Summer’s over. And with the fresh school term, I’ve started a very exciting new teaching gig -- “Accounting & Finance” at the Northwestern Law School in Chicago.
The proposition for law students is compelling: Just as any adviser or advocate requires the tool of literacy to access the verbal wisdom of treatises and books and briefs, the ability to engage with significance anywhere in social and commercial enterprise requires basic familiarity with the grammar and syntax of quantitative financial information.
Our first class pitched right into the topic of business plans, the tools for searching out sustainable business value, and the assessment of business decision-making as supported by the integration of strategy, investment and operations.
For which, the week’s news was rich with pedagogic opportunity: BHP Billiton’s hostile play for Potash Corp., HP’s extravagant out-bidding for 3Par to steal a competitive march on Dell, and the optimistic willingness of three wealthy Brazilians to stump up over $3 billion in hopes that Burger King can be flipped one more time.
With all that context, the curriculum probably lacks time for this comparison of two business models – which is too bad:
During our recent extended stay in Paris, I made extensive use of the Velib program – the network of urban-designed bicycles rolled out in 2007. Launched with 10,000 bikes at 750 stations across the city, it has doubled in three years – there is a station every 300 meters across the city, with 75,000 daily users and twice that number each summer weekend day.
As a basic part of its business plan, the program incentivizes short trips -- the first half-hour is free. I easily earned out my € 29 subscription – one morning using five different bikes to cover appointments from the 5th to the deep 16th and back.
So I was bemused, at the end of the summer, to see a proud announcement heralding the start of Chicago’s B-Cycle: six stations between the John Hancock and McCormick Place, and a grand total of 100 bicycles.
This is not a business plan that can be substantively real – but only an illusion of long-term sustainability and success.
For example, the Chicago program promotes the notion of commuter usage (here). But there is no access at the commuter rail stations. Nor in the critical population centers of Lincoln Park, Wrigleyville or the South Loop. Where are the bikes where the potential riders are – Old Town, Lincoln Square, the Clybourn Avenue corridor? Or to serve the student population – on the campuses of Loyola, DePaul or UIC?
Velib launched in Paris with critical mass, sufficient to have an impact on its urban lifestyle. My friend, a senior executive at the OECD, promptly sold his car; he uses Velib to commute except in extreme winter, when his cost to take an occasional bus or even a taxi is a minor offset to his overall savings.
The business plan is familiar: when Fred Smith prepared the debut of Federal Express in 1973, not a plane flew nor a package moved until he had coverage of 25 cities – enough to re-shape an entire national business culture.
Velib does have issues – vandalism is higher than expected, and to manage uneven usage around town, there is now a rewards program for riders who return bikes to high-demand stations. But the program is here to stay. The Velib website is attractive and informative (here). There is an iPhone app for news and station locations. And in characteristic French fashion, this spring a comité d’usagers was selected as an official forum and sounding board for riders’ concerns.
On the commercial side, the advertising giant J.C. Decaux, which sponsors the program in exchange for the advertising opportunity, is in it as a business –complementary to the city’s political agenda of reducing private auto traffic and pollution.
Weather in the Windy City is not conducive to a year-round bicycle program, of course, no more than it is – regrettably -- to credible year-round artisanal markets. Chicago may lure the occasional summer tourist to pedal the shoreline of Lake Michigan, a precious resource that Paris cannot match -- although even there, the quais are entirely closed to cars on Sundays. Lake Shore Drive should be made so people-friendly!
Just before the summer ended, I took Velibs back and forth from our apartment in the 6th to the supermarché across the Seine, to buy dog food and olive oil. Until Chicagoans can use B-Cycles the same way – to work, and for errands within a 20-minute riding radius – it is not a credible plan, but only a costly publicity stunt.
My thanks to our daughter Julie for her Velib research, done for a project for her Environmental Studies class.
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