It’s one thing to spend time talking about where things are going, it’s another when you encounter some of those things. Sometimes even I fail to mentally move things from theΒ theoretical world to the real world.Β Two recent examples:
1. Most people know about the potential for hybrid and electric vehicles, but not many extend that knowledge to a business context.Β I now use hybrid taxis where ever possible, and have some fascinating conversations with drivers. Each one tells the same story about fuel consumption: in a petrol taxi they would spend up to $80 every two days. In the hybrid they spend less than this each week. It’s a quantum shift in the economics of transportation.Β Note that it’s economics and not the feel good factor that drives cabbies to move to hybrids.
2. On a completely different note (if you’ll excuse the pun) I was listening to an interview with David Byrne (ex-Talking Heads singer).Β He said that the last music-superstore just closed down in New York, and now it’s no longer easy to buy CDs in this type of retail environment.Β People know that digital music is the leading format, but it’s not until this sort of shift happens in the real world that you start to see tipping points.
Here endeth the lesson for today…
Re economics and not feel good driving behaviour: the price of second hand Toyota Prius’ dropped markedly in San Francisco (don’t know about the rest of California) when the right to avoid car-pooling that they were sold with was taken away. A loss of amenity value.