Digital Winners and Losers

September 13, 2015

Read The Full Prompt

The basic thesis of our course is that digital technologies are upending many industries and companies. Think about Uber’s impact on the taxi business or Spotify’s impact on music downloads and the record industry.

For this module, we would like you to identify companies/organizations that you think are winning or losing. Just work on either winners or losers. Please focus on just one organization. Tell us why they are a winner or loser. Discuss elements of how they create and/or capture value that is leading you to call them a winner or loser.

Create an approximately 500-750 word post to make your contribution. Please create appropriate tags for your post including if it is a “winner” or “loser” Please also respond to and comment on three other posts per module. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos and links to other sites to corroborate your points.

Selected posts will be discussed in class and also featured on the HBS Digital Initiative website.

Submitted (145)

The Sonos Platform is Greater than Software or Hardware
Clay W
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:34 pm
Sono's platform has made its hardware more valuable - not less - over time.
Silvercar: Redefining the Airport Rental Car Experience
ctm
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 11:37 pm
Meet Silvercar, the Austin-based car rental company that is looking to shake up the $10 billion airport car rental market by leveraging technology to address the major customer complaints of traditional rental companies.
Teladoc: Why the biggest and most successful telemedicine company ultimately will lose
HC Watcher
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Telemedicine is not a new idea. Since the birth of video-calling, experts thought that telemedicine will revolutionize the industry. Analysts bullishly have suggested that the market could be worth $4.5B by 2018 (IHS, 2014). Back in 2002, a small start-up [...]
LinkedIn: Changing the Professional Recruitment Landscape
Becky D
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 8:31 pm
LinkedIn goes beyond professional recruiters to make the hiring process smarter and better than it ever was before.
USPS: Nothing more than a stamp designer?
Charles
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 11:21 pm
In the era of the internet, globalization and instant messaging, how will a company used to make deliveries in 5 to 10 days survive? Does it have what it takes to adapt? What are the main forces holding it from [...]
Does Google Monitor Your Carry-On? Digital Innovation in Travel Accessories
Jonathan T
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 5:24 pm
How Can Connected Travel Accessories Can Create Sustainable Advantages In An Established Market?
Not Slacking off in the office
uilc
Posted on September 11, 2015 at 7:23 pm
The communication platform called Slack is winning because it is disrupting how office communication occurs.   Slack addresses a business need Slack addresses the pain of reading and searching through emails for a specific project or topic.  Slack allows teams [...]
Amazon: The One Stop Shop
Alexander Soley
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:36 pm
Online shopping changed the face of retail. A world where one would have to go to a physical store such as Walmart to find goods, increasingly online stores are being used more and more to buy everything from cabbage to toilets. Amazon, [...]
Staples – The Fight for Survival
Savage
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:36 pm
Can anything save Staples? Paper usage is shrinking, pens, highlighters and note-pads are disappearing. Does putting two dying businesses together create life?
BigML – Early to the Party
brandon
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 9:48 pm
How BigML is democratizing the tools of Big Data, making machine learning 'easy & beautiful.'
TILT: Taking the Hassle out of Group Fund Collection
Grace
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 8:01 pm
Tilt, a P2P payment platform answers the struggles of group funding by taking the risk off the contributor and the administrative burden off the organizer.
WeWork – Reshaping the office landscape
gscoon
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 11:43 am
WeWork, now valued at $10 billion, offers coworking spaces for a new type of worker. Will they continue to win? Read this post and you will/might find out.
Zenefits spells bad news for insurance brokers but good news for your startup
SDS
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Learn about why Zenefits gets 'winner' status by helping small businesses manage employee benefits for free
Pinterest: Don’t Forget to Pin it on the Winner’s Board
Schwas
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:41 pm
Pinterest’s journey in the digital age is just beginning, and by creating significant value for both general users (i.e., consumers) and businesses, it’s certainly positioning itself for long-term success.
Burberry: Using Digital to Revitalize a Brand
PD
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 12:32 pm
Seeking to revitalize and harmonize its brand, Burberry became a digital leader in the luxury fashion space.
eSalon: Even Hair Has Gone Digital
Marissa Henry
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 10:26 pm
eSalon is well positioned to win big in the new digital world of hair care.
Give Me $3000 to List Your Apartment on Craigslist
Donald Frump
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 4:46 pm
An unnecessary job is finally going away and saving lots of people money in the meantime.
Tesla – More Than Just Ludicrous Mode
Austin
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 12:31 am
Tesla has introduced game changing software development lifecycle practices to the automotive industry, and customers love the results.
Kodak: The fall of a giant
GA
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:42 am
Who doesn’t remember going on vacations and having to pack tons of little film rolls along with your camera? (which, as a kid, I opened and unrolled several times to see how pictures look like in there, ruining them!) Or [...]
Pogoseat: The New Era of Seats for Fans
DIGITite
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:58 pm
Ever wish you could upgrade your seats to see Stephen Curry or Kobe Bryant make history yet again? See some seats courtside or in the first row that have yet to be taken? Do you hate the obnoxious people behind [...]
Songkick: A winner in exploiting streaming behavior to maximize revenues to the music industry
Andrea MF
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Concert discovery app Songkick is helping improve monetization of the offline side of the music business, by leveraging information from the fans online behavior.
Cool to be fit? Another Hipster trend monetized.
Angela
Last modified on September 12, 2015 at 8:21 am
Putting the consumers' health and wellbeing back in control of the person through the use of Fitbit.
Ambarella: An ‘Under-The-Radar’ Winner In The Age Of Digital Video
Karthik
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 5:59 pm
Digital video creation and consumption has exploded over the last few years and is expected to continue expanding over the next decade. One company which has successfully leveraged this growth in digital video but remained relatively under-the-radar is the semi-conductor [...]
Strivr: Revolutionizing Sports from Behind-the-Scenes
NoSocks
Posted on September 14, 2015 at 5:16 pm
Strivr Labs brings Oculus Rift to professional sports
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