Will you be designing your own baby? The impact of AI and DNA alterations on the future of the human race.

8

October

2020

5/5 (2)

 

In 2003, an almost 15-year long study with a whopping cost of $2.7 billion dollars, named the Human Genome Project, provided us with the genetic blueprint of a human being. In this study the human genome was studied, which is the overall set of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in our body. DNA is made of the iconic twisting, paired strands. Made of four chemical units, known as the nucleotide bases: Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C). Located in pairs on opposite ends. Within the nucleus of our cells 23 pairs of chromosomes exist, encapsulating approximately 3 billion pairs of the paired strands. Working together, all of these pairs are the building pieces that determine us: how we look, how we act and how we feel.

DNA

 

Even though the meaning of every DNA pair or group of DNA pairs has not yet been discovered, a lot of information has already been acquired such as the genetic code of diseases like Alzheimer’s, Sickle Cell anemia, blindness, AIDS, muscular dystrophy etc. Moreover, we also already understand some genetic code that serves as building blocks in common physical attributes such as: eye colour, hair colour and even proneness to sweat!

Industry appearance and growth

Since the completion of the human genome project, the price of sequencing your own DNA has drastically fallen with current costs for a complete individual genomic picture falling under $1000 Dollars.

This drastic fall in price has given space to a whole new industry, with companies like MyHeritage, that provide test kits for a mere €49 euros to determine your biological heritage, sharing information on what areas of the world (such as Europe, Asia, North/South America, Africa, etc) your former ancestors were from. Even though the overall truth and effectiveness of these tests is still under scrutiny by many, it already portrays the start of a new industry emerging.

On a more serious note, there are also more practical applications were the screening and data compilation of the human genome has proven to provide a lot of value such as; carrier testing, for the chances of genetic diseases for offspring. Prenatal testing, to find out genetic or chromosomal disorders. Forensic testing, for crime scenes, predictive testing, to detect future disposition to diseases such as Alzheimer’s. And lastly, preimplantation testing for in-vitro fertilization, to test the genetic code of fertilized eggs.

COST_human_genome

Cost per genome data – 2020

The value of the human genome, and uncovering its many secrets exponentially rose when in 2012, a breakthrough led by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier Showed how an enzyme called CAS-9 could be used to cut, edit or add genomic data into our DNA.

This discovery was made by researching the antivirus defence in bacteria, whom, when attacked by a virus, would create a defence mechanism building the DNA of the virus into its own genome. With this, scientists were able to learn how genome patterns work as well and what they mean, these patterns are also known as “Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”, also known as CRISPR.

Sequencing enough genomes and doing enough tests in order to figure out the exact use of fragments of genetic code is very data heavy. As mentioned before, each human being is composed of about 3 billion pairs of genomic material. Nevertheless, with recent advancements in big data computing and AI, deciphering and altering the code of life has never been this close. Because of this, the genetic testing market has been growing exponentially with a CAGR of 11,5% annually. Many countries are actively investing in this new technology, with places such as the UK aiming to fully sequence the genome of 5 million Britons, the US aiming to sequence over 1 million US citizens and China being most aggressive, aiming to sequence 50% of new-Borns by 2020.

Innovative disruption

The cost of editing and studying the human genome has drastically fallen. This has opened up the scene to biohackers, a group of people, without medical qualifications (in most cases) that decide to take CRISPR advancements into their own hands. As can be seen in the Netflix documentary series Unnatural Selection, people can buy human genome editing toolkits from $60 to about $1000 (Available in the US but illegal in the Netherlands) where they tinker with the human genome and in extreme cases auto experiment with themselves such as the case with Tristan Roberts, an HIV-positive man who self-injects himself with an experimental gene therapy that is yet unproven in its efficiency. Or Josiah Zayner, a famous biohacker infamously known for injecting himself with self-enhancing gene therapy in a convention with the aim of increasing his strength.

CRISPR_Testkit

CRISPR Cas9 genetic engineering kit – $150

The emergence of these biohackers both bring positive effects to disruptions, such as the emergence of crowd-sourced study groups to bring much-needed biomedical advances at a low cost (e.g. cheaper alternatives to penicillin). Yet, simultaneously, playing with the genetic code of humans and animals under no ethical standards and supervision can cause irreparable damage and discredit the industry and bring official studies to a slowdown with stronger regulations.

Human DNA alteration, the emergence of Designer babies

CRISPR has proven potential to remove heritable diseases from the human genome by making selective cuts in fertilized eggs. With the growing efficiency of in-vitro fertilization procedures, pre-implantation genetic testing becomes more and more feasible. Through these tests, we will be able to deduce a lot of characteristics about the genetics of the person. As portrayed in the Netflix documentary of human nature, making selective cuts, additions and changes into the genomic code could mean the disappearance of genetic conditions and diseases such as sickle cell disease, Crohn’s Disease, Down Syndrome, Alzheimer’s, AIDS etc.

