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Category: Operations

Apple: A Services Company

Published May 1, 2020 by Senthil

Even in this uncertain climate, some supply chains are doing well. Apple going by their 2020 Q1 reports has got some positive news to share. I wrote last year on the blog, while discussing Peak iPhone, that iPhone as a product is maturing and argued that, Apple will soon pivot to become a services company. More evidence is now in.

I revisit the thesis in this post. Apple earned a record $12.7 billion in services revenue during the first quarter of its fiscal year — a year-over-year increase of roughly 17%, growing faster than the rest. Add to this information, the margins are higher than every segment, with margins exceeding 65% in services — Apple will increasingly focus on services going forward.

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All Hands on Amazon’s Shipping Deck

Published April 8, 2020 by Senthil

I have desisted from posting my Covid notes, as the days grew grim and the world is inundated with desperation. Stay well, dear reader.

Instead, I will write about Shipping. The pressure of online orders during the pandemic finally got to the more efficient e-commerce firm in the US: Amazon. WSJ reports that Amazon will be suspending its delivery service, Amazon Shipping, which was created as a competitor to FedEx and UPS to ship items from third party businesses to their customers. I argue why.

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Razor Thin Monopolies

Published March 3, 2020 by Senthil

Every one is worried that monopolies are getting large. FTC is worried too.
This is not a post on Facebook and Instagram, or another commonly directed invective at the Amazon, YouTube and other platforms that are pervading our lives.  After a long lull, FTC has decided that they need to step in and prevent the most pernicious monopoly that has cut many people: Razor Blades. Also, not in the way you think.
I write about things FTC got right, and what they got wrong, in their unanimous decision to sue to block the Edgewell-Harry’s merger.

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On Not Meeting Your Heroes: Clay Christensen

Published January 28, 2020 by Senthil

Never meet your heroes. So goes the saying.

For they’re sure to disappoint you, some say.

The advice lives on because some men found their heroes to be made of clay.  The exalted heroes they had imagined, with the glow of monochrome Clark Gable luminescence were suddenly all drab and bored. Their imagined heroes were no more. When your heroes fade in such a way, I suppose that what transpires is not just a failure of a single hero, but the collapse of an entire model of heroism.

Yet, there are heroes that perfectly demolish the myth above. Giant souls who expand the horizons of our thought: They prove that genius, humility, and compassion can all at once reside in our frail bodies.

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