IH's Profile

This is pretty interesting and although a good solution to deal with congestion, part of me thinks its not enough. As nate mentioned, congestion is a widespread problem for most large cities in developing countries, what is Skootar’s relationship with the government like and what is the government doing to alleviate these issues? Do you thin its in Skootar’s best interest to lobby for better infrastructure/mass transit systems? Part of me thinks that even if this is a better solution than using a sedan to deliver, the traffic will continue to worsen and even the scooters won’t be enough to alleviate the issue…

Thanks for the interesting post Steve, I worked on developing soil testing equipment back in my engineering days, but this is a totally different way of going about employing technology for agriculture.

How expensive are these systems and what are the infrastructure requirements needed to employ them? Although technology improvements are great I wonder how realistic it is to employ these systems in less developed markets where they are needed most. I know you have to start in the more developed markets first, but just curious how long adoption will take for this to roll out.

This is super interesting, although I don’t know much about the healthcare space and the intricacies between the doctor / hospital / insurance relationship, which I imagine is crucial for telemedicine to have successful rollout, I imagine this is truly the way of the future for the many reasons you discussed.

As I think about the main issue here, which is driving user adoption, what do you think is the best way to improve this such that the company turns a profit and can scale? I see this similar to our discussion of Uber, where the success of this technology and company relies on vast user adoption and the resulting network effect. Its easy to think that you should focus on the people that can drive adoption, which would be insurance companies – I imagine a scenario where you could incorporate the tele medicine providers into the doctors’ database on different insurers websites and you can immediately make an appointment with them directly. At the same time I also imagine that the hospitals may not like this practice since to me, this technology shifts power from the Hospitals to the Drs by enabling them to access a wide variety of patients without having to go through a Hospital. I guess what I am trying to get at is, do you think this new technology benefits everyone in the system? (creates a bigger pie) or does this technology shift the distribution of the market and therefore certain parties have no reason to endorse this going forward?

This was super interesting, although I haven’t been to a Disney theme park since I was quite young, I remember the frustration for the whole family created each time we arrived at our next destination an encountered an hour long line, with little alternative than to wait realizing that the next attraction could be equally as crowded. As we have seen in class and through the development of the technology industry, data is one of the most valuable assets a company can have.

Do you see a scenario were Disney is able to create theme parks based on some of the customer data they collect during their peoples’ visits? In other words analyze most popular rides to figure out common traits and how they can build these into future rides? The applications of this data seems endless, but to some extent I wonder if over reliance on this could kill innovation and the “imagination” that attracts people to Disney?

Do you knw if universal studios and other theme park operators have rolled out similar systems?

This was a really interesting read. Much like yourself – I typically dislike the department shop experience due to the amount of time needed to figure out the stores’ layout and finding what you are actually looking for. I think beacon could be an interesting solution, but I’d never heard about this before. How quick do you think the roll out and adoption of such new technologies can be? Although I think this is a step in the right direction, I almost feel like the required step of downloading an app an learning how to use it may be too much for someone that goes into a department store once a year.

Do you think there is anything Macys/beacon can do to lower those hurdles to adoption? I am not sure what the right answer is, but part of me thinks they could lend you a handset when you enter the store that has everything preloaded, much like museums do with their audio guides.

Thanks for the interesting post, I’ve noticed H&M’s marketing as conscious in their products, but didn’t realize they were such leaders in the industry. I think you bring up a great point at the end with regards to the end cycle of clothing also being particularly important to really make a dent in the fashion industry’s impact to the environment, what is H&M currently doing to address this? Are they manufacturing any clothing out of recycled material? (I realize this may be very difficult in large quantities, but I wonder to what extent they could do this since it seems like Nike was able to do this for some of the products they launched during the Olympics in South Africa)

thanks for the post – as an avid chocolate fan its good to hear someone is making an effort to make sure this great treat stays around for some time. As a leader in the sustainable production of chocolate and carbon free manufacturing plants what do you think Mars can do to help other manufacturers do the same? In a truly aligned world one would hope that every chocolate manufacturer becomes more like Mars, but part of me thinks Mars would hate to see this as they probably think of this as being a marketing advantage

Great post, its been a bit upsetting for the skiing community to see how much climate change has changed the ski seasons regularity and length. Is there anything that you think ski resorts can do to reduce the impact of climate change? I am a big proponent of ski resorts in the summer and spring, as an outdoors fanatic I don’t understand why it has taken them so long to start this, but part of me thinks this is a bit too reactive and doesn’t really get to the root of the problem. I realize many resorts have limited and very seasonal resources to utilize to address this, but I wonder how much of a role they could play in educating the community and skiers who would find this issue close to heart.

thanks for the insights. I think your point is very well taken with regards to how long the R&D cycle is and how this significantly amplifies the need for the industry to actively address the issue of climate change. Is there an over arching body that regulates airlines that could impose a target similar to what was done for the auto industry in Europe? Given the growth and importance of the airline industry I wonder why this has not happened

Great post, always interesting to hear about how different companies are addressing the issue of climate change.

Out of curiosity do you know if Hilton’s approach to reducing their carbon footprint differs based on each hotels location? I have always found it interesting to see whether culture and geography impacts how aware people are of their effects to climate change and how much they are willing to cooperate. I personally think their global footprint is something that Hilton can leverage to amplify their effect on climate change as it enables them to educate their visitors which are from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds, however, I realize some cultures are less receptive to the issue so I wonder what can be done about this.

Also is there some sort of overarching institution in charge of regulating the industry? I wonder to what effect a central body could help standardize practices across hotels to address the fact that the larger chains are better at dealing with the problem than the small independent hotels.