"Uberisation" cited as primary competitive threat

[rooster59]

"Uberisation" cited as primary competitive threat

BANGKOK: As Uber threatens the viability of taxi operators, companies are now fretting about competition from outside their own industries.

A survey by IBM showed that the percentage of business leaders who expect to contend with competition from outside their industry increased by more than a quarter - rising from 43 per cent in 2013 to 54 per cent today.

The IBM study, "Redefining Boundaries: Insights from the Global C-suite Study," is based on findings from more than 5,200 chief executive officers (CEOs), chief management officers (CMOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), chief operating officers (CIOs) and other C-suite leaders across 21 industries in more than 70 countries. The respondents - most of whom participated in face-to-face interviews - represent a wide range of public and private enterprises.

Conducted by IBM's Institute for Business Value, the report reveals that CxOs now expect industry convergence to be the primary force impacting their business in the next three to five years and that the highest-performing enterprises place greater priority on cognitive capabilities than market-followers.

"When it comes to the competition, C-suite leaders clearly have a new threat to consider - one that is often invisible until it is too late," said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services. "At the same time, the highest performers see advances in areas like cognitive computing and systems that can sense and learn as the key to dealing with disruptive events, showing a path forward for all executives."

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Uberisation-cited-as-primary-competitive-threat-30272240.html

-- The Nation 2015-11-04

[gandalf12]

chief operating officers (CIOs)? CIO stands for Chief Information Officer. COO is chief operating officer. Get the information correct

[IMA_FARANG]

Have you ever seen that T shirt that says on it "Evolve or Die".

The one with the dinosaur on it?

Every business also has to learn the lesson of that T shirt....evolve your business or become extinct like the dinosaurs did.

For an intelligent and aggressive businessman, new methods of doing business are not problems as much as they are opportunities.

Evolve or Die.... that is the way it always has been.

[gandalf12]

Have you ever seen that T shirt that says on it "Evolve or Die".

The one with the dinosaur on it?

Every business also has to learn the lesson of that T shirt....evolve your business or become extinct like the dinosaurs did.

For an intelligent and aggressive businessman, new methods of doing business are not problems as much as they are opportunities.

Evolve or Die.... that is the way it always has been.

Called natural selection

[impulse]

Have you ever seen that T shirt that says on it "Evolve or Die".

The one with the dinosaur on it?

Every business also has to learn the lesson of that T shirt....evolve your business or become extinct like the dinosaurs did.

For an intelligent and aggressive businessman, new methods of doing business are not problems as much as they are opportunities.

Evolve or Die.... that is the way it always has been.

It's tough to evolve your business to compete with an Uber when there are a hundred years of law preventing you from competing heads up with them. "Evolve" as a licensed taxi driver to compete with an Uber driver and they'll pull your hack license.

I'm all for companies like Uber, but not if they don't have to follow the same laws.

Next, we'll have unlicensed, uneducated quacks making housecalls to treat minor emergencies- because the interweb enables it and people like the convenience. A little hyperbole, but in the same vein as unlicensed taxis who don't have those pesky expenses like million dollar hack licenses that cost their first 4 hours of labor every day before they start making their own money.

Or Napster, who "evolved" to compete with the normal distribution channels of the music industry.

Edited November 4, 2015 by impulse

[fred Kubasa]

Obiviously Thailand, who has more, much more restrictions of any outside

businesses, including imported goods & have VAT PLUS fees/customs duties

that have, in the past, cutailed this competition are terrified and should

be of any foreign competition as they haven't a clue as to how to evolve,

having had government protection for decades !

[chilli42]

Competition is a good thing. While it is not heartily embraced by Thai business but it leads to better quality products and lower prices.

[Phaeton]

Have you ever seen that T shirt that says on it "Evolve or Die".

The one with the dinosaur on it?

Every business also has to learn the lesson of that T shirt....evolve your business or become extinct like the dinosaurs did.

