Peter Fisk

The world of medicine is changing incredibly fast, new diseases and drugs, new services and expectations, it’s not easy to stay updated, to complement experience with the very latest knowledge and techniques.

This is where Epocrates comes in … as simple as an app on the doctor’s phone or tablet.

Epocrates develops mobile solutions for healthcare, giving professionals instant access to the world’s most comprehensive knowledge source of symptoms, diagnostics and responses, as well as managing their own time and business.

Rob Cosinuke is Chief Marketing Officer of AthenaHealth which recently acquired Epocrates described why he believes Epocrates is a “gamechanger” saying “You can’t change the game unless you know your audience. You can create a tool, but if you don’t fundamentally understand the people you are building it for, it will fail despite good intentions”

He goes further describing for Epocrates, this means three things:

1. Be invaluable … “We want to help clinicians save time, money and increase patient satisfaction – this means making an intuitive product that helps answer questions, instead of making more. Epocrates has over 300,000 U.S. physicians and over 1 million members worldwide using its products”.
2. Think like a doctor … “Our amazing design and development team is complemented by a group of in-house physicians, nurses, pharmacist and other healthcare professionals that work together to deliver our products. By balancing out clinician needs with developer constraints, we ensure our products meet the bottom line: help healthcare professionals be more efficient”.
3. Solve a problem … “When Epocrates was first developed, we saw a need for physicians to instantly access information at the point of care. As the market was trying to create a more concise PDR, we ditched the paper and moved to the PDA. To be ahead of the curve, solutions should be developed with long-term goals in mind, not just shot term fixes”.

Cosinuke admits that he is inspired by Apple, and what their innovations have enabled his business to do more for his customers. “Apple has forever changed the way healthcare professionals access information. The iPad Mini, for example comes in at the perfect size for a lab coat pocket. More clinicans are adopting this device due to the lightweight portability, easy readability and medium screen for basic data entry. Plus, applications clinicians need at the point of care, like Epocrates, run beautifully on the platform”

Pivot points for Epocrates in “changing the game” of healthcare information were:

• Think: Focus obsessively on getting the right information to the point of care
• Design: Connect relevant information, ie about patients, treatments, medicine
• Mobilise: Develop partnerships with complementary services to the same audience
• Resonate: Ride on the back of new devices that make your content better and sexier

AthenaHealth acquired Epocrates for $293 in 2013, making it the leading mobile knowledge platform for doctors, partly attracted by the high brand recognition of Epocrates with over 90% of US physicians. Athena previously specialised in processing insurance claims and patient payments, and will now also stretch into prescribing drugs and storing patient records.

Anne Wojcicki wants to change the face of health care. 23andMe, her personal genetics testing company based in Mountain View, California and part funded by her ex-husband, Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin.

By simply taking and mailing a saliva example from your home, and receiving analysis and interpretation within a week, 23andMe enables people to learn about their inherited health traits and genetic links to certain diseases. With around $120m investment, 23andMe can now offer 244 reports on health and personal traits, as well as genealogy and ancestry information that people can share socially all for $99.

For a price equivalent to a new pair of running shoes, the self-testing package is now accessible to millions of consumers, curious to understand the secrets locked in their DNA, and what it might mean for them. Imagine how it can change people’s lifestyles – prompting new diets and fitness regimes – as well as transforming insurance policies and healthcare planning.

It also enables 23andMe to create the world’s largest private database of genetic information, to explore and distribute this rich knowledge bank (around 90% of patients are happy for their aggregated data to be used). The results can be used in research conducted by Wojcicki’s team, plus pharmaceutical and healthcare partners to drive innovation and focus investment.

Pharma companies believe that genetic data could be instrumental in creating better, more targeted treatments for diseases. Genentech is working with 23andMe to learn if genetic factors influence a person’s response to the cancer drug Avastin, whilst Amgen recently bought DeCode, a company that explores the link between genes and diseases, for $415 million.

As 23andMe builds its database of millions of DNA profiles, more accurate analysis and innovation is possible, and better targeted solutions emerge. Indeed there are similarities to how Google became a better search engine, improving usefulness to users, and attractiveness to partners, as volume grew.

At the time of launch, in 2006 the business didn’t seem like a gamechanger of the drug industry, let alone the patient experience. The process was expensive, $999 for much more limited analysis, and was dubbed as “spit parties” by the press as wealthy Silicon Valley types shared saliva with their cocktails. The price has fallen dramatically since, making it affordable to most people. At the same time this has rung alarm bells with regulators, an inevitable challenge if you want to break rules, and all part of the journey.

