Carless in Dallas 1

I've been in Dallas for 2 weeks without a car, and so far, so good. Obviously, it is a bit harder to manage without the convenience of a car, but Dallas' fledgling public transportation system (which is actually pretty well-developed for being in Texas) has successfully filled in the gaps when necessary.

The main price I pay for not having a car is time; the time I spend walking to places, planning out my trips in advance, and waiting for the bus/train to pick me up. The last one can be particularly bad given that the system doesn't run as frequently here as in cities where public transportation is essential. I don't mind spending that additional time because it provides a nice opportunity to slow down and unplug for a while, but I know it's not for everyone.

Fortunately, living without a car is basically just an operational challenge that can be designed against and alleviated. Some of the things that I rely on to do so include:

• Living within walking distance of the office, because there is probably nowhere else I go to as often every week
• Asking for rides. I try to do this sparingly, but when you have to bum a ride, there's not much you can do, so there is no point being shy about it
• Keeping a lot of dollar bills and change in the apartment. This is crucial for successfully navigating the bus system, since they don't take credit cards
• Buying non-perishables in bulk. The cost of taking a trip is much higher than the cost of holding a lot of "inventory" in my apartment, which is basically empty. So I have 16 boxes of granola, 20+ bars of soap, etc, tucked away all over the place
• Buying non-perishables online whenever possible. By online, I mean through Amazon, which continues to get an increasing share of my spending
• Limiting myself to businesses that I can easily reach via public transportation. This is actually a nice time saver, because it is like a quick form of curation. For example, instead of considering X number of places to eat, I only have to consider Y < X places
• Planning trips in advance and consolidating as much as possible. Less trips means less time spent waiting for the bus
• Renting a car if I absolutely have to. I rented an SUV to move my stuff from Houston to Dallas and pick up my first round of supplies
• Going everywhere with a backpack to hold the stuff I would have stuffed in my car trunk
• Having a comfortable pair of walking shoes

How Apple Benefits from Multiple Vectors of Differentiation

One of the concepts that we talked about in Prof. Sawhney's Tech Marketing class at Kellogg was a product's Vector of Differentiation (VoD), which is basically a specific benefit chosen to guide product development to help differentiate a product from its competition. Once set, a company should strive to deliver and improve on that benefit with each new product iteration, continuously pushing out what the marketplace considers "excellent" along that dimension. For example, you could pick "usability" as your VoD, and then focus on delivering the best usability in the market with each release.

Although a VoD can provide a competitive advantage, you can't ride it out forever. Eventually, competition will catch up along that dimension or you'll reach a point where additional improvements are no longer valued sufficiently, and then you have to pick a new VoD to stay ahead of the pack.

I think one of the reasons that Apple continues to do so well is that it has multiple VoDs¹ at its disposal:

1. Software
2. Hardware
3. Platform/Services
   

Major innovations along these dimensions can occur at the same time, but I suspect that it is more common for advances to be staggered and somewhat unpredictable -- a real bummer for companies given the short product cycles in consumer electronics.

By having direct control over all 3 areas, Apple has a lot of flexibility in how it will compete with each product release. So if there aren't any major hardware breakthroughs in the pipeline for the next release, it can focus on kicking butt along the other VoDs, like what it's done with the iPhone 4S and Siri. Or worse yet for competitors, Apple could make major advances along all VoDs in a given launch.

On the other hand, companies like HTC and Samsung can only compete on the hardware VoD, and they often have to do so with "off-the-shelf" components available to all competitors. If Apple makes a major software or platform improvement, then HTC/Samsung/etc. have to depend on Google to match it as soon as possible. This puts them at a big disadvantage in a market where Apple acts as the trendsetter.

This situation could change a bit in the near future given Google's potential acquisition of Motorola Mobility and Microsoft's partnership with Nokia, but even then, Google and Microsoft will still have to deal with integrating all of the pieces together into one shiny package.