This might seem far away, yet an infamous experiment by a groups of Chinese scientists in Shenzhen in 2018, who implanted gene-edited embryos that were made to be resistant to AIDS, shows that these applications are right at our doorstep. The woman implanted gave birth to twins who were resistant to AIDS, yet the scientist team was given a 2-year prison sentence and a 1 million yuan fine. This unethical experiment shook the scientific community to its core and strengthened the international rulings on CRISPR altered human embryo gene-alteration experimentation.

designerbabies

The removal of diseases is not the only thing scientists and companies are interested in. With increased knowledge on the function of different genes, we are approaching a reality where gene-editing in babies for desired physical and mental attributes becomes more and more of a possibility. Indeed, a close connection to the 1997 classic sci-fi noir film, Gattaca, where humans were able to define every single aspect of their child, creating new bridges between the wealthy and the poor, where money was not only the only difference between the classes. Currently, (without the use of CRISPR) by using human genome identification in embryos, a fertility clinic in California, USA, allows parents to choose the eye and hair colour of their child by comparing different fertilized embryos.

 

More complex attributes such as strength, intelligence and creativity are not decoded, due to different sets of genes having part in this and the effect of epigenetics (genes turning or off due to environmental effects over time). Nevertheless, fast and impactful advances in AI and large databases with human genome data will provide us with deeper insight on the building our building blocks and what exact changes to make to achieve our desired results. This will open a world of possibilities in the alteration of the human genome for the years to come, yet many have posed the question to what extent it is up to us to have control in this. Would it be ethical to genetically engineer our offspring? Should these changes be made to future generations as well? How would pricing for such a disruptive innovation work?

There is also a movement for a moratorium (worldwide prohibition or freeze) on clinically using germline editing technology on humans. Considering its large benefits, it is hard to assess whether this technology will bring more good than bad. With fears of it only being available to the rich or of it negatively impacting the genetic code of the human race down the line. Nevertheless, global competition and lack of trust make this a not very likely scenario.

What is your opinion? Should genetic changes be passed down generations? Should all diseases be removed? Would you change your own genetic code if it were a possibility? What would you change?

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project/Completion-FAQ#:~:text=In%201990%2C%20Congress%20established%20funding,billion%20in%20FY%201991%20dollars.

https://www.labiotech.eu/crispr/crispr-technology-cure-disease/

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/basics/dna/

https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/who-really-discovered-crispr-emmanuelle-charpentier-and-jennifer-doudna-or-the-broad-institute/

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/testing/uses/

https://www.myheritage.nl/dna?utm_source=ppc_google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mh_search_nl_nl_des_mhdna_exact_ancestry&utm_content=424747730784&utm_term=ancestry%20dna%20test&tr_camp_id=9594091424&tr_ad_group=ancestry_dna_test&tr_ag_id=101842820871&tr_placement=&tr_device=c&tr_account=558-761-1525&keyword=&tr_size=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjufSlLej7AIVzQJ7Ch04SQMSEAAYASAAEgKGRPD_BwE

https://apnews.com/press-release/pr-wiredrelease/5c6893c18d5c79e1d8aaf5e13a7dc86c

https://singularityhub.com/2018/11/14/designer-babies-and-their-babies-where-ai-and-genomics-could-take-us/

https://www.the-odin.com/diy-crispr-kit/

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/chinese-scientist-who-produced-genetically-altered-babies-sentenced-3-years-jail

https://nerdist.com/article/20-year-anniversary-gattaca-genetics/

https://theconversation.com/experts-call-for-halt-to-crispr-editing-that-allows-gene-changes-to-pass-on-to-children-113463

https://www.netflix.com/nl-en/title/81220944#:~:text=2019PG%201h%2034mDocumentary,modification%20research%20known%20as%20CRISPR.

https://www.netflix.com/nl/title/80208910

Please rate this

Does Industry 4.0 Require a New Digital Strategy Tool?

7

October

2020

No ratings yet.

Fifteen years ago, the music industry looked very different than it looks today. Back then, we were probably wondering what major record labels were doing in their board rooms. Now, those traditional business models are entirely disrupted by the internet. Today, it’s Spotify and other major streaming companies that are dictating the pace of innovation and change within the music sector. “Traditional” industry boundaries are not self-evident anymore. Does the rise of industry 4.0 require a new digital strategy tool?

The digital age has disrupted many industries. In an earlier blog, I described how the rise of IoT blurs industry lines within the healthcare industry. Besides this, there are many other examples available that demonstrate how industry boundaries are getting broken (think of the intersection of banking and technology). Does the notion of working in one industry still even exist?

