Daniel Abrams's Profile

Michael, thanks for your thoughtful post. One thing I wonder here is if there is a way for the American public to actually benefit from the introduction of cameras on police officers. Taser, the company, is one of the larger manufacturers of body cameras and they have succeeded in securing many of the contracts throughout the country. I worry about the current implementation as it is controlled entirely be the police and I imagine that there are ways to adjust the data.

Furthermore, it is very difficult to actually interpret the data from the cameras. This spring, the NYT published an article (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/01/us/police-bodycam-video.html) where they included video and asked the audience various questions about the video. The results of the survey were that the biases were the most important indicator of how the video was interpreted. I wonder if this is one case where technology will not be the solution and a cultural shift must happen within the U.S. police departments.

Thank you for writing about Overdrive. This was the only reason I went out and got a library card to the NYPL. The ability of technology to reduce the frictions of getting a book that may be at a different library is very strong. I wonder what percentage of library volume is now coming from e-books vs. traditional media.

I think that the publishers might not be seeing the full opportunity of the data they are getting from Overdrive. They have a potential to use data to drive publishing decisions and then market directly to customers. It is likely that most of the heavy library consumers are heavy media consumers and will likely also chose to buy some books from retailers. They can likely get a higher price for new books from these customers and utilize the long tail of their libraries to develop a loyalty towards their publishing house.

I wonder what you potential changes you think publishers can make to take advantage of the new tools they now have.

Josefin, fantastic post and response to the comments. While BMW may have a weaker market share position in the US, I think it might serve as a strength to them as they are still relatively uncommon compared to their peers. Instead of just having the target market of those who need to rent a car, they will also be able to target those who would like to try out a BMW for eventual purchase. When I look at Mercedes-Benz, I think that they have a reduced brand value because of their market share.

In regards to their potential to take market share from Zip Car, I think they will have a fair amount of success because the quality of their cars is so much higher than those on the Zip Car platform. My concern for that is regarding whether they will be able to find parking spaces to put the cars.

Ken, thank you for writing about this. In the software tax space, there are a number of competitive players. I think about how one of these providers can have an advantage over the others. Will this ultimately become a commoditized space or is there a way to have an advantage. Everything you’ve described any competitor could do. I wonder they can use the data that they have from countless tax returns to provide advise in what they can do to reduce their taxable income over the course of a year. If they were able to do something along those lines, they might be able to incorporate themselves into the lives of the tax payers in a way that bought them some brand loyalty.

I do appreciate the network effects they have built up in having both the W2 providers and the customers on the same platform, but I wonder if there is a way they can work with the data providers to get information throughout the year to provide insights along the way. Something like this would enable them to provide a value added service in a very unique way. They have started down this path with Mint, so they have some idea that they can do this, but other synergies can they offer between Mint and TurboTax.

I’ve been following M-Pesa for a bit and I’ve always wondered how will they implement some of these financial products. I wonder if they will look anything like what we have in the developed world of if we will have to create new services for these markets because the market will want a more sophisticated, but simple product as they are jumping forwards.

For example, there are solar generator/battery solutions that are paid for on a monthly basis through M-Pesa. In this example, the credit extended is the item, not the financing attached to it. If you can offer items on these turns and remotely turn off access to them through the internet (as they do with the solar solution), maybe you don’t need to create credit cards. You can apply this model for anything that can be converted into a consumable. I think you could do this with food, medicine, utility access, and most items that run on electricity.

MS, I appreciate your perspective and point of view, but I am a bit confused as to how LED lightbulbs relates to what Hess is ultimately trying to accomplish and how it would be possible for them to speak about the negatives of one type of energy source without providing a solution. I think it is an interesting idea, but I am not sure how it would actually play out. I would appreciate your thoughts on how a realistic campaign of this sort would look.

Ward, what an interesting article. As mentioned in some of the other comments, not where we thought you were going. I know that Coca Cola has a unique bottling situation with other companies running the bottling operations in a majority of regions. I would want to know more of how much of this carries over to the independent bottlers.

I know that over the past few years, KO has taken back some of the regions and redistributed them because they were unhappy with how they were managed. I want to know if this new initiate is part of their strategy.

Another coffee addict reporting in. I’m sitting here, wishing I had a coffee in hand, thinking about what Starbucks can do to change their supply chain to reduce the amount of stress it puts on the environment. I was talking with Professor Shih about how the shipping industry contributes significantly to GHG and pollution in general and now I find myself thinking about the quantity of beans Starbucks transports.

If they were able to transport their beans in a more environmentally friendly manner, it would help them avoid worsening the current disaster they face. This is also an area in which they could attempt to make improvement. Perhaps, they could experiment with offering higher value contracts to those shippers who have better practices.

What strikes me most is Daikin’s decision to offer free access to 93 of their patents. It is surprising to find that in a highly competitive industry, a player is giving away some of their competitive edge to allow other companies to help reach worldwide goals. It shows both a sense of urgency and a priority for the future.

On the JCI front, it is admirable how they have developed technology which is easily retro-fitted to allow for the new low-GWP refrigerants. It is interesting how the new regulation afford JCI the opportunity to install new equipment at a high initial cost with long-term savings to the customer. While we may be conditioned to think of environmental friendliness being more expensive, in this case, we see that it is both saving the customers money and providing JCI with a nice return at the moment. I wonder how this shifts the balance of costs between installation and maintenance.

Thank you for your post Anita. I find it interesting to consider how the presence of tourism and scale with tourism will become slightly at odds with Quicksilver’s greater goals. Is it possible for them to achieve scale without sacrificing the life of the reef in the long term.

I found your suggestions of how they could use digital technology to augment the experience interesting in that they made me consider their current involvement in the context of their greater goal. A digital experience could obviously help with their goal without the limitations of the curated experience that they currently offer.

In considering Quicksilver and the GBR, I think about what limits tourism faces in increasing awareness of climate change. Are we not currently aware enough? What do we do once we hit a desired level of awareness. If we reach a saturation point of awareness, what does Quicksilver’s mission transform into? Beyond generating awareness, does Quicksilver have a potential for a greater societal impact?