The biggest challenge of all, was that consumers did not understand genetics, or the consequences of knowing their DNA. Explaining 23andMe’s approach in a relevant and human way was key. Ancestory was a quick win, tapping into an established curiosity of people, and then flipping the analysis forwards to predict what health issues the consumer might encounter in their life.

Wojcicki’s vision goes far beyond analytics, with her eyes particularly focused on personalised advice – helping people to interpret results, understand the consequences, and make shifts to a healthier lifestyle. 23andMe is already working with partners to offer diabetes counselling, whilst exploring AI-enabled apps to encourage people to drink more water, and eat certain foods, based on their genetic profiles.

New drugs are another future development. In 2015, 23andMe’s therapeutics group agreed a $300m investment by GSK to explore new drug concepts, in a 4-year exclusive partnership, sharing costs and profits. The deal enabled GSK to access the aggregated data from 23andMe’s databases, where consumers had given their consent. Most do. However, pharma development is notoriously difficult, 86% of drugs fail clinical trials, and are expensive. Personalisation of drugs is even more difficult, but the dream.

In 2018, 23andMe partnered with pharmaceutical company GSK to use test results from 5 million customers to design new drugs, and based on the success, GSK invested $300 million in Wojcicki’s business. In 2020, they announced their partnership’s first clinical trial: a joint asset being co-developed by the two companies for cancer treatment.

In 2020, the therapeutics team had developed a portfolio of research programs across multiple disease areas. They recognised that whilst maintaining ownership of the IP, they needed partners to develop and test the potential drugs. Wojcicki turned to a smaller Spanish pharma company, Almirall, which specialises in skin therapies as her first development partner. She called it a seminal moment. 23andMe now had a database of over 10 million consumer tests, “a treasure trove” to create the future of healthcare.

In 2021, 23andMe merged with Sir Richard Branson’s special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), known as VG Acquisition Corp, in a $3.5 billion transaction, to take the business public. Later in the same year, 23andMe aquired Lemonaid Health, a telehealth company, for $400 million. A new business model is rapidly taking shape. Compared to the old world, where drugs were made generically, and pharma companies never connected with patients, 23andMe is now fundamentally disrupting that model.

Zidisha is the world’s first direct peer-to-peer lending service for disadvantaged individuals in developing countries.  Founded by Julia Kurnia, it stands out for reducing the cost of microfinance by eliminating local intermediary organizations. Starting initially in Senegal, the business connects web-savvy entrepreneurs in the world’s most impoverished regions with the chance to improve their family’s incomes through fairly priced business growth loans.

Kurnia describes her insight: “Entrepreneurs in low-income countries often face a dilemma: their business activities don’t earn enough to support their families, whilst they also lack the investment capital needed to make the businesses grow. Restrictive political and economic conditions and geographic remoteness make it expensive for local banks to lend to small business owners. Many of these borrowers turn to microfinance institutions, but individual business expansion loans usually require prohibitive collateral and interest requirements due to high administrative costs.  So the businesses don’t grow, and the families they support remain impoverished.”

Whilst focused on Africa, and other emerging markets, Zidisha is actually a USA-based non-profit organization where Kurnia previously worked with the US African Development Department. It lets ordinary web users make microloans to individuals in the world’s poorest countries. The loans allow the individuals to start small businesses to help them escape poverty, and once repaid the loan funds are repaid with interest.

“What makes Zidisha unique is that there are no intermediaries.  The borrowers themselves post their loan applications and communicate directly with lenders as their business investments grow”.

Linking entrepreneurs directly with the international peer-to-peer lending market gives them the chance to source business growth capital far more easily and affordably than has ever before been feasible in their locations.  The global average interest rate for microfinance loans is around 40%.  The average rate paid by Zidisha entrepreneurs is around 9% according to Kurnia.

“Africa, Asia and Latin America are home to a growing class of entrepreneurs who, while economically disadvantaged, are computer-savvy and have verifiable credit histories with local microfinance institutions – all of which can be tapped to supply many of the communication and record-keeping services traditionally performed by local banks and microfinance institutions”.

Kurnia was inspired by her admiration of eBay “for revolutionizing the concept of trust in strangers and building a practical system powered by the new concept of trust”, Wikipedia “for showing the world the heights that can be reached by a community of virtual volunteers”, and Amazon “for pioneering the integration of customer reviews and independent sellers to better serve customer needs”.

