Peter Fisk

Every day out planet wakes with 200,000 more mouths to feed and more farmland lost to erosion. Many people who produce the world’s food live themselves in poverty. At the same time sea levels rise, deserts replace farmland, biodiversity declines and we continue to use the Earth’s resources 50% faster than we replace them.

Syngenta applies science to nature to address these formidable challenges. Formed in 2000 by a merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca’s agrichemical businesses, it defines a purpose “to bring plant potential to life”. This might be in created new types of seed that can thrive in harsh environments, provide more nutrition to more people, or in protecting existing crops from disease and damage.

Of course “genetically modified” crops can often draw a negative reaction from consumers who seek authenticity, and fear the disruption of natural processes. Yet it is a scientific response to an unnatural, polluted environment which people have created. It also establishes a creative tension, to balance innovation and sustainabiliy, but Syngenta seeks scientific solutions that promote healthiness, and rescue billions of people from malnutrition. Food security will become a huge global issue as populations grow, sea levels rise, and agricultural land turns to desert. Syngenta’s first priority is therefore to make farms more productive. As well as crop nutrients, it also includes new growth techniques and distribution models, improving yields, reducing waste, and reaching new markets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJRYvpayhDw

Syngenta’s Good Growth Plan commits by 2020 to make crops more efficient, increasing crop productivity by 20% without using more resources. It seeks to rescue more farmland, improving the fertility of 10 million hectares, and to enhance biodiversity on 5 million hectars. To achieve this it will particularly focus on small farms, where it believes it can make much bigger improvements, whilst also improving farming skills and processes, particularly in developing markets.

Pivot points for Syngenta in “changing the game” of agriculture were

• Explore: Focus on solving the biggest problems, like feeding the future world
• Disrupt: Be bold and persistent in applying science, despite people’s fears
• Design: Not just better seeds, but educate farmers with new process and skills
• Sustain: Build a brand that makes the world better, far beyond bags of fertilizer

Whilst the business operates in 90 countries, product development in consolidated in one place, and then tested in different environments. New hybrid seeds produce crops more resistant to disease and hot weather, whilst new bio-friendly sprays protect crops from pests. In the last five years reveneues have growth by 45% to $15bn, and doubling net income. New products now account for around 10% of sales, and growing fastest.

Tommy Lee Jones, dressed all in black, describes how GE is providing hospitals with software that invisibly connects patients to nurses to doctors to machines, reducing down time and improving care … GE has become a storyteller, helping businesses and consumers to understand the potential of new technologies to make life better.

CMO Beth Comstock says she by “connects the dots” between products and people, whilst also making sense of fast changing markets, looking for new patterns and opportunities. Comstock says a great marketer “translates observations into insights that can move a business or product forwards”. However that is not just about brand and communicating what exists, “Marketing is now about creating and developing new markets; not just identifying opportunities but also making them happen.”

She describes herself as a market maker. “To be an effective marketer, you have to go outside, you have to see what’s happening and be a translator. You have to immerse yourself in the customer world.” She talks of rural doctors in China and farmers in Africa, where she sees GE making most difference, and most money.

Customer innovation centres across the world drive this innovation within markets. In Chengdu, China, for example, local and global marketers and researchers collaborate on new initiatives in mobile, affordable healthcare, and green energy. Others sources of ideas come from new types of open partnerships and innovation competitions.

Communicating ideas in more human, intuitive ways is important to GE. Whilst advertising still matters, it is the integrated use of videos, social media and events that engage people more deeply. “The idea of an ad as a separate entity is gone. Brands are content publishers and consumers are, too” says Comstock. Facebook is used as GE’s social “hub” for engaging both business customers, and end consumers. There are over 30 GE pages including social health and fitness apps. Google+ is used more to reach technical audiences with videos and articles, whilst Pinterest is more female focused, with lifestyle photos, stories and quotes. Twitter is for business users, keeping stories topical and drawing people in. Youtube is more of a background library complementing TV ads.

