The Weekly: Edition #20 - November 22, 2019
Apple's strategy: integration and monopoly & what Clayton Christensen got wrong (Stratechery article 1 and article 2)
+ Ben Thompson's lucid thinking on Apple's products and business strategy is instructive for all businesses and entrepreneurs. A few lessons stood out to us worth sharing:
1. Consumers value the quality of the user experience and design of the product or service to a higher degree than the mere utility: "The attribute most valued by consumers, assuming a product is at least in the general vicinity of a need, is ease-of-use. It’s not the only one – again, doing a job-that-needs-done is most important – but all things being equal, consumers prefer a superior user experience."
2. Businesses, on the other hand, value modularized components of products and services and are much more rational customers: "The problem with rational choice theory can be stated in two ways. The first is to say that consumers are not rational. They have widely varying motivations, are susceptible to advertising, lack product knowledge, fall prey to the need for instant gratification, etc. ... Interestingly, though, business buyers are usually extremely rational. A CIO, for example, must justify a software purchase, and said justification usually comes down to balancing lists of features versus prices. Whatever solution scores best, wins."
3. Last and most importantly, integration, while costly from a financial perspective, allows for a controlled, high-quality end-product design. Controlling user experience in consumer retail can be the difference between a first time user becoming a life-long customer or just another person trying your product/service out for size.
The everything town in the middle of nowhere (The Verge)
+ As a bizarre consequence of retail arbitrage and rapid ecommerce growth, Roundup, Montana has become a one-stop-light town that ships thousands of Amazon packages daily.
The long-forgotten flight that sent Boeing off course (The Atlantic)
+ An overview of how Boeing lost its engineering-first culture: '"We weren’t fighting against Boeing,” one union leader told me of the 40-day strike that shut down production in 2000. “We were fighting to save Boeing.”'
The great American tax haven: why the super-rich love South Dakota (The Guardian)
+ "A decade ago, South Dakotan trust companies held $57.3bn in assets. By the end of 2020, that total will have risen to $355.2bn. Those hundreds of billions of dollars are being regulated by a state with a population smaller than Norfolk, a part-time legislature heavily lobbied by trust lawyers, and an administration committed to welcoming as much of the world’s money as it can."
Online streaming: television's looming car crash (Financial Times)
+ "There were 496 scripted TV shows made in the US last year, more than double the 216 series released in 2010. In the past eight years the number of shows grew by 129 per cent, while the US population rose only 6 per cent."
Self storage: how warehouses for personal junk became a $38 billion industry (Curbed)
+ "Though the adage “sex sells” is hard to dispute, the decidedly unsexy self-storage industry made $32.7 billion in 2016, according to Bloomberg, nearly three times Hollywood’s box office gross. Self-storage has seen 7.7 percent annual growth since 2012, according to analysts at IBISWorld, and now employs 144,000 nationwide."
How brands like Chick-fil-A, Levi's, and Wrangler became synonyms for political parties (Morning Brew)
+ Regardless of your political views, this is a good lesson that businesses can be affected from both sides of the aisle based on association with organizations outside of their main business lines.
The unexpected benefits of pursuing a passion outside of work (Harvard Business Review)
+ Since not all jobs allow for employees to pursue their true passion at work, this piece points to a broader lesson for managers: encourage employees to pursue their passion outside of work.
Knocking down walls at Goldman Sachs: can CEO David Solomon get the storied bank to grow again? (Fortune)
+ As Jim Collins wrote in Built to Last, to ensure a lasting organization, leadership must 'preserve the core and stimulate progress.' This is a great profile of how David Solomon is shaking up the culture in one of the oldest organizations in America.
Earthquake conspiracy theorists are wreaking havoc during emergencies (Vice)
+ "Independent "researchers" are sharing unfounded theories across social media, which have the potential to spread panic and confusion—and have even fooled legitimate government agencies."
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