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Great post – thanks Mike. From your research (and relevant experience), do you think Medtronic is having as much success with its other “touch points” with T1D patients. The 670G sounds remarkable in its capabilities, but it still seems like patients will be a bit hesitant to complete outsource all of their responsibilities (e.g., blood sugar monitoring) to the machine. I wonder if advancements with other “touch points” (i.e., blood sugar monitoring machines) could deliver more value to patients than further improvements to pumps. It may be that the science just isn’t there yet, but curious on your thoughts to this more holistic view.
Great post – really informative and an excellent example of a company getting ahead of the digitization curve. One thought I had after reading was, it seems that despite Nordstrom’s efforts the retail store and e-commerce still operate in slightly separate “worlds” for the consumer. I think you raise some great ideas in your Next Steps section – do you think there is a benefit for Nordstrom, or consumers, in bringing the two even closer together? Or, at this point, are consumers still wanting separate experiences to some degree?
Great post! With regards to distribution, as traditional Pay-TV providers who also provide Internet services) continue to lose subscribers I think it will be important to monitor how they deal with Netflix. Many have threatened to throttle Netflix speeds which poses an interesting dilemma for the company – either pay to play (i.e., pay providers to connect directly to their servers to reach the last mile) or let consumer experience suffer. Either way, as the Net Neutrality debate continues to shake out, Netflix’s bottom line may start to suffer.
Additionally, I’m a little skeptical on Netflix’s content advantage – particularly with regard to its original programming. They’ve shared virtually nothing with the public outside of the success stories, and even then I’m not entirely sure success had much to do with data – House of Cards was being shopped to other networks and was widely thought to be a smash hit before production. Further, I think content creation is not something that can be completely outsourced via data – it is much more of an art than a science.
Great post – while I agree with your skepticism about how much value Under Armour will be able to capture from consumers with these new products (Nike has tried to get into this space from many different angles without much success), I wonder how else they might be able to leverage the data. For example, capturing data on consumers run patterns should help inform product design and ultimately give UA unique insight into which products are most relevant to each consumer. Further, moving forward is there a way to integrate this data (e.g., exercise, sleep) with medical providers to better inform their decisions?
Very cool post – I had no idea Starbucks was under so much pressure! From your research, how successful was Starbuck’s venture further upstream with its purchase of the coffee farm? Do you think they will pursue further vertical integration? To your point, given its market position and relatively simple raw material requirements, it seems as if Starbucks is extremely well-positioned to transform its operating model – will be interesting to monitor going forward!
Great post – it is really encouraging to see how proactive GM has been with introducing sustainable practices throughout its supply chain. I know GM has also been a leader in the food safety space, especially with its cereals (e.g., taking artificial colors out of its kids cereals), to respond to declining consumption metrics. I wonder what impact their sustainably sourced raw materials will ultimately have on price – while it is an admirable practice, I worry that consumers might not be willing to pay more for this benefit. Will be interesting to see how both approaches play out in the future!
Great post – the influence that Walmart has in the marketplace is truly remarkable. It’s really interesting to see that despite the success they’ve had upstream in the value chain, that they’ve done relatively little to influence consumer behavior. Since many of these products shift consumer’s value savings from today to tomorrow (e.g., LED light bulbs) – I wonder if increased consumer education will translate to a louder voice from Walmart in the future, and if they take a prominent role in educating consumers.
Awesome post – I love the chart you have from Nike that the relative environmental impact of each step of the value chain. To me, the most surprising part of the data was the amount of impact that occurs following purchase.
I know Nike has some initiatives (e.g., Reuse-a-Shoe program), and agree that this is a really interesting area for them to continue to explore as they expand their (ambitious) sustainability plans. I think focusing efforts at this step of the value chain (rather than at design at the front-end) may ultimately prove to be a better strategy if results in less of a trade-off for consumers (i.e., between sustainability and price/product). Looking forward to see what Nike has in store for the future!
Great post – I also wrote about Nike and was very impressed by the actions they’ve taken to date, as well as the ambitious plans for the future. They’ve obviously been a leader introducing sustainability measures into the supply chain, but I worry about the company/industry’s ability to take the sustainability lens to product innovation/design/development at scale.
For example, Nike’s Flyknit and Grind initiatives have show sustainable innovation can work but haven’t truly forced consumers to make a real trade-off (whether in price or product). I worry that while these innovations have been great for Nike’s cost structure and public relations, they aren’t truly rooted in consumer demand (at least yet). Do you agree? To what extent do you think athlete’s can influence decisions with regards to sustainability?