Pivot points for GE in “changing the game” of industrial products include

• Explore: Being a market maker, finding and defining markets in your own vision
• Disrupt:  Creating new ways in which markets work, products and people connect
• Resonate: Harnessing the power of storytelling for both business and consumers
• Enable: Focusing on how the brand helps people to live better lives

One of the company’s biggest growth strategies is based on the “industrial internet” or to most of us, the “Internet of Things,” applying digital and social technologies to machines – from brain scanners to wind turbines – to improve their effectiveness. The emerging data helps GE and its clients to design and operate better machines. But to communicate these new opportunities requires stories – as powerful for business customers as for consumers. GE’s new storyline is about “Brilliant Machines” features, for example Night Rider’s KIT supercar getting a 21st century upgrade thanks to GE.

Updates

A Strategist’s Guide to Industry 4.0: Global businesses are about to integrate their operations into a seamless digital whole, and thereby change the world. (Strategy+Business, May 2016)

GE’s digital leader Bill Ruh on the “Industrial Internet” Revolution: During the next few years the Industrial Internet will turn every company into a digitally empowered enterprise. (Strategy+Business, February 2017)

Samsung’s “the next big thing is already here” advertising theme promises to keep you ahead of the game, but is the latest Galaxy really better than the iPhone, and does the future really look Korean rather than Californian (with a bit of Chinese)? The ad’s defining moment came when your parents were seen queuing to buy an iPhone, the ultimate put-down in being cool, and Samsung’s attempt to assign Apple to history.

In Korean the word Samsung means “three stars”, where “three” represents something big, numerous and powerful, and “stars” means eternity. Samsung’s current vision is to “inspire the world, create the future”.

In the mainstream for smartphones, Samsung has outplayed Nokia as the market leader. Collaborations with Google and Microsoft enable it to develop quickly and broadly, whilst its product range from tablets to televisions, and even washing machines are increasingly connected too.

Visit Samsung Town, the huge business park just outside Seoul, and you will quickly feel the distinctive culture, a way of working based on five elements of innovation:

• Developing a “creative elite” in the business based around ideas and innovation, attitude and talent, rather than a hierarchy based on status and experience.
• Relentless competitiveness, tracking the patents of other brands, seeking to challenge them, outmanoeuvre them, or simply create something better
• Adopting a consistent, replicable innovation methodology across the business, which enables collaboration and rotational working.
• Maintaining focus and agility, by partnering with academia and specialist external companies rather than getting locked into specific types of fundamental research.
• Staying small whilst being big, by adopting a conglomerate organisational structure, a reflection of the traditional Korean “chaebol” model.

Samsung’s mission is to ‘lead the digital convergence revolution’. In so doing it has made a remarkable transformation from copy-cat manufacturer to become Asia’s most valuable technology company

The Value Innovation Programme has been crucial to its emergence. Six design labs each with 450 people focus on exploring what consumers and their emerging needs, rather than the technologies to deliver this. It believes that success in consumer electronics can only ever be short term, requiring continuous innovation in order to develop new technology platforms and innovative products.

It spends more than $6bn on research each year. Like Apple, this is less about basic technologies such as semiconductors and flat screens that are quickly imitated, but about creating iconic designs.

Samsung realised that people have incredibly emotional relationships with tech devices based around aspiration and desire, more than function and reliability. It turned to the South Korean flag for inspiration, and to the circle at the centre of the yin yang symbol, known as the tae kuk that seeks to positively combine the opposing forces of male and female, hard and soft, or more practically, human and technology. Samsung turned to culture for new inspiration, to combine emotion with rationality, searching the world for new ideas and inspiration. Software engineers attended Seoul’s school of performing arts, learning to fuse logic with intuition, performance with expression.

Pivot points for Samsung in “changing the game” of digital devices have been

• Think: Recognising “ideas” as intangible assets, for competitiveness and growth
• Design: Creating devices as objects of desire through aesthetics and ergonomics
• Resonance: Use of sport and music sponsorship to connect with people culturally
• Enable: Focusing innovation on the connectivity of devices, eg wearable tech

The Bordeaux, a flat screen television with contours reminiscent of a wine glass was one of the most iconic products launched. It has also collaborated with Bang & Olufsen to produce the Serene phone, and the Serenata handset, described by one review as “cooler than an Eskimo in an Armani anorak.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT1OAGycXPo

Update, Summer 2016

Samsung is currently on top of its battle with Apple to be the world’s premier smartphone maker, but as global smartphone sales slow the Korean company’s mobile marketing chief YH Lee knows the future lies in creating an ecosystem of products and humanising communications.

