Snap’s adventurous foray into the hardware market continues. Cheddar and then Verge reported that Snap is busy working on Version 2 of Spectacles. Here is Alex Heath from Cheddar: But Snap won’t stop with version two of Spectacles. The company has also begun work on a more ambitious, third generation of Spectacles with a new design and two cameras, the people said. Snap has prototyped an aluminum design with more circular lens frames and two cameras that would allow for 3D-like depth effects in videos. Snap has additionally considered including a built-in GPS and a leather case, as well as a potential price tag of around $300, which would be more than double the current $130 cost for Spectacles. Snap…
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In 2013, a guy who was trying to pitch a company, called DoorBot, that sold security doorbells, went nowhere on Shark Tank, as the sharks rejected his offer. The founder Jamie Siminoff positioned the idea at $7M. Here is the video. Last year, the company was valued at $460M. Last week, the company, now called Ring, was acquired by Amazon for $1B. This is not a post to castigate the poor assessments of Ring’s original business idea: As ideas evolve they get better, and some cosmic confluence of interests can be helpful for a firm. — Ring, at one Billion USD, is a tremendously expensive acquisition for Amazon. In fact, Ring is Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition, after Whole Foods. Similar large…
Leave a CommentI wrote about Workampers, old retirees that move around the country in search of work, in my earlier blog post that discussed the excellent book, Nomadland by Jessica Bruder. In that post I mentioned that: So, it is very likely that it was not a young person that picked, packed or shipped the gift that you bought online this Holiday season. Instead, it is very likely that it was an old retiree… Increasingly e-commerce channels rely on retirees to pick products in the warehouse, which are then shipped to customers. (Picking is the lowest entry-level job in warehouses). Much of such retirees were people who lost their savings during the 2008 recession. Recently, one of the best reporters writing on operational issues in…
Leave a CommentHow to think about the role of Artificial Intelligence in Operations? Many people talk up AI, IoT, automation, etc, as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (following steam power, electricity, and computerization). Here is an example. I am more persuaded by the counter-arguments. For example, see a post by Luke Muehlhauser arguing there was only one industrial revolution, because one of the revolutions is substantively larger than, and different from the others, as exhibited in the figure below (data from the site). The Second Machine Age, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, which ironically, I read on paper, explores the effects of the rapid digitization and information technological advances (AI, Automation, etc) on the nature of work, wealth and society. Brynjolfsson and McAfee…
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For long time e-commerce and operations observers, it was no surprise that Amazon was opening its “shipping” business: It was as predicable as a bowling ball on the lane slowly rolling to the pins. Much earlier, in 2014, Amazon had invested in a British shipping firm, Yodel. In 2016, Amazon had purchased a 25% stake in the French parcel Delivery company Colis Prive. Through FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), Amazon already handles “logistics and shipping” for third party sellers – currently at 51% of all sales units (in 2017 Q4). It has been at that proportion for several quarters now. So no surprise, really. However, let’s talk about who is absolutely critical for Amazon to compete with UPS and FedEx. Compared…
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Leave a CommentAmazon’s HQ2 selection process has been described as a beauty contest, which misses the point. Amazon is definitely not going to pick a city based on popular opinion or consensus. An excellent theoretical framework to think about Amazon’s choice process for HQ2 is the idea of Innovation Tournaments. A good resource to learn more is the wonderful book Innovation Tournaments by my Wharton colleagues Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich, which I highly recommend. Innovation tournament typically involves several contestants going through a series of rounds, as pictured above (under a selection-criterion and pre-announced rules), until a “winner” is chosen. American Idol is a TV-show that typified this idea. Innovation tournaments are a genuinely great method to brainstorm and generate new…
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