Welcome to my first DIGIGRAM of 2020! No doubt, the first Flop of the year is COVID-19; not exactly how I thought the year would start when the champagne corks popped on New Year’s Eve. I hope you and your families are well. Let me know how you’re doing. I’ll help if I can, and will spread the word among this community.

This newsletter is dedicated to disruption. Think disruption is over because we accepted apps like Uber or websites like Airbnb?  I’ve got news: It’s not over. Entire industries are not only ready for disruption, they’re at the very beginning of being disrupted. I discuss two examples in this newsletter. The bottom line is:

1. Disruption is not kind! It’s brutal.

2. You can’t outrun disruption on beaten paths.

3. Digital technologies accelerate disruption and magnify the impact.

4. Disruption is as harsh as every synonym listed in its thesaurus entry.

Happy reading and I truly hope that the next DIGIGRAM will catch all of us at better times!

Please stay healthy, and protect yourself and everyone else by staying in – and by keeping your distance from others when you go out.

Till soon, Gert

P.S: If you receive this newsletter and would rather not, you can unsubscribe at the bottom. If you’d like to reach me, you can do so at gert.christen@artecos.ch or +1 650 441 6299. If you’d like to subscribe to this newsletter, please go to www.gertchristen.org.

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Top of the Month                    

Tesla, congratulations on ending the year 2019 with a stellar performance: Record production of cars, profitability (sort of), the introduction of new models, and more factories going online. I find this to be an astounding feat, and I look forward to tracking Tesla’s performance in 2020. Can it succeed in raising walls around its supply chain (e.g. the fight for batteries!)? Will it put enough distance between itself and the traditional carmakers that will soon be launching electric vehicles by the truckload? We will see in 2020.

Flop of the Month                 

COVID-19. No. Need. To. Say. More.

Meet me here

Our UC Berkeley course, “Deplastifying the Planet,” was moved online in the wake of COVID-19 measures. We moved fast, and in under a week, we held our mid-term presentations via Zoom! Our students are divided into 5 teams, each working with a different corporate partner. See the posters of the teams below, and let me know if you’d like more information about a project. Also, corporate sponsors are welcome: Join our next course by sponsoring a challenge!