I think that all the students within the BIM programme (or any other business programme for that matter) are familiar with Porter’s Five Forces model. This strategic tool starts off with mapping out the industry and assesses whether barriers are needed to stop rivals from entering that industry (Porter, 2015). However, does thinking about industry boundaries still make sense in the digital age? Increasingly more, we see that industry boundaries are becoming blurred (Atluri, Dietz and Henke, 2017). The new industrial revolution, industry 4.0, relies on the connectedness between people and devices. Through your smartphone, you have access to your smart car, your health status, and even your fridge (as a figure of speech).

I wonder, how relevant is Porter’s tool in the current age of everything being connected to one and another. Are business managers in need of a new strategic tool that supports them in their digital strategy?

Most products used to be described as vertical (Henfridsson et al. 2018). Take a car, for example. The value of a car is created by combining all the different parts that are needed for the car to work. Car manufactures compete with other manufacturers in the same industry, based on price, engine qualities, or other attributes.

However, in the digital world, value is not created vertically, but horizontally through companies cutting across industry boundaries (Henfridsson et al. 2018). For example, car buyers nowadays value whether their new car is able to integrate with their Google Assistant (i.e. Google Home). So now, car manufacturers don’t just worry about their direct competitors; they’re also wondering what happens in the headquarters of Google.

blur

According to Henfridsson (2018), creating value through connections is how to prosper in the digital world. That involves actively leaving products open, not building barriers. This is because digital products or services can be recombined with other resources to make a new service, which, in turn, creates new value. For example, the combination of musicians, the internet, and the smart use of algorithms has contributed to the creation of the digital platform we know as Spotify.

Another example is Google Maps. Maps has been embedded in around 2,400 other services, thanks to its open API (Henfridsson et al. 2018). And not by building a barrier around it… How does this look like? Take the app Runkeeper. It uses the API from Apple Maps to create new value for users, namely: tracking their run.

Henfridsson et al. (2018) have created the value spaces framework as a new strategy tool for the digital age. If you’re interested in this topic, I recommend you to read this article in more depth!

What do you think: does the digital age require a new strategic tool? Is Porter still relevant within industry 4.0? Leave your thoughts in the comment box below!

 

 

References

Atluri, V., Dietz, M. and Henke, N. (2017). Competing in a world of sectors without borders. [online] McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/competing-in-a-world-of-sectors-without-borders [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].

Henfridsson, O., Nandhakumar, J., Scarbrough, H. and Panourgias, N. (2018). Recombination in the open-ended value landscape of digital innovation. Information and Organization, 28(2), pp.89–100.

Porter, M.E. (2015). How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy [Accessed 4 Oct. 2020].

Please rate this

COVID-19 – Economic Disaster or Catalyst for Digital Transformation?

29

September

2020

No ratings yet.

Innovating established business models and bringing them to the digital era – something most companies are well aware of. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has shown that digital transformation has not progressed to a level where working from home and digital business models are the norm. Whereas digital offerings received extraordinarily high demand, many physical businesses had to close temporarily and experienced declining revenue. In Italy, the online sale of groceries grew about 20% from February to March 2020, and JD’s China sales at the beginning of February 2020 were up more than 200% compared to the prior year (Callaghan et al., 2020).

Firms with non-digital business models were forced to adjust to the circumstances and invest quick and heavily into digital initiatives. According to a report published by Twilio, 97% of the participating executives stated that the pandemic had accelerated their digital transformation (2020). Almost four out of five executives said that COVID-19 has led to an increase in their budget for digital transformation (Twilio Inc., 2020). At the same time, the pandemic required many companies to implement WFH for the first time with doubts whether this will lead to a sharp decrease in productivity. However, a majority of the firms found themselves in a situation where 67% of the participants expect remote work opportunities after COVID-19 (Twilio Inc., 2020). The flexibility that comes with WFH could help companies to attract necessary talent, which allows capitalising on their digital strategy.

As we can see, COVID-19 and its consequences started a process for non-digital businesses. The question of their future remains unchanged and whether this process will finally bring to the digital era. Do you think COVID-19 could serve as a catalyst for non-digital companies and help them to innovate successfully? Or will it will the pandemic only accelerate their decline?

References:

Callaghan, S., Loesch, M., Rickert, S. and Teichner, W., 2020. At the heart of a crisis: How consumer-health companies can lead in the time of coronavirus. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/at-the-heart-of-a-crisis-how-consumer-health-companies-can-lead-in-the-time-of-coronavirus [Accessed 29.09.2020].

(Picture) Morgan, B. 2020. Is COVID-19 Forcing Your Digital Transformation? 12 Steps To Move Faster. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/04/05/is-covid-19-forcing-your-digital-transformation-12-steps-to-move-faster/ [Accessed 28.09.2020].

Twilio Inc. 2020. COVID-19 DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT REPORT. Available at: https://pages.twilio.com/rs/294-TKB-300/images/UPDATE_Aug_Twilio_COVID-19_Digital_Engagement_Report.pdf [Accessed 29.09.2020].

