Course: Big Data

References:

HBR Case: Artificial Intelligence: Stitch Fix - A Blue Ocean Retailer in the AI World

By: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Melanie Pipino

Assignment Questions:

1. Katrina Lake raised $42 million and struggled to find investors to back Stick Fix. Meanwhile, the male-run apparel retailing start-ups such as Fanatics, The Hut Group and Wish raised on average over $2 billion in funding. What role do you think gender played in this disparity? How could Lake have more effectively tackled this issue?
2. Lake looked across three industries to create her new market space: retail, personal stylists, and subscription boxes. What did she take from those three industries and what did she leave behind?
3. From the buyer's perspective, what are the unique ways which Stick Fix offered a leap in value beyond other retailers (brick-and-mortar and online)? What do you think will be the likely impact of Amazon? What advice, if any, would you give to Lake concerning Amazon's "Personal Shopper" offering?
4. Will Stick Fix's recent purchase of Finery IP help to act as a barrier to imitation and extend its blue ocean, especially against Amazon? With the understanding of what Finery does, how can you imagine Stick Fix could use this to really add value for customers?
5. If you look at Stick Fix's profit proposition, what do you see as key challenges to growing revenue and profits and protecting the blue ocean it created?