Nico Berardi's Profile

Very interesting, Corina! I wonder whether this effort can be further pushed by the evolution in battery technology. As we all know, consumers tend to be lazier than we’d like (recycling being a proxy). Therefore, could these solutions only work when battery technology evolves and can be coupled with software that basically does the thinking & acting in behalf of the consumer? I would feel much more optimistic if you think we can either do it without batteries or with today’s battery technology.

Just because of scale, any micro improvement in the public sector can yield huge impact. I keep going back to the FRC case on Siemens and corruption. While public corruption varies by country in terms of shape and form, it is common knowledge that it happens everywhere. Digitization in the public sector could yield massive social impact but at what point does it run counter to the decision maker’s incentives? Is this something that can be started at the county level with an honest mayor, or should it be top down? I’m fascinated by the opportunities this can bring if we can address the initial hurdle to implementation.

Access to credit can be a powerful economic development tool; specifically around land and even more so in emerging countries. In these environments, the informal economy leads poses a real problem to understanding a consumer’s ability to pay. Enriching formal data points with the slew of data that the internet has created is a genius solution. I keep on going back to Monte’s map in class on how lending institutions will, even if they have an approvable “credit score”, will not based on where you live as a proxy for your ethnicity. So not only can a platform like Lenndo generate great returns and improves access to credit, it may be a step towards reducing discrimination. Bravo!

Very interesting read. I also found Accord to be trying to deal with the sharing economy by taking a pretty large stake in http://www.OasisCollections.com, an Airbnb parallel for the higher-end market with a strong focus on service & hospitality. To Edmundo’s point, while I applaud Accor’s efforts to not get disrupted, I wonder just how they will be able to fight over their inherent conflict of interest.

Luke, thanks for choosing this topic. I think about the future of work all the time. Particularly when it comes to the costs and benefits of telework, I wonder how it may help society unlock productivity and overall potential. Many families, as they start to have children, have a decision to make as to who will stick around the house to take care of the kids at least for the first few months. Telework, and tools like Slack that can push for a productive teleworking environment, may lead families to take very different decisions.

Great post, Piriya! I’m enthused by what big companies like Hyatt can do in terms of advancing the green agenda. Similar to Kei’s post on fuel-cell vehicles, I think Hyatt’s larger underlying issue could be low utilization. I perceive hotels to waste a ton of resources, mainly electricity, on empty rooms that still get air conditioned. I wonder what embracing the so-called sharing-economy could do in order to reduce the need for that many hotels rooms and simply bump utilization relying on existing properties.

Loved the post. The future is food will certainly determine how many aspects of our lives shape out. While I agree completely with you post, I keep going back to the tyranny of the short-term that public companies face. This transition, while very much worth pursuing, would bring growing and transitional pains. I wonder whether a public company could really bet on the long term while, perhaps, missing their quarterly results.

Mundo, I’m as fascinated as you are as to what lies ahead in terms of our electric future. As we saw in LEAD, Elon Musk is certainly the “leader as a beacon” type; which was so desperately needed to shake up an industry as stiff as the automotive industry. I keep on wondering what the underlying footprint is of EV’s. While they don’t burn fossil fuels to operate, the truth is most of the electricity generated to recharge EV’s is still coming from burning fossil fuels. On top of that, the environmental issues around making, and eventually disposing of, batteries are also not to be taken lightly. Perhaps Tesla’s impacts should be measured in terms of the green revolution they’re inspiring and not strictly by their CO2 impact on the world.

This is huge! A very interesting argument for the supply-side. Another interesting approach in the “future of food” arena is that taken by Soylent, providing full nutrition strictly derived from chemicals. There’s definitely data missing to prove their approach is healthy to the human body in the long-term but if it is, then food production as know it could radically change. Another issue I think a lot about is distribution of food. Many countries, like Argentina, produce much more than they need to consume and yet they still have people dying from hunger. Sometimes I wonder whether the largest impact lies in driving production efficiency or distribution efficiency…

Kei, great read. Very thoughtful and engaging! I keep on thinking if any efficiency at the vehicle level is only marginal if we can’t increase utilization. Vehicle utilization hovers at under 10% and the footprint of building these vehicles is huge. I wonder if, as a society, the answer lies in more efficient technology or pursuing the future of driverless. Driverless technology could bring the power of 100% utilization and thus vastly reducing the number of vehicles we need to produce. Perhaps it’s a combination?