Please rate this

Professors! Get online or get out!

16

October

2019

5/5 (1)

Please rate this

As a BIM master student, I was quite surprised when I heard that none of the courses were recorded and therefore available online. Everyone I ever spoke about it was enthusiastic about recorded lectures. Maybe all of my friends are just lazy students (like me), who prefer to stay in bed rather than going to a 9 am lecture, but I genuinly think it offers more convenience than it has disadvantages. Me wondering this was the main reason for me to write on this subject.

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses, and are (often free) courses that are available to the public through online lectures and assignments (EdX, 2019). It provides great advantages as you can enroll from anywhere around the world, as long as you have access to a decent internet connection.

First of all, and maybe the most obvious advantage of MOOC’s, it that the internet knows no borders. Of course we all know the Great Chinese Firewall, but someone from South-Korea is able to enter a website from a Colombian local bee farm. Therefore, people from more abandoned areas, like sub-Saharan Africa are able to enter these courses as long as there is a decent internet connection and a streaming device. According to UNESCO (2016), sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion in the world. Almost 60% of all youth between 15 and 17 there are not in school. Yes, they still require a streaming device, but a phone screen is in theory enough, and video projectors can be installed in classrooms.

This brings us to another advantage of MOOC’s, there is (in theory) no maximum student capacity. As it is a digital product, it can in theory be copied infinitely without reducing in quality. This means an enormous amount of people could follow the course of a single professor. This seems like a situation that only has benefits, but there are some risks. If a single professor is enough to educate a massive group of people, then I foresee a decrease of the need for professors. This may lead to many professors losing their job, and having to seek other ways to earn a living.

MOOC’s being a digital good also brings a major risk, the risk of the course content being copied and spread without consent and compensation. Screens can be recorded and assignments being copied. Websites like The PirateBay that provide a lot of illegal content are nowadays still available, whether it is through a proxy server or not). A solution must be sought to prevent piracy, because a single pirate is enough to create a lot of damage.

 

Another advantage of MOOC’s is that it provides an opportunity to gather data about its students. It can be tracked how much and when students spend time on the website, and which classes and courses are more and less attractive. Students may be able to provide a rating and a comment after every course. A risk of having too many students enrolled, is that a single professor may not be able to answer all questions or analyze feedback. This proves that a MOOC is not simply a professor with a webcam, but really requires a well-structured team or organization.

I would advise professors and universities to brainstorm about threats and opportunities in the increasingly digitized society. I believe that it’s very important not to miss the boat and to exploit first-mover advantages. Otherwise, you will remain the incumbent, while others become the disruptors.

 

References

EdX. (2019). mooc.org. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from http://mooc.org/.

UNESCO. (2016). Education in Africa. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/education-africa.

 

Does Uber have a future?

30

September

2019

5/5 (1)

Uber has updated its app in a way that CEO Khosrowshahi has branded as the beginning of Uber’s step to becoming the ‘Amazon of transportation’ (Hawkins, 2019). The app includes new elements such as Bike lane alert, Improved Real-Time ID check and Verify your ride (Vasile, 2019). Besides new safety features, the app will now integrate UberEATS so riding and ordering can be done in one app, under the same Uber umbrella. More about the safety features later, first let’s take a look at why the company decided to also integrate public transit information into its app and why it believes that this will be useful since we already have an app for this (Google Maps, anyone?).

Uber is trying to expand from simply being an app to becoming a true platform business, targeting city life and transportation. As Khosrowshahi put it: “We want Uber to be the operating system for your everyday life” (Nuttall, 2019), meaning that it is attempting to build a complete experience for their consumers and aims to become a city life partner on all fronts: food, ride-hauling and even public transit. In a recent interview with The Verge’s reporter Andrew Hawkins, Uber’s CEO revealed the company’s ambitions in providing a platform that not only provides information but allows you to take action, advancing previous CEO Kalanick’s goal to brokerage all human movement in cities (Hawkins, 2019). However, what makes the Uber app more special than for example Google Maps or Citymapper? Khosrowshahi demonstrates the app and explains how it will be a comparable experience but provide all services in one place and allows customers to take action in the application, increasing app engagement which will provide more business (read: data) down the road (Hawkins, 2019). The choice to integrate public transit information, and eventually ticketing, into the app was not motivated by money: Khosrowshahi simply explains that it hopes to complement transit, offer Uber users all options and therefore cater to the individual user’s needs, whether that be timeliness or budget. Khosrowshahi says the company aims for profitability in the long run, achieved by creating “the right solutions for consumers, even if it’s not making them money” (Hawkins, 2019).

