.
Since the GFC though, the economy has been a lot more stable. In that environment corporates may look more kindly to a "steady hand" -- someone who can steer the ship gently but firmly and who has risen through the ranks over a long career at the firm.
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The coronavirus has been dominating news coverage for the past few weeks - but it's not been the only natural disaster plaguing livelihoods. Swarms of locusts in East Africa have been devastating crops, putting millions at risk of hunger and food shortages.
How big are the swarms?
The United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization reported that the largest swarm, in North-Eastern Kenya, was 60km long and 40km wide -- an area of 2400km².
For some context, the area of "Greater London" is approximately 1600km², so imagine a swarm of locusts 50% larger than that of Greater London with up to 10 billion individual locusts in it.
What damage do they do?
Locusts do not attack people or animals, but they still pose an enormous problem because of crop damage. Each locust can eat its own weight (about 2 grams) in food every single day, which means that just 1 square kilometre of locusts can chew through enough food for 35000 people.
If you want to explore this topic in more detail, this is a great article from the BBC.
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A few weeks ago we charted about how Tesla had delivered a record number of cars in 2019. Since then, Tesla's share price has rocketed up another c.40%, valuing the whole company at $140bn -- second only to Toyota.
Great expectations
The chart above shows 6 of the largest car makers, what the market values them at (blue bar), and how many cars they sell per year (red bar).
A quick-and-dirty comparison between Tesla & Volkswagen reveals just how much faith is being placed in Tesla's future ability to deliver. The company Volkswagen (which owns VW, Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Skoda and many others) is currently valued at about $8,400 for every car it sells a year. For Tesla, it's valuation is closer to $380,000 for every car that it sold.
So, are Tesla shareholders insane?
No - they're not. Whether Tesla shares are fairly priced now is anyone's guess, but what's certain is that anyone buying Tesla shares in the last few weeks aren't buying it for last year's sales numbers.
Instead, they're looking 5, 10, 20 years into the future and betting that Tesla will be at very core of the mobility and transport industries. Electric cars, trucks or even self-driving cars, they're betting that Tesla will be involved in a big way - and will finally produce the profits that investors expect.
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Data Snacks
1) A British Airways flight hit 800mph on its journey from London to New York - making the trip in under 5 hours thanks to a tailwind from Storm Ciara.
2) Bill & Melinda Gates have published their 2020 Annual Letter, reflecting on 20 years running their foundation, and the $53.8bn that the foundation has spent.
3) While playing a 3-minute blitz game of Chess, world champion Magnus Carlsen wasted 20 seconds of his time taking his coat off - and still won.
4) Only 23.6 million people tuned into the Oscars this year, down 20% on last year.
5) You could be owed up to €600 if you've had a flight delayed or cancelled from/within/to the EU. If you have, check out Compensair; they do all the work for your claim, working with 150+ airlines to get an average compensation of €450 for their clients.**
6) Bernie Sanders has won the New Hampshire primary, capturing around 26% of votes, narrowly ahead of 38-year-old Pete Buttigieg.
7) The UK government has given the green light on HS2 -- the infrastructure project that could cost UK taxpayers up to £106bn ($138bn) in building a high-speed rail line that could see trains reach speeds of 250mph.
**This is a sponsored snack, we may be compensated if you do claim.
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