Zidisha uses every type of technology to connect the world, fast and at low cost – for local credit history verification, low-cost electronic money transfers, independent tracking of borrower performance history, and to build a community of local entrepreneurs. “In Kenya we use M-Pesa to send loans from our PayPal account directly into the mobile phones of a Masai entrepreneur in the photo, instantly and cheaply.”

Unlike the postings on other microlending platforms, the loan applications and comments posted on Zidisha’s loan pages are written by the borrowers themselves. This opens the way for dialogue between lenders and borrowers, so that lenders can receive answers to their inquiries about the loan and business directly from the entrepreneur they are funding. It builds genuine interest too, For example, a lender who is a dairy farmer in Wisconsin may discuss cattle rearing with a dairy farmer in a small village in Kenya’s Rift Valley Mountain

Pivot points for Zidisha in “changing the game” of business loans include

• Explore: Insight from previous African development role, spurred her into action
• Disrupt: Redesigning the market model to eliminate intermediaries, and their costs
• Design: Simplifying process using basic technologies for developing markets
• Mobilise: Building a community of real interest, between entrepreneurs and lenders

From Senegal, Zidisha has spread across the entrepreneurial communities of Africa, and now looking to Asia and South America too.

“Fall in love at Umpqua Bank … We want our customers to be really really happy” is not the proposition you’d expect from a serious bank, particularly in tough economic times. But this bank is different. There’s more. “Spread some good (the world always needs more)”. And “Reinvest in yourself” as a rework of taking out a loan. People really do love Umpqua Bank. Is there any other bank in the world where you would consider buying a branded t-shirt or baseball cap?

The River Umpqua weaves through the deep forests and rugged canyons of Oregon State. This is the land of lumberjacks, and in 1953 the South Umpqua State Bank was founded to serve the people of Canyonville. In 40 years it grew to a mighty six branches and assets of $150m, until the logging industry fell into decline, and the CEO died.

Ray Davis applied for the job, a former management consultant who believed he could do something special with the bank. He told the board of directors “If you want things to stay the same, I am not your man. If you want wholesale change that will create shareholder value, I might be”.

In 1994 he set to work, famously taking all his staff to learn from the likes of Gap and Starbucks what it means to deliver a great retail experience in today’s world. He reinvented the branches as stores, or even meeting places, with relaxing sofas and magazines, coffee and cookies. He replaced cashiers behind bars with a concierge desk, long queues with a “relax, sip, surf” and staff that come to you.

Over the last 16 years, Umpqua has won more admired company and best places to work awards than anyone else, and also managed to stay ahead of competitors, in a time of severe turbulence and an industry generally considered not to work.

Davis believes the challenge is to “find the revolution before it finds you.” The bank now has over 200 stores, stretching from Seattle to San Jose, assets of $11 billion, and a strategy to
build as a lifestyle brand – about people rather than their money.

Umpqua’s 15-year track record of growth has little to do with the products it markets, which are virtually identical to any other bank, although there is a strong focus on ethical finance. It’s much more to do with how they’re marketed. They start with people, human and simple, inspiring and aspirational.

You might notice large colour coded wall displays of the latest financial services – “your green account”, “in your prime”, “the business suite” (themed to the audience, not just standard products promoted on their % APRs). You might be inspired by the successful local restaurant owner, whose story is described this week on the Hero Wall.

Umpqua looks different … bright, colourful, modern (the Gap influence), products are cleverly packaged on shelves, and there are book clubs, movie nights, neighbourhood meetings, “business therapy” gatherings, even “stitch and bitch” sessions.

Umpqua sounds different … the bank signs indie bands to its Discover Local Music project and invites customers to listen to songs on in-branch kiosks, sells compilation CDs of the best songs, and hosts live gigs on a Friday night.

Umpqua smells different … freshly brewed coffee, Umpqua Blend (which it also sells by the pound), and they end every transaction with a piece of gold-wrapped chocolate served on a silver platter (which is the taste bit!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeT9I0K7Dzc

Umpqua’s Innovation Lab goes further. A more experimental store on Portland’s Waterfront, it is packed with new technologies, for banking and beyond. It includes the largest Nintendo Wii bowling alley you have ever seen. People, usually office workers in their lunch break, come along wearing their bowling shirts, ready to play.

