Doha Tantawy's Profile

Interesting article, thanks for shedding light on that topic Satoshi! I agree that moving to the digital world is definitely the right move, but Uniqlo’s model is very unique and I believe that they should centralize their digital strategy around their core competencies. Uniqlo is one of the very few brands that penetrate markets with low prices, yet manages to preserve its brand image and does not fall into the “retail discounters” category. I think they should focus on their low prices, high product variety and bulk orders.

Definitely a big issue for a company with such scope! I think that the direction they are now taking on the consumer front is focused on information sharing only. While this is good and much needed, I believe they can do so much more! The information sharing portal with the consumers can be better done by sharing real-time information rather than in retrospect after receiving the goods, allowing for even more transparency. On the production front, I think that digitalization is key to solve their efficiency and distribution issues. I strongly advocate to make a move for vertical integration on the distribution side through buying stakes in their major distributors and through scaling their own distribution network.

Interesting article, thanks for shedding light on that topic Satoshi! I agree that moving to the digital world is definitely the right move, but Uniqlo’s model is very unique and I believe that they should centralize their digital strategy around their core competencies. Uniqlo is one of the very few brands that penetrate markets with low prices, yet manages to preserve its brand image and does not fall into the “retail discounters” category. I think they should focus on their low prices, high product variety and bulk orders.

Very interesting! Thanks for the details and thoughtful approach. From a supply chain efficiency, I agree with the proposal to manufacture in China and one major opportunity is to serve as a regional hub and source to other Asian countries. I also think there’s an opportunity in empowering front-line employees to come up with ideas to increase productivity, yield and decrease cost (http://www.supplychain247.com/article/lego_expands_to_beat_supply_chain_bottlenecks/university_of_st._gallen).

From a commercial perspective, I think another way to tackle stagnant profits is maybe to think of recycling or recirculating the used legos. This might serve as another revenue stream or at least another way of recreating revenues. I also think that they need to do more educational campaigns and more engaging activities on a marketing level, to combat the decrease in the demand by children (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/09/05/lego-sales-crumble-children-turn-away-building-bricks/).

Amazing topic and very well written essay! I strongly agree with your recommendation to start manufacturing in India, which is another global manufacturing hub. However, this comes with another issues including lower labor productivity and organizational&logistical setbacks (https://www.intouch-quality.com/blog/manufacturing-in-india-vs-china).

I don’t believe that the elimination of the official resellers would help, I think the cost-to-serve through opening their stores would not be justified given the current softness in demand; that said, it is definitely a plausible long-term sales strategy. Another alternative they can do, is to start a “maintenance” arm, where they can capture the value in the refurbished Apple iPhones market.

No, the world needs more coffee not less! I believe the efforts you mentioned are pretty impressive, specially when compared to other companies who are taking a less passive approach to the world’s problems. But I believe there’s room for more, specially for a company with a lion share on a global scale.
1. They are directly investing vertically across the chain, but what are they doing to influence the operations of such companies? Such loss in yield needs radical intervention!
2. Another dimension that you mentioned, but Starbucks is not not tackling is the pest management and disease control that will follow as a result of the climate change, these are two big issues that also need to be tackled.
3. Not one will climate change affect the yield, but it will also affect quality in the shorter run (http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/21/world/coffee-climate-change-trnd/index.html). Unlike the bigger issue at hand which can be bucketed under CSR, this is a dimension of the problem will be recognized by consumers and can affect demand in the coming years. To tackle this, proper forecast and planning are required. And this needs to be coupled with a very high flexibility in their supply chain. The question is: can a giant like Starbucks act with a start-up spirit and change its operations accordingly?

Interesting read and definitely a thought intriguing piece tackling a problem that has many dimensions! I think given the criticality of water as a heavy industrial resource and given that estimates show that with current practices, the world will face a 40% shortfall between forecast demand and available supply of water by 2030 (http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/waterresourcesmanagement), I believe that Nike should do so much more than what they’re doing; kind of what IKEA is doing to preserve the global natural resources. I don’t think shifting totally to cotton substitutes is an option as it poses a serious question to the customer promise, but I do believe it’s feasible to use less water in cotton production. An example of what they can do is to join efforts with movements like CottonConnect (supported by C&A Foundation) and the Better Cotton Initiative (supported by WWF), to help reduce water use, make cotton farming more sustainable and execute improvements on a farmer-level. (https://www.triplepundit.com/special/cotton-sustainability-c-and-a-foundation/water-cotton-lifecycle/)