Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

The American company Google Inc. is shaking up the telecommunication industry … again. Whereas their structure originated as a software/Search Engine/ICT* company, they have since branched out into wireless/networking and mobile hardware.

This is not surprising! Google has been a maverick from the beginning.

Their mission statement from the outset, according to Wikipedia, was …

“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,”^[11] and its unofficial slogan was: “Don’t be evil.”^[12][13] Rapid growth since incorporation in 1998 (as of January 2014, the market capitalization had grown to $397 billion^[60]) has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions and partnerships beyond Google’s core search engine. It offers online productivity software including email (Gmail), a cloud storage service (Google Drive), YouTube video-sharing, an office suite (Google Docs) and a social networking service (Google+). Desktop products include applications for web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system and the browser-only Chrome OS^[15] for a netbook known as a Chromebook. Google has moved increasingly into communications hardware: it partners with major electronics manufacturers ^[16] in the production of its “high-quality low-cost”^[17] Nexus devices and acquired Motorola Mobility in May 2012.^[18] Also in 2012, a fiber-optic infrastructure was installed in Kansas City to facilitate a Google Fiber broadband service.^[19]

Despite American incorporation, headquarters and funding, Google has a R&D/QA^# presence in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico). This is a good start for what the book Go Lean…Caribbean envisions for the Caribbean region. The book describes initiatives from top-to-bottom in the Information Technology/ICT industry space, asserting that the region cannot only consume, but must create, develop and produce as well. So Google is a good role model for the future – yet undefined – industrial expressions in this industry. The book Go Lean…Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU roadmap is designed to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of Caribbean society; this vision is defined early in the book (Page 14) with the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The Google QA activity is highlighted in the following news article:

Title #1: Google Is Testing Its New Modular Smartphone on this Caribbean Island
By: Caribbean Journal staff – Caribbean Journal – Regional News Site (Posted 01/14/2015; Retrieved 01/27/2015) – http://www.caribjournal.com/2015/01/14/google-is-testing-its-new-modular-smartphone-on-this-caribbean-island/#

Google’s revolutionary new smartphone project is getting its first test in the Caribbean.

The global tech giant will be launching the pilot test of its Project Ara smartphone in the Puerto Rico market, the company announced Wednesday.

Project Ara is a modular smartphone, which allows users to swap out individual components of the phone, from the camera to the speaker to the lights.

The aim is a totally customizable phone — almost turning the phone into a collection of “physical” apps.

“A phone is part of it. Part of it is a phone,” is how Project Ara describes it.

Project Ara is part of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group. The phone will run the Android operating system.

Pricing is not yet known.

See more in the video below:

VIDEO: Project Ara: Part of it – http://youtu.be/intua_p4kE0 – Published on Jan 14, 2015

There is an obvious advantage to testing a revolutionary product in a place like Puerto Rico: it is homogenous. Everyone on the island meets a certain consistent profile, an adequate educational accomplishment, American cultural assimilation, bilingual efficiency. If the Google test is successful here, then the product will be proven for the entire Western Hemispheric market. This Google Ara phone should emerge from these tests as a “lean”-mean consumer machine, ready to shock the world of mobile communications – here comes change!

The concept of “lean” is very prominent in the Go Lean book (and movement), even adapting the title, Go Lean, for the quest for excellence in Caribbean economic empowerment and governing efforts. The label “lean” is indicative of this quest; the word is used as a noun, a verb and an adjective. This point is pronounced early in the book (Page 4) with these statements:

The CU will lean on, lean in, lean over backwards, and then lean towards…

The CU will embrace lean, agile, efficient organization structures – more virtual, less physical, more systems, less payroll.

This following news article demonstrates Google’s next strategic step, establishing more of a footprint in the North American mobile communications market. See story here:

Title # 2: Google Inc Could Wreak Havoc on Its New Wireless Partners
By: Adam Levy, January 27, 2015

If you’re looking to switch wireless carriers, you may soon have another option.