Invisible to most of us, ARM is the Softbank-owned software design company from Cambridge, UK, that is responsible for many of the components inside our tablets and mobile phones. From smartphones and tablets, to cars and washing machines, ARM technology is at the heart of many of the digital products on the market.

What is unique about ARM’s business model is that it doesn’t actually make anything.

Ian Drew, ARM’s executive vice president for marketing and business development, described it “we make the knitting patterns for technology manufacturers”. From the iPhone to Nintendo games consoles, companies choose ARM designs because they result in better performance, with less energy consumption. “Partnerships are at the heart of ARMs business model, or ecosystem as we prefer to call it. It’s about innovating together, and making money together” says Drew “We’re in 95% of smartphones, 70% of laptops”.

The model works for ARM and its customers like Apple and Nokia. Investing, over a third of revenues on R&D with an expert team of 1200 chip designers, ARM is able to keep pushing the boundaries of chip design forward and the intellectual property that will drive the next generation of products. ARM licenses these reference designs to manufacturers through a combination of up-front payments to use the design and ongoing royalty fees. The whole industry therefore shares in relatively low-cost R&D, whilst ARM has sustainable revenue streams.

The business specialises in low power consumption processors, chips better suited to phones than high-powered computers, claiming that over 90% of all chips used in mobile phones originate on the drawing boards of Cambridge. However ARM also aims to be in 50% of all tablets and laptops by 2015.

Drew says “The internet of things – switching motors on and off, smart metering, healthcare, gaming and toys are all opportunities … things can make a big difference, like how our partner Enlighten which controls street lighting will be able to save millions of tonnes of CO2 because of our intelligence inside”. He sees ARM playing a major role in reducing the cost of devices. ARM-based chips for PCs will likely cost a bit more than the $20 for a chip, compared to $80 to $200 for Intel’s Core line of PC processors.

Drew argues that ARM is different from Intel in every way “We don’t go around saying ‘You have to build a product that looks like this.’ It’s our partners who come to us and say, ‘This is what we want to do, how can we work together’. That is radically different than Intel”. As part of this collaboration, ARM established Linaro, a not-for-profit network of over 120 engineers from the world’s leading tech companies. They work together on improving open source software for the ARM architecture, everything from power management to multimedia interfaces. Plans and progress are open to everyone on developer wikis, seeking to provide the best software foundations to everyone, and to reduce costly low level fragmentation.

The company, originally called Advanced RISC Machines was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn computers and VLSI Technology, with the Apple Newton, a forerunner to the iPad as one of its first collaborative projects with Apple who also took a stake in the business. 8 years later it restructured as ARM.

In recent years, investors have recognised the value in ARM Holding’s business model.

ARM is riding the wave of a smartphone market growing at around 20% per year. At the same time smartphones keep getting smarter, requiring more chips to support increased functionality, and premium chips that do more, faster, and with higher royalties to ARM.

Drew estimates that ARM’s partners are using its licensed designs to produce over 7 billion chips per year.

Pivot Points for ARM in “changing the game” of semiconductor design

• Think: Value is in the idea, the design, rather than the manufacturing
• Explore: Focus on a different space, low power for small devices
• Design: Business model based around access and royalties for IP
• Amplify: Ecosystem of partners who develop new concepts together

Within five years Drew imagines ARM’s miniature chip designs (less than 1mm squared) playing an ever greater role inside everything from credit cards to sensors inside the human body. “As the cost and physical size of the chips continue to fall, tremendous opportunities emerge to make existing products more efficient and useful, and to create entirely new products, services, and business models”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2YuxwxOwlg

Latest updates

In July 2016, Japan’s SoftBank announced its acquisition of ARM for $36bn, but with a vision to continue ARM’s approach as a separate business, but with funding to double its size within 5 years.

