๐ This Week I Learnt Edition 16
Space Race, Gila Monsters, Functional Beverages and more
Hello๐๐ป
Welcome to the 16th edition of the โThis Week I Learntโ (TWIL) Newsletter. Hope youโre doing well.
Section 1: The TWIL Billboard ๐ ๐ฆ ๐ง โ โ๏ธ ๐ณ๏ธโ๐ ๐ฆ
Global Minimum Tax, Neobanks and LGBTQ+, The Economics of Flag Carriers, US Navyโs Microsoft link-up, The Rise of functional Beverages, Gila Monster Lizards, and the 21st Century Space Race
Section 2: Tales from the Fortune 500
๐ฌ United Parcel Service (UPS): The UPS and downs of Freight
Iโve got some interesting stories that I came across this week. Hope you enjoy it!
Sit back, relax and read on ๐
๐The TWIL Billboard
๐ฆ (1) The Pause in theย Race to the Bottomย
For the past 30 years, countries have lowered their corporate tax rates to lure companies to their shores. With the new global minimum tax, this could change. A group of 130 nations, including China and India, have agreed to a 15% global minimum corporate tax that could stop MNCs from moving their HQs to tax havens like the Virgin Islands and Bermuda.
Source: New York Times on the Global Minimum Tax
๐ณ๏ธโ๐ (2) Niches to Riches Neo-banks and LGBTQ+
Banking isnโt readily available to all customers. A number of neo-banks are building products catered to niche markets & doing well. Daylight is one such banking platform for LGBTQ+ people & allies that just raised $5m. Daylight supports members in costs, like gender-affirming surgery or surrogacy and a marketplace for discounts at inclusive businessesย
Source: Tech Crunch on Daylight: The Digital Banking platform designed for and by the LGBTQ+ Community
โ๏ธ (3) The Economics ofย Flag Carriers
Flag carriers (Malaysian Air, Singapore Airlines, Air India etc) have been instruments of national identity since the 40s. Interestingly, they are also an economic hedge in the petrostates. An airline does better when there's a rise in tourism and finance; it does worse when oil is expensive. So it's a natural hedge for a country that sells hydrocarbons en masse
Source: Al Jazeera on Saudi Arabia and its Flag carrier hedge
โ (4) US Navy does a 365
Theย U.S. Navyย is theย second-largest air forceย in the world, after the US Air Force. Let that sink in. The Navy has launched its own secure long-term solution on the back of COVID and is working to onboard hundreds of thousands of Marines to the new platform called Flank Speed, the new virtual collaboration environment built around MS Office 365 cloud
Source: Fedscoop on the US Navyโs new virtual environment
๐ง (5) The Rise ofย Functional Beverages
Functional beverages are having their moment. It is a market defined by non-alcoholic drinks with special ingredients for added benefits. Functional drinks grew 360% YoY (vs. 9% rest of the market). Ingredients include collagen for skin elasticity (Eg. SkinTฤ), probiotics for gut health (Eg. Huzzah) & Nootropics for mood improvements (Eg. Lightwave)
Source: Bloomberg on the Functional Beverage industry (Paywalled)
๐ฆ (6) Control your nom-nomsย with venom
In yet another tail of a reptile species being pushed to extinction on the backs of a scientific breakthrough, presenting the Gila Monster Lizard, a symbol of the US Southwest, whose venom contains hormones that can regulate blood sugar. The new venom derivative has shown promising signs in Diabetes care and controlling Obesity.ย
Source: The Vox on Lizard Venom inspired Diabetes and Obesity treatment
๐ (7) The 21st Centuryย Space Race
The 1970s had the US and the USSR pitted against each other for global supremacy in the race to space. The 2020s has billionaires (Musk, Bezos and Branson) locked in an ego-fuelled race to space. Each time, ego whether national or personal has pushed forward the frontiers of science. So let them shoot their rockets, eventually, it would be us
Source: Futurism on the 21st Century Space Race
โญTales from the Fortune 500:
United Parcel Service (UPS): The UPS and downs of Freight
The United Parcel Service started in 1907 was capitalized with just $100 in debt. Now it is the worldโs largest pure-play delivery company with $71B of annual revenue.
The ongoing e-commerce development has played right into UPS's hands. More people are making purchases online than ever before. Hence, merchants on the Internet are increasingly pressured to make their offline delivery of goods on time to customers.
As a result, UPS has seen increased demand for its business. UPS manages all its businesses, such as air, ground, domestic, international, and commercial through a single pickup and delivery network. The single network structure has allowed UPS to gain competitive strengths by maximizing network efficiency and asset utilization
The business of freight has always been rife with threats at every corner: Volatility of oil prices, trade wars, unions and whatnot. But UPS may face its toughest test now through the rise of disruptive businesses(My name is Jeff).
AMZN accounted for 10% of all sales for UPS in 2018. But things are changing. AMZN's most recent annual report counts UPS as a โCompetitorโ. With services like โShipping with Amazonโ starting, UPS is now at a crossroads.
๐ฌInnovate, Pivot or Perish
My curated reading List for the Week: ๐๐๐
Palladium Magazine on Ketamine and the Return of the Party-State
Financial Express on the growth of the Pet Food market in India
Yale Research on how flies, and maybe people, choose their food
Vegconomist on Precision fermentation and the future of the Cheese industry
Thatโs all for today! As always look out for the next issue on Friday!
Until then. Stay safe. See you soon ๐๐ป
- Dhruv
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