Jakarta is a city of two faces. On one you find huge amounts of poverty while on the other, an emerging wealthy capitalist entrepreneurial environment. Jakarta, with its minimum legal requirements and capitalist environment, sees hundreds of innovators from far off places travelling there to earn their fortunes. With loose visa laws and a population of around 28 million, Jakarta is the ideal place in the far-east for a start-up. One example of this Indonesian entrepreneurship is displayed by Nadiem Makarim, a Harvard graduate who founded Go-Jek. Known often as the “poor-man’s Uber” as well as the Uber of the motorcycle world, the company allows you to direct a team of motorcycle drivers to arrange transport to destinations or to deliver goods. Ordered via a smartphone app, drivers can be easily recognized in their bright green jackets and hats. The employees are also vetted, trained, registered, and provide clean helmets to passengers, an improvement of the previous free-for-all style motorcycle taxi industry in Indonesia. This is a key example of business model innovation as it completely disrupted the way motorcycle taxis in Indonesia. It provides an entirely new value proposition, new cost structure, customer segment, customer relationships, and channels, making for a more desirable customer model to customers. The company has expanded to 35,000 drivers across Indonesia. In 2013, Indonesia’s private vehicle growth rose 11% while road growth was a negligible 0.01%. Go-Jek is a viable solution for those who either can’t afford to own their own vehicle or don’t have to patience to tolerate the already congested streets with the likelihood they will only get more congested.

Internet superpower Facebook.com is adding a video service similar to YouTube’s on their site. Facebook, already accounting for approximately 20% of time spent online, is looking to expand its market share with this new video service. They are looking to have creatives produce high-quality content to upload to the site in return for a portion of the ad revenue. Facebook’s vast data on each user allows them to charge advertisers a much higher rate than other sites due to the ability to greatly personalize advertisements. A recent publicity stunt for the video game “Watchdogs” showed just how much information could be drawn from a Facebook profile.  They created a Facebook app and with the information collected, could tell users when and where they could be found, who they are likely to be with, interests, and a variety of other personal data. Should Facebook continue this push, they are likely to see a great deal of competition with YouTube, the current dominating ad-supported video site. The extent of the rivalry can be seen in a Porter’s Five Forces analysis I have created below.

As you can see from the analysis, there is a huge level of competitiveness in the online video industry. With the websites all offering very similar products usually for free, customers may switch services based on convenience. Customers only having to frequent one site for their video and social needs may be all Facebook needs to gain an advantage against YouTube, especially with a switching cost of virtually zero. While YouTube will still be a dominant video site for many years to come, they will see a decrease in traffic over time as Facebook goes forwards with this emerging new service.

Two incredibly controversial issues in the United States at the moment, college tuition and the justice system, may see some changes in the coming months. The Obama administration recently expressed an interest in reducing jail time for federal prisoners on drug offenses and spending some of the money budgeted for jails and prisons on education. This would be achieved by incarcerating fewer people arrested of non-violent crimes and is estimated to save $15 billion a year. A majority of inmates have a similar background being young, uneducated, and raised in a poorer neighborhood. Teens will often be sent to prison for minor infractions such as being in possession of marijuana. This policy has led to the US having the highest incarceration rate in the world at around 700 inmates per 100,000 citizens. The world average is around 100/100,000 with North Korea having a number estimated similar to the USA. Countries with better access to education such as Norway, Sweden, Germany, and others see incarceration rates significantly below average. Imprisonment, a majority of the time, has been shown to create or intensify mental health conditions rather than rehabilitating the inmate. A push to only imprison dangerous criminals and put the money into education would be a smart move on the part of the American government as we would see a decrease in mindless crimes and a more educated population. A lower price would cause children living in relative poverty to believe in a better future rather than feeling trapped in their socio-economic class.

Stakeholders of Whole Foods Market will undoubtedly be irritated by the company’s current state. The once innovative company which broke into the scene as an up-scale grocery store providing healthier and more expensive alternatives to competition has seen a continuing trend of unfortunate events. In the last 6 months, Whole Foods has seen their stock fall 40% partially due to the company’s sales and profits not hitting analysts forecasts. The falling stocks have come with a falling reputation leading to the nickname “Whole Paycheck”. They have seen a variety of problems such as mislabeled prepackaged food, resulting fines, lawsuits, and the infamous $6 “Asparagus Water”. The company has recently laid off 1.6% of its workforce in order to invest in technology and reduce prices. The demand for lower prices by customers is believed to have stemmed from the modern popularization of organic produce, creating greater competition. The latest Whole Foods issue was a group of customers in Houston protesting prison inmates producing certain food products. Whole Foods released a statement saying the items will be removed by April 2016. It’s clear why their stocks have been falling, and with continuous bad news for them: now is certainly not the time to be investing. I am doubtful the company will ever regain the reputation it once had and will continue to fall for some time to come. There is some hope is on the horizon with new initiatives such as rooftop farming and a more affordable store aimed at younger shoppers, but for the time being, an investment with Whole Foods is one I would definitely avoid.