The decision to incorporate transit information is not entirely random, as Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps have been proven responsible for declining rates of public transit usage; both rail and bus ridership falling by 1-2% after the entrance of a ride-hailing app into the market (Graehler et al., 2019). As clarified by the CEO, Uber wants to complement transit, beside the fact that it has competition anyways, it merely wants to provide its users with all options, not compete or draw customers away from public transit. Uber released its beta version where users can see transit schedules, directions and some ticketing options in a few cities like San Francisco, Mexico City and Paris on September 27th (Hawkins, 2019).

Some other features in the app were included to improve the privacy and safety of both riders and drivers. The most important feature being Verify Your Ride, which uses a four-digit pin code that needs to be verbally communicated to drivers, to ensure riders meet their paired drivers and do not take the wrong car (Vasile, 2019). Other features encompass a 911-alert function through the app, as well as Bike lane alert that notifies riders when they get dropped off near bike lanes to prevent ‘dooring’ bicyclers. Lastly, the company incorporated a better Real-Time ID Check to guarantee Uber drivers match the account in the company’ systems. All these features are implemented to increase safety surrounding Uber after significant security-related issues in the past.

This update sounds good, but these new features also sound like they should have been incorporated all along and are targeted at relieving the pressure the company has faced around privacy and safety issues in the past, think Grey Ball and God View (Hawkins, 2019). The company has improved its firewalls and introduced a Report Safety Incident function that allows riders to report concerns during their trip (instead of only after), to regain riders’ trust and prevent future reports of kidnappings, sexual assaults and sometimes even deaths that have occurred in the past (Silicon Canals, 2019).

Uber has not only struggled with safeguarding its users but also has reported billions in losses over the past years and is of yet unable to turn its business profitable. With a $3 billion operating loss and an accumulated deficit of almost $8 billion in 2018, the company could be in serious trouble now that its earnings are being monitored as it has issued its IPO earlier this year (Poletti, 2019). Since the innovative self-driving cars will most likely not arrive soon enough to save Uber business model, their unprofitable business model will probably result in price hikes for rides to cover costs and improve profitability, but will riders accept these higher prices or simply revert to one of the many alternatives (public transit, Lyft, grab etc.). Further, major investors’ lockup periods are about to end in early November, which might have disastrous consequences for the company’s stock. The financial and security matters are enough to get investors worried, yet Uber also faces legislative and environmental challenges. A few examples are the AB5 California bill undermining its current business model by enforcing drivers to be recognised as employees that receive benefits, democratic candidates placing blame on Uber and Lyft for increased congestion problems, and prolonged efforts to retain its operating licenses in European cities like London (Hawkins, 2019).

This leaves the question if Uber will survive the existential crises it is currently strung up in. Despite Uber’s positive claims that it expects to be around in the future, it will first need to survive the present. With many global and local challengers like autonomous driving, Grab, Lyft or Bolt (Silicon Canals, 2019), competition has arrived and a simple app update will not solve the bigger existential threats that are attacking Uber from all fronts: legislative, financial and environmental. Do you think Uber will crawl its way to the top and become the urban city life-app it desires to be, or will it fall from grace and be forced out of business by financial and legal difficulties?

Leave your thoughts and comments below!

References

Graehler, M., Mucci, A., & Erhardt, G. D. (2019). Understanding the Recent Transit Ridership Decline in Major US Cities: Service Cuts or Emerging Modes?. In Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January.

Hawkins, A. J. (2019). Exclusive: INSIDE UBER’S PLAN TO TAKE OVER CITY LIFE WITH CEO DARA KHOSROWSHAHI. [online] The Verge.  Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/26/20885185/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-interview-exclusive [Accessed 30 September 2019).

Nuttall, C. (2019). All hail Uber’s everything app. [online] Financial Times. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/85e5b38e-e149-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Poletti, T. (2019). Opinion: Uber and Lyft IPOs mean the cheap rides are coming to an end. [online] MarketWatch. Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uber-and-lyft-ipos-mean-the-cheap-rides-are-coming-to-an-end-2019-05-09 [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Silicon Canals (2019). Uber to focus on rider’s safety with new features, but here are 7 alternatives if you’re in London. [online] Silicon Canals. Available at: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/uber-focus-on-riders-safety-new-features/ [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Vasile, C. (2019). Uber launches new mobile app, adds important new features. [online] phoneArena.com. Available at: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Uber-new-mobile-app-new-features_id119278 [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Please rate this

Drive a Porsche for a Month? Now You Can!

23

September

2019

No ratings yet.

 

Recently, Porsche just allow us (well, some of us who are lucky enough to live like a king) to apply for a monthly subscription plan that lets us drive various Porsches. (see video) 

Porsche Passport

The service is called Porsche Passport, it is essentially a mobile apps which match our driving needs with the available Porsches. Initially offered in Atlanta, US, Porsche expand this offering into four other cities; three in the US and one in Canada (Korosec, 2019). Starting with a flat fee of $2100 or $3100 per month, users can choose to drive a Porsche across eight or twelve available variants. Furthermore, the process is done hassle-free through a mobile app. Users should provide their identifications and can simply have the cars delivered home or agree to a meeting point.

