W's Profile

Very interesting article on the supply chain of Mars chocolates! It is sad to learn how climate change negatively affects the living environment of thousands of Cacao trees. It is definitely very important to encourage everyone to reduce the GHG emissions globally. At the same time, it is also very important for Mars to take actions to redesign its supply chain system and strategy to adapt to the climate change and to reduce the effects of global warming on its chocolate productions. I wonder if Mars could leverage innovative and disruptive technologies to eliminate the impact of climate change on its chocolate productions. For example, improve the adaption ability of cacao trees to various living environment.

Very interesting article on the impact of climate change on Alta! The decreasing snow volume interrupts the sustainability of Alta’s supply chain, and forces it to expand its supply chain further to the north. I agree that Alta has been doing a great job educating its customers about global warming and working with government to improve relevant policies in order to slow down the climate change. I wonder if Atlas could take any actions to redesign its supply chain strategy to adapt to the climate change, or even rebuild its business model through innovations and technologies to reduce the impact of climate change on its bottom line.

Very interesting article! It reminds me of the Fasten case. It is no doubt that if Uber enters the AV industries first, it will have significant advantages over its competitors, such as Lyft and Fasten. At the same time, AV completely breaks the two-side sharing platform that Uber creates to connect drivers with riders. Maintaining AVs will also change Uber from a software company to a operations company. To avoid these challenges, in my opinion, Uber should contract with AV manufacturers, such as GM. Instead of owning and operating the AVs, Uber treats these AVs as autonomous drivers owned by GM. In this way, Uber will be able to keep its operating model very similar to its model today.

I really like this article!! Great job, Seo. It is very interesting that high-tech digitalization significantly lowered the quality of the music we listen to almost everyday. The infinite online music database, the convenient streaming music, and the cheap headphones, have changed the way consumers listen to music, and, at the same time, reduced customers’ demand for high quality music. As a result, music producers are demotivated to produce high-quality music. Then the vicious cycle starts.

Going forward, true artists need to re-educate their customers, and to emphasize the importance of high-quality music. I can see that the increasing demand of high quality music will not only drive the development of online music streaming technologies, but also boost the development of high-quality music accessories, such as headphones, speakers, and even TVs.

Very interesting article on the supply chain of capital! I was surprised to learn that even investment banks could be affected by isolationism. I agree that the isolationism will potentially break the linkage between global banks and their clients. As mentioned in the essay, these banks could become more flexible to adapt these changes, and work closely with clients to build mitigation plans to address future exposures. I wonder if global banks could leverage their financial power to slow down or even avoid isolationism. It will hurt a global company’s financial capabilities at other locations if it breaks the relationships with a big investment bank such as JPMorgan at one location.

Very interesting article! The localization of Apple’s supply chain may bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, but the question is whether there are enough manufacturing labor resources available in the US. As the average education level increases, fewer people are willing to work on the floors in factories. For example, Amazon’s fulfillment centers in the US are already facing the challenging of finding enough labor to support their fast-growing operations. In my view, the True North is to fully automate the manufacturing processes, and hire more engineers to build and maintain the automations. In a world where most iPhones were automatically manufactured, the manufacturing factories would eventually move closer to end consumers. At the same time, the raw materials will still be supplied globally. Therefore, the supply chain system will be both globalized and localized.