Sarah_Kramer's Profile

Lots to reflect on for this one. Similar feelings to Khush and Olivia about Amazon Key. But I loved the little nugget about the railroads you have in there. I’d love to see them revitalize/re-imagine freight in ways that others can benefit from, and that make better use of these legacy transportation systems we have strewn across the country.

Also curious to see if they could offset some of the job losses from warehouse automation with their plans for their own air freight hub (Source : https://www.recode.net/2017/1/31/14462256/amazon-air-cargo-hub-kentucky-airport-prime-air)? I’d imagine that that Kentucky operation will still require plenty of humans, and could be one way to at least be able to claim low company-wide low job losses due to automation. Whether warehouse employees can transition to air freight hub employees is unclear to me, but I’d imagine there would be a retraining cost to Amazon. And I’d also imagine that the $40M in tax incentives Amazon got from local governments for the Kentucky project promise local jobs.

Agree that year after year of these shortage seems almost bizarre. I do wonder if, as you postulate, there might be some genuinely bad strategy in here around increasing hype (and stock prices) through shortages. I’d also imagine that these shortages put uncomfortable pressure on suppliers, but not in ways that benefit Nintendo (I’d bet suppliers layer on a premium). This isn’t a totally merit less concern–Nintendo did something similar with their NES Classic Edition. Though the company says the issue was that they “could have done a better job communicating that was gonna be a limited run” (Source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/nintendo-switch-shortages-are-definitely-not-intentional/). Customers aren’t fickle but thy do get sassy. I’d encourage Nintendo to take the steps you recommend and for leadership to stop resting on their historical laurels and sort this out.

Am very intrigued by automated warehouses and always keen to peek inside new ones–thanks for sharing. I think your push on human capital issues is a good one. I wonder if there is an opportunity for JD to shift some of those factory workers into sales or customer service? I would imagine there might be roles which employees could get excited about and would represent climbs up the career ladder. This would require training investments, but I think if done well it could result in a highly satisfied and competent workforce.

Agree with Simon that this feels like an uphill HR/human capital challenge for Helvetia as much as a strategic shift. I think creating the Innovation Labs at University of St. Gallen was such a smart, long-term move–connect with younger, eager students who may have fully formed their opinions on insurance companies and may be attracted to being part of something exciting and new. The more they can develop relationships like that with St. Gallen’s, the better their chances of success in insurtech feel.

This is definitely a pressing issue for Chipotle. I would argue that consumers do very much care about sustainability as it relates to Chipotle, at least in the cities I’ve lived in and my West Coast age group. That they aren’t meeting their sustainability goals, coupled with the food poisoning scandals, has definitely impacted my and others’ decisions to stop eating there.

This past year some shareholders pressed for increased transparency around sustainability goals (source: https://www.dix-eaton.com/blog/entries/next-steps-for-chipotle-after-investors-defeat-sustainability-report-propos)…but management pushed back and the effort was defeated for now. But I’d postulate that we’ll see reports come out in the next year or so, when Chipotle can position them how they want (and not in response to shareholder pressure).

I agree with Nico that a marginal increase in costs would be worth it for Chipotle to remain true to their customer promise. I’d pay an extra dollar for peace of mind and great, ethical taste.

This was a fascinating one! I had no idea about either Boeing’s bio fuel experimentation or the notion of clear-air turbulence. The bio fuel work feels incredibly important, especially as climate change hits us full-on and traditional fuels make less and less sense. It seems sensible for Boeing to continue this work and perhaps push for legislation that supports/funds this development. Clear-air turbulence is a particularly interesting effect–unlike many elements of climate change this feels like something that could be used to educate Boeing buyers and the general public on the very tangible impacts of climate change. This would (ostensibly) push demand for Boeing’s climate change work/products, and help push the larger conversation around climate change.