V's Profile

Without a doubt, protectionism would have a huge impact on auto industry due to the nature of its highly integrated supply chain across the globe. Additional to what GM’s response, I urge big players to lobby to the government for risk mitigation plan and support. If, ideally, the intention of the protectionism is to rebuild domestic supply chain ecosystem, then the government has the responsibilities to set the rebuild for a success especially at the beginning stage. Necessary financial and policy support need to be in place. The same situation is happening in UK right now, auto giant, like, Toyoko, is actively lobbying for government supports.

Apple has already announced their plan of opening a manufacturing facility in India. Put aside the government tariff on imported smart phones, manufacturing cost in India has become very competitive, as manufacturing cost rises in China, where the only Apple’s manufacturing plant locates. Additionally, in 2016, China’s information protective government suspended iTune and iBook. This is something to be worried even more. Therefore, I would consider manufacturing in India is a great choice for Apple.

Interesting article! I also agree that autonomous driving is going to be the future direction. And as the leader in the ridesharing market, Uber has to make enough resource to secure a leading seat. However, this would force Uber to face some business model transition challenges. If the cost for using an autonomous car goes so low that a customer wouldn’t own a car any more, then the asset will sit on Uber’s side. With such heavy asset, Uber has to excel at operation, not only technology. Also, part of customer experiences would still need human facing. How Uber come up with solution to this would also become critical.

Interesting article. While Taobao.com is doing all these great things and enable its suppliers to view data timely, my question would also be how this Hema Supermarket different from existing supermarket and technology. With Taobao.com plant form, suppliers are able to view demand timely as well, how would this be changed with the creation of Hema? TO your last question, if the data transparency could be truly done. Selling everything or the fast moving products would not be an issue, since we could control the logistics and inventory accordingly.

It’s great to see that Nestle is taking climate change seriously and really some actions to their entire supplier network. While I applaud for many of their initiatives, I also wonder the effective impact of certain actions. For example, by introducing a high yield coffee plant does not necessarily mean to provide the coffee in less land. The farmers would be incentivized to produce even more coffee on the same land instead. I thin introducing technology to lower the climate impact would be key.

Interesting article. Inevitably, there would be additional costs associated with converting to 100% renewable energy. The question is who is going to ultimately bear this cost. With increased cost to manufacture their products, suppliers are unlikely to get fully compensated from Apple. My concern for the suppliers would be whether their other clients would be willing to share the cost. And I think the answer is likely no in current competitive market. If not, the overall increased component cost will eventually be transferred to end customers. My second concern is the carbon credit program. While the credit does put a limit on some manufacturing activities, it does not fundamentally eliminate the pollution.