Umpqua wants to be different, to create a different relationship between the bank, customers and the community; to be interesting when most banks are boring, to be a brand that shares a passion for improving people’s lives.

Davis argues that banking doesn’t just need a paradigm shift, but the whole industry needs to be rethought, reinvented and rebuilt. Whilst most banks feel they have little to say, or compete on, except who has the cheapest interest rates, Umpqua plays a different game. Back in 1994, Umpqua’s market value was $18 million. Today, Davis has handed over to a new CEO who continues the journey, with a value closer to $5 billion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceWiseveBJs&t=47s

https://youtu.be/5th14pSe5_Y?list=PLrq1QRGfqfN91hidWYSlufZTGOP1vv2sm

Pivot points for Umpqua in “changing the game” of retail banking include

• Enable:  Reimagining the customer experience, learning from other types of brands
• Inspire: Creating a lifestyle brand, that is human, collaborative, fun and inspiring
• Resonate: Packaging, marketing and selling products around people’s aspirations
• Mobilise: Creating a contagious brand, building community, and a place to hang out

This is a bank that wears its passion with pride. Having sipped and surfed, sorted out your money, listened to the latest music, and snapped up the new t-shirt, your eyes look up. Above the doors it says “Thanks for being part of the world’s greatest bank”.

In 2009, Jack Dorsey distributed “140 Reasons Why Square Will Fail” to potential investors , partly to demonstrate the challenges he faced, but also to articulate the difference he sought to make with his Square card reader. The thumbnail-sized device seeks to allow anyone, anywhere to take credit card payments.

Dorsey knows about innovating amidst adversity, having previously developed Twitter when everyone said micro-blogging would never take off. He makes a point of not having a finance background, believing it would limit his imagination, and doesn’t recruit anyone who does. However complex the challenge, he believes that any new innovation should be so easy and intuitive to use, that people wonder why it never existed before.

Square launched its card reader in 2010, basically a white dongle that plugs into the earphone socket of an iPhone or iPod, Android or Blackberry phone turning it into a credit card reader and processor. Within a year, a million small retailers were using Square to process $5 billion in transactions, numbers that almost tripled in year two. The business valuation grew rapidly too, worth around $3 billion, compared to the $341m invested by VCs including $25m from Starbucks. The dongle is free to buy from Square,com, and once activated connects to Square Register, a point-of-sale phone app that behaves like a check-out, allowing customers to pay with cash or swipe a credit or debit card and sign on the screen. In 2011, SquareWallet was launched to consumers, creating a self check-out, which connects to the retailer’s account.

The business model is compelling too. Square charges retailers around 2.5% per transaction, or for small retailers a flat fee of $275 per month compared to the much high rates charged for low volume businesses by most card companies. Square is such a no-brainer, that it hasn’t needed a sales team, spreading by word of mouth between market stall holders , corner shops , tradesmen and start-ups.

The insight that gave birth to Square came from Dorsey’s friend Jim McKelvey, an artisan glassblower, missed out on a $2,000 sale because he was unable to accept payment by credit card. Technology was not the obstacle, but the major credit card companies were. Their rules prohibited intermediaries, which effectively Square was, although Paypal did likewise. Over the next six months Dorsey and team had to change the mindset of banks and card companies, in order to get his new process accepted. Those companies are no imitating the start-up, including Visa’s Samsung-partner PayWave app, and Bank of America’s Mobile Pay on Demand.

Pivot points for Square in “changing the game” of payment systems include

• Explore: Seizing on the deep frustration of a large potential customer base
• Disrupt: Challenging the current market model, to allow Square to be different
• Connect: Partnering with investors to showcase and promote the experience
• Design: Keeping ahead of imitators, moving Square towards consumer control

With Starbucks as a shop window, entering new markets across Asia, and a huge potential small business market, Square’s growth is set to accelerate.

Brett King is excited. He’s days away from the launch of his new “bank”. He’s written three books about what he should do. Now he has to do it. “We’re in an extremely exciting period of innovation” he says, with a focus on mobility, social collaboration and technology. “While industries like publishing, media and retail are undergoing seismic shifts, the banking world hasn’t really changed in hundreds of years.” Moven seeks to change that. He audience is the “digital native” generation, now starting work and with more money and expectations of banks.