Customer Related Risk and Benefits

For users, this feature comes in handy. Before, people need to commit to a huge cost by purchasing a Porsche. Also, they cannot easily switch their Porsche with another variant should they be bored with their current Porsche. The Porsche Passport is released to answer the customer needs of higher flexibility, more individual choice, and more mobile engagement (Wright, 2019). Furthermore, this service also aimed to gain a new wave of customers, as shown by its pilot program in Atlanta where 80% of the acquired customers are not previous Porsche owners (Wright, 2019).

Effect on the Industry

However, Porsche is not the first carmaker who bandwagon into the subscription-based, or car-sharing, business model. Other large carmakers such as BMW, Audi, Jeep also offer similar service: a monthly car subscription, covering insurance and maintenance. There are also companies like Fair and Carpe which offers monthly subscription for various car brands, from standard to premium brands (Autoblog, n.d.).

These services breathe new air to the car industry. The industry has been enjoying a modest growth of 4.8%, translating to 88 million cars sold globally in 2016 (Strategy&, 2016). The margin of top-10 manufacturers have also recovered to about 6%, and stagnating, since after the crisis (Strategy&, 2016) .However, this car-sharing business model is changing the industry as it can increase the industry output by 30% or amounting to $1.5 trillion by 2030 (McKinsey, 2016). Now, customers need not to own a car to drive it, instead they can easily open an app on their mobile phone, click some buttons, and have the car delivered at their doorstep.

All in all, this subscription-based service is indeed a new one for automotive industry which has survived and prosper for decades through selling cars to customers. Will this new business model complement the industry? Or will it disrupt and change the automotive industry landscape for years to come?

References

Autoblog, n.d. COMPLETE GUIDE TO CAR SUBSCRIPTIONS. [Online] Available at: https://www.autoblog.com/car-subscription-services/?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD3N31n8PmpSw0UH4fI2NJMCAfMjTZQm46De404THfKwPgulBv5M-t0SuCeC-CHIAE5PHof5Wt9uinGHFWoQ7oJSmYzgrAoN7ywjHc67f1tisOJMyMogxqDRDkQB8dGeBSEfQ2y [Accessed 18 September 2019].

Joseph, N., 2019. CARBUZZ. [Online] Available at: https://carbuzz.com/news/porsche-considers-subscription-plan-to-keep-out-the-speculators [Accessed 17 September 2019].

Korosec, K., 2019. Tech Crunch. [Online] Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/29/porsche-expands-on-demand-subscription-plans-to-four-more-cities/ [Accessed 18 September 2019].

Wright, I., 2019. CARBUZZ. [Online] Available at: https://carbuzz.com/news/porsche-expands-subscription-services-in-us [Accessed 17 September 2019].

 

 

Please rate this

The Era of the Living Services

14

October

2017

No ratings yet.

What is the impact of digitalisation in our everyday life and in the way of doing business?

According to Mark Curtis, Fjord’s Chief Client Officer, we are approaching the “Living service” era or more commonly called “The internet of Things”. What he says in his video it that this new way of living will have a huge impact not only in the way people carry out everyday tasks, but also in the strategies companies will need to adopt. In particular, he identifies this era as a combination of the digitalization of everything and the liquid expectation. Nowadays, even physical objects are becoming digital; lets’ think about automatic doors and curtains in hotels. However, the most relevant factor concerns how this digitalization is affecting customers’ experiences across industry barriers (that’s why Curtis uses the word liquid). So far literatures have been focusing on competition within industries. For Instance, Porter has dedicated his studies in identifying the dynamics of competitive intensity and attractiveness of a specific industry. But what about now? Can we still rely just on those?

What Curtis underlines is the fact that a customer who lived a great experience tends to have such high expectation even when experiencing other services. If I take UBER and I enjoy the online payment, in order to keep my satisfaction high, I will expect that any other service will allow me to do that; if it doesn’t happen it will result in disappointment and low level of satisfaction. Thus, in order to make this possible, firms need to observe what digital experiences other companies are offering inside and outside its industry.

Moreover, an other characteristic of “Living services” is that they aren’t designed for mass consumption but around individual needs. For this reason, any company should be always able to tailor, respond and adapt to changes. It is no more about meeting customers’ needs, but designing a product that also include emotional and physiological concerns of each different user.

An example is the new product launched by Google, Google Home. It is not just a speaker through what you can listen to music, it is a sort of personal assistant. Whenever you need an information about a location, an event or whenever you want to know what will be your appointments of tomorrow, you can say: “Hey google”, and it will immediately answer to all your questions. What makes this product customized to users is the fact that it uses the data it collected from previous requests to tailor other services (and probably Ads.) and thus to give them a unique experience.