For an intelligent and aggressive businessman, new methods of doing business are not problems as much as they are opportunities.

Evolve or Die.... that is the way it always has been.

It's tough to evolve your business to compete with an Uber when there are a hundred years of law preventing you from competing heads up with them. "Evolve" as a licensed taxi driver to compete with an Uber driver and they'll pull your hack license.

I'm all for companies like Uber, but not if they don't have to follow the same laws.

Next, we'll have unlicensed, uneducated quacks making housecalls to treat minor emergencies- because the interweb enables it and people like the convenience. A little hyperbole, but in the same vein as unlicensed taxis who don't have those pesky expenses like million dollar hack licenses that cost their first 4 hours of labor every day before they start making their own money.

Or Napster, who "evolved" to compete with the normal distribution channels of the music industry.

With a lot of respect, I couldn't disagree more. I've chuckled watching an old movie where characters complained about their taxi drivers. Zero evolution. This industry did it to themselves. More than a few great nights out on town, back in the home country, were ruined by terrible taxi rides home at the end of the night.

Laws haven't prevented drivers from keeping their taxis clean, or being courteous, or not blaring their ridiculous audio, or driving like the professionals they supposedly are. Uber allows customers and drivers to rate each other. So only good drivers stay in the business, and not just because they could afford a hack license. You know who is picking you up, at least a name and car make and model. Not some stranger who may or may not be the guy on the license picture.

You can pay from your phone. You don't have to stand out in the rain, at the end of the soi, trying to hail a cab, just tap a button on your phone, and wait until you see them arriving, to your doorstep, on your phone, using gps.

I don't see how any of these features I've mentioned above are prevented by laws? Too bad about those expensive hack licenses. Maybe if the industry made even a modest effort to clean up it's act, over the past decades, they would have preserved their investment. Most of my Thai taxi rides have been okay. Maybe the industry should stop fighting Uber, and try implementing some of the tech.

[Gutenberg]

At least Uber is not really dangerous for Thailand drivers.

[impulse]

With a lot of respect, I couldn't disagree more. I've chuckled watching an old movie where characters complained about their taxi drivers. Zero evolution. This industry did it to themselves. More than a few great nights out on town, back in the home country, were ruined by terrible taxi rides home at the end of the night.

Laws haven't prevented drivers from keeping their taxis clean, or being courteous, or not blaring their ridiculous audio, or driving like the professionals they supposedly are. Uber allows customers and drivers to rate each other. So only good drivers stay in the business, and not just because they could afford a hack license. You know who is picking you up, at least a name and car make and model. Not some stranger who may or may not be the guy on the license picture.

You can pay from your phone. You don't have to stand out in the rain, at the end of the soi, trying to hail a cab, just tap a button on your phone, and wait until you see them arriving, to your doorstep, on your phone, using gps.

I don't see how any of these features I've mentioned above are prevented by laws? Too bad about those expensive hack licenses. Maybe if the industry made even a modest effort to clean up it's act, over the past decades, they would have preserved their investment. Most of my Thai taxi rides have been okay. Maybe the industry should stop fighting Uber, and try implementing some of the tech.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I hope the Uber's of the world force the dinosaur taxis to up their game.

But until Uber drivers are required to pay (effectively a mortgage) for hack shields, install meters on their cars, and pay taxes according to those meters, they have an illegal advantage over legal taxi drivers.

Uber's business model is not much different than Napsters. Enabling people to do something illegal, while playing the "innocent" card. Grab Taxi- different story.

[Srikcir]

Even Ubertaxi is susceptible to "evolution" as the electronic age continues to mature and evolve. And as the public becomes more digitally educated. For example, self driving electric taxis hailed with smart phones and drive themselves to recharge stations on their own and use automated robotic shops for maintenance.

Even in Thailand commercial buses are now encouraged by the government to compete against short-haul air passenger carriers. Systems like BTS may become obsolete.