At the core, Moven is trying to evolve the basic day-to-day bank account. In the 1960’s a bank account was personified by an account book. In the 70’s and 80’s it was your cheque book. Today it’s a debit card. “Undoubtedly the bank account of tomorrow will be based on your smartphone” says King. This enables us to build a very different day-to-day experience around your money that just isn’t possible with a plastic card or a paper book.

Actually Moven isn’t a bank. It’s a digital solution designed around the customer, helping you to shop, buy, live and manage your money better.

Whilst most banks are simply trying to shrink their websites down to the size of the phone screen, and perhaps allow you to put your debit card details into a “mobile wallet,” Moven is rethinking the banking concept. “The real opportunity lies in changing your connection day-to-day with your money, and improving your control over your financial wellness through an intelligent payment device. Plastic = dumb, phone = smart, where smartness comes through giving context”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiuYY_MQq18

Moven has a digital starting point. “We built our experience from the ground up around social media and the mobile platform, so everything in the design and customer interaction planning was through that lens. Naturally we link a customer’s Facebook or Twitter profile to their bank account, allowing us to better service customers, support innovations around things like peer-to-peer payments, and rewarding customers who have strong influence in networks.”

Opening a Moven account includes a significant behavioural shift for consumers. Personal payments can be made by email, text or Facebook. Store payments are encouraged by contactless technology, with either a NFC (near-field communicator) built into your phone, simply stuck on the back. Plastic cards are also available for those without the confidence to go completely digital, to pay more conventionally, or get money out of most other bank’s ATMs.

However the real difference is how it helps you. As you pay, you can see your balance before and after a transaction, but our receipt experience also gives you real-time feedback that helps you understand the impact of simple spending decisions. “Think of buying a coffee at Starbucks in the morning. You buy a $6 coffee and a Bagel for $4 – a $10 purchase. If I ask you how much you spent at Starbucks each month, you might guess $100, maybe $120 dollars – so when you find out via our smart receipt that you’ve already spent $230 at Starbucks this month, you might be surprised. How might that affect your behaviour tomorrow when you are going past Starbucks? A normal bank account or plastic card could never elicit this type of psychology, useful to the customer, but also potentially to retailers too”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUlP7FgLgU

“Day by day as you interact with Moven, we get to know more about your typical spending habits and start to gently coach you to save more each month. When you do start improving your overall financial health, we give you great deals on savings and simple investments that then help you lock away the savings improvements you’ve made.”

The new funky and friendly tools include MoneyPulse which will analyses spending behaviour and provides visual cues (green, yellow and red indicators) and MoneyPath which charts a customer’s spending over time and can link to a customer’s Facebook timeline. There is also CRED which is a simplified scoring system to assess risk and financial potential, and Financial Personality which puts you in a box according to your attitude and behaviours … artist or breadwinner, professor or rockstar!

“Think of our toolset like a Nike FuelBand for your wallet – helping you understand how everyday spending decisions add up to an overall financial position”

Pivot points for Moven in “changing the game” of money management include

• Explore: Creating a better experience from the consumer’s point of view
• Design: Being an interface, escaping the limitations of being a bank
• Resonate: Making it easy, even fun, to understand and manage everyday payments
• Amplify: Using King’s fame as a banking thought leader to build the brand

Following 12 months of testing Moven launched in early 2013, mainly using email and social marketing and the tagline “Time to get your money Moven”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSm4ySzKz2A&sns=em

 

Positive Luxury’s mission is to curate and champion an exclusive collection of stylish, responsible brands, or as founder Diana Verde Nieto puts it “creating the ultimate destination for people looking to live a more positive life”.

“Our vision is for a world where people and the environment prosper together – where companies and brands are part of the solution. We believe that the best way to promote positive living is to make it attractive, enjoyable and profitable for people, businesses and communities.”

What that means in practice is that people need inspiration and information, about what is fashionable and innovative, but also the social and environmental impacts of the brands and companies too. This is particularly the case for luxury brands who were slower to embrace ethical practices.

Consumers want good stuff, and they want to do good too.

Positive Luxury’s butterfly “trust mark” is a simple way of labelling the products and brands that have you can rely on. Living, and shopping, should be a positive experience, argues Verde Nieto, not about wading through claims and counter claims. “We make it easy to live more positively”.

She chose the logo because of its beauty and fragility – the Large Blue was wiped out in the UK in the 1970s, thanks to new farming techniques and over-eager butterfly collectors. In 1983, conservationists started importing the species from Sweden, which with the help of 23 organisations became the most successful insect reintroduction programme in the world.

