The first iconic home thermostat, the T86, was designed by Henry Dreyfuss and manufactured by Honeywell in 1953. [1] The T86 was called “the Round” circular thermostat and was made of plastic, brushed metal and raised gold digits. [2] Its [...]
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David Mravca
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Impossible Foods is an innovative food tech company aiming to replace meat with plant-based alternatives. Their goal is to create 100% plant-based ingredients to make a burger patty that looks, cooks and tastes like ground beef. Alternatives to meat products [...]
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Using Watson in healthcare is very exciting. It looks to be useful in situations that return high probabilistic results. Much of healthcare cancer and disease treatment research is still unknown. I see Watson’s foray into this area as a big blank space that Watson can eventually fill in, so more of an opportunity than an unsolvable problem. How much trust will we bestow upon Watson in the future? How will future physician’s be trained? Healthcare doesn’t seem like a field we want to soley rely on Watson for all the answers.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/19/can-ibm-fix-the-health-care-problem.html
Is the Financial Times seeing an increase in readership with programmatic sales? Worried that focusing on the high value activities may detract from the journalistic authenticity the publishers are seeking.
Eversource could look at what PG&E is doing in California. Several of the smart measurements such as data collection on home appliances and using a smart grid are helping them to stay up to date with the current technologies.
https://www.pge.com/
I see that they provide tablets to the teachers, but what about the students? Perhaps they could partner with an organization like World Reader that provides e-readers to children all over the world. May also be a better way to track student performance metrics.
http://www.worldreader.org/
I like the idea of Nike following Levi’s message of sustainability and being eco-friendly. What do you think if Nike offered “credits” or “points” to your Nike account for returning old Nike clothes that you don’t use anymore to be recycled. The points could be used for discounts or bragging rights which would encourage customers to think about recycling and sustainability. On the flip-side, if Nike made their products more durable and timeless then customers wouldn’t need to shop as often.
http://earth911.com/recycling-guide/how-to-recycle-clothing-accessories/
I could see Nutreco expanding into the global human nutrition industry with the company’s current resources and international reach. It is inefficient to feed animals and then intake the animal protein. Expanding their agriculture footprint could reduce their dependency on the animal industry. Nutreco could follow in their competitor Cargill’s footsteps and also venture into the agriculture space to offset the inefficiencies in the animal feed to animal to human process flow.
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00K8MQ.pdf
http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=driftlessconference
ASP, great post! Enjoyed reading every part of it. With the environmental effects of livestock, what would happen if Tyson stabilized (or reduced) meat production and increased meat prices? Since Tyson has invested in a plant-based company, Beyond Meats, I could see Beyond Meats as being the “low cost” alternative to Tyson’s real meat. I generally like that Tyson has recognized their need to diversify and has invested in Beyond Meat as a means to do so.
Also, would you propose Tyson to also invest or acquire another start-up, Memphis Meats? They are making “clean meat” (cultured) in a lab. It is very expensive right now, but as the technology improves and consumer demand increases I believe it could be a viable solution. With consumer’s love of meat, do you see lab-grown meat as a real solution or a red herring?
Enjoyed reading your letter to the CEO. It hits on the threat of climate change and addresses several possible solutions for Vail. There diversifying in other mountain resorts has helped them avoid region-specific dry spells in the winter season. I like the idea of Vail doubling down on their marketing for summer season activities, thus attracting different customer types who enjoy fishing, camping, water skiing.
I would also propose Vail take a page out of Club Med’s book. Vail could start to invest in summer beachfront properties in Florida, Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico. This will allow Vail to increase revenue in the summer season. Vail could offer an “all-season” annual pass to customers much like their winter “ski season” pass. The “all-season” pass could cover entry and discounts to various resorts, beaches and mountains throughout the year. A partnership with a popular travel credit card such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve may help hype up the “all-season” pass too. Would you think this direction is not aligned with Vail’s core values and customer base?
https://www.clubmed.us/d
Very insightful post. I like the focus on an actionable plan to react to lower water supplies in the future and the dilemma between future water prices with human need. I would like to read more of what Dave thinks on the global population growth’s effect on climate change and water demand. One way to reduce the global population growth is to increase spending and access to education. Developed regions have less children than non-developed regions, reducing the overall global water demand. This will help to avoid the band-aid solution of creating a gargantuan flotilla of desalination plants to combat world thirst. Would you consider the desalination plants a short-term solution to the long-term problem or will we all be drinking desalinated ocean water sooner than we think?
http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2012/03/ganguly-2/