Strategy snapshots: Lessons from retailers and car connectivity

Successful retailers tend to grow quickly in their early years simply by opening new stores. But over time as they run out of real estate they need the discipline to stop opening stores and drive more sales through existing stores. For that they need to make changes in the way they run their existing stores, take help from analytics and use technology. Several such small changes brought in profits that helped 17 retailers outperform the stock performance of the S&P 500 index, according to a study titled “Curing the Addiction to Growth” published in the Harvard Business Review by Marshall Fisher, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, along with his co-authors, Vishal Gaur, a professor at Cornell’s Johnson School, and Herb Kleinberger, who led PWC’s retail practice for many years. “The lesson for the laggards is to pause, acknowledge the slowing growth, and look for solutions other than opening new stores,” according to a post on knowledge@wharton.

Car connectivity

LYNK & CO, which has been hailed as the world’s “most connected car” after its launch in October 2016, has partnered with Ericsson to help shape the future of car connectivity. Thanks to Ericsson’s Connected Vehicle Cloud service and its leadership in cloud and Internet of Things, LYNK & CO have demonstrated the world’s first built-in share function. Research suggests that most cars sit unused more than 90 per cent of the time. Ericsson’s digital key and LYNK & CO’s car sharing platform provides access to a LYNK & CO car through a smartphone enabling a car’s owner to remotely grant access to their car. Via the LYNK & CO app, car owners can control, monitor and share their vehicle from their smartphone — or directly from the car.

The LYNK & CO brand was launched in October 2016 by Chinese car maker Geely, which also owns the Volvo brand. The LYNK & CO 01 is the first car born completely in the digital age. Connectivity is at the heart of LYNK & CO whose cars offer a range of connected technologies.