“We believe we can all play a part in reversing environmental damage, and that making more informed choices about the brands we choose to buy can help us each to create our own blue butterfly story. In other words you get to look good and live well without changing your habits – you just have to know where to shop. And we’re doing that bit for you”. All you have to do is look for the butterfly mark.

Pivot points for Positive Luxury in “changing the game” of retail has been:

• Think: Making sense of consumers, making sustainability desirable
• Inspire: Creating a brand trusted and desired by businesses and consumers
• Design: Building a business models with multiple revenue streams
• Impact: Helping people live a better life, and brands to build a better world

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

 

Jeff Bezos laughs with a distinctive cackle. He is still the hands-on CEO, strategist and innovator, keeps a relatively low profile, but his innovations have become bolder. His Kindle Fire, significantly better than his early e-book reader, is now challenging the iPad, whilst his repurposing of books into short-read “singles” is challenging the whole book trade. The development of self-publishing has helped Kindle “own” content, whilst acquisitions of rivals such as Audible’s talking books in 2008, LoveFilm movies on demand and The Book Depository in 2011, whilst two years later Goodreads has consolidated its position, and extended the customer experience.

Zappos, famed for its customer service became part of Amazon in 2009, and more of General merchandising has been a big success, with the acquisition in 2010 and rapid expansion of Quidsi from personal care to pet supplies, toys, and groceries. This included more brands to add to the Amazon portfolio, and sourced through its main website, include Diapers.com, Soap.com and BeautyBar.com. There is also the development of streaming-video services to include CBS and Fox movies.

Whilst Amazon has acquired around 50 businesses as it has grown and diversified, it keeps the businesses small and distinctive, whilst connecting them through the retail platform. Zappos, for example, which started by selling shoes, has built a much-admired culture of happiness. CEO Tony Heish recalled his early days “Women don’t buy more shoes because they need them, but because it makes the happy. We therefore don’t deliver shoes, we deliver happiness”.

The $75 billion business is truly international, with versions in everything from Chinese and Japanese, to Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Whilst the profits from its devices and content sales have been much slower than Apple’s, Amazon has always played a longer-term game, shaping the market first, then letting the rewards follow

Bezos likes to point out the shift in power from companies to consumers, yet Amazon becomes more powerful every day. The Kindle Fire now rivals the iPad, Amazon Prime’s annual membership that gives free next-day shipping was a masterstroke, whilst the same-day grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh is set to transform behaviours and expectations further. And we wait to see whether the former investment banker’s vision of 30 minute delivery by mini-drones will come true.

 

Jack Ma grew up in Hangzhou, China. Having twice failed the entrance exam, he trained to be a teacher, but soon found himself, at the age of 25, lecturing in international trade. Friends in the USA helped him develop his first website, China Yellow Pages, which friends back home were amazed by. But Jack had bigger ambitions, for himself, and Chinese business.

In 1999, Ma was back in the USA, sitting in a San Francisco coffee shop thinking about the name Alibaba. He asked a waitress what she thought of the name. “Open sesame” she replied. He found 30 more people in the street and asked them the same. “Alibaba is a kind, smart business person, and he helped his village” concluded Ma (with no mention of thieves). The name fitted his website that he believed would open up a world of possibilities to thousands of small and medium Chinese businesses. It is now a global business exchange, with 80 million companies using the online platform to buy and sell anything across the world.

Alibaba.com became the only publicly traded part of the Alibaba Group, the other major businesses being Taobao, an online consumer shopping mall with 370 million users. The Group has also extended in North America, acquiring Vendio an online retailer similar to Taobao, and Auctiva, a database and digital marketing business.

Alibaba.com developed three business models. The company’s English language international marketplace (www.alibaba.com) serves to bring together importers and exporters from more than 240 countries and regions. The China marketplace (www.1688.com) is developed for domestic business-to-business trade in China. In addition, Alibaba.com offers a transaction-based wholesale platform, AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), which allows smaller buyers to buy small quantities of goods at wholesale prices.

Taobao Marketplace, or simply Taobao, is the biggest consumer to consumer shopping platform in China, launched in 2003. Tmall.com was introduced in April 2008 and is now a major online shopping destination for quality, brand name goods in China. eTao is an independent engine, particularly focused on comparison shopping, whilst Alipay is an online payment platform, similar to but significantly bigger than Paypal.

