Kelley

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On December 14, 2015, Kelley commented on YouTube: Struggling to Monetize Cat Videos :

You would think that YouTube should monetize even the ads that are skipped. Most ads show their brand and even their value statement in the first 5 seconds, before you can skip it. I wonder if YouTube’s financials would be altered in any significant way if those ads still cost something – even if it was only a fraction of the full price. Not charging for that seems like a clear example of the firm not capturing the value that they are creating to advertisers.

The IP component of the business plan seems most critical to the core function of the business. People are replaceable, and the structure is replicable, but the IP is seemingly what drives successful solutions to similar problems across industry. I wonder if Bain will need to increase the focus on that as technological advances in various industries start to be the core differentiating factor between successes?

I wonder why they made so many mistakes so quickly. Did Goldberg have a different idea of the business model than his customers? That might explain the move to inventory – he thought that having item quickly was a core need of the customer, when customers were more focused on the designer-focus of the business. He was clearly disconnected from the value proposition that the customers believed in.