BBC News coverage:

ARM Holdings has been often described as the UK’s leading technology company. And while it might not be a household name, many products that qualify rely on the Cambridge company’s brainpower.

Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, Apple’s iPad tablets, Amazon’s Kindle e-readers, Nest’s smart thermostats, Ford’s cars, DJI’s drones, Canon’s EOS cameras and Fitbit’s fitness trackers barely scratch the surface.

So, news that the business has accepted a £24.3bn offer from Japan’s Softbank has wide-ranging ramifications.

ARM doesn’t actually manufacture computer processors itself, but rather licenses its semiconductor technologies to others.

In some cases, manufacturers only license ARM’s architecture, or “instruction sets”, which determine how processors handle commands. This option gives chip-makers greater freedom to customise their own designs.

In other cases, manufacturers license ARM’s processor core designs – which describes how the chips’ transistors should be arranged. These blueprints still need to be combined with other elements – such as memory and radios – to create what’s referred to as a system-on-chip.

As a result, when you hear talk of a device being powered by a Samsung Exynos, Qualcomm Snapdragon or Apple A8 chip, it is still ARM’s technology that is involved.

ARM microchips are used in many technologies:

• Televisions – Many modern televisions now run apps, allowing them to provide Netflix and other internet-based services, which are powered by ARM-based processors. The company’s technology is also used in TV set-top boxes and remote controls
• Smartphones and tablets – ARM’s chip designs are at the heart of the vast majority of smartphones as well as many tablets. E-readers and digital cameras typically rely on ARM’s technology as well
• Drones – Drones are just one of a growing number of products to rely on tiny computer chips called microcontrollers – other examples include the controls for buildings’ air-conditioning and lift systems. ARM estimates a quarter of such embedded computer chips made last year used its technology
• Smart home – Internet-connected thermostats, electricity meters and smoke alarms are among a growing range of products that promise to make our homes safer and more energy efficient. Many use ARM-based chips to help homeowners cut their bills
• Smart cities – Several cities are exploring the use of sensors to cut costs and help their inhabitants. Examples include street lamps that dim themselves when there is nobody close by and parking meters that detect when spaces are empty – or alert nearby wardens when vehicles have overstayed their time slots. ARM believes this sector holds great potential for its business
• Smart cars – ARM-based chips are already used within many vehicles’ infotainment systems to let them show maps, offer voice recognition and play music. They also carry out the calculations needed to run driver assistance systems – working out when to trigger automatic electronic braking, for example – and are being used within prototype self-driving systems
• Wearable tech – From fitness trackers to smartwatches, much of the most popular wearable tech has relied on ARM-based chips for several years. Now, virtual reality and augmented reality headsets are the latest kit to feature the company’s technology

Intel is often described as its chief competitor because it makes processors based on a different architecture, known as x86.

ARM’s reputation for power-efficiency has helped prevent Intel from making much headway with smartphones, but most Windows devices rely on the US company’s chips.

The company’s origins can be traced back to the success of the BBC Microcomputer in the 1980s. When its developer, Acorn Computers, sought to make a follow-up, it initially considered using chips made by others. But eventually, the company decided to make its own processors, whose name ARM stood for Acorn RISC (reduced instruction set computing) Machines. The resulting computers – the Acorn Archimedes series – struggled to sell. So, Acorn came up with a different business plan.

It created a joint venture with Apple, called ARM Holdings, to make a chip for the American company’s first handheld computer, the Newton, which launched in 1993. It also flopped. But there was, eventually, a silver lining. When Apple sold its 43% stake in ARM, it used part of the proceeds to buy Next, which led to the return of its co-founder Steve Jobs. Although Jobs shut down the Newton division, he would later use ARM-based chips as the basis for first the iPod, then the iPhone and next the iPad.

ARM benefited from the i-products’ huge success. But its focus on low-power usage also meant it had success elsewhere. Nokia built phones using ARM-based chips made by Texas Instruments. And other licensees included Sony, HP, IBM, Philips and Qualcomm. ARM has also been making in-roads elsewhere. It reckons its designs now account for about a quarter of all microcontrollers – a term used to refer to small computer chips typically dedicated to one specific task.

