An On-Offline Revolution

A successful retail supply chain must manage the flows of information, product and funds effectively. Retailers want to show customers all the product variety they have to offer, and customers, in turn, gain from knowing if a specific product is available in stock. While an online retailer can help online customers search through a wide variety of products, it cannot access customers who are not online.

Using the online channel, it also cannot provide sensory information that is only available once a product is seen, touched and felt. In contrast, a small local retailer cannot carry a wide variety of products and is often forced to convince customers to buy what is available.

Imagine a future where the local retailer carries the most popular variants of product, while its online partner carries all the others. The local retailer is linked to the online retailer’s website through a simple store computer. The combination of the local and online retailers is able to provide all the information a customer desires.

What, Exactly, is Business Development?

 “I do biz dev.”

Few times in history have more ambiguous words been spoken.  Ask ten “VPs of Business Development” or similarly business card-ed folks what is business development, and you’re like to get just as many answers.

“Business development is sales,” some will say, concisely.

“Business development is partnerships,” others will say, vaguely.

“Business development is hustling,” the startup folks will say, evasively.

The assortment of varied and often contradictory responses to the basic question of “what, exactly, is business development” reminds me of the way physicists seek to explain what, exactly, is the universe.  With conflicting theories on the nature of black holes and bosons, the ultimate goal for those scientists is a Grand Unified Theory, a single definition that can elegantly explain how the universe itself operates at every level.

How Wal-Mart and Google could steal young customers from traditional banks

It used to be that the JP Morgans of the world only worried about losing customers to Wells Fargo or Bank of America. But that universe of competitors has grown to include T-Mobile, Wal-Mart, Google and a host of other retail, tech and telecom companies that are now operating like banks.

These upstarts are gaining footing in the banking world with prepaid debit cards that customers can use to pay bills, make purchases and deposit checks via a smartphone camera -- pretty much all the things you can do with your traditional checking account. And they are piquing the interest of a highly coveted group that traditional banks have struggled to attract: young people.

A new survey of nearly 4,000 Americans by Accenture found that 72 percent of people ages 18 to 34 would bank with Wal-Mart, Google or T-Mobile if they offered banking services. Of the nearly two dozen companies that researchers asked about, people were most willing to sign up with Square or PayPal because of the relationships they already have with the companies. Nearly one-third of those polled said the same about T-Mobile, Costco, Apple and Google.