TOM430's Profile

I was very intrigued to read about the effects of Yelp reviews on restaurants. I definitely utilize reviews a lot and if certain reviews are bringing down the overall rating, I see how that could have a huge influence on traffic for a given restaurant. I feel that this poses an even greater dilemma for chain restaurants where overall perception might be more mid-level due to the fact that is is a chain. I could also see how the reviews of some restaurants and people’s experiences there could work against the overall brand’s equity.

This was very interesting to read in the context of our recent Uber case. Indonesia definitely seems to represent some unique challenges with the congestion and very different infrastructure. That being said, they still seem to face some of the same dilemmas we saw with Uber. It will be very interesting to see the competitive environment between GO-Jek and Grab.

Hi Austin! Thanks for the post. It was an interesting read since I’ve seen salesforce.com be used by a sales team firsthand and agree that it is a huge improvement in terms of enabling better CRM. It will be interesting to see going forward how salesforce.com stays abreast of evolving technologies and positions itself to be integrated into company workflows that will be more and more dependent on technology.

Thanks for the post! I’m sure it’s very interesting for all the consultants we have that have spent the last few years in and out of hotel rooms! I do agree that success will depend on a chain’s ability to adapt to customer demands and changing technology. I also wonder what this will mean for these chains in terms of training employees. Will they also need to invest heavily in people to ensure seamless integration of technology into their service offering?

This raises a very interesting question about first mover advantage in digitization, especially in old, traditional industries like mining. It certainly seems that firms like Barrick are able to define what digitization means for their industry and force competitors to follow suit. I wonder if this comes with some risk due to the huge up-front investment should there turn out to be a better solution. Could a competitor discover a better solution and force Barrick to need to double down on an additional investment just to remain competitive?

Thanks for the article. It was very interesting to read about an industry I knew so little about! I think companies like DOW who can take advantage of opportunities to create solutions to our many environment problems like desalinization can do a lot to help us move the needle. Given that desalinization is so expensive today, I do hope that DOW doesn’t use this as an opportunity to just extract huge margins for its desalinization services and really does work to lower the cost so that both DOW, their customers, and our planet can benefit.

I think Forever21 definitely has an interesting challenge as they rely heavily on constant consumption from its customers. I found the stat that in 2013, consumers on average purchased 63.7 garments to be really eye-opening. Since Forever21 sells clothing that people wear few times before moving onto something else, Forever21 doesn’t have a huge incentive to make more sustainable clothing if that means increasing costs that are then passed onto consumers (potentially pricing some consumers out of the market). I definitely see potential for a recycled clothing program run by Forever21 to supplement their current efforts. The fact that they have frequent touchpoints with their customers means that this could be feasibly implemented.

Thank you for an interesting read! I always thought of lobsters as being pretty rugged creatures (since they’ve been on earth so long) and was surprised to hear that they could be on the brink of extinction if measures aren’t taken. I wonder if there isn’t more that they could be doing to help solve the issue of warming oceans in addition to their vertical integration on adherence to sustainable fishing practices.

The article also made me question the impacts of global warming on other ocean species and where Luke’s Lobster fits into the ecosystem of companies trying to solve the issue.

I also have very mixed feelings about whether Uber’s model results in more sustainable practices overall. At least in urban areas, I see that Uber is being increasingly used as a “substitute” for more eco-friendly mass transit. I know that HBS students definitely are utilizing Uber pool heavily when in the past, they may have thought twice about hiring a relatively expensive taxi and chosen to walk into Cambridge to hop on the T. I think Uber is going to have to look at the sustainability of its fleet and try to shift more and more to eco-friendly cars over time to really be have an impact.

Thanks for the interesting post! I had no idea jeans required 10,000 liters of water for a single pair. I think the steps Levis has taken thus far have been admirable, but agree that they still face a great deal of challenges especially with regards to post user washing. Although the CEO’s experiment in not washing his jeans for over a year was interesting and thought-provoking, it is likely very unrealistic for the average consumer. I wonder if they have or might consider working alongside washer machine manufacturers as those manufacturers develop more energy and water efficient models. It might be beneficial for them to work on something along with those companies to ensure new technology is beneficial to the types of products Levis develops (and are ultimately pleasing to the end consumer).