Nitchan's Profile

Oh my gawd Sarah Yu, I didn’t know you were a big Cubs fan.

I think it is interesting that KUVO is sharing information about which DJs are playing in nightclubs at so many places around the world. This creates a flow of information across borders. Music created by DJs in one location will be more likely to influence DJs at other places in the world. This is neither a good nor a bad thing but I think it will reduce the “local” aspect of music that many people like. New “sounds” created in a certain community will proliferate across the world much faster and it will be tough to pinpoint where that has originated, losing one aspect of charm of music.

The statistics of the status quo are indeed very shocking. This is an industry that is ripe for disruption and I’m glad to see Zocdoc doing well at that. I really hope the effort for patient care coordination is successful. Test results are essentially wasted when changing medical care providers and redundant, non value adding procedures have to be made. I wonder how ZocDoc is going to get access to such data as some hospitals or clinics may be territorial with their data, but lets hope they get a lot signed on and create a critical mass where pretty much everybody will have to follow suit.

I think it will be quite difficult to attract “novice” users to try out the app and I find it unclear how Bright Cellars will monetize their service. I think a good way for them to reach consumers is to partner with retailers. Put the app on tablets located in the wine section and recommend the wines available for consumers to pick up. I always struggle with the wine selection and pretty much what I do is go the a retailer and pick the wine type that I like at a sensible budget. I have to make the assumption that the more expensive the wine, the better it will taste, but that is certainly not always the case. Assuring buyers that a particular wine will fit well with their tastes will increase their confidence of picking up a more fancy wine, hence more profit to retailers.

This is a very inspiring article. It is great to see people successfully using technology to tackle environmental issues while making business sense. I think the biggest advantage of having this system is the transparency of the information to everybody using the app across the supply chain. Having a real time map like this will make people optimize their locations, product mix, and configurations to best optimize their waste management in the long term. Having a more streamlined supply chain will also benefit Rubicon as more customers will find it beneficial to manage their waste and be more incentivized to use the app.

I was familiar with HourlyNerd before but was never sure how exactly it differs from traditional consulting. Your article sums it up quite clearly. The flow charts provide a great visual aid to understanding the difference.
Something I would like to know more about that your article does not provide is the type of people that actually work as consultants for HourlyNerd. Are they similar to traditional consultants or do they generally differ in certain ways.
Also, I would be interested in knowing the compensation for the consultants as being able to work anywhere eliminates a huge problem for the work like balance of traditional consultants.

The thought of not being able to afford chocolate everyday is horrendous.

This is a great example where going for sustainability is actually really crucial for cost control. I’m glad to see a partnership among food giants to alleviate the issue of climate change. Though I am curious to see how mars is trying to save the cacao supply from global warming with short-mid term solutions. One solution I can think of is to be more creative with product development and marketing to increase the mix of non-chocolate products or sell more products that has less %composition of chocolate. Mars has a pretty diversified product portfolio and I think they will not be too severely impacted by this situation as they have room to maneuver. Confectionary companies that are more susceptible to this issue are ones highly reliant on chocolate itself such as Lindt and Ritter Sport. I hope the best for them.

Dear John,

I think that Ad InBev’s managers should not have to spend sleepless nights worrying about the issue of the climate change on the price of the beer as competitors will also be impacted. Competitors here are not just other beer manufacturers, it includes other beverages that gets the same job of relaxation done, like wine and other plant derived refreshments such as juice. Ad InBev’s scale lets them be more cost efficient, reducing the impact on them as compared to competitors. Beermaking does not use ridiculous amounts of resources and does not contribute an excessive carbon footprint so at least Ad InBev doesn’t have to worry about facing pressure to be more environmental friendly, and therefore even more product cost.

I empathize with the airline industry in fighting climate change. It is true that they are in the self-destructive cycle of being adversely affected by climate change from phenomenon, such as increasingly irregular weather patterns, as a result of them spewing carbon into the world. Airlines are a highly competitive industry and customers are shown to be increasingly price sensitive from the emergence of numerous low-cost carriers [1], yet demand responsibility for climate change (very contradictory behaviors). I think it falls more upon regulators to be the ones who enforce increased usage of alternatives to traditional aviation fuels.

1. http://www.frosch.com/airline-trends-for-2016/

I find the thought of the US government not buying in to the concept of climate change affecting national security quite troubling since the US government clearly views national security among the top priorities. One idea to navigate around the roadblock of not getting government funds to do climate change related projects is to directly work with other organizations that will benefit by having the navy work with them in getting more information and making certain actions to mitigate the effects. Have the navy’s actions in gaining security gain a commercial benefit for organizations as well. This way, incentives are aligned and a win-win relationship can be formed.

I’m also someone who is deeply interested in the impact of modern packaging to the environment, both in terms of climate change and waste management. Tetrapak is a huge player in this industry and I’m very glad to see them promote bio-based packaging. Although, in honesty, taking the position is not such an altruistic move since they are quite focused on paper based packaging, but I am glad to know that they are also focused on responsible sourcing (FSC). I am especially impressed by their clear goals of maintaining carbon footprint despite aiming for high growth. I hope to see this ambition continue after 2020 and I hope their goals are even more ambitious. Something that I want Tetrapak to do more in the future in addition to your recommendation of having the company be more directly involved in recycling is to share their innovation on sustainable packaging to the world. This may raise a concern of facing a copycat threat but by making it easier for everybody to work with the type of products Tetrapak is promoting, other parts of the supply chain and regulators will want to work with the products Tetrapak chooses instead of other competing technologies that also try to be bio-based, yielding a net gain of revenue for Tetrapak.