Pattern Recognition: Dream Team dissage; Amazon the Assassin; Late Bloomers

My goal is to write one 'Pattern Recognition' a week. Just the top 3-4 stories that stayed under my skin. Here's what stuck this week:

1. Kobe vs. Dream Team: Kobe Bryant decided to rally his 2012 Olympics teammates by suggesting that their team could beat the 1992 'Dream Team,' which is widely considered the most skilled, dominant Olympics team of all time. The response was predictable. Michael Jordan shredded Kobe. Magic Johnson retorted via twitter, "The 1992 Dream Team had 11 HOFs, 23 champ rings & the greatest player of all time in Jordan. No chance this years team would take us." But the best retort of all? Larry Legend (aka Larry Bird), who disarmed the whole thing, sagely noting, "They probably could (beat us). I haven't played in 20 years and we're all old now." Amen to that!
2. Amazon's Same-Day Delivery: I have written previously about how retail needs a reboot, and how those retailers that can't differentiate in the age of Amazon-powered 'showrooming' will die. Well, the next game changer is coming, and it's same-day delivery, something this excellent Slate article argues will destroy local retail. Meanwhile, two nice bookend reads to this story were: A) Herb Greenberg ruminating on the question, 'Is Costco Broken?' It looks at how changing demographics coupled with Amazon slowly (but surely) moving into its turf are breaking the big box retailer; and B) How Amazon's platform strategy is the ultimate in co-opetition.
3. Late Bloomer, not a Loser: Loud, brash, pompous and impassioned, Dave McClure is not an easy guy to figure out. Seemingly using little more than duct-tape, perpetual movement and a wee-smidgen of pedigree, he has willed himself into becoming a venture captitalist. If this sounds like I am dissing the guy, it's quite the opposite. Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth, joins the right fraternity or has the 'native' gift of the midas touch. Some (of us) have to climb steep mountains and get cut over and over again to get to a higher plateau.  Dave's heartfelt piece this week was a reminder of this truth, and put a big smile on my face. It was earnest, exposed and very real. Kudos.

Comments

[Jeremy]

Mark: The future of retail is not hazy. It is online-to-offline (O2O) commerce. It is top of mind in Japan among retailers, brands, carriers, portals, etc. It incorporates the best of online such as easy search and easy transact with the benefits of local (convenience/immediacy/try/see/feel/ service/etc.). It requires 2 things. First is ubiquitous online presence for easy search/buy/reserve online/mobile and it requires real-time inventory to ensure that someone doesn't buy something online but then find it unavailable offline. Incorporating mobile payments helps further for analyzing the purchase funnel for those people not transacting online. Happy to share more case-studies from the Japan market with you, where Retailigence is powering the O2O solution for 1 of the largest carriers.

[Mark Sigal]

Jeremy, I think that you are right in that these are essential elements, but this is like saying that the challenge that tablet makers need if they want to compete with iPad is retina screens.

It's confusing necessary with sufficient. What you are talking about is necessary to be in the game, but insufficient for most retailers to stay in the game.