kt's Profile

Awesome post – I was surprised to hear about all of the innovation happening in the sports industry! While this was exciting and interesting, I shared the exact same concerns as you, ahuynh and TB12 – this is a massive investment in digital transformation, but was this the right investment for the team? First, I feel that these digital innovations are only going to make current fans even more loyal, as opposed to acquiring new fans. While this is great, it isn’t going to generate much incremental revenue. Second, if the team’s track record doesn’t improve, these digital innovations are meaningless, since fans won’t be as engaged and excited about following the team and coming to the venue anyways. I wish they would have focused first on team improvement investments before spending $507 million on these innovations.

Interesting article! I was surprised to hear about L’Oreal’s dedication to become digital, since I only knew about their e-commerce presence. I, however, have a similar reaction to Amira above – I’m not quite sure they have cracked the nut on digital transformation yet. I agree with Amira’s points as to why, but I also think a big factor is because of how “sticky” the beauty industry is for most product lines. For most products, I almost always just reorder the existing brand and shade that I am currently use, and only rarely am interested in exploring new products through something such as the Makeup Genius. I wonder how they could get more traction to this product, perhaps through discounts or promotions if you use the product.

Although I have never used a dash device myself, I think the concept is extremely attractive. I understand where your concerns come from with regards to taking business away from brick and mortar stores and the environmental concerns by having more delivery trucks on the roads. However, I would argue that this trend towards more consumers shopping online is happening anyways, and dash isn’t changing this in meaningful ways, but what this means is that amazon needs to place even more emphasis on making their delivery network more sustainable.

One other concern I would have as a consumer is around price fluctuations. As an Amazon customer, I’ve noticed that prices do fluctuate quite a bit. If the price changes on an item that is reordered, is the item still automatically reordered, or is there a mechanism in place to alert the consumer?

Great article on a product that I am intimately familiar with, but didn’t know about all of the ways I am exposing myself to personal data concerns! I agree with you that it is great if cities are able to leverage this data to make the cities less traffic filled and safer, but there are massive concerns about privacy, especially since this use case can’t be found in any of their user agreements. I do wonder how else we could be using this data to improve our safety.

One other consideration is the move in MA to begin removing tollbooths altogether and move towards an all-electronic system, which is already underway, and how this will potentially expose us as users even more to security concerns. In case you haven’t heard about this, here is a recent article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/10/30/forewarned-traffic-delays-mass-turnpike-start-this-week/7p7X6GHN0pqFrEgnYvat5N/story.html

I love seeing Disney being so innovative through the use of digital technology! I haven’t experienced the park via MyMagic+ yet, but have historically been the type of person trying to optimize my ride completion with Fast Passes, so the additional transparency would make this even easier. My concern, though, is around privacy for the users. Did any of the articles you read address any concerns of privacy with Disney having all of this purchase data, location data, and so much more?

Given Disney has been at the forefront of digital transformation and came out with MyMagic+ a few years ago, what do you think is next for Disney?

Great overview of a problem that I selfishly hope the wine industry takes a serious stand against in the very near future to save the future of wine! However, one question that I have as a result of reading your post is how these organic agricultural processes affect the quality and taste of the wines. Do they have much of an impact to consumer? Would the consumer even be able to note the difference in a bottle of wine? If so, I think companies that shift to this methodology as a way of combating climate change will need to tread lightly and work to communicate these changes to their consumers so that they don’t inadvertently kill their demand.

This is a really interesting and legitimate concern that you raise for PepsiCo. It was great to read about how they are leveraging technology to combat many of the issues they are facing as a result of climate change. Another area where they are making massive progress that wasn’t mentioned in your post is in water replenishment. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are making substantial efforts to replenish all of the water they consume in the local communities where they are operating. Here is an article that talks about the progress both companies have made: http://www.brandchannel.com/2016/08/29/coca-cola-pepsico-water-082916/

I never would have imagined that the apparel industry is second largest industrial polluter! To your point, I also don’t associate a good retail brand with sustainability. This leads me to question one claim that you made above, that H&M sees this commitment to sustainability as a competitive advantage moving forward. Unless you think their attention to sustainability will help increase supply of raw materials and enable them to avoid and pricing pressure, I’m not sure how much of a competitive advantage this will lend them from the consumer’s point of view. As we saw in the IKEA case, there is a big question as to whether the consumer will actually know or care about the practices behind something such as a bookshelf or sweater.

As a self-proclaimed chocoholic, this potential chocolate shortage is concerning! I agree with your conclusion that Mars is in fact lading the sustainability charge among other candy competitors. I just read another blog post on Hershey’s. While it is great to know they a re aware of the issue and thinking about ways to combat it, the actions they are taking seem more on the periphery than what Mars is doing.

I also really think your point on exploring carob as an alternative ingredient is a huge area of opportunity. I’m surprised that neither company is looking into that as an option, and I wonder if carob has some of its own sustainability issues as well.

You present a really great overview of an interesting issue here. As an avid chocolate connoisseur, I was unaware that this issue was such a big deal for Hershey. I was surprised to see what few innovations Hershey was taking to make their business more sustainable. As a leader in the industry, I would have hoped to see them be more innovative in their approach to addressing sustainability. I would be curious to see what progress they have made thus far against these goals.