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- 1. Published by Flat World Knowledge, Inc. © 2014 by Flat World Knowledge, Inc. All rights reserved. Your use of this work is subject to the License Agreement available here http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/legal. No part of this work may be used, modified, or reproduced in any form or by any means except as expressly permitted under the License Agreement. Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology V 3.0 By John Gallaugher Chapter 4 Netflix in Two Acts: The Making of an E-Commerce Giant and the Uncertain Future of Atoms to Bits Learning Objectives Understand the basics of the two services operating under the Netflix business model. Recognize that the firm has experienced wild swings in market perception and stock performance as it attempts the difficult transition from relying on a model that may soon be obsolete to one that may hold promise for the firm’s long-term viability.
- 2. Introduction to Netflix Netflix started as a DVD rental business Known for best-in-class service Netflix rightly surmised that digital streaming is the future. Firm was split into two. Internet based streaming services. Traditional DVD by mail services. Transition from a DVD based service to Internet based video streaming business resulted in: Drop in customer base. Drastic fall of share prices. To bring back profits, the firm: Aggressively expanded the firm’s customer base, both domestically and internationally. Sponsored the creation of critically acclaimed, original content. Learning objectives Recognize the downside the firm may have experienced from an early IPO. Appreciate why other firms found Netflix’s market attractive, and why many analysts incorrectly suspected Netflix was doomed. Understand how many firms have confused brand and advertising, why branding is particularly important for online firms, and the factors behind Netflix’s exceptional brand strength. Understand the long tail concept, and how it relates to Netflix’s ability to offer the customer a huge selection of movies.
- 3. Learning objectives Know what collaborative filtering is, how Netflix uses collaborative filtering software to match movie titles with the customer’s taste, and in what ways this software helps Netflix garner sustainable competitive advantage. Describe the sources of Netflix’s size advantage in the DVD-by- mail business, and how this large scale is a difficult-to-create asset for any start-up trying to compete in DVD-by-mail. Understand the role that scale economies play in Netflix’s strategies, and how these scale economies pose an entry barrier to potential competitors. Recognize how Netflix built a data asset and why this asset was so valuable in the firm’s original business model. Understand the role that market entry timing has played in the firm’s success. Netflix: Going Public By going public, Netflix had to disclose its financial position. Resulted in two big competitors entering the market: Blockbuster and Walmart Netflix maintained its lead in the market with: Constant customer and revenue growth Record profits Rising stock price Brand strength Brands are built through customer experience. Walmart and Blockbuster could create brand awareness but
- 4. couldn’t translate that into an industry advantage. Netflix remained segment leader as it had: An early market entry Effective execution Scale from the Distribution Network and Selection Netflix’s nationwide network of automated distribution centers collectively delivered DVDs overnight to a large percentage of the population. Netflix’s advantage came from the scale of the firm’s selection. Long tail: Large selection of content beneficial for Internet retailers. Selection attracts customers. The internet allows large-selection inventory efficiencies that offline firms can’t match. The long tail Products offered Units sold Most popular products (offered by retailers) The long tail (demand exists, but they are not popular enough for retailers to carry them) Customer Base Scale economies can be attained by leveraging the cost of an investment across increasing units of production. Having a bigger customer base enables firms to: Have better cost structure. Have better profit prospects. Offer better pricing.
- 5. Leveraging the Data Asset User data can be leveraged to provide better customer experience and build brands. Netflix uses a proprietary recommendation system called Cinematch, which uses software technology known as collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering: Classification of software that monitors trends among customers and uses this data to personalize an individual customer’s experience. Data provided by Cinematch is a switching cost. Churn rate: Rate at which customers leave a product or service. Advantages of Cinematch: Netflix could tailor recommendations based on availability of products and individual taste. Studios found an audience for their back catalog of movies and television shows. Learning Objectives Understand the shift from atoms to bits, and how this is impacting a wide range of industries. Identify how digital products differ from physical products and specify how the streaming business is substantially different from the DVD-by-mail business. Know the methods that Netflix is using to attempt to address these differences.
