The Arms Dealers of the Efficiency War
In any revolution, the ones who truly profit are often those selling the shovels, or in this case, the software. And the irony here is almost too delicious. Take Amazon itself. Whilst its retail arm is handing out P45s, its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, is providing the very digital infrastructure that allows other companies to slim down their own IT departments and automate their operations. It’s a masterful, if slightly cynical, position to be in. They are both a participant and a primary enabler of this great corporate diet.
Then you have the old guard, like Oracle. For decades, its database and enterprise software have been the unglamorous plumbing of global business. In a world obsessed with efficiency, reliable plumbing is suddenly very much in vogue. When a company decides to consolidate its messy operations, it’s often Oracle’s tools they turn to for a single source of truth. It’s not exciting, but it is essential. And in this environment, essential is a very attractive quality.
And let’s not forget the specialists like ServiceNow. They focus entirely on workflow automation. Think of them as the efficiency consultants who never leave, digitising everything from IT support tickets to employee onboarding. Their software allows a business to maintain, and even improve, its internal processes whilst operating with a much leaner workforce. It’s precisely the sort of tool a CEO reaches for when the board starts asking pointed questions about headcount.