Tag: Business Models

Progress

Amazon business model threatened

Colin Henderson

Amazon helped change the way people shop by building a vast network of warehouses designed to stockpile products and quickly send them to customers. That model requires products manufactured in China to be shipped by sea in bulk to the US and trucked to warehouses around the country. The upside is that products are close to shoppers, enabling delivery in just a day or two. Amazon has been investing in sharpening that delivery advantage over rivals with warehouses closer to consumers to increase the number of products they’ll receive quickly. That’s not what Chinese rivals like Temu have been doing, in … Continue reading Amazon business model threatened

Profitability4 Comments

The Dangers of Thin Value

Colin Henderson

Umaiar defines thin value as a mirage that will eventually evaporate. it is value that has no point nor reason, other than generate revenue for the corporation. The landmark example he offers is ARPU, or Average Rrevenue per Customer in the telco business. The 15 second instructional wait time in front of every voice mail is worth $620 million to one telco is one example he offers. The sole purpose of the 15 seconds is to generate revenue, notwithstanding claims that it is for the benefit of the user. The Value Every Business Needs to Create Now| Harvard: Umair Haque … Continue reading The Dangers of Thin Value

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | which is your bank?

Colin Henderson

In this video commentary on the US Banks results they note that while large profits are announced, any parts of the business related to the US consumer consumer is flat. This includes all retail banking and credit cards. The only bright spots are the fee based revenue from the investment banking units, hence JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs results, although poor old Citi did not even make it there. One quarter does not make or break anything in banking in and of itself. However the predictions of Roubini and Baker linked below are playing out as expected, so which banks … Continue reading The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | which is your bank?

Business Models2 Comments

“Instead of extracting value, they create it” | Haque

Colin Henderson

Umair continually presses us to think about new types of corporations that are creating genuine value.  The definition is evolving, and you can check back with his earlier posts about the companies mentioned, but the final sentence in this paragraph is a great objective. An Open Letter to 20th Century Business | Umair Haque Who are some of those innovators? We’ve discussed lots of them – Apple, Google, Tata, Threadless. What makes them different is simple. They are more profitable and valuable than rivals because, well, they do stuff that counts. Instead of extracting value, they create it. Continue reading “Instead of extracting value, they create it” | Haque

Business Models

“Even though we were in and looking you still couldn’t see [where the bottom was]” | KKR

Colin Henderson

Listening to this interview is interesting and sobering for banks. The highlighted quote below tells all. Henry Kravis and George Roberts (KKR) | FT Interview FT: How do you see the opportunities that have been thrown up by this incredible dislocation? Is the government a good partner for KKR? HK: We looked at quite a few of the banks over time and we turned them down because we couldn’t see what was in the banks. Even though we were in and looking you still couldn’t see [where the bottom was]. I think there may be some programmes where it will … Continue reading “Even though we were in and looking you still couldn’t see [where the bottom was]” | KKR

Business Models

We will not hear about bricks and clicks after this recession

Colin Henderson

Deloitte pick up on an interesting characteristic of banks here. Cost cutting occurs during downturns, but its spend spend spend when things are looking good. Banks rarely get to the point of incremental efficiencies that they note here. Citi are a classic example as noted in the FT this morning. This fits with the view that this change we are undergoing is not just another blip before we return to business as usual. There is no business as usual coming. The future is smaller, framed in different business models, contains a greater mix of small business, and smaller companies and … Continue reading We will not hear about bricks and clicks after this recession