These feature in a wide variety of products including:

• electronic passports
• car control systems
• hard disks and flash memory
• lift control systems
• smart cards used to access public transport or make payments

ARM’s technology is also increasingly being used in data centres and networking equipment – such as mobile base stations and routers – so, it should benefit from the imminent shift to 5G. In addition, the company has itself recently taken over several “internet-of-things” related businesses.

Although the sector is still relatively small, there are forecasts there will be a boom in demand for sensor-laden, internet-connected components that will be built into our homes, streets, clothes – and ultimately, even our bodies.

All in all, ARM says about 15 billion chips based on its designs were shipped last year, representing about a third of all chips used in smart electronic devices. And it thinks that number represents a fraction of its potential market in a few years time.

The danger has always been that if one of the technology giants bought ARM, then it might discourage others from using its designs or, possibly, provoke a larger counter-offer.

So, Apple, Samsung and Huawei – for example – are all happy to use ARM’s designs, but would probably not have wanted each other to have owned it outright.Intel had long been rumoured to have been a potential bidder, but such a merger would be difficult to clear with competition watchdogs.

As one of Japan’s biggest mobile networks, Softbank’s business has little overlap with most of ARM’s customers – which may mean they won’t see the takeover as a threat. Even so, there would be concern if there were any hint that ARM’s fees might be set to rise as a result.

Softbank is paying a 43% premium over ARM’s closing share price last week and is financing the deal by taking on more debt. Presumably, the Tokyo-based company believes our appetite for smart products to be very large indeed.

“There is no love more sincere than the love of food,” said George Bernard Shaw, and that love echoes in the flavours of Armenian cuisine.  It is the love of a full table in good company, the subtle and well-chosen ingredients, a wealth of the Mediterranean sun that transforms vegetables into beauty and fragrance and an afternoon spent cooking for your loved ones.

Aline Kamakian, a passionate cook and co-owner of Mayrig restaurant, is passionate about Armenian culture. She created her first restaurant in the Beirut suburbs, using the many finely-tuned recipes of her mother and grandmother. At the same time she learnt much about her heritage – when Armenia was a much greater nation, the impact of genocide, and how Armenian people still thrive on their history and traditions, despite now being spread across the world. Mayrig is about the culture, not just the food.

Kamakian and her cousin now has a thriving business, in the process of franchising her brand into new markets, whilst also having set up a more contemporary second brand called Batchig. There is also a new “boutique” foods-to-go business, selling everything from sandwiches to ready-to-cook traditional dishes. Behind these brands is an industrial kitchen, with over 100 employees following her family recipes, then distributing them to the different restaurants and stores.

“Mayrig was born on a Sunday lunchtime, when our extended family sat around the table for hours enjoying the delicious food” says Kamakian. We regretted that you could never eat like that in a restaurant. So my cousin and I decided that very Sunday to open an Armenian restaurant. For this we went back to the recipes of our grandmother. Besides our language and common history it is this practice of gathering around delicious, healthy and varied food that gives us a sense of belonging, of identity. In Mayrig we do not only want to share this delicious food, we also want to tell the world who we are and where we come from.

“It is about sharing food around stories, about being together and creating memorable moments. Our drive is our passion for food, for our family traditions and for the distant land of Armenia that we lost and recreate in every meal. It’s about simple, healthy food inscribed in our culture that we want to celebrate and share”“Mayrig is about people. If the one who serves you does not love the food, the place, the guests, he cannot put his heart into it; so it is about sharing this passion through people. We are about social and cultural responsibility. Our cooks are Armenian mothers, those who do not have a place on the job market and still have so much to give. They are the core of our story, of who we are”.

Her book “Armenian Cuisine” creates a platform to share recipes and stories, whilst social media actively builds community, particularly around meeting for lunch. Meanwhile, franchising authentically requires a more thoughtful approach “Mayrig recently opened next to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. “We started to work differently with investors who are more than just investing money. From different backgrounds (construction, banking, finance) they share with us their expertise. They visit the site and join us for the tastings for the menu. We are now exploring locations from Paris to New York, as well as un-thought-of locations such as Irbil”.