Alipay has been particularly important, in a market where consumer trust in online payments is low, consumer protection laws are weak, and there is limited credit card penetration. Alipay is an escrow payment, meaning that consumers only release their payment if they are happy with goods received.

Jack Ma’s exit

In 2019, Jack Ma stepped down as executive chairman. His exit marked a turning point for the company, as it had to navigate a rapidly changing business environment and adapt to new regulatory challenges, market conditions, and internal restructuring. Here’s a detailed look at how Alibaba has evolved since Jack Ma’s exit.

Daniel Zhang, who had already been serving as CEO since 2015 took on the lead ole.  Zhang was considered a natural successor due to his deep understanding of Alibaba’s core businesses, having previously led the company’s cloud computing arm and overseeing its logistics and retail operations. While Ma had been the charismatic public face of Alibaba, Zhang was seen as more of a steady hand, with a focus on operational efficiency, sustainability, and long-term growth.

Zhang’s appointment came at a time when Alibaba was facing increasing regulatory scrutiny from the Chinese government, and his leadership would be tested by these pressures. Under Zhang, Alibaba expanded its cloud services, deepened its commitment to digitalization, and embraced e-commerce innovation, while also navigating significant regulatory changes.

Additionally, in 2021, Joseph Tsai, co-founder and executive vice chairman of Alibaba, played a prominent role in overseeing the company’s restructuring efforts and managing its strategic direction. Tsai, who is often described as the “calm and collected” counterpart to Ma’s more flamboyant style, focused on driving long-term value and ensuring Alibaba’s international expansion.

He was also better suited to addressing the intense regulatory scrutiny by the government. Since 2012, the Chinese Communist Party is said to have established a Party Committee inside the company and has over 2,000 party members as Alibaba employees “to facilitate communication and expedite projects”. While alien to western business structures, this is relatively normal in Chinese companies.

Ma’s public remarks in late 2020 criticising China’s financial regulatory system was the flashpoint that drove change.In November 2020, just days before sister company Ant Group’s highly anticipated IPO, Chinese regulators abruptly suspended the listing. While Ant Group had hoped to raise as much as $37 billion, the IPO’s suspension marked the beginning of a broader clampdown on the tech industry.

In 2021, the state imposed a record $2.8 billion antitrust fine on Alibaba for anti-competitive behaviour, particularly for forcing merchants to choose between its platform and its competitors (a practice known as “exclusivity” or “choosing one from two”). Alibaba undertook a series of internal changes. A significant restructuring of the businesses followed.

Strategic shifts

Alibaba began rethinking its strategy in response to both regulatory pressures and evolving market conditions. The company faced growing competition from rivals like Pinduoduo and JD.com, especially in the e-commerce space, and from Tencent in digital entertainment and gaming. As such, Alibaba began to refocus on certain key areas to ensure continued growth:

• E-commerce Evolution: While Alibaba remains the leader in Chinese e-commerce through platforms like Taobaoand Tmall, the company had to adapt to changing consumer behavior. During the pandemic, consumers increasingly turned to online shopping, but they also began to demand more personalized and social shopping experiences. Alibaba responded by ramping up its investments in livestream shopping, which had gained popularity on platforms like Douyin (TikTok). The company integrated more interactive and immersive shopping experiences into its platforms, blending e-commerce with social media to compete with the likes of Pinduoduo, which pioneered the “social commerce” model.
• Cloud Computing and AI: Alibaba’s Cloud Computing division became one of the most critical areas for growth. Despite the regulatory challenges, Alibaba Cloud remained a leader in Asia and was one of the top players globally in terms of revenue, competing with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Alibaba Cloud’s expansion into global markets, particularly in Southeast Asia and Europe, helped diversify its revenue streams beyond e-commerce. The company also doubled down on its AI and big data capabilities, offering businesses cloud-based AI solutions for everything from supply chain management to customer engagement.
• Digital Entertainment and Media: Alibaba has also maintained a strong presence in digital entertainment and media, particularly through its Youku video platform, Alibaba Pictures, and its investments in live-streaming platforms. However, the company’s focus on this sector has shifted somewhat as it faces increasing competition from Tencent in online entertainment and gaming.
• Rural E-commerce: Another strategic shift post-Jack Ma was Alibaba’s push into rural e-commerce. With China’s government focusing on rural revitalization, Alibaba leveraged its vast logistics network to help bring e-commerce to more remote areas of the country. This allowed the company to tap into a largely underserved market of potential consumers while helping to drive digital inclusion across China’s rural areas.

