AyhanSebin's Profile

This is my last comment and I would like to write it about ethics of technology. I believe it is extremely important if not the most in defense industry. The world discusses ethics of self-driving cars but we are facing the threat of robot armies sooner or later. It could be more disruptive than nuclear in reality. Hence, creating common values around how to use technology more ethically for the peace of the world in militaries is an existential necessity. US Army should lead the efforts and be a role model for the rest of the world.

As a huge game enthusiast, I can’t wait for faster transformation if the industry. I think the opportunities to create better experiences for the gamers through AI, VR and Robotics is well ahead of the current offerings. Game companies should be more aggressive and faster in embracing the change. Otherwise, new companies will disrupt them with more radical innovations.

I wrote the similar blog about Deloitte. I am more positive about industries’ respond to disruption. They should embrace the mission for being agent of change and making future more evenly distributed. An overarching vision will emotionally and strategically engage everybody in the organization. Aligning the firm around this mission after getting strong buy-in from top executives is critical.

I listened to this project from head of Watson IOT. It is incredibly mind opening to see that how much value you can create even inside a small elevator. The firms plans to go beyond maintenance and convert the elevator business to SaaS business by providing software to acquire and analyze the elevator patterns of consumers. By doing so, elevator would be transformed to targeted marketing channels.

Smart city projects are always very visionary and inspirational. However, real-life applications are always very weak. First reason is the lack of capacity and commitment from public institutions. IBM has been in smart city business for decades and couldn’t cross the chasm yet. Instead of converting entire city to smart, it is definitely better to focus on low hanging fruit use cases such as environment and traffic. An definitely bringing private capital on board is much more effective.As in the PE infrastructure projects, smart cities should be developed incentivizing private firms and investors.

I loved Sweetgreen and their value proposition. It is a great insight that, I always forget which ingredients I used in my last salad and what are my favorites. There is also a huge line at Sweetgreen all the time. The biggest challenge would be integrate this model in to their supply chain and operating model. I worked at food safety blockchain project over the summer. The importance of provenance data is incredible for food industry especially for brands like Sweetgreen. As we all know, lack of supply chain integrity at Chipotle almost killed the brand.

Great post. The biggest opportunity for Yelp is to leverage their data and user base in adjacent business. Food delivery has enormous potential for Yelp. With its extensive data and restaurant partners, Yelp is very well positioned to compete against Grubgub and others. They already acquired Eat24. As in this example, I believe the strength of crowd-sourcing platforms to source, create and channelize communities from data generation business models to revenue generation business models. However, Google will be a tough competitor for Yelp with its increasing focus on adjacent search and review areas. Increasing consumer stickiness will be the key challenge ahead.

Nice choice. Youtube is facing the severest competition ever in short-duration video market. Snapchat and instagram stories are building big hypes around user generated videos. Meanwhile, Netflix is growing with exclusive content. Youtube is losing its differentiation points and being commodity. The quantity and volume of videos are not reflected in the quality. However, Google’s unique search algorithm is Youtube’s biggest advantage. Curation and search video database will always help Youtube to remain competitive. I am very curios if Google can convert Youtube to a social media platform which will be positioned better against Snap and Insta.

Great choice. I really like Reddit model. Content is really engaging and can go deep. However, I agree that user experience is very weak. Some big social media platforms should explore acquiring Reddit and integrating the content while improving the user experience. For instance, Twitter definitely needs quality content to drive discussions around interesting topics.

Another dating platform which shows the huge acumen of HBS students in the field ;). I remember watching their pitch at Shark-Tank. They were totally grilled by high valuation. However, founders were so confident about their platform and kept moving forward. I think existence of various sub-segments and demand for targeted matching results in fragmented market in dating app market. Main success of coffee and bagel comes from encouraging the positive feedback loop for real drivers of the platform who are women. As Tinder gets more trashy and casual, others are able to come up with serious dating propositions.

Nice choice. There many trade offs and dilemma’s in Netflix model. Despite all the beauties of Netflix brand and model, computing with Amazon platform is the biggest challenge for a company. I think the main challenge is to deal with multi-homing. Hence, exclusive content is the main differentiation point. As multi-homing drives exclusive content, Netflix is facing the danger of moving backwards from platform to product. As it gets more integrated, all the advantages of indirect network effects might be negatively effected. That’s why, competing against platforms is dangerous even for platforms.

We had a case about this company in Strategy & Technology class last semester. I found it very interesting idea that fills that tries to address a market demand. However, it never addresses the complex physiological barriers of love and relationships in this elitist filtering model. I think the main issues nobody wants to accept that they are looking for only resume type features in relationships. Such a materialistic view would not be appreciated by both sides in a very obvious way.

Nice post. I worked with Walmart for the blockchain project. They are really trying to be innovative. However, their execution capabilities are very low. In order to implement all those breakthrough ideas, they need to change their org structure, processes and culture. In the blockchain project, Walmart was very slow and inflexible to adapt the technology despite the appetite for innovation. Hence, I think Walmart is gonna stay as loser for a very long time.

Very fun company to watch. Facebook and Google are all going after Snaps. Short video types are gonna be even more hype as attention span gets shorter and shorter. Instagram stories seems to be winning due to its integration with photos, Facebook and simpler user interface. Snap should enhance user experience to be able to compete.

Nice post, I actually think Starbucks is one of the few Amazon proof retailers out there. It is interesting to see how they also leverage digital for their advantage. Many other loser retailers should learn lessons from Starbucks positive experience with millennials and the digital age. I actually use Starbucks app and find it very useful. It will definitely increase customer loyalty and traffic.

loved it! Merging of online and offline channels will be one of the most critical game changers. Actually, Walmart is the only company that can respond to this kind of game changers. Amazon Go might be create many new losers. On the other side, Amazon is getting very diverse in terms of portfolio. Managing different business units and competing with many different companies might be the biggest obstacle of Amazon!