SamLi

  • Alumni

Submitted

Chipotle: It’s not the burrito – it’s the operating model
SamLi
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Chipotle, the popular Mexican restaurant chain, is a great example of effective alignment between business model and operating model. “It works because of our system,” says the founder Steve Ells [1], and I think he is absolutely right. We can [...]

Activity Feed

On December 14, 2015, SamLi commented on Disney: Commercializing Creativity :

Thanks for sharing! Systematically “producing” innovations seems a wrong thing to do but in practice many companies succeeded. Disney adds another example to the the list of those companies such as Wyeth, Threadless and of course IDEO.

I would like to know more about how Disney implemented its “innovation funnel”, as in how as an organization, Disney selects and evolves a large number of ideas into a smaller number of big hits. It also seems like Disney relies on acquisition for many of their creative hits. Is this a sustainable model going forward?

On December 14, 2015, SamLi commented on T.J. Maxx – Using Buyers & Suppliers to Cash in on Off Price Retail :

Great insights! I think features such as forgoing return rights and TJX University are truly effective, and I’m sure those were hard-earned results from careful analysis and years of industry experience of the management team.

I wonder how ecommerce companies would disrupt this model. Gilt has had its fair share of success/failure, but there are just too many future possibilities for internet based retailers. Maybe there will be a Trunk Club for TJX type of clothes? Maybe some VR experience will replicate the instore shopping experience? I don’t know. The threat is for every brick and mortar retailers, but TJX is very sensitive on volume, so they might get bitten first.

On December 14, 2015, SamLi commented on Tata Global Beverages: Chai and more! :

Great post! The strategies on “Regional Structure” were interesting and effective as TATA adopted completedly different strategies for different markets. I think this is how business should be done, but many global companies are having trouble to fully embrace this mentality for various reasons.

Despite TATA’s obvious success, I am curious to know were there any explicit reasons that drove TATA into the beverage space in the first place (besides the fact that they simply wanted to do everything). It is a relatively stable, traditional, industry. Were there any market opportunity that they sensed which were not mentioned in the post?