Global ambitions

Alibaba had already been expanding its footprint internationally before Jack Ma’s exit, but since 2019, the company has continued to pursue global growth, particularly in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The company’s global ambitions are driven by the need to diversify its revenue streams and reduce its reliance on the increasingly saturated Chinese market.

• Lazada: One of Alibaba’s flagship international acquisitions, Lazada, a Southeast Asian e-commerce platform, has become an important vehicle for Alibaba’s expansion in the region. Since Ma’s departure, the company has been investing heavily in Lazada to improve its logistics and expand its market share in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
• AliExpress: Alibaba’s global e-commerce platform AliExpress, which allows consumers from around the world to purchase goods directly from Chinese manufacturers, has also seen growth. The platform is particularly popular in Europe, Russia, and parts of Latin America.
• Cross-Border Logistics: Alibaba has invested heavily in cross-border logistics through its Cainiao network, which aims to streamline international shipping and facilitate e-commerce growth globally. This is especially important as the company faces increased competition from rivals like Amazon in key markets outside of China.

1+6+N

Under Jack Ma, Alibaba was known for its unique corporate culture, characterized by a blend of idealism, entrepreneurship, and a focus on the “Alibaba spirit.” However, with Ma stepping down from the public spotlight, the company has had to shift its culture in response to both internal and external pressures.

While Ma’s philosophy of “customer first, employee second, and shareholder third” remains a guiding principle for the company, Alibaba’s leadership under Daniel Zhang has focused more on pragmatism and operational efficiency. The company has also faced increasing pressure to curb the excesses of its corporate culture, particularly in light of China’s crackdown on big tech and its growing emphasis on social responsibility.

In 2023, Alibaba announced their “1+6+N” restructuring plan, apparently engineered by Jack Ma in collaboration with his co-founder and successor as chairman, Daniel Zhang.

“1+6+N” reorganised the business structure into six independently run entities: Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao and Tmall Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, Local Services group, Alibaba International Digital Commerce, and the Digital Media and Entertainment group. Each business unit has their own CEO and board of directors and be able to seek their own fundraising and market listings. 

 

 

Over one million Raspberry Pi computers have been sold since launched in 2012. The credit-card sized computers have been used in a huge variety of DIY computing projects. One reached an altitude of 25 miles (40km) attached to a high-altitude balloon.

The Raspberry Pi is a simple, small and single-board computer developed at Cambridge University by a team of research scientists, led by Eben Upton. In 2009, he and his colleagues, frustrated by the dwindling number of students in Computer Sciences, founded the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote the teaching of basic programming skills in schools. In the early days of computing, kids would dismantle their Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum to learn how it worked, tinker around, and hopefully make it better. Nowadays, laptops are too complex for such antics.

The incredibly simple yet powerful, single-board computer is manufactured through license with Premier Farnell and RS Components, both selling the Raspberry Pi to schools and kids, amateur enthusiasts and entrepreneurs for around $25. It includes an ARM-designed processor and 256MB of memory, but no built-in hard disk instead using an SD card. In 2013, a cheaper version, with less memory, and using less power became available for $25, but still good enough to support solar-powered robotics and sensors. An online Pi Store now stocks a diverse range of components to enhance and extend the initial platform.

Upton thinks Raspberry Pi is a gamechanger. “We bring a low-end desktop computing (and high-end multimedia) experience to a previously unachievable price point, with a business model that permits us to scale into the million-unit-per-year range without working capital issues.

He says there have been three essential components to the venture’s success. “Firstly, technology. We have a great board design using a great chip. Secondly, our business model is efficient and scalable, working through IP licensing rather than manufacturing ourselves. Third, there is zero marketing spend, yet we have incredible awareness through social media, that has led to press coverage worldwide, and particularly the development of Raspberry Pi clubs in schools and online through social media.”

Pivot points for Raspberry Pi in “changing the game” of computing were

• Think: Clear purpose, driven by societal need, a shared passion
• Explore: Targeting kids with the curiosity to create and innovate
• Design: Virtual business model, simple and scalable, and non-profit
• Mobilise: Inspiring a movement, people enthused to do more together

Upton is a reluctant hero, claiming he just wanted to get kids excited about the potential of computers to make life better, rather than just playing games on them. His own hero is Elon Musk at SpaceX. “Doing a lot of the things we’re trying to do, particularly in technology-driven value innovation, but on a much vaster and more impressive scale”.