Jack Q Ma

  • Student

Activity Feed

I also take quite a cynical view on this. I think this is really mostly a marketing strategy rather than genuine open innovation. The quasi-open innovation used by Glossier (chosen product category, opaque process of final decision making) doesn’t seem so different from management occasionally reading product reviews by its customers, in terms of how much customer feedback gets incorporated. But the way Glossier does it is obviously quite smart in getting a new round of attention from its loyal customers. Another concern I have with the cult-like nature of the Glossier community – the loyalists are so loyal, that I don’t think any skeptics will voice their opinions. They are likely just going to leave. This self-selecting nature also partially invalidates the open innovation idea.

Beauty industry insiders all know how easy it is to formulate and make a product. Some have even said openly how much gross margin there is, and how easy it is to create a new brand and line of products (Hello, Kylie Cosmetics) and pocket huge financial gains. If Glossier truly wants to differentiate by using open innovation, it should open up its product development process much more. Until then, this cynic won’t convert!

I really enjoyed reading your take on this.

Clearly, the Zhima Credit system as China’s first credit system has a lot of benefits to both the consumers and businesses. It is essentially a modern day version of the escrow product Alipay, which helps resolve the lack of trust between merchants and customers. ZC does the same thing by backing up individual user’s ability and probability to repay the merchants, and thus facilitating a transaction or an investment that otherwise may not happen. This is an incredibly impactful value-add in China since we don’t have a formal credit system and the traditional lending system is not friendly towards farmers and other unbanked population.

And I share you concern on the collaboration with the government and on whether some of Zhima Credit’s features are discriminatory. It is important for Ant to continue to innovate and demonstrate the value of its system to the government, while protecting data privacy and social equality.

On November 15, 2018, Jack Q Ma commented on How Additive Manufacturing Can Unlock Boeings Biggest Challenges :

I am a big fan of Boeing and I find the complexity of developing, designing, and manufacturing an aircraft to be absolutely fascinating.

I would be very disappointed if Boeing does NOT use additive manufacturing as a strategic move to accelerate its process improvement! Due to the unique nature of an aircraft program – extremely heavy upfront costs, much lower unit cost in the later part of production than at first – Boeing will have so much potential benefit to reap, if additive manufacturing is used to their advantage. As you pointed out, it can help flatten Boeing’s learning curve. And I think the resulting savings early on will allow Boeing to innovate at a much faster pace. Each program no longer needs to run for 20 years to breakeven – Boeing can free up its resources much earlier on to continue to develop the next best aircraft.

Thank you for sharing!

I’m pretty familiar with Clover’s growth story, their food, and the food dev process. It is, however, the first time I realize this weekly food dev meetings may in fact be a type of open innovation. Ayr’s comment that Clover is a giant R&D project is also particularly interesting. But I completely agree with the two concerns you expressed at the end. Throughout my virtual interactions with Ayr (instagram, blog) and simply from my understanding from following this business for the past several years, I have a strong sense that Ayr is quite a controlling leader and often has very strong opinions. I am not surprised to hear that at the food dev meeting, he and Chris didn’t seem to care much about the participants’ feedback. As for whether it is scalable. I don’t think so. They can probably continue to run the food dev meetings only at the Inman location, but as they go national, the cost of testing and changing the menu frequently will go up significantly, especially given how obsessed Ayr is with QC and his various principles.

Now this all makes me hungry!

On November 15, 2018, Jack Q Ma commented on The Future at Nike: 3D printing customized shoes at home :

Thanks for sharing some great insights with us!

I like Nike’s application of 3D printing in running shoes for top athletes. The brand is closely associated with track and field from its very beginnings, and this focus shows they are true to their identity and roots. In addition, running is also a very popular sport with a huge and growing base.

I agree that the singular focus runs the risk of missing out on other opportunities, and that soccer is a great choice should Nike decide to expand its 3D printing focus. Air Jordan is another line that Nike can turn to for its continued innovation. An alternative dimension in terms of expansion, I’d propose, is to get into running/cross training shoes for the mass market. For example, Nike can have a section on its website where customers can design a customized pair of shoes to be 3D printed and delivered to them. The process can be recorded in a video to accompany the shoes. Customers will likely be willing to pay a premium for these shoes and the new “product” will likely create a lot of buzz as well.

On November 15, 2018, Jack Q Ma commented on Can Artificial Intelligence Replace Community Managers? :

Great to learn about your startup in depth, and well done Melissa!

When I first heard your concept of using AI to automatically generate digital content, I was very intrigued – 1. it seems very difficult because there’s so much variation in products, in quality or style of the raw material to scrape from, and in the marketing styles of the client brand. 2. because of the complexity in #1, if you can develop the algorithm to solve it, there is a ton of potential and business opportunity.

I like your content production chain, and I’m curious to see how and how quickly the content Arthur’In created has improved over time. I also find it interesting that you noted the most critical issue to the success of your company – whose objective is to replace people with AI – is getting the right people for yourself. To your question, I think the utmost objective right now is to develop very very proprietary, defendable and continuously improving algorithm to fend off competition. Especially since the competitors are the powerhouses like Google and Facebook. Good luck!!!