[kokesaat]

More power to Uber and Airbnb.....http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/technology/airbnb-and-uber-mobilize-vast-user-base-to-sway-policy.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Much like Walmart and other big companies weighed in on gay rights in Indiana and Arkansas last year.

There are a lot of businesses that still operate the old fashion way in Thailand. We recently visited Nakhon Phanom.....NE Thailand. We've been there a dozen times.....always staying at the 'best' hotel in town. Service was ok, restaurant was so so, etc......and that's the way it was. Now.....there are places like The River Hotel that offer excellent service, English speaking staff, great restaurant, and reasonable prices. The dinosaurs will die out. It's nature's way.

[CaptHaddock]

Uber is an interesting question. In New York City the price for a medallion (license for the cab itself) has dropped substantially, but even more importantly the number of transactions has crashed. So, there may not even be a market at all for medallions at this point. The price before Uber was over $1 million. So, that should be an advantage for Uber since the need for a medallion provided no benefit at all to the taxi-riding public on the one hand, and on the other hand the capital requirement meant that medallions were almost entirely owned by large companies. The benefits of regulation for the public were few: taxi drivers had no better skills than other drivers, indeed they are regarded as more aggressive and dangerous. The regulations did not protect the drivers either since over time the companies switched them from being employees to being independent contractors leasing the cars on a daily basis with no benefits. The requirement for insurance, a potentially important benefit for the public, could in some places be effectively eliminated by posting a legal bond which was however entirely inadequate.

I have not had bad experiences with cabbies here in BKK, although I know that others have. My few Uber rides have been excellent. However, I cannot see how it pays since the driver has to absorb all of the costs of the car, gas & maintenance, and wasted cruising time. It certainly would not make financial sense to buy a car in order to become an Uber driver, but probably no one ever does that. They all have the cars already so driving is just a way to pick up a little extra income. But it appears to be very little.

In general I am in strongly favor of government regulation and labor unions, and feel that the new, gig economy works very much to the detriment of workers. Comparing Uber to the taxi business, however, the benefits of regulations seem scant.

Edited November 6, 2015 by CaptHaddock

[impulse]

In general I am in strongly favor of government regulation and labor unions, and feel that the new, gig economy works very much to the detriment of workers. Comparing Uber to the taxi business, however, the benefits of regulations seem scant.

You've made a great case, and I agree that many regulations regarding taxis are from another era and no longer serve the public.

But what happens when nobody has to buy a hack license, barrier to entry is virtually nil and 150,000 more folks in NYC or London get the urge to make a little money "sharing the ride"?

I'll give you a hint. Google Phuket (or Samui) taxi for a sneak preview...

[CaptHaddock]

In general I am in strongly favor of government regulation and labor unions, and feel that the new, gig economy works very much to the detriment of workers. Comparing Uber to the taxi business, however, the benefits of regulations seem scant.

You've made a great case, and I agree that many regulations regarding taxis are from another era and no longer serve the public.

But what happens when nobody has to buy a hack license, barrier to entry is virtually nil and 150,000 more folks in NYC or London get the urge to make a little money "sharing the ride"?

I'll give you a hint. Google Phuket (or Samui) taxi for a sneak preview...

To say that the current state of regulations may not be productive is not to recommend that the local government therefore abdicate its regulatory role entirely to trust in the wisdom of the marketplace. The new technology provides new opportunities. The number of Uber/Lift/etc. cars currently on the road could be monitored in real time and controlled for instance with short-term, dynamic licenses, like ip leases from a DHCP server, without imposing stiff licensing costs that disadvantage the individual driver.

However, the problem that NYC and probably most major cities face is not too many taxi/Uber cars, but too many private cars. Private cars in the US are used on the average only one hour a day. In the big cities they occupy parking space all day and represent an under-utilized resource. Far better to discourage private cars from entering the city to provide road space to an expanded fleet of Uber-type cars which would be a far more efficient way to augment the public transportation system at the same time as reducing the demand for parking space.