Ben Fehr TOM Challenge - The Danaher Way's Profile

Ercu – Danaher’s operating companies have for years operated in marketplaces with tight margins. Where they have been able to beat out their competitors is through employing more efficient business practices, and when required, drop product lines altogether (if they’re not making money). Danaher has been judicious with what it chooses to manufacture, and is constantly looking at the next frontier of industry and which companies it will acquire (whatever and wherever that might be) to maximize its operational profits.

Ruby – thanks for this post. Insightful…one question I have: how do the major industry disruptors of the world such as Uber lead the way with regulatory changes? I’ve read a lot of back and forth issues Uber has faced in places like Paris. What does it take to convince a marketplace (and its regulatory mechanisms) that the old way of doing business is outdated? Has Uber engaged in any innovative regulatory negotiation that might be useful to other future marketplace disruptors?

Ercu – thanks for sharing this. It seems somewhat similar to GrubHub, Seamless, Door Dash, and a few other services here in the states. What struck me, though, was how the delivery mechanism is actually provided by the restaurants. Is this something that is already part of each restaurant’s business model? How can Yemeksepeti (the Company) expand its selection of restaurants to include those that do not have a delivery service? Is the Company looking to expand into providing its own delivery system to be more inclusive of all restaurants (with and without preexisting delivery mechanisms)? How can it maintain a competitive advantage to keep the Seamless’s and Door Dashes of the world from entering the Istanbul market? Recently, Dilveroo received a large round of funding to expand its delivery service (mostly restaurant food-based) throughout the UK. It’s an interesting marketplace, but it seems it is being crowded by competitors. Perhaps the Company has an advantage with exclusive deals with partner restaurants, in which case it has a distinct advantage over newcomers.

Thomas – thanks for posting. A few questions: there are several “tasker” apps/services out there. How does TaskRabbit differentiate itself from these other services? In addition, could you please elaborate on the percentage of completed jobs prior to and after its operating model change? I would hope that the task completion percentage is now near 100%; if I used TaskRabbit (which I never have), and the task was not completed, I don’t think I’d ever use it again. Adoption through trialability and user satisfaction will keep this service going. Just curious if the new model has maximized completion. Thanks.

Melissa – great post. I am curious how labor costs impact the difference between GM’s EBIT and that of Toyota’s. Given a unionized labor force, does this help or hinder GM? You mentioned how GM renegotiated labor contracts. What did GM do and were these negotiations massively substantial to improving GM’s finances? Are these union employees more loyal to UAW or GM? Are there ways to take a large union workforce and make it a competitive advantage in some way?

I feel that a firm’s workforce drives a massive part of its competitive advantage. I am somewhat skeptical to the longterm vitality of the union concept in the U.S., but I may be quite wrong. Perhaps there are ways to transform the current system at GM by engaging the labor force/human capital to improve the firm’s vehicle quality and brand equity.