Digital Winners and Losers

September 13, 2015

Read The Full Prompt

The basic thesis of our course is that digital technologies are upending many industries and companies. Think about Uber’s impact on the taxi business or Spotify’s impact on music downloads and the record industry.

For this module, we would like you to identify companies/organizations that you think are winning or losing. Just work on either winners or losers. Please focus on just one organization. Tell us why they are a winner or loser. Discuss elements of how they create and/or capture value that is leading you to call them a winner or loser.

Create an approximately 500-750 word post to make your contribution. Please create appropriate tags for your post including if it is a “winner” or “loser” Please also respond to and comment on three other posts per module. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos and links to other sites to corroborate your points.

Selected posts will be discussed in class and also featured on the HBS Digital Initiative website.

Submitted (145)

Nike: Building Communities through Digital
JL
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 10:02 pm
“Digital is an accelerator of growth that is shaping everything we do. We are building deep connections to consumers with digital services and communities to driving rapid expansion of our ecommerce business.” – Mark Parker, CEO Nike Historically, retail and [...]
FT: Keeping up with the times?
Starfish23
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:47 pm
How FT has managed to remain relevant, even as the news becomes commoditized.
Open English: Among the highest growth potential companies in digital consumer business in Latam
Mati G
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Open English: High potential online based English-language shcool is among the highest growth potential consumer companies in Latin America
Comcast: A Winner in the Media Long Game
DIGIT Girl
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 2:00 pm
Lots of buzz on Google, Netflix and other OTT players as innovators in the media space, but traditional cable players like Comcast are paving the way.
LinkedIn: Digital winner transforming the recruiting industry
Sherry
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 4:05 pm
The business Founded in the early 2000s, LinkedIn is a social network for professionals with one mission: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. In order to accomplish this mission, LinkedIn has developed three primary product lines [...]
The Sonos Platform is Greater than Software or Hardware
Clay W
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:34 pm
Sono's platform has made its hardware more valuable - not less - over time.
Silvercar: Redefining the Airport Rental Car Experience
ctm
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 11:37 pm
Meet Silvercar, the Austin-based car rental company that is looking to shake up the $10 billion airport car rental market by leveraging technology to address the major customer complaints of traditional rental companies.
Ocado finally makes online grocery retail work
vlad.hanzlik
Last modified on September 12, 2015 at 9:38 pm
UK retailer Ocado creates a viable online grocery service by reinventing operations around online-only grocery retail.
Teladoc: Why the biggest and most successful telemedicine company ultimately will lose
HC Watcher
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Telemedicine is not a new idea. Since the birth of video-calling, experts thought that telemedicine will revolutionize the industry. Analysts bullishly have suggested that the market could be worth $4.5B by 2018 (IHS, 2014). Back in 2002, a small start-up [...]
LinkedIn: Changing the Professional Recruitment Landscape
Becky D
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 8:31 pm
LinkedIn goes beyond professional recruiters to make the hiring process smarter and better than it ever was before.
USPS: Nothing more than a stamp designer?
Charles
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 11:21 pm
In the era of the internet, globalization and instant messaging, how will a company used to make deliveries in 5 to 10 days survive? Does it have what it takes to adapt? What are the main forces holding it from [...]
Does Google Monitor Your Carry-On? Digital Innovation in Travel Accessories
Jonathan T
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 5:24 pm
How Can Connected Travel Accessories Can Create Sustainable Advantages In An Established Market?
Not Slacking off in the office
uilc
Posted on September 11, 2015 at 7:23 pm
The communication platform called Slack is winning because it is disrupting how office communication occurs.   Slack addresses a business need Slack addresses the pain of reading and searching through emails for a specific project or topic.  Slack allows teams [...]
Amazon: The One Stop Shop
Alexander Soley
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:36 pm
Online shopping changed the face of retail. A world where one would have to go to a physical store such as Walmart to find goods, increasingly online stores are being used more and more to buy everything from cabbage to toilets. Amazon, [...]
Staples – The Fight for Survival
Savage
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 11:36 pm
Can anything save Staples? Paper usage is shrinking, pens, highlighters and note-pads are disappearing. Does putting two dying businesses together create life?
BigML – Early to the Party
brandon
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 9:48 pm
How BigML is democratizing the tools of Big Data, making machine learning 'easy & beautiful.'
TILT: Taking the Hassle out of Group Fund Collection
Grace
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 8:01 pm
Tilt, a P2P payment platform answers the struggles of group funding by taking the risk off the contributor and the administrative burden off the organizer.
WeWork – Reshaping the office landscape
gscoon
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 11:43 am
WeWork, now valued at $10 billion, offers coworking spaces for a new type of worker. Will they continue to win? Read this post and you will/might find out.
Adios, Therese – the death of the retail travel agent
LC
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Brick-and mortar travel agents are dead. How did the decline happen in one of the first industries to be digitalized?
Tinder Is Crushing It (imho)
ecashman
Last modified on September 14, 2015 at 9:43 pm
regarding the love-making with the Tinder.
Telemedicine: Who will come out on top?
KMY
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Actually, before we can address “Who will win the Telemedicine arms race?” we must establish whether it is a race worth winning in the first place.   A true adoption of telemedicine practices requires a complete change in patient behavior, [...]
Epic Systems – Too Big to Crush?
s
Last modified on October 19, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Epic Systems, a leader in health care information technology, has set established itself as a giant in the HCIT industry. Their strategic choices have almost guaranteed that their dominance will be preserved for the next several years, leaving smaller players [...]
Weight Watchers: The Real Biggest Loser?
RFD123
Posted on September 13, 2015 at 9:49 pm
Weight Watchers is the biggest loser in the ever-increasing digitization of the weight-loss and personal fitness industries.
TED leads in a winner-take-all world of conferences
Jason Preston
Last modified on September 13, 2015 at 9:17 am
How TED became a household name, transformed itself into a media company, and upended the conference business by giving away its product for free.
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