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Nowadays technology lays an important basis for sustainable or explosive growth of many companies. There are infinite examples of explosive growth after a new technology has been successfully implemented. But many other times, a technology does not really work properly and fails to bring a company success. Many times the impact seems to be low, since a company hence a trial and error strategy. Other times, failure has big impact on a company.

Let’s have a look at a very recent example: Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7. It was meant to be Samsung’s next showpiece. A lot of time and money was invested to make this a new bestseller, in the race against Apple’s Iphone7 and other smartphones on the market. It had a much greater storage and was fully water resistant. It even had a Iris scan ability. It all sounded very promising.

But quite quickly after the launch of the Galaxy Note 7, on August 19^th 2016, some incidents occurred. Pictures of burned and exploded batteries came online. The media picked it up quickly after that.  A few weeks later, it even was not permitted to take the Galaxy Note 7 on an airplane, because there were risks that the battery would explode during the flight, having major consequences.  Samsung announced recalls, but they did not work.

On October the 10^th , they eventually decided to stop producing the Galaxy note 7. People had to stop using their device and they could choose a new one. Following to these announcements, Samsung’s share dropped over 10% that same day. It was estimated that the revenue of Samsung would decrease with at least 33% and the damage would be over 17 billion dollars. As you can see, the implementation of only a small piece, a battery, can have enormous consequences for (technological) firms.

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New technologies have enabled a new type of healthcare: E-health uses new technology to bring clinicians in contact with their patients. E-health can be applied to many different parts of the healthcare system. For example, a doctor can speak with speak with his clients by using a webcam, instead of making a physical appointment.

Another example is that nurses can follow their patients, that regularly need extra care, through screens and monitors. This way they can monitor them from a distance and only have to get into action when something seems to be wrong, instead of mandatory routine checks.

The idea behind E-health is to reduce the total healthcare costs and to make healthcare easier and more effective.  Let’s take a look at a quick example of the healthcare situation within the Netherlands. In 2000, the total healthcare costs took around 10% of the BNP. In 2015, it grew to 15% of the BNP. In 2040 it will be at least 25%.  This growth can be explained by the ageing process in the Netherlands. People live longer and need more healthcare and there are less and less people that can pay for them.  E-health is one of the solutions to make a stop to these growing costs.

But E-health also has dangerous sides. A big problem lies within Privacy aspects. Very personal and sensitive information is exchanged through E-health, for instance very personal video footage of patients. Hackers could steal this information, which could mean great danger.

Nurses or doctors may not have the rightful skills in order to use the applications of E-health. These workers are used to years of traditional healthcare practices and not to innovative ways of treatment.

Actually, the biggest danger is the disappearance of physical contact with clients. Doctors sometimes just need to see or feel their patients to make an accurate diagnosis. With E-health physical appointments or treatment will slowly disappear, leaving the patient alone.

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I visited Sparta Rotterdam as a supporter twice in my life. The first time I was just a little kid and tickets had to be bought at the gates with cash “gulden”, the Dutch coin before the Euro made its entrance. I cannot really remember anything of the match and the atmosphere itself, except Sparta lost the match with 0-1, thanks to a late goal of the young talent Dirk Kuyt (still playing for FC Utrecht that time).

A lot of things must have changed the second time I visited a match, this September. Tickets were bought online with Euro’s and scanning of the tickets went automatically. But one thing was still the same: long lines in front of food corners, only accepting cash money. I was fascinated by the patience of the customers, who seemed to be waiting in front of the food corner forever, even missing parts of the soccer match! After telling about my experiences at the Sparta stadium the next day with my team members, it became clear that one of us actually worked at the stadium. He could confirm that there was a lot of trouble at the food corners and improvements were welcome.

There must be a solution to this problem, so me and my team members decided to come up with a disruption plan to solve it. The biggest problem was the time it took to complete one transaction, the time it took to take an order, manage payment and deliver the consumable. It had to be reduced.

My teammates visited the next match of Sparta, against AZ on 2 October. Not only for the match, but mostly to do a quick field research. It became clear that queues at the Sparta stadium at the food corners are a serious problem after our field research. Respondents were asked what they think of the current waiting lines and if they were open for new innovative ways to pay. Most of them had to wait at least 10 minutes in queue and were not quite happy with the given service, but they were “used to it”. Another interesting thing fact that became clear is that average waiting time at the (one and only) food corner where there was access to PIN, was quite a bit shorter. So our suspicions were right: the order- and pay system had to be innovated.

So Sparta Rotterdam can improve sales and customer happiness by using disruptive technologies in their order- and payment system. In the new system, SpartaMet, customers can pre-order and finish the payment, while watching the game. Users will have to download an application on their cell phone and be able to quickly order and pay for their beers and snacks, while watching the game. After a few minutes, the walk to the food corner and show their cell phone to the workers at the food corner and receive their products.   This will decrease the amount of steps it takes to order and will smoothen the entire process. Supply chain shall also improve, due more precise data collection.

After making a concept of our plan we analysed the costs, benefits, feasibility and risks having SpartaMet implemented. The eventual benefits will exceed the investment costs in the beginning.

So there are great opportunities for Sparta’s catering service and there is a big chance there are again a lot of changes when I visit a match for a third time!

Greetings,

Team 32

David Noordermeer – 461281

 

Michiel Steendam – 420655

 

Joost Breevoort – 372737

 

Christian Sitepu – 341734