¹ I'm considering the cumulative benefits delivered through each dimension as a single VoD

Backfill or cut costs?

Let's say that you are running a public company and an employee chooses to leave. The work they were doing is still important, and you have plenty of cash on hand, so you can easily backfill if you choose to do so. On the other hand, you can skip the backfill and instead reassign the work to the team, reducing costs and possibly improving the stock price in the process.

What do you do?

I'd always go with the backfill. Otherwise, you spread your team's time and attention across a larger set of responsibilities, put more stress on your team and lower the opportunity for serendipitous innovation.

Ultimately, this can lower your product quality, worsen morale and encourage more employees to leave, and cause you to miss out on the next billion-dollar idea that your employees were about to come up with during the coffee break they didn't have time to take. Worse yet, the short-term benefit of not backfilling could blind you to the long-term impact.

If foregoing the backfill works out well enough one time, what do you do the next time an employee leaves?

Beijing: The last and best stop

Of all the cities that I visited, Beijing is the one that I would most heartily recommend to someone visiting China. When I was planning my trip, I purposefully left Beijing for last, anticipating that it would be a great way to end the trip, and it did not disappoint. I was only able to see a fraction of the sights in and around the city, but the things that I saw could have easily justified the entire trip.

The city has a very well-developed public transit system that makes it a breeze to get around even if you don't speak Chinese, much like Shanghai. And better yet, a single subway trip only costs you 2 CNY (about $0.33), making it even cheaper than Shanghai, which charges different prices based on the destination.

Walking is also a great option for short trips since it allows you to see more of the city and get a better feel for it. The main downside is that you subject yourself to the pollution, which is as bad as people say. The city is pretty safe, even late at night. On one night, I got lost trying to find a nearby Walmart, and I found myself wandering down some random hutongs. I ran into one of many group dancing events before eventually making my way to Walmart (where I saw more foreigners gathered than anywhere else on the trip). Never once did I feel threatened or in any way unsafe.

The city seems to have a very vibrant expat scene that I was able to take part in one night. I met up with a friend that I met in Xi'an for dinner and drinks in the university area (NW of the Forbidden City). The restaurant we ate at was packed with people discussing all matters of topics -- politics, the US, traveling, etc -- and for some reason or other giving away free beer (Tsingtao) the whole time. We joined up with 2 expats from Guyana and 1 from France that have lived there for > 5 years, and proceeded to have a great time. All the while I was asking myself why I didn't start traveling sooner.

I had a little less than 4 days in the city and all of the accumulated fatigue from the prior 2 weeks, so I limited myself to visiting 4 sights: the Olympic Green, Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Summer Palace.

Olympic Green
The pollution was pretty bad on the day I visited the Olympic Green, so everything had a hazy look to it. Nonetheless, the area was full of tourists (mainly local sightseers). The buildings have not aged well over the years; they look pretty drab on the outside, but it is still hard not to be impressed when you see them. Bird's Nest is now home to a Segway track when it isn't hosting a local sporting event, and the Water Cube houses an indoor water park. There really isn't much to see inside either building, so I didn't spend too much time at the stadiums.

Jinshangling Great Wall

Breathtaking.

Forbidden City
I thought the imperial palace was a letdown. It's cool to see this walled-off city within a city, but most of the buildings inside are closed off. The ones that are open have some cool exhibits on display, especially the clock hall, but I felt like I had seen a lot of it already in the other cities.

Summer Palace

Bridge of Pastoral Poems at the Summer Palace

This was the last place on my agenda, and it was absolutely perfect. Maybe it's because I was exhausted by this point and the Summer Palace was so peaceful; maybe it's because it reminded me of a mini version of West Lake, which was beautiful; maybe it's because I knew I was at the end of a demanding trip; whatever the reason, I loved the time I spent here. There are quite a few things to see at the palace, like the Marble Boat and Bronze Pavilion, but I mainly just walked around Kunming Lake, stopping frequently to sit on a bench and let my mind wander. It was perfect.