Matthew Newill's Profile

Fascinating to learn about the size and scale of Goodwill. I had no idea. I been on the donation side and on the consumer side of the business, and feel that over time they have enhanced the presence of their stores. Things are cleaner, more organized than a decade ago – that has a big impact as well on the overall consumer experience. Great post.

Love seeing a business model that shows success with a thesis focused on paying employees a higher wage, and realizing a return on that investment. These kinds of models are incredibly important to the broader economy and its sustained growth, as wage rates drive so many variables in the rest of the economy.

This is fascinating to think about – what is crazy is that they are making bets in billion dollar zip code, yet this on seemed predicated upon commodity prices (i.e. oil). It is almost as if their R&D and planning division is operating like a drilling company’s R&D division, yet they don’t get the massive upside that oil production firms get when the prices rises. That is a difficult spot to be, especially given the long lead time to actual launch a completed product. Great article.

This is excellent – the view into their creative world and how setting up a warm, inviting and comfortable space can produce extraordinary results is something I hadn’t know about. Often times when I watch these movies, I wonder how much work each small detail requires by the staff, and I can only imagine that their attention to detail and flawless production is ruthless. To live in a culture that requires that much detail oriented work must have the very best of work environments. Their model and research driven production style will ensure they continue to make classics which inspire us all.

Great article and quite relevant to the crowd here on campus. I wonder if creating the unfulfilled demand is a part of the marketing strategy. Similar to the thesis that nothing creates a crowd like a crowd. And how some holiday toys become the must have item and all the demand from there on out is really a by product of people wanting things they can’t have. The comment on how the cycles rise up and down resonated with me, as they have been around a long time and over investing in capital now may put them in a difficult over-capacity position down the road when the fad fades.