Thus, would this really revolutionise the concept of competition? Moreover, don’t you think that we are paying these unique experiences at high price? What about all our personal data we are involuntary providing?

 

 

References:

M. Curtis (2015), An Introduction to Living Services. [Online]. Available at: https://youtu.be/DP9RUdoEhtI

G. Clauser  and B. Butterwoerth (2017), Is the Google Home the Voice-Controlled Speaker for you?. [Online]. Available at:https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/google-home-voice-controlled-speaker/

 

Please rate this

4.5/5 (8) 50k views and counting, how to get MASSIVE views!!!

9

October

2017

 

 
Hello fellow BIM students,

Some of you might have noticed that certain posts are getting massive amounts of views.

all time high

The first thing that pops into your mind might be that these guys are actively sharing their content on social media. This is unlikely though because getting this many unique views on one post in one day (see images below) is really really hard to accomplish through that method.

13k views one day

13k views one day

The next possibility you might think about is that they are hiring a group of people through some view boosting website like the one below.

viewbotwebsite

However, we are all students, meaning that we have low budgets and would rather spend our money on partying, Netflix/Spotify subscriptions and other more rewarding activities. So I don’t consider this option viable in our situation.

So how do the top posts get their crazy amount of views? Did they press F5 non-stop for a couple of weeks in order to reach the top?

f5 broken

There must be some sort of secret method to their success. In this post, I would like to share my easy method with you guys to help boost YOUR view count up to 5k, 10k or even 50k! Let’s go!

Step 1: Decide the post that you want to boost!

This is obviously a very basic step, in order to get views on a post, you need to have posted at least some content. In this example, I use a very basic article I wrote about IBM’s supercomputer Watson (check it out: http://bit.ly/2y71SxK).

IBM watson article 2

 

Step 2: Download the Opera browser and open the blog post in multiple tabs!

Viewbotting on 5 tabs

Step 3: This is where the magic comes in, download the Super Auto Refresh extension for Opera!

Super Auto Refresh extension Opera

Step 4: Start the Extension and make it run on all tabs at a speed of 30 seconds!

Super refresher extension Opera browser

Why do I give you guys the advice to run it on 5/6 tabs max at a speed of 30 seconds? Because I encountered many many errors on the first days using this method running it at faster speeds. These error messages, see below, cause not only me but every other user trying to access the website to experience problems.

Internal Server Error

Service Unavailable

So if you don’t want a group of angry students chasing you because they couldn’t upload their blog posts please take this advice.

IS blog troubles


Step 5: Get some spare laptops, plug them into their chargers and don’t touch them for a couple of days/weeks!

This will help you feel like a real hacker and boosts the feeling that you can join Anonymous because you know your computer stuff.

3 laptops setup

 

Step 6: Watch your article reach some magic milestones! You are finally reaching the top of the list!
1000 views mark

2000 views mark

9999 views

20000 views

30k views

WAIT FOR IT…. 50k VIEWS WOAH!

50k views

Step 7: Sit back and relax, you did some really awesome hacking and can now enjoy your success for the rest of your life! You will always be remembered as that BIM student that knew how to reach the top!

all time high

As much as I enjoyed abusing the view count system behind https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl// I would like to give some quick advice to the website admin. As soon as I realized that F5 views were counted as unique views although they came from the same IP-Address I started to look for ways to maximize my view count. I think that this in no way reflects the quality of my blog post and can actually destroy the intention of this web page. So to prevent things like this happening in the future please try to cap the number of views per IP-address or find some other way to achieve this.

Thanks for reading guys and enjoy your road to success!

Please rate this

So…Are We All Hipsters Now? Thoughts on The Long Tail

4

October

2017

5/5 (5)

Chris Anderson famously coined the term “The Long Tail” to depict what he envisioned as the “new marketplace”- a true shape of demand unfiltered by the economics of scarce, limited shelf space. In his book, The Long Tail: Why the future of Business is Selling Less of More, Anderson disrupts what he calls “hit-driven economics” (also known as the “blockbuster strategy” where retailers and distributors seek to maximize their returns by focusing their marketing resources on a small number of likely best sellers) – by predicting that with the advent of digital technology, we are increasingly shifting from a mass market into a “mass of niches”. In other words, in a culture unfiltered by economic scarcity, we will all be hipsters – individuals aware of and interested in new and unconventional music, books, movies, products, etc.

So…is this the end of “blockbusters” as we know it? Are we moving into an increasingly fragmented market where businesses should focus on niche markets? Or – as one Wharton professor pondered – “What’s going to happen to Tom Cruise?” More relevantly – is this the end of the reign of Queen Bey?

Before you start growing out your beards, buying everything flannel and raising your own kombucha, let’s consider these claims. While it is largely accepted that there is a long tail of demand, and research has proven that it can add up (Brynjolfsson, Hu, Smith 2006), is the demand for niche products really large enough to shift your focus away from creating bestsellers? Anita Elberse from Harvard Business School conducted her own research looking at Australian DVD rental service Quickflix.

