Speedfactory + other news

4 minutes estimated reading time

Adidas Speedfactory

Inside Speedfactory: Adidas’ Robot-Powered, Shoe Production Facility | WIRED – Adidas Speedfactory interesting explorations in automation and customisation in manufacturing. Speedfactory would also allow manufacturing to be moved closer to where the product will be sold. Speedfactory could have an impact on globalisation if commercialised.

Consumer behaviour

3 Must Know Trends of Affluent Millennials In Shanghai | Jing DailyThe post-90s generation is also eager to engage in experience-based shopping, and many are adventurous FIT travelers. According to the report, 56 percent of their travel expenditure is on overseas trips, and their overseas spending has increased more than 40 percent in the past two years – at the expense of e-commerce

Business

SoftBank Is Said to Offer to Buy Uber Shares at a Steep Discount | NY Times – not terribly surprising (paywall)

German Economy Seeks a Tech Upgrade – WSJ – or is prudent compared to the headlong dash made in other countries? (Paywall)

The death of the MBA – Axios – more like normalisation after a bubble in US business schools

WPP stalls supplier payments ‘to boost year-end results’ – DecisionMarketing  – An internal email leaked to the newspaper read: “Cash balances are one of the most important indicators there are of the health of a business and so every year WPP looks to maximise its cash position reported in the year-end accounts.” It went on to ask for help chasing cash owed to WPP and “slowing down payments to our creditors”. – I wonder if they are slowing down the paying of staff OOPs?

FMCG

China, US, Korea to lead global FMCG e-commerce growth – Kantar

Legal

China must enhance protection of intellectual property rights: Premier Li | Reuters – I bet that only goes to protection of Chinese IP

Luxury

$20 Jeans, $800 Tees: In Fashion, Prices Are Out of Control — The Fashion Law – interesting that so much marketing is price based from ‘fashion’ high street brands

Marketing

Brands, I’m part of your marketing team: Alibaba CMO | Data | Campaign Asia – compare and contrast with Amazon’s approach as a ‘retail cancer’

Sonos Agency Review Aims To Expand Global PR Roster | Holmes Report – they need to get this in place in advance of the Alexa powered onslaught and HomePod

McKinsey on digital marketing: Personalization is not what you think | ZDNet  – The first thing [is] that people, when they talk about personalization, often confuse it with targeting. Absolutely every client that I talk to and every person in the industry, we all want to do better targeting. I think personalization has a piece of that, but I think of personalization as really helping manage a customer through their journey. That could include advertising. That could include experiences, both physical and digital. But it’s that end-to-end view of helping the client, the customer, get through that journey in a thoughtful way

Media

Facebook explains ad policies to users, but industry wants more | Advertising | Campaign Asiathe post is focused on empowering users to take action, leaving them with the onus. The post, she continues, acknowledges that Facebook does not have the ability to police and manage the content that is produced and shared in its different environments, and requires a concerted effort from end users to brands to their agencies and beyond. “Does that address the demands asked of Facebook to take greater responsibility for the content on their platform? Unlikely,” she said. More Facebook related content here.

Supermarkets urged to boycott Sun, Mail and Express – DecisionMarketing  – the Daily Mail blamed “Internet trolls orchestrated by a small group of hard-left Corbynist individuals” trying to “suppress legitimate debate”.

Online

Twitter reportedly testing ‘Save for Later’ feature | The Drum  – social bookmarking moves beyond niche usage?

Retailing

E-commerce – Look East. | Radio Free Mobile – China far ahead of the US on m-commerce

Blue Note Review – jazz label Blue Note Records goes Birch Box

Security

Apple MacOS High Sierra Security Flaw Lets Anyone Get Root Access, No Password Required | WIRED – holy cow Batman! There is a security update

Technology

Opinion: How Chinese innovation is going global | Techinasia – China becoming more global a la the way Silicon Valley’s hardware companies have

The State of European Tech 2017 – interesting primer on tech in Europe, obviously read it in a critical manner

Apple – No Nirvana | Radio Free Mobile – interesting breakdown why it was an IP / acquhire

Telecoms

AT&T wants to bin 100,000 routers, replace them with white boxes | The Register – will the white boxes be built to provide telecoms QoS in terms of reliability and redundancy?

Web of no web

Amazon Alexa for Business Platform planned | CNBC – big implications for verticals like healthcare

Amazon (AMZN) just released an AI-powered camera. But it’s not for you — Quartz – interesting implication about pushing data processing towards the edge and away from the cloud. More related content