Uber Irrational

Wet and Irrational

A few weeks ago a group of French taxi drivers attacked the US singer Courtney Love's car as she tried to get to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. As it turned out this wasn't a Franco-American cultural argument over the relative merits of Ms Love's brand of alternative rock, but a side-effect of an industrial dispute that has its origins in the complexity of behavioral economics.

In fact, at root, it's about whether you'd like to be able to find a cab in the rain in New York. 

Read Full Post >>

Disruption by Digital Wallet: The Sailing Ship Effect Rewritten

From Sailboats to Digital Wallets

When steamships were introduced they caused a significant improvement in the technology of the sailing ship, as shipwrights worked to increase the capability of their ancient craft to keep the newfangled interlopers at bay.  Of course, we now know this was to no avail, as technology and service improvements to steam-power eventually combined to override the best that sail had to offer.  Disruption happened, but slowly.

In the world of payments we now have more disruption: a payment card in your smartphone, integrating retail payments, mobile communication and digital advertising, with Google simply the biggest new entrant on the blocks.   When your smartphone is also your digital wallet and you can use it to buy stuff in shops faster and more securely than with your credit card then the walls of Jericho are really falling: the question is, who are the modern equivalents of the sailing ship manufacturers?

Read Full Post >>