Anto's Profile

Very good post on an industry very dear to me. We have used tractors on our family farm and would have appreciated farm intel from the OEM on how we could optimize certain operations such as fertilizer and herbicide application. I really appreciate that John Deere takes the time to interpret the data it collects, extract insights, and share that information with the farmers, most of whom will not know what to do with that raw information. As such, I am a little less concerned that the farmers do not have access to the raw data. Now, if John Deere has the ability to cash in on selling this data to other stakeholders, that is a different matter and I’ll imagine that there’ll be backlash from the farmers.

Nice post here, and I like how you pointed out that the rental car market will still be there, despite traditional ride share dominance in recent times. Corporate car companies are feeling the pressure from firms like Uber and if these rental companies really notice firms like Turo, I’d imagine that they’ll come down hard to try to crush the smaller competition. I’ll be interested to see how Tulo reinvents itself by hopefully focusing in say the luxury segment, as Adam points out.

Very good post Jordan. I share the pessimism that Garmin may not be able to play catch up to more superior companies like Apple or Google. Now, navigation is big business when it comes to flights and space exploration. What better place to focus than those industries from Garmin’s perspective. Boeing and Airbus, among other major aircraft manufacturers will be happy to partner in order to provide best-in-class navigational aids for pilots and ground personnel alike. Aerospace companies can also partake in these partnerships in order to push the frontier. Since projects in these industries are typically very well funded, Garmin could potentially find a niche space to play.

Great post Phillip. Those late night informercials were ringing in my head as I read your post. How the new technology developed out of MIT monitors heart rate via wireless technology is beyond me but it’s really impressive. Now, the elderly are mostly home-bound, but I’m sure that most of them like to walk around the house or relax in the backyard. If coverage for the wireless technology is not broad enough, the applicability of this application may be limited. Other instances where the elderly are away from home, but not in plain sight of a potential helper could also present a minor detraction for this technology.

Great article Adam. The value add for rural settlers is tremendous here. I am curious about the infrastructure that nFrnds uses to deliver these services. Do they have to rely on major telcom companies such as MTN in order to deliver services to mobile phones? If yes, I’ll be curious as to how nFrnds will have a net positive cash flow by being so affordable to end users. If the company doesn’t rely on any telcom company network, I’ll imagine that MTN will be strongly considering this market. If they do, MTN appears to have “unlimited” resources to become a formidable competitor to nFriends. Will be interesting to hear your thoughts.

Great piece, Jodie. Daiken is in an interesting position such that it wins, whether it focuses on sustainability or not. If other refrigerant manufacturers kept producing toxic HFCs, the earth warms up and the overall refrigerant market, in which Daiken is a part of, expands. On the other hand, Daiken wins if it is able to get its product out there. I think there’s a strong case here to be made to regulatory bodies about traditional HFCs. Just as authorities were able to force out CFCs, a compelling case could persuade law makers to phase out existing HFCs since we know that this refrigerant is still a major environmental menace.

Great and refreshing post. If I’m not mistaken, the average U.S consumer also uses and discards a lot of waste materials – although proper disposal in trash bins is the norm. With that in mind, I’m not necessarily opposed to film crews using excess paper for instance. As long as these waste materials are properly disposed and collected for recycling, our sustainability goals would be accomplished. I know in Texas that littering attracts very strong fines…that explains why the lone star state is generally void of solid inorganic wastes. As to making Brad Pitt fly in coach vs private jet, we may have a hard time controlling that one for now. Thanks again for thinking outside the box!

Great insights here, Bruna. I’ve always thought of biomass from farms as the primary fuel source for bioenergy. Landfills are indeed a great resource for biomass, as you’ve outlined. I understand that by scooping out methane from these landfills, we are removing a major GHG that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. I thought it was important to note however that the combustion of a molecule of methane to produce energy also produces a molecule of CO2. The CO2e of methane is obviously higher in this comparison but we are still releasing GHGs to the atmosphere. Do you think that implementing carbon capture methods (can capture up to 90% CO2) at these mini power plants would be a good solution to further reduce atmospheric GHGs? The captured CO2 can be channeled back into the soil, an analogy to the process in which plants cleanup the air and supply us with oxygen.

Thanks Jordan. A quick response to Ilan’s point about UberPOOL driverless cars. I suspect that it will not be in auto manufacturers’ best interest to see a rapid use of car pooling or mass transit in the United States. The U.S. market is so huge for GM that it could go as far as placing lobbyists in D.C in order to ensure that high speed trains, for instance, don’t become common place here.

GM has shown a strong commitment to sustainability, which must be commended. For some reason though, Japanese and Korean manufacturers have consistently produced more fuel efficient vehicles that their U.S counterparts. Is there a clear engine or aerodynamic technology gap between GM and the Asian giants? Could the difference simply be attributable to the seemingly larger cars produced by GM compared to say, Toyota?

Great work here Billy. I have had the opportunity to be on-board a Maersk offshore drilling vessel enroute from S. Korea to Singapore. I can say that very few companies out there, if any at all, do as good a job running their vessel under optimized fuel management systems. Being the leader that it is in this space, one would initially think that there’s not much room for improvement for Maersk, especially on further minimizing GHG emissions per container per km. I’m sure the company could push its engine manufacturers to deliver even more efficient propulsion systems. Most other firms in the offshore transport business follow Maersk’s lead and by pushing the frontier on technological innovations in this manner, Maersk will be leading the charge for a more sustainable world.