Reed Taylor's Profile

I agree that Samsung must accelerate their plans to open a plant in South Carolina. But I’m skeptical that a single plant with less than 1,000 employees will be sufficient to serve their US market. Samsung seems to think that they can limit the blow to their profitability through lobbying and that the final tariffs won’t hurt them that much. I think that is a mistake in the current US political environment. Samsung could further improve their position with the government by announcing plans for further US manufacturing. That way, even if tariffs do come through, management at least has plans to ramp manufacturing to a point where the majority could take place inside the US.

I know that genetic engineering for crops is a controversial topic, but I believe CasaLukor should consider researching modified cocoa strains that could lead to more sustainable land use. With only 600,000 hectares of available land, CasaLukor must think long term about how to extract the most value from that land for years to come. Strains that place less burden on soil nutrients, use less water, or yield more beans per plant could provide long term sustainability. Additionally, more robust strains could expand the arable land available to CasaLukor. There will likely be push back from regulators and environmental activists, but some small genetic changes could drastically effect how much burden their farming practices put on the land.

I think Nissan also needs to consider that Teresa May might not be able to guarantee “no-detriment” to their operations. Ramping production to reduce per-unit fixed costs will only work if there is a long term sustained demand increase to support this increased manufacturing. If Brexit does increase their costs, Nissan will need to shut this plant down. Since they just announced that the Qashqai SUV will be manufactured there, it seems like management is currently investing in plant expansion. Is it wise to ramp investment when the impact of Brexit on their operating profit is so uncertain? Can a politician’s “promise” be trusted?

The palm oil supply chain was an interesting part of the article. I found it interesting that Pepsi wants to promote human rights and responsible land use, yet the only numbers they report are on supply chain traceability. If they have 89% of their supply traced to mill, they should be able to report on the human rights and land use status of those mills. Leaving out numbers doesn’t necessarily mean the numbers are bad, but it certainly raises questions.

My last trip to Macy’s gave me some experience with this new system of inventory. The sales associate helping me found that the item I wanted was out of stock but instead pushed me to order online through the store for at home delivery. This was a useful feature except he put in the wrong item number requiring an annoying return process! Human error still exists even in completely automated systems.

This is an unfair story because it’s just one incident. In general, I agree with the previous comment that Macy’s must make these changes to survive. The one advantage that they have over Amazon is the in-store experience where customers can try on items. By creating a hybrid system where customers can view and purchase both online and in-store, Macy’s can create a customer experience that competes with Amazon.

The pharmaceutical supply chain is one of the most convoluted and opaque supply systems in the world. Part of this is due to regulation, product complexity, and an obsessive focus on safety. A system like TranCelerate will allow these companies to reliably source competitors products for use in their own clinical trials, which will benefit the speed of R&D in the industry. One concern would be the reluctance of certain companies to join such a network in an effort to actively prevent competitors from using their drugs in the R&D process. For example, a generic drug maker must have a steady supply of the brand name drug in order to prove comparability. But what if that brand name company (Valeant or Turing) brings their pharmacy in-house and refuses to fulfill orders to generic manufacturers? TransCelerate should work closely with global regulatory and legislative bodies to stop this backward behavior and allow industry R&D to move forward.