Pivot points for Mayrig in “changing the game” of the restaurant experience were:

• Think: Inspired by a vision beyond food, that brings a culture back to life through food
• Design: Recipes to dishes, multiple brands and business models, interiors and ambience that reflect Armenian life
• Resonate: Stories from her grandmother add humanity and relevance to each dish
• Mobilise: Tapping into a global tribe of Armenians, and those who enjoy their world

“Yang tao” or “Chinese gooseberries” as they were initially known, were taken from China to New Zealand in the early 20^th century, by a Wanganui school mistress called Mary Isabel Fraser. In the 1950s they evolved into the green, furry “Kiwi fruit” which we know today and became New Zealand’s largest export. Today, Kiwis are still the second largest grower of their fruit (after Italy), and it is Lain Jager, CEO of Zespri who continues to shape the market.

“Fresh produce is a marketplace cluttered with commodities, where earning as price premium and sustaining customer loyalty is a significant challenge” says Jager. Recognising that overcoming this commodity trap is critical to building a profitable livelihood for New Zealand kiwifruit growers, Zespri has focused on establishing meaningful brand reputation through sophisticated marketing.

This commitment to sophisticated marketing is backed by a consistency of supply of a high-quality, high-taste product, a market-based payment method where growers are paid according to meeting demand and driving innovation. Most successful amongst the different branded varierties is Zespri Gold.

“Zespri’s success in establishing itself as the world’s premium kiwifruit brand is built on capturing two-thirds of the value in the global kiwifruit category, while only accounting for one-third of globally traded kiwifruit” explains Jager.  “Despite kiwifruit only accounting for less than half a percent of the global fruit bowl, in markets where Zespri has invested, kiwifruit has become one of the top ten fruits consumed, with a large base of regular and loyal consumers”

The brand is owned by New Zealand kiwifruit growers, who fiercely protect their ability to capture value from the supply chain.  “Unlike most fruit producers that are at the mercy of the traders the shared brand commands a price premium, supported by sophisticated marketing programmes to trade and consumers, the types previously only seen in the packaged goods categories, and maximizes the returns back to the grower”.

New product development in the fruit business takes time.  Through critical selection of kiwifruit plant varieties and natural plant breeding methods, Zespri has the largest global selection of new kiwifruit varieties.  It launched the immensely popular “Zespri Gold” to the market in 2000; and is working now on the next generation of sweeter, flavourful varieties to grow the category and cater to the range of tastes throughout Japan, Asia and European markets.  New variety breeding and selection can take up to 15 years through to commercialization.  Kiwi fruit is also celebrated for its health benefits “twice the vitamin C of an orange, low glycemic index for diabetics, accelerates digestion of proteins, and a natural source of folate”.

Zespri is also an advanced user of social media. These include a game application developed in China and launched globally where you can care for and grow your own Zespri kiwifruit in an on-line game, the 14 day Zespri challenge to feel healthier, local Facebook pages for each language and culture, and online competitions particularly seeking to promote the health benefits to older people.

https://youtu.be/1O_sYImbJ1U?list=PLrq1QRGfqfN91hidWYSlufZTGOP1vv2sm

Pivot points for Zespri in “changing the game” of kiwifruit were:

• Disrupt: Creating a new market space, built around a new type of fruit.
• Inspire: Building a premium brand, Zespri Gold, that defines the market
• Design: Product innovation that constantly evolves varieties, flavours and process
• Amplify: Promoting the fruit (not just the brand) globally for its nutrition and taste

Imagine if the barista making your macchiato started explaining that he and his colleague pick and select every grain of coffee themselves, from tree to cup, in the pursuit of the best taste you will find. Wearing his ethnic poncho he waves to his donkey tied up outside, and the pan pipes float over the chatter. Juan Valdez coffee, and its extension into cafes, is a sensorial and cultural experience straight from the Andes mountains.

