Jonathan Alle's Profile

I find it interesting to see how IBM has the opportunity to capitalize on its existing position to further establish itself as a specialist in large data storage. I think that you are right in advising IBM to aggressively sell their advisory services on data management and they should develop an complete solution package of hardware, software and maintenance services. I believe that industrial companies that are expanding into IOT will not find cloud data storage solutions attractive, due to the volume of data they will be producing as well as the risks of being hacked. I think thus that IBM can position itself as a trusted partner, bringing a global, integrated solution.

Your article brings me a little hope that VR and AR may be a transition step between human relying systems and fully automated systems. Let me explain:
Digitalization and automation are disrupting every industry, improving efficiencies, reducing costs and slowly pushing away humans from traditional jobs. The job landscape is changing and is doing so very quickly. One of my biggest worries is that the people that will be left out of job in their mid-40s, mid-50s don’t have the required formation to be able to rebound and find another job, as the only that will be left are those that require deep knowledge in areas such as computer science/ AI. I could not think of a solution until reading your article.
I believe that AR and VR can be some “transition” steps in the road to automation, as companies would be able to increase their production efficiencies without dismissing their employees. AR and VR have also the benefit of not being as capital intensive as buying a wholly automated new warehouse, while still improving operations.

Thank you Eric for this great article that clearly shows the challenges that climate change poses in an unstable, government dependent and corrupted environment.

I wonder whether one solution to the problem of bringing more Wheat to the Egyptians could be a stronger presence/ collaboration of the private sector. As I understand from your article, and from the review . “Egypt: Wheat Sector Review” from McGill, Julian et al.(http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4898e.pdf), roughly half of the wheat imports are done by different agencies of the Government and the other half by private entities. However, there appears to be a huge difference in the efficiency of the supply chains, the one employed by the government being much more inefficient.
For instance, the review points out 3 areas that could be improved by a stronger private presence:
1)The government relies on call to tender processes to buy wheat; however, it usually does so with a very short notice, thus driving the prices up as the tenders will have to assume higher costs of transportation to comply. If privates companies were do that job instead, I am certain that they would be able to plan ahead and do a better job.
2)The government relies on a basic shona storage system to store wheat on land. That system is outdated, poorly maintained, and is estimated to contribute to 10-20% of wheat losses due to impurities. Silos storage system are more adequate and the government should turn towards those.
3)Government storage facilities are not operated in an efficient way, due to lower than required throughput. Giving control of those facilities to private sector would improve their efficiency as those companies would not only import wheat but other commodities, creating overall efficiencies.

Thank you for this great article! I find really interesting the shift that DSG have made by opening their “Team Sports Headquarters” and I believe that they have the opportunity to leverage it, by refocusing their business on being the perfect “one stop shop for High-School teams”. They have this great opportunity as they are a well established brand known by families and they sell multiple different products, accros a whole range of brands and sports. They are thus able to target high School students, their families and their coaches and create value for them by taking care of everything that used to require a lot of time and effort from families and coaches.
As you very well explained, since prices matter for families with kids involved in multiple sports each year, I don’t believe that top sporting gear producers such as Nike or Addidas would try to enter that market, as they would not be competitive. Those are aspirational brands, while DSG should position itself as the perfect high school team partner.

Thank you for this very interesting article! I definitely agree that Boeing should focus on bringing back in house its core competencies such as Systems Integration and Engineering not only due to looming trade restrictions but also because those are strategic skills that ensure Boeing a competitive advantage! By relying on Tier-1 suppliers to perform those actions, Boeing may be 1) giving away too much information and 2) “training” suppliers that may tomorrow start working for the competition. As you mentioned, Boeing can either focus on (re)developing those skills in house or vertically integrate its suppliers. I would argue for the second option as, even though it may be more expensive, it allows Boeing to foster international relationships and to show a commitment to international open markets. I believe that building these long lasting relationships is the only argument that could ultimately prevent a decline in orders from China should a severe trade tariff be applied.

This article sheds light on a complex issue that Delhi is facing and I think that, in order to bring effective solutions in the long term, we first have to identify the relative impact of each cause. As I understand, the main sources of the deadliest (=smallest) particles are: the burning of residual biomass from harvest (26%), vehicular exhausts (28%) and power generation (27%) adding up to 81% of total air pollutants particles produced [1].
If we want to address this problem, we should thus bring solutions that would focus on:
1) Reducing/ eliminating the burning of biomass by installing biogas plants and creating a market for farmers to monetize their residual biomass.
2) Reducing the amount of cars travelling in the city by developing a public transportation system. An Odd/ Even scheme is not enough and is very difficult to enforce.
3) Reducing the amount of pollutants created as by-products of electrical production by enforcing higher standards in terms of pollutants emissions.
Delhi is not the first city to face such challenges and should look for solutions within London or Los Angeles that have successfully combatted air pollution. Obviously, these proposed solutions are not easy to implement and will require significant capital investments, but are in my opinion, the only way to get on the path towards sustainable growth.

[1] http://www.firstpost.com/living/delhi-air-pollution-from-data-to-civil-engagement-five-factors-for-overcoming-the-problem-4225869.html