kurious_koala

  • Alumni

Activity Feed

This topic article hits on a critical issue for the USA. Surely, fear and protectionism are used as rationale for isolationist movements, but as we have discussed in every class this semester, trust and knowing one’s partners facilitate win-win negotiations, strong relationships and general prosperity. We inherently need relationships with our fellow countries to make it impossible to view these partners as “one of them” instead of “one of us.”

This is tough. Generally, I believe the world would be a better plan if companies had a responsibility to better the communities in which they exist beyond paying their workers. However, government is a wildcard here. If government actions make it increasingly difficult (in fact hostile) to operate a business, either domestically or abroad, I am not sure how many bonafide options the company has.

On December 1, 2017, kurious_koala commented on REI: A Beacon for Sustainable Business :

The customer promise that REI provides is reliable gear at reasonable prices, which attracts a variety of customers who love the outdoors. There’s an inherent level of responsibility for protecting the outdoors that comes with REI wanting to exist in 50 years –
if there’s no nature to observe and appreciate, REI no longer has a reason to exist. In an age where consumers are gravitating towards online retail, there may be a strong competitive advantage to certifying suppliers as environmentally conscious.

On December 1, 2017, kurious_koala commented on Pfizer’s Prescription For A Digital Supply Chain :

Really interesting topic! Unfortunately I think the answer for smaller drug manufacturers is to partner with companies specialized in downstream distribution/supply chain optimization because they can’t compete with the behemoths in global drug distribution. In fact, I think that’s why you see so many small players partnering with larger pharmaceutical companies for commercialization!

On December 1, 2017, kurious_koala commented on Walmart and Block Chain: It Takes Two to Mango :

Really interesting concept! The big question for me is why do you need a distributed ledger here? It feels like a strong database that tracks individual suppliers would be sufficient for Walmart, unless the concept is trying to get all retailers to have a central information hub to track failures with produces. If this is the goal, then I would be interested to understand any potential concerns that retailers have with sharing their supplier and distribution data.

On December 1, 2017, kurious_koala commented on Retail’s role in eliminating Global Food Waste :

Wow! This is really great. Honestly, I think consumers need to become more comfortable with “ugly food” that is perfectly delicious but not beautiful. I think that consumers need to demand this type of produce in supermarkets to create more widespread adoption. Perhaps including nutritious recipes in grocery stores that highlight food quality rather than food appearance can go a long ways to improving consumer adoption.