In 1959, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia wanted to capture the spirit of more than 500000 coffee growers and small local producers who made “100% Colombian coffee”. The federation set out to create a mascot, a character based on many of its members – they called him Juan Valdez, always with his mule called Conchita, and carrying a sack of coffee beans. The character became the stamp of authentic Colombian coffee around the world He is played by a real person, selected from more than 360000 coffee growers, most recently Carlos Castañeda from the small town of Antioquia in the Andes.

However the grower’s federation became concerned that Colombian coffee was increasingly regarded as a commodity, marketed by many brands and they needed to give Juan a stronger identity. In 2002, they launched Procafecol SA, a company to build the Juan Valdez brand. They started by branding their own branded coffee through an online star, which was quickly also stocked by supermarkets locally and across the Americas. Small brand extensions included coffee makers, cups and flasks, coffee-flavoured foods, and replicas of Conchita the mule. Sign up to Juan’s coffee-lovers club, and you can receive discounts and exclusive products. With the increasing penetration of cafes like Starbucks, Procafecol recognised the opportunity to do more. By 2007, there were 100 Juan Valdez Cafés in Colombia, and Starbucks retreated.

Pivot points for Juan Valdez Café in “changing the game” of coffee growing were:

• Inspire: Creating a brand from a commodity, with personality and humour
• Design: Developing a rich portfolio of branded coffees and accessories
• Enable: Delivering a branded experience with a hundred times the margins
• Mobilise: Connecting the nation’s growers to represent and promote the brand

Growth outside Latin America has been slower, as the company focus on establishing a local stronghold. At the same time, the Colombian economy is growing more strongly than most of the world, so it is proving an effective strategy. Juan Valdez has remained a local and authentic brand, in Bogata it is everywhere, making the most of its authenticity and local roots, riding on the growth wave of the Colombian economy.

Recent updates:

Juan Valdez spreads across America, opening in Miami, Florida:

Becoming a “zipster” takes seconds – register your details online for a $50 membership fee, and then whenever you need a car, for a quick 15 minute trip across town, or a two week vacation, just search your mobile phone to find the nearest cars to you, by GPS. Walk along the street of most cities and you will see Z spaces, reserved for Zipcars to be dropped off or picked up. Zap the door with your Bluetooth phone, turn the key and its yours for as long as you want, paying per minute.

Compare that to the cost of owning a car, particularly in cities where it might stand unused most days, depreciating in value with every days, and you suddenly have a good business case. It can even be cheaper than a taxi ride.

Zipcar was born in Berlin by Antje Danielson where “mitfahr” car-sharing had long been common, and then launched in Boston in 2000 in partnership with Robin Chase. Soon the concept spread across many cities. Early adopters were students, who in the past had dreamt of owning a car but usually ended up with a one on its last legs, and were far more attracted by a cool Mini Cooper for the weekend, at much less overall cost. As customers grew, the network was able to grow, becoming an even more attractive option.

Pivot points for Zipcars in “changing the game” of car ownership and rental were:

• Explore: Observing a trend in one market, and taking it to a bigger potential market
• Design: Innovating a better business model, attractive to customers, and business
• Resonate: Targeting niche audience to make the case in relevant, emotional ways
• Mobilise: Unlocking the “network effect” of more customers and more cars

The car-sharing concept grew rapidly. Many imitators emerge, some like Flexcar were acquired by Zipcar. Car manufacturers also woke up to the challenge, and launched their own versions like Daimler’s Car2Go. Car rental companies too realised that their future wasn’t in weekly airport hires, extending their business model with concepts like Hertz on Demand. In 2013 Zipcar, with over 800,000 members sharing 10,000 cars, was acquired by Avis Budget for $500m. In the meantime Robin Chase moved on to her next venture, Buzzcar, which is a car sharing network, where people with cars offer their spare seat to others.

Richard Branson was looking for a new challenge. Having conquered music and flight, retail and banking, he pondered where next. “To the moon?” suggested a helpful waitress. Like most new ventures, Virgin had little idea how to enter the market, but finding the right partners has always been a strength. And in particular, partners who can help do things differently, better for customers, and ultimately for business too.

