Digital Winners & Losers

February 01, 2018

Read The Full Prompt

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 assignment, 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 on d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit by 6pm on Feb 1. 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.

Please prepare a 2-3 min summary of your blog post before class.

Submitted (83)

Retail is(n’t) dead (for all) – Nike is Just Doing It
kt
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 1:46 pm
Nike is bucking the "retail is dead" trend by integrating digital disruptions into their strategy and effectively meshing the offline and online worlds through experiences such as Nike Soho.
LEGOs: Still “The Apple of Toys”?
RPARK
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 12:33 am
After being on the brink of bankruptcy in 2004, LEGO managed to successfully implement a digital strategy and thrive. Through movies, mobile games, and mobile applications, the company made choices that blended the physical and digital worlds, perhaps appealing more [...]
Planet: Disrupting Space by Democratizing Digital Imagery
MMidd
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 2:51 pm
Planet is using hundreds of tiny satellites to capture real-time imagery of earth's entire surface, and their data imaging software can help answer the questions that you and millions of others are asking.
Marriott’s Innovations has it Sleeping Soundly (for now)
HU
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Marriott is creating value by leveraging best-in-class digital innovations to create extraordinary experiences for its customers around the world.
Dropbox- an unlikely incumbent?
Haley
Posted on January 31, 2018 at 8:46 pm
Is Dropbox is missing out on the benefits of blockchain?
Instacart – Crowd-sourcing Your Grocery Shopping with Just A Few Clicks
KZ.
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 4:40 pm
Instacart has changed customer’s grocery shopping experience by crowd-sourcing the tasks to personal shoppers. It has found ways to create value for customers, retailers as well as shoppers.
Watch out! Airbnb is near by!
Al
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 3:14 pm
Airbnb has contributed to a massive change in lodging segments and how consumers perceive travel by creating a new virtual trust between local hosts and visitors, however as it's growth will change the urban fabric of hosting cities. So, will [...]
Bezos, The Digital Midas. Turning Around the Washington Post
ME
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 2:36 pm
If one person has the knack for turning a digital-phobic industry on its head, it's Jeff Bezos. His acquisition and subsequent digital transformation of the Washington Post has been a massive success. How did Bezos take a struggling paper, in [...]
Stitch Fix: Personalizing Fashion with Data
D
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 5:52 pm
As we have seen in lately reports, digital transformation is disrupting the retail industry. E-commerce sites are changing the consumer’s behavior, shifting purchases from brick and mortar stores to on-line. In the apparel industry, Stitch Fix created a business model [...]
Mattel: Toy manufacturers need to grow up
JSG
Last modified on January 31, 2018 at 9:55 pm
Why Barbie and Hot Wheels need digital makeovers to keep pace with their increasingly tech savvy users.
Fireeye on the prize: helping other firms navigate digital transformation securely
JPW
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 9:30 am
Fireeye has become a winner by helping firms navigating digital transformation win in the ongoing war against cyber criminals and advanced persistent threats.
H&M – Nowhere to Turn
RobD
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 5:58 pm
  H&M is one of the three largest fashion brands in the world, with $23 Billion in sales and over 10,000 stores worldwide. 3 decades ago, H&M and Inditex (Zara) disrupted the fashion industry with a rapid supply chain and [...]
Comcast: The (seemingly) biggest loser wins the game?
DF
Last modified on January 30, 2018 at 10:12 pm
In the age of rapid cord cutting, how is Comcast thriving?
The Oracle That Couldn’t See the Future
Anton
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 12:42 pm
Can Oracle compete in a new age of Enterprise Technology? Its revenue growth would say yes, but I say no.
Nvidia – a #winner by choice or by stroke of luck?
jklim
Posted on January 31, 2018 at 7:47 pm
NVIDIA, the publicly traded (NVDA) producer of graphic chips was little known to anyone, until 2016 when it became the best performing stock, delivering over 207% returns to its shareholders. Today with market cap of almost $150bn it is hard [...]
Xiaomi: China’s Threat to Apple
Gloria
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Xiaomi’s long-anticipated IPO is expected to be valued at $100 billion – quadruple of Alibaba’s record breaking offering of $25 billion three years ago. What’s Xiaomi’s secret to success?
Instagram: Social Media’s Big Winner
Carlfuda
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 5:47 pm
The 'Gram's rise to dominance.
Nvidia: Dominating GPUs Benefits More Than Just Gamers
ADW
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 3:46 pm
Nvidia has benefited from the crypto-mining boom, but has set itself up for continued success beyond blockchain.
Hotel Tonight – A Travel Winner
MAB
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 6:04 pm
Hotel Tonight (HT) is a mobile-only marketplace that brings together hotels with travelers. HT started in 2010 as a mobile app that helps travelers find a hotel room on the same day at a discounted rate. It achieved deeply discounted [...]
Condé Nast: No Longer in Vogue
JZ
Last modified on February 1, 2018 at 3:04 pm
Condé Nast, once a magazine powerhouse, is in decline. Through a series of company reorganizations and brand closures, all signs point to a company struggling to adapt to the digital economy.
Starbucks’ Mobile App: A winner in bridging the retail / digital divide
m_watson
Last modified on January 31, 2018 at 10:30 pm
Why was Starbucks, a coffee retailer, able to gain more adoption of mobile payments, with 30% of transactions through mobile compared to Apple Pay, which is only used by ~5% of customers?
Peloton: Bringing the Studio to You
MHS
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 3:47 pm
Peloton has created their own "fitness as a service" ecosystem that delivers the quality and experience of a boutique studio workout without leaving your home.
Gob.pe – Digital technology for government bureaucracy
TPA
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 1:02 pm
Hopefully #winning. Out with government bureaucracy, in with digital.
The New Mad Men
M
Posted on February 1, 2018 at 1:03 pm
IBM's digital agency iX is changing the way corporations engage and market to consumers