In her research, Elberse finds evidence consistent with William McPhee’s theory of exposure which describes two types of distribution: “a natural monopoly” and a “double jeopardy”. In his theory, McPhee observes that light users of a product category are more largely interested in the popular products – creating a “natural monopoly” of popular products, or “hits”, On the other hand, a “double jeopardy” is another term for the double disadvantage niche products face in both being relatively unknown and – if known- are only recognized by people who “know better” or are experts in that product category. Elberse’s findings supported this theory revealing that customers who ventured further down the long tail into the relatively obscure movies were generally the heaviest users.

ac16d509fe2fdf81c052a21c7563aa3f

And when assessing the breakdown of their rentals based on decile of DVD popularity, Elberse found that even the users who rented the most from the lesser popular DVDs (left-most vertical column), still rented largely from the more popular movies with 34% of their rentals coming from the top 10% of rented DVDs (Elberse 2008). Research by Wharton professor Serguei Netessine on the more digital Netflix found similar results (Netessine & Tan 2009).

In her work, Elberse suggests that one explanation for the resilience of these popular titles is the social dynamic of it – people find value in listening to the same music or movies or subscribing to the same product type as their friends. Perhaps the strength of this social motivation may be what is keeping some hits so far ahead of the rest and is hindering the Long Tail from being “fatter”.

All in all, there is no question that a long tail exists. There is no question that the long tail is very long, and that with the product proliferation we are seeing now, it will no doubt continue to stay long. But Elberse and Netessine have a point – perhaps Anderson is being a little too quick to write off hits. Perhaps we are not all as hipster as he suggests we will be in this new “market of multitudes”. ­

So – what are your thoughts? Will the hits as we know it die out? Do you see a future post-digital disruption consisting of mass niches? Or are our tastes less hipster than Chris Anderson suggests?

 

Bibliography:

Andersen, C. (2006). The Long Tail. Hachette Book Group.

Anderson, C. (2008, June 27). Debating the Long Tail. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/06/debating-the-long-tail

Elberse, A. (2008, July-August). Should You Invest in the Long Tail. Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), pp. 88-96. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/07/should-you-invest-in-the-long-tail

Elberse, A. (2008, July 02). The Long Tail Debate: A Response to Chris Anderson. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/07/the-long-tail-debate-a-response

Manjoo, F. (2008, July 14). Long Tails and Big Heads. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2008/07/long_tails_and_big_heads.html

Netessine, S., & Tan, T. (2009, September 16). Rethinking the Long Tail Theory: How to Define ‘Hits’ and ‘Niches’. Knowledge @ Wharton. Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/rethinking-the-long-tail-theory-how-to-define-hits-and-niches/

Schonfeld, E. (2008, July 2). Poking Holes In The Long Tail Theory. TechCrunch. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2008/07/02/poking-holes-in-the-long-tail-theory

Please rate this

The slow death of qualitative media

9

October

2016

5/5 (1)

Growing up with a television on which your favourite show aired at a certain time on a certain day has always been the way we experienced the media. The newspaper that was delivered every morning and the billboards by the side of the road as you went to work. By the introduction of the digital media things have been changing and habits are going to change even further according to Mckinsey. But what will happen to the quality of the media and how is the revenue stream going to change?

The traditional media had a business model in which the ad revenue was their biggest income. This explains both the newspapers, in which ads were displayed at the side of the pages and sometimes covered entire pages, and the television stations, which showed ads in the middle of their shows and between two shows. The income was steady and the companies could ask a price for their ad space depending on the popularity of the show or news article. Also billboard sign have generated a steady income depending on the amount of traffic on the road.

The digital innovation has disturbed this market with a new platform on which the revenue was generated in a different way. By 2019 the global add revenue of the television industry will rise with 5%, the newspaper industry with -0.6%, the billboards with 3.1% and the digital industry with12.7%. (Desjardins, J., 2016) Newspapers are being attacked by for example the Dutch firm Blendle, which offers a pay-per-article instead of the traditional subscription to the entire newspaper. The television is being pushed out of the market by the rise of both Youtube content as well as big movie providers such as Netflix. The quality of the media is however not unharmed.

Blendle for example only shows a small part of the article to make you decide whether or not you want to buy it. The tendency for authors to make the title and the small abstract as sensational and popular as possible might cause a failure to actually bring quality content. The traditional media could have both sensational and quality content due to the subscription based revenue. If only the sensational news will be sold the quality will suffer. The same principal applies to the television industry. The quality talk shows will be replaced by the sensational shows that are meant to entertain people instead of inform them, because this will generate more views.

Do you share this opinion on the slow death of the qualitative media and the rise of more sensation seeking media?

Sources:

Chart: The Slow Death of Traditional Media

Please rate this