“Space travel is absolutely, unbelievably exciting” Branson told me. “For a British company to be preparing to be the first to take fare-paying customers into space is phenomenal. We registered the name Virgin Galactic in 1991 and then spent a decade looking for potential engineers to build a reusable spaceship.”

“We explored mad, zany ideas, and then found Burt Rutan who’s the absolute genius in this area. He’d come up with the idea of turning the spaceship into a massive shuttle cock, to slow the vehicle on its dangerous re-entry phase. The whole project is almost carbon neutral. Each space flight will generate fewer emissions than a flight to New York, whereas NASA use the power of New York City to spend up the Space Shuttle” he said.

The spaceship takes off on the back of a larger “carrier” rising to around 50,000 feet, the cruising altitude of Concorde, where it is then launched horizontally into space requiring much less power (Branson’s vision is to use biofuels from his Caribbean algae farms). Accelerating from 170 knots in gliding mode to four times the speed of sound in six seconds, you are suddenly weightless. Indeed the cabin is designed with huge windows to look down on our planet, and space to jump around, to enjoy the thrill of space. Branson says he wants to turn an experience of only 540 people in 50 years into one shared by many more, and already has a waitlist almost as long.

Pivot points for Virgin Galactic in “changing the game” of space travel were:

• Think: Imagining new markets and shaping them in your own vision
• Design:  Designing launch and flight solutions that enabled new experiences
• Inspire: Building a brand that reinvigorates Virgin, and inspires a waiting list
• Impact: Finding more efficient and less damaging ways to make it work

https://youtu.be/gZjvlMVEfTY

Watching the test flights from Spaceport America, deep in the New Mexico desert, it’s easy to dream of flights to Mars, or even jumping on-board for a one-hour tourist flight to circle Earth after being kitted out in your space suit and a short safety briefing. But the real ambition of Virgin is more terrestrial. The ability to launch and land efficiently makes frequent flights and fast turnarounds possible. Between continents, rather than just into space and back. Imagine flying from LA to Sydney, or Shanghai to London, in one hour … that is the real game-changing vision of Virgin Galactic.

Airbnb started out as the result of lack of accommodation for a major design conference in SanFrancisco. Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia launched AirBed and Breakfast to help people who couldn’t find a hotel room – first in their own spare room with a couple of airbeds, and tasty breakfast, and then with friends too. They spotted the potential, but needed to raise some money to develop a website. Obama was fighting McCain in the US election of 2008, so the pair quickly designed and launched two new breakfast cereals, “Obama O’s” and “Captain McCains” raising $30000 to get started. The site quickly became a social movement helping people rent out their spare bedrooms for a little extra cash, and others to find a great place to stay.

Tired of standard hotel rooms? Airbnb helps you discover real places, and get closer to culture and normality. What began with two guys and a few airbeds now offers nights in everything from crusader forts to private islands. It is now a global marketplaces with over 500,000 locations in 33,000 cities, and over 10 million booked nights. It has also become a serious rival to the leading hotel chains and travel companies.

Christopher Lukezic, CMO says “Airbnb has pioneered social travel and set the stage for the emergence of the sharing economy.  The main reason for our success is that we’ve taken a very long-term vision and approach to building a brand – to build a company and community. If building a brand takes a few years, building a community takes decades. Early on we knew that the ultimate success of our business would come from building a community, not merely a brand. That would take a decade, without being distracted by short-term gains.”

Pivot points for Airbnb in “changing the game” of travel accommodation were:

• Discover:  Identifying a niche market with a trend away from standardised hotels
• Design: Designing an attractive business model and online booking experience
• Resonate: Articulating the proposition through PR and contagious social media
• Mobilise: Building a community of travellers, and people with spare rooms

Brian Chesky says “The business always puts our users forward, often doing things that don’t scale and don’t have immediate returns. It wasn’t about putting up billboards to get lots of users very quickly, because we had to build trust with each members one-by-one. Not long ago, people wouldn’t have dreamed of staying at somebody else’s house, now they see it as positive experience.”