SubodhChawla's Profile

Great post ferg! Adding to the points above, Netflix raise a lot of capital last year to expand globally. This year – its international growth has been exponential. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-17/netflix-user-gains-top-estimates-as-price-hike-worries-subside

Netfix is also exploring international show as part of its 50-50 initiative to cater to the international market. I am sure that this initiate is going to help Netflix even faster.

Great post George. As we learned in Marketing, Nike probably asked itself.. are we in the sports and sports wear business or are we in the wearables business. I think it became evident to them that the wearables market is so cut-through due to low technology development and manufacturing costs from best-cost manufacturing countries and especially because of continuous technology obsolesce and innovation that it probably made sense for a strategic partner with a better marketable strategy to take charge of the technology.

Thank you for sharing this Mark. I see Quantum computing as the next evolutionary phase of computation in which (as it wasn’t with previous systems) the need for human intervention is extremely limited. In previous technologies, a lot of organization across industries were very much invested in creating meaningful change to create impact. However, one of the challenges I see in Quantum Computing is that since it is so capital intensive, the flow of capital seems to fairly limited from a few select corporations and venture capital firms – this has fairly limited the number of companies that can innovate in the space. It will be interesting to see how the technology evolves from here on.

Radhika, thank you for posting this. I had very little knowledge about the company or the ed-tech industry before this.
I personally think, privacy in this day and age is overrated. Anybody with any technology connected to the web, has most of their information whether its hard-fact data or derivable analytics, available to large corporations that may chose to sell your data or market to you based on your preference. I believe the challenge to making programs in ed-tech plausible is to acknowledge that such marketing tactics exist and actively addressing them by emphasizing that the ed-tech companies take a moral/ethical high-ground as an industry to market to children below a certain age. This needs to be policy and industry driven effort can potentially lead to a buy in from parents.

Thank you for sharing ATN. The provides a lot of perspective on the business. Personally, Airbnb has created a massive impact in my life. However, adding to what Andrew mentioned, another challenge of sustainability and growth is expanding especially in countries where culturally such a rental model of inviting strangers in one’s home may not be acceptable. Sure, the technology may allow it to be possible, but the cultural hurdle, and especially immediate push back of the model in case of a mishap may prevent growth.

Kara – thank you for sharing this post. For these large O&G companies, it essentially comes down to the fundamental question – Are they just Oil and Gas companies or Energy companies? – In their current state, even though they are an oil and gas organization, they will have to eventually migrate significant segments of their organizations to renewable or alternative forms of energy (assuming mostly localized – due to current technology limitation) thus not only protecting their organization and shareholder value, but also in the process creating opportunities to face climate change challenges.

Thank you for sharing this post Sanchali – I was unaware of the dramatic impact that maintaining a phone network has on our environment. From my experience in India, I have learned that it is extremely challenging to drive people and organizations towards sustainability. It both inspiring and beacon of hope to see that one of the largest and oldest telecom organizations in India is taking such measures to curb energy needs.

Danny, thank you for sharing this post. It will be interesting to see how the global economy weans off of non-renewable energy sources in the coming future. Companies and investors will eventually face challenges in choosing between creating shareholder value and taking those tough climate change decisions for their companies and it all comes down to deciding whether these companies and investors evolve and survive or chose to not adapt and eventually close down. Its an interesting read.

Lane – Thank you sharing this post.
As Caroline mentioned, it is astonishing how we have to within a span of only a few years of imagining solar panels as a technology that can be used only in large open fields to having solar panels on homes.

Going forward, however, one of the challenges we will have to face is regulation and especially weening off the economy and especially its indicators off non-renewable energy. One such very public battle between Elon Musk’s push towards solar in Nevada and Warren Buffet’s push to advance his utility company is an interesting read – http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-solar-power-buffett-vs-musk/
I believe in the future we are going to see a lot more of these challenges.

Kevin – Thank you for sharing this post.
It is interesting to see how hotels are adapting to face climate change. I think Hotel buildings and resorts can go even further by partnering up with solar technology companies and using solar as a preferred source of energy for buildings. Since solar technology has become more economical due to technological advancements, it can also directly impact the hotel chain’s bottom line.