Welcome to the summer newsletter of 2020. Here in San Francisco we’re still firmly in the grip of COVID-19, and it’s good to see how disciplined the locals are. As a result, COVID hasn’t made as many sick here as elsewhere. Please continue to be safe, everyone! Wear masks outside, avoid crowds, and wash your hands.
The first part of this edition continues the topic from the last newsletter, and identifies two additional marks of disruption:
#3: Innovator’s dilemma – if you’re not paying attention, you may not see disruption until it’s too late. TikTok fans recently proved this.
#4: Don’t automate, obliterate! Disruptive technologies open new opportunities by solving previously unsolvable problems. A recent retweet by a friend reminded me of this oldie-but-goldie statement by Michael Hammer (in HBR 07.1990)
The Kenyan Wall Street, June 27, 2020
In the second part of the newsletter, l talk about something completely different:
Amazon gave a reason for their purchase of self-driving car maker Zoox — and I don’t buy it! Read my opinion, and let me know yours.
Happy reading, and I truly hope that the next DIGIGRAM will catch you at better times (the exact same sentence that I wrote in the last newsletter, a sad fact)!
Till soon, Gert
P.S: If you received this newsletter and would rather not, please excuse my intrusion, and you can unsubscribe at the bottom. To subscribe to this newsletter, please go to www.gertchristen.org. If you’d like to reach me, you can do so at gert.christen@artecos.ch or +1 650 441 6299.
Top of the Month
The recent startup course “Deplastifying the Planet,” that I taught at UC Berkeley. Super-motivated students motivated me. And the results were impressive — our best team won 3rd place overall at the university’s startup competition, out of over 100 projects. Congratulations to “Upcycle” for beating out so many other teams with an environmental project. You can read about their journey here. I’d like to thank the project sponsors Method and Whole Foods, and my endlessly resourceful co-lecturer Mathieu Aguesse. Schoolab San Francisco is running the course for the third time this fall semester – let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll be happy to connect you.
Flop of the month
COVID. NO. NEED. TO. SAY. MORE. NO. CHANGE.