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Kettle Moraine, WI | kipps - 6/16/2022 21:01
thinkstoomuch - 6/16/2022 21:13
As we enter the "products as a service economy"
Can you clarify that? I assume you meant "products as a service" economy. If so, what does it mean? I'm not challenging you; I'm genuinely curious. All these Peter Zeihan podcasts have gotten me interested in how the economy is changing, and what's in store for the future.
Best example that has been in play is personal computer operating system. You don't buy Microsoft Office, you buy a subscription, same for Netflix, you buy a subscription. Moving into the ag sector, your new tractor may have programs built into that need a code to unlock it's use. You bought the tractor but not all the soft product. These types of product as a service will continue. Iirc one car manufacturer has a subscription for heated seats. Will the
tractor's PTO usage be a pay to use subