EVs + Yeti + Moon + Higher Education + Animal Meat + Robot Delivery

The future's electric at the Shanghai Auto Show: Bloomberg reports, There’s electricity in the air at the China auto show in Shanghai this week, as the battery-car brigade rolls into town like never before. Established global makers and dozens of local startups are rushing to showcase electric-vehicle models in a push led by China, the world's largest car market. But there’s a dark side: While companies have plowed billions of dollars into development, projected EV sales may not be enough to keep the assembly lines moving, suggesting only a few companies will survive when the dust settles.

@web: Why Yeti is a strong lifestyle brand: 

- They chose a customer.
- They charge full price despite the half-price substitutes.
- You’ll find YETI stickers on laptops, trucks, boat windshields.
- It became a status symbol in just three years. 
- The products are excellent.

Carmakers eye the moon: The next frontier for carmakers could be the moon. China’s BAIC Group is developing joint technology with the country’s Lunar Exploration Project for lunar exploration. Toyota is also teaming up with Japan’s space agency to build a lunar rover, expecting to put it on the moon by 2029. 

The coming obsolescence of animal meat: Companies are racing to develop real chicken, fish, and beef that don’t require killing animals. Here’s what’s standing in their way. http://bit.ly/2KLdxw7
 
HBR: Does higher education still prepare people for jobs?http://bit.ly/2KMlW2t

'More and more students are spending more and more money on higher education, and their main goal is largely pragmatic: to boost their employability and be a valuable contributor to the economy. Even if the value attached to a university degree is beneficial to those who obtain it, companies can help change the narrative by putting less weight on “higher education” as a measure of intellectual competence and job potential, and instead, approach hiring with more open-mindedness."

French supermarket tests robot delivery: Reuters reports, Casino’s Franprix chain will test the delivery robots on the streets of Paris’s 13th arrondissement for a year. In the French capital, where Amazon has been running its Amazon Prime Now express delivery service since 2016, the speedy and convenient delivery of food has become a battleground among retailers.

The key to building a successful team

Researchers found that if a group has worked together effectively in the past, it can be more important than their individual skills. 

“Shared success is a distinguishing factor above and beyond skill,” says Brian Uzzi, a co-author of the study and a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Shared success is a concept taken from psychology. The idea is that when groups experience success, individuals are better able to recall the event and articulate what went right or even what went wrong.

Read the full article - here.

Uber Eats + CDO + Robots + Asia VC + Crack Pie

Uber Eats will deliver to your airport gate: Passengers at Toronto Pearson airport will be able to order food and have it delivered to them at the gate. Launching in Q3 of this year, the pilot program is a joint collaboration between Toronto Pearson, the airport restaurant operator HMSHost and Uber Eats. Customers can order from a selection of restaurants including Caplansky's Deli, Paramount Fine Foods, Smoke's Burritorie, Smashburger or Fionn MacCools.

Rise of the Chief Data Officer (CDO): A new C-suite role is getting traction, and by 2019 it's expected that 90% of large global organizations will have a Chief Data Officer (CDO) on their teams.

According to Pew Research, 91% of Americans “agree” or “strongly agree” that people have lost control over how personal information is collected and used.

By 2025, it’s estimated that 463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally – that’s the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day.

The robots that manage the managers: More companies are turning to AI-driven apps that aim to help newer bosses with reminders and tips on how to maintain a well-run office. https://on.wsj.com/2V1U2mF

Asia VC cash: Last year, $81 billion was invested in VC-backed startups in Asia across more than 5,000 deals. That's an increase of almost 12x in funding to Asia-based startups since 2013.

After complaints that it made light of drug epidemic, Milk Bar renames its famous Crack Pie: WP reports, Chef Christina Tosi wrote that the old name was “getting in the way of letting the gooey, buttery slice bring happiness — my only goal in creating the thing in the first place.”

Ross Rant: Being counted doesn't always count.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -- Albert Einstein

The world is inundated with data.

But yet Hollywood can't guarantee a hit.

The outcome of the Stanley Cup can't be confirmed.

The future UK PM officeholder can't be verified.

And the next chef to beat Bobby Flay can't be affirmed.

Still, we love data.

"Do a survey. Do a focus group. Do a study."

Do more data.

I don't think the magic is in more data.

Data should not be about trying to use the information to prove a theory, but to see what the numbers are actually telling us and to inform us what we might be missing - especially since the mind likes to trick us.

You see, our brains are wired to remember and overvalue the vivid and the shocking. Our brains are wired to remember events that actually happened and not events that could happen.

So often we comfort ourselves in data to gain a better understanding and some guidance, but the data often falls short.

In their book, Why Everything You Know About Soccer is Wrong, authors Chris Anderson and David Sally concluded that soccer is basically a 50/50 game. Half is luck, and half is skill.

With this conclusion, the authors determined there are two routes to soccer glory. One is being good. The other is being lucky. You need both to win a championship. But you only need one to win a game.

Disney CEO Bob Iger used a similar conclusion this week.

With the announcement of his company's over the top Disney+ streaming service, Iger is going where his customers are going. One where customers can customize their viewing experience and seamlessly view Mickey and Minnie on numerous devices.

No survey, no focus group, and no study needed to know this is a good move for Disney.

Disney has a customer experience that is visceral and multigenerational. A customer experience that is deep and broad. A customer experience forged with skill.

But Iger knows Disney needs more than skill to win the future.

As Iger told CNBC, if you measure the future against the present, the present doesn't stay the present for very long. Today's marketplace has never been more dynamic.

You can't measure what is happening today. You need to measure what you think will happen in the future - that and harness a little luck.

The reasons many of us don't innovate is the data and the information being used is shaped by a current business model and what has gotten us to our current status.

Data which is based on the present and data which is not of the future.

So be mindful of having too much data as a means to confirm what you want the outcome to be.

Plus don't be afraid of harnessing a little bit of luck.

- Marc

Marc A. Ross is the founder of Brigadoon and specializes in thought leader strategy and idea amplification for senior executives working at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics