This commentary is available as both text and video; enjoy both or either ... they are similar, but not exactly the same. To see past FaceTime commentaries, go to the MNB Channel on YouTube.
Hi, Kevin Coupe here and this is FaceTime with the Content Guy.
I have a few things on my mind this morning...
First of all, there was a Washington Post story the other day about how Samsung, fresh off the recall of its Galaxy Note 7, which was experiencing battery fires and explosions, now is recalling 2.8 million top load washing machines, which the company said "can become dangerous when washing bulky items ... which can cause the machines to vibrate violently or even burst apart." These explosions have resulted in a number of injuries, including one broken jaw and one injured shoulder.
Yikes. This, of course, is the same Samsung that is developing washing machines that can reorder detergent on their own when they begin to run low. I don't want to sound any alarms, but is anyone else concerned that these machines apparently not only will be able to place e-commerce orders on their own, but also able to inflict physical damage on their human masters?
I'm telling you. Judgement Day is coming. Samsung may just be a cover name for Skynet. Or maybe Delos Corp.
I'm just saying...I'm just not sure we can trust any of this stuff anymore.
Then, there was a story in the Los Angeles Times about a new survey from a hotel trade association saying that while more hotels than ever are "plying guests with freebies, including wireless Internet, parking and a hot breakfast," a number also are getting rid of things like swimming pools, minibars and room service.
The lesson here seems to be that the hotel industry, faced with greater competition than ever before - including from such services as Airbnb, a company that has as many rooms for rent as any hotel chain in the world, and yet does not actually own a single room - is making choices about what will resonate with customers ... even if that means getting rid of some stuff that used to be standard operating procedure.
These days, there's no such thing as standard operating procedure. Or shouldn't be. Companies thinking that way almost inevitably will find themselves made irrelevant, or disrupted out of business.
Speaking of disruption ... I want to circle back on my FaceTime piece from last week, which was about Talkspace, and it is way for people to get online and phone therapy 24/7. My point was that every industry is vulnerable to disruption, even the therapy business.
However, I gather from some email that a couple of my comments - like suggesting that "unlike psychologists and psychiatrists, Talkspace doesn't go off to the Hamptons for a month during the summer," may have been taken as minimizing the importance of therapy and how critical it is to people who need and want it.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. in fact, I think that anything that makes legitimate therapy available and accessible to more people is a good thing. Sometimes I say things in a way that may make it seems that I don't take anything seriously, which simply isn't true.
I just don't take many things seriously.
That's what's on my mind this morning, and as always, I want to hear what is on your mind.
- KC's View:
