Malavi's Profile

The most glaring concern I took from this article is how does everyone NOT know about this? For those who want to challenge climate change, this island only needs to be shown. The inability for this story to reach more and more eyeballs is shocking because this is a slow-burning natural disaster. Simply put, just because this is not as urgent as Hurricane or Tsunami relief doesn’t mean that the results are going to be any different. We could actually prevent a natural disaster from happening before it does. A novel idea for most politicians and world leaders I’m sure.

The idea of genetically modified crops really jumps out to me here. We’ve seen some success with more commodity based crops such as cotton and corn. So for winemakers to think in terms of innovation may actually give the one who does it right a great first-mover advantage and IP protected vines. I think the long lens of innovation in a more traditional industry may serve a firm such as Gallo a way to counter the forces of nature out of its control.

The essay presents a very interesting question of how Jet.com should move forward to scale and capture more market share. The key to this decision seems to lie in where Jet.com can continue to capitalize on the dynamic pricing model backed by its supply chain. Going it alone would serve the most efficiencies for Jet.com since it would have the ability to touch and source anything at anytime. However, the trade-off of cost and added complexity to the supply chain should be very strongly considered if the firm intends to compete with Amazon long-term. Relationships and operations seem to be the underlying factor that could actually diversify Jet.com from Amazon and allow the company to capture more market share. The long-term competitive advantage is how to make the current model better now, before Amazon is able to come in and flip its own switch to mimic what Jet.com is doing. The path to this is scaling the current value through better relationships and enhancing the current business model.

The idea of start-ups and large tech companies making their way into the digital logistics market poses the concern of just how much true value a firm like Maersk will be able to acquire through partnering or funding one of these entrants to the changing domain. As digital logistics starts be come a prominent platform for tech companies to sell to a firm like Maersk, the opportunity for a firm like Google to take severe advantage of the heat their new product is getting or the underlying necessity their product may service could pose the another large problem for a logistics giant to have to combat through negotiations or by simply constructing their own technology internally. Then is this another race to the bottom in a field that only one firm is a master of?

The interesting dilemma I see from this essay is how the capital-heavy infrastructure of this global supply chain can really anchor a firm to its geography. Logistically, I can see the appeal to source all parts of a plane to a centralized European country, but once you’ve done that in an industry such as this the ability to flex the supply chain or the final sourcing destination can present a really tricky situation for management. Moving centralized sourcing to a different location would be appealing should the “hard” Brexit circumstances present themselves and I would assume most companies are not wiling to weather the US political storm right now. So as a manager how do you decide between the better of two evils? Stay anchored and face the circumstances of familiarity? Or make the bold move to the unknown?

The essay lead me to think about how does GM marry consolidation with the necessary efficiencies of its supply chain? The ability for a company to insulate itself from political climates by consolidating domestically seems like it should be the best play here, but there in lies the concern of can GM still compete on a global scale by running a supply chain from just one country to the rest of the world? I really appreciate the perspective the essay takes and wonder if the move to domestic consolidation will make GM an even better supply chain management partner? They certainly would need to realize more efficiencies and rely on more relationship currency to source volume down the supply chain and to the world. The impact on their clout in the auto-manufacturing industry could spike if they approach this the right way or in a way that is more equitable for all parties involved.