Google is reportedly working on a mobile virtual private network, or MVNO, that uses access to the Sprint (NYSE: S ) and T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS ) wireless networks. While the agreement with Google will generate additional revenue for the wireless carriers, it represents a serious threat to their core businesses.

With a price war already in full swing among the major industry players and the cost of airwave spectrum rising well above expectations, Google could cause more headaches for Sprint and T-Mobile than it’s worth.

Selling excess capacity
MVNO agreements are typically very valuable for carriers, as they can sell excess capacity and achieve high margins without the need to do any sales or marketing work — this Google deal is no exception. Macquarie Securities analyst Kevin Smithen believes the search giant could pay out $1 billion in service fees to the carriers in 2018.

Both companies have plenty of spare capacity, too. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray told investors earlier this month that it has more spectrum per subscriber than both of its largest rivals. Sprint, however, has even more excess capacity, which leads Smithen to predict it will take about three-fourths of Google’s MVNO business.

Those revenues will allow Sprint and T-Mobile to reinvest in their networks, which will help attract new customers and prevent current customers from leaving. On the flip side, any improvements to their networks will also improve the Google service making it even more attractive.

And there lies the big risk
While Google’s plans are still extremely vague, it seems like the biggest goal is to make wireless data networks fast and cheap. To that end, it makes sense for Google to offer a high-value option through its MVNO, similar to what it has accomplished with the rollout of Google Fiber.

Google can afford to offer things like unlimited high-speed data at near cost — the company is expected to pay $2 per GB — because it makes money almost any time a smartphone user accesses the Web. Google took an estimated 37% of total mobile ad spending last year, so it stands to gain from making data access as inexpensive as possible.

While Sprint and T-Mobile have done a good job undercutting the competition on price, Google could do so even further.

The risk seems greater for Sprint, which appears to have little to compete on besides price. T-Mobile is more focused on providing a valuable customer experience for its subscribers with the Un-Carrier initiatives to differentiate itself. Of course, there is little holding Google back from offering similar perks as the Un-Carrier (potentially with a focus on Google services like YouTube and Google Play).

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint has put limits in place to prevent the Google MVNO from growing too large. That should be a smart move considering the carrier is likely to lose at least some customers to the new service. There is no indication, however, that such a stipulation exists in the T-Mobile agreement.

Still, if Google hits that volume trigger, there is little stopping the company from licensing capacity from another network. And there is no guarantee that if Google’s network coverage suffers, customers will leave for Sprint — the company is best off renegotiating at the best rate it can get at that point.

A prisoner’s dilemma
With significant risk involved in allowing Google into the wireless market, the only explanation for why Sprint or T-Mobile would agree to license their capacities is that Google played one off the other. Thinking it would be better to at least get something out of the deal than to just lose customers to another Google upstart, both companies agreed to a deal. The fact that Google will rely on their networks should neutralize most of the potential impact from the new service.

Source: Motley Fool Investor Advisory Site (Retrieved 01/27/2015) –
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/27/google-inc-could-wreak-havoc-on-its-new-wireless-p.aspx

From being non-existent 20 years ago to now executing a strategy to dominate the mobile communication eco-system, shows how quickly a well-executed roadmap can impact the world.

This lends confidence to the viability of the revolutionary changes being proposed by the Go Lean roadmap. We can succeed in transforming our society in short order; the roadmap is a 5 year plan. Previous blogs/commentaries also exclaimed societal benefits from pursuits in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Consider this sample of previous blogs:

The Go Lean book posits that technology and ICT can level the playing field of competition and trade with the rest of the world. Surely this entire Google commentary demonstrates the advantage of leading with technological innovations. We do not have to be in Silicon Valley to have an impact. No, an innovator can be on a beach in the Caribbean homeland, with a great idea and support of his community. “Lightning in a bottle” is a valid analogy.

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster great contributions from Caribbean technology innovators. The list is as follows:

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in for the empowerments in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is a big deal for the region. The benefits are simply too alluring to not commit to this cause:

• Optimization of the economic engines; growing the regional economy to $800 Billion & creating 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.