- 6. Understand how the “First Sale Doctrine” applies to physical versus virtual products. Understand key terms such as windowing, fixed versus marginal costs, and bandwidth caps. Discuss how Netflix is attempting to create competitive advantage through catalog offerings despite not being able to secure a longest tail. Learning Objectives Identify opportunities for Netflix to further strengthen and leverage its data asset, and detail how the asset can offer the firm competitive advantage. Understand that while scale in DVD-by-mail differs from scale in streaming, some scale advantages may be achievable. Recognize how Netflix made streaming widely available on products offered by many different consumer electronics firms and why the Netflix approach offers advantages over offerings from Apple or other consumer-electronics firms. Identify the major issues driving what is widely considered to be a disastrous rollout and recall of the Qwikster service, and intelligently discuss options that may have limited the fallout in transitioning the firm’s business. Describe crowdsourcing and discuss the positive benefits from code contests that Netflix has conducted. Atoms to Bits In the case of Netflix, the shift from DVD-by-mail to the streaming business poses new challenges: Content availability Content acquisition costs
- 7. The legal and regulatory environment Potential opportunities for revenue and expansion Potential partners Competitors and their motivation The phrase represents the shift from physical products to digital products Content Acquisition First sale doctrine: Ruling that states that a firm can distribute physical copies of legally acquired copyright-protected products. Allows firms to lend or rent products. Applicable only to the atoms of the physical product and not to the bits needed in streaming. Windowing: Content is available to a given distribution channel for a specified time window. Under a different revenue model. Film Release Windows Theaters Hospitality DVD VOD Pay TV Ad-Supported TV Pay TV DVD Street Date 3 months 4 months to perpetuity 5 months
- 8. 10 months 28 months 8 years Source: Reproduced by permission of Netflix, Inc. Copyright © 2009, Netflix, Inc. All rights reserved. Original Content Netflix is combating rivals with exclusive content by offering exclusive content of its own. Acquiring or developing original content is an expensive proposition. It can give a firm exclusive first-window streaming rights. Streaming and the Data Asset User data is used to: Make accurate recommendations. Improve user interface design. Help the firm determine the appropriate cost for acquiring content. Shape creative decisions in original program offerings. Make better content investments. Inform the original content investments that Netflix is making. Create ultra-tailored audience promotions. Availability of Netflix top 200 Netflix Top 200 (Top 100 TV Shows + Top 100 Movies) Amazon.com
- 9. 73 Redbox 12 Hulu Plus 27 Source: R. Hastings and D. Wells, “Letter to Shareholders,” Netflix Investor Relations Document, January 23, 2013. Netflix Everywhere Netflix initially wanted its content to be available on television. Set top box was developed, but impractical. Software platform was developed and made available to manufacturers. Made it easier to build apps. Allowed Netflix to be baked directly into consumer electronics products. Risks Involved With Streaming Streaming based business needs a robust and reliable infrastructure. Internet service providers (ISP) are placing bandwidth caps: limitations imposed by the ISP on the total amount of data traffic that a single subscriber can consume.
- 10. Published by Flat World Knowledge, Inc. © 2014 by Flat World Knowledge, Inc. All rights reserved. Your use of this work is subject to the License Agreement available here http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/legal. No part of this work may be used, modified, or reproduced in any form or by any means except as expressly permitted under the License Agreement. Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology V 3.0 By John Gallaugher Chapter 3 Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems Learning Objective Understand how Zara’s parent company, Inditex, leveraged a technology-enabled strategy to become the world’s largest fashion retailer. Contrast Zara’s approach with the conventional wisdom in fashion retail, examining how the firm’s strategic use of information technology influences design and product offerings, manufacturing, inventory, logistics, marketing, and ultimately profitability. Introduction to Zara
- 11. Game-changing clothes giant with parent company, Inditex Corporation. Uses a blend of technology-enabled strategy. Firm does not use advertising and rarely runs sales. Highly vertically integrated. Most of its production process is in-house. Gap versus Inditex at a GlanceGAPINDITEXRevenue$16.2 billion$22.7 billionNet annual income$1.28 billion$3.23 billionNumber of stores3,1796,393Number of countries3188Biggest brandGapZaraNumber of other brands48Based inSan Francisco, USAArtexio, Spain (near La Coruña)First store opened19691975 Sources: Year-end 2013 figures from http://www.gapinc.dom, http://www.inditex.com, and http://www.Bloomberg.com Contract Manufacturing Advantages - Lower costs and increased profits Disadvantages - Sweatshop labor, poor working conditions, and environmental abuse Firms face legal action, brand damage, reduced sales, and decreased appeal among prospective employees Outsourcing production to third-party firms: Firms that use contract manufacturers do not own plants or directly employ the workers who produce the requested goods Using Technology to Gather Data Zara’s store managers are armed with personal digital assistants (PDAs): Handheld computing devices meant for mobile use
- 12. outside an office setting. Used to gather customer input and feedback. Point-of-sale-system: Transaction processing system that captures customer purchase information. Shows how garments rank by sales. Managers use the information gathered from these systems to make decisions more quickly and more accurately. 9 Design Customer demand and sales data dictate the designs that Zara develops. Zara design staff consists of young and fresh designers from design school. Teams are regularly rotated to: Cross-pollinate experience. Encourage innovation. Individual bonuses are tied to the success of the team. Manufacturing and Logistics Logistics: Coordinating and enabling the flow of goods, people, information, and other resources among locations. Zara concepts go from idea to stores in fifteen days on average. To achieve this high level of responsiveness, Zara uses: Combination of vertical integration and technology-orchestrated coordination of suppliers. Vertical integration: When a single firm owns several layers in its value chain. Just-in-time manufacturing.
- 13. The majority of Zara’s merchandise is produced in-house, with an eye on leveraging technology in areas that speed up complex tasks, lower cycle time, and reduce error. Inventory optimization models determine how many of which items in which sizes should be delivered to each specific store. Manufacturing and Logistics Fabric is cut and dyed by robots in highly automated factories. Half of the cloth arrives undyed so the firm can respond to midseason fashion shifts. Zara leverages contract manufacturers. To produce staple items with longer shelf lives. Zara employees spend more time on value-added functions. Due to efficient logistics and inventory management. Zara is a pioneer in going green. Use of renewable energy systems at logistics centers. Logistics: Coordinating and enabling the flow of goods, people, information, and other resources among locations. Use of biodiesel for the firm’s trucking fleet. Stores Bestsellers benefit from limited runs: Allows the firm to cultivate the exclusivity of its offerings. Encourages customers to buy right away and at full price. Encourages customers to visit often. Reduces the rate of failed product introductions.
- 14. Learning Objectives Detail how Zara’s approach counteracts several profit-eroding challenges that many fashion retailers struggle with. Identify the environmental threats that Zara is likely to face, and consider options available to the firm for addressing these threats. Limitations of Zara Operations vulnerabilities: By moving all deliveries through just two locations, the firm is vulnerable to disruptions in the region. Operations: Organizational activities that are required to produce goods or services. Financial vulnerabilities: susceptible to currency fluctuations since development and manufacturing occur in one country. Rising transportation costs. Moving Forward Zara’s value chain is difficult to copy. But it is not invulnerable, nor is future dominance guaranteed. Zara’s management must: Have an understanding of how information systems can enable winning strategies. Scan the state of the market and the state of the art in technology. Look for new opportunities and remain aware of impending threats.
- 15. You Name Here 1. Where do Gap clothes come from? Who makes them? Why? Are there risks in this approach? 2. Describe the downside of working with a supplier exposed as having used unethical practices. How does this potentially damage a firm? How can technology play a role in helping a firm become more socially responsible with its supply sourcing? 3. Search online to find examples of firms that suffered production problems because they employed just-in-time manufacturing or kept limited inventory on hand. What caused the production problems? What are the pros and cons of each approach? 4. Can you think of once-successful firms that were forced to radically redesign their businesses based on technology change? How did the firms in your list fair with the new model – better or worse than their prior success? Why do you suppose they experienced the outcomes you’ve identified? 5. What were Netflix’s sources of competitive advantage in the DVD-by-mail business? 6. Does Netflix have a strong brand? Offer evidence demonstrating why the firm’s brand is or isn’t strong. How is a strong brand built? 7. What is the long tail? How “long” is the Netflix tail in the DVD-by-mail business compared to traditional video stores?
- 16. 8. Who are the rivals to the Netflix streaming effort? Do any of these firm have advantages that Netflix lacks? What are these advantages? 9. Why would a manufacturer of DVD players be motivates to offer the Netflix “Watch Now” feature in its products? 10. Why didn’t Netflix vertically integrate and offer its own set- top box for content distribution?