opheliac's Profile

Great post! Decentralization certainly allows for greater flexibility in business and operating models unique to each division, product and geography. How does J&J maintain a strong strategic vision across all its business units and how are they able to steer the company effectively given their decentralized management style. Additionally, it sounds like R&D is somewhat decentralized as well–how does J&J manage the information and capital flow for large-scale research and innovation opportunities? Does decentralization limit J&J’s ability to innovate on a large scale across business units (rather than incrementally within business units), or do they solely focus on increasing their product portfolio through acquisitions?

Definitely interesting how many of these discount / flash sale companies have emerged from the crisis not too long ago. Gilt has definitely done a good job of branding and attracting customers who regularly scour the website for the latest deals. Their strengths lie in being able to generate demand for excess inventory. As Gilt expands to other industries such as Gilt Jetsetter and Gilt City as you mention above, how will it leverage its assets and apply its operating model to these new opportunities. As their supply is reliant on weaker global economic conditions playing in their favour, what other steps have they taken in order to sustain their competitive advantage in the current environment?

^ Meant to say Lamborghini Reventon, of which only 20 were made (limited edition), with a price tag north of Pangani’s.

Very interesting high-end luxury business model — the fact that they have managed to stay true to their design and brand identity by having only had 2 models over the company’s life. Categorizing these super-cars as art provides an interesting juxtaposition. While it does mean that consumers generally view a substantial amount of the value they are paying for is in the design (and not the technical aspects as most is outsourced), the value of art tends be negatively correlated as the number of pieces in the market. Other super-car manufacturers have taken a different approach, such as Lamborghini’s Aventador, where the production of a model is limited (to 4000), in order to justify the price tag and value to purchaser. It would be interesting to explore the numbers and evolution of variants for the models of Paganini produced and how the company decides when and how to launch a new variation or model.

On a separate note, it would be interesting to understand the ordering process, lead time and throughput time for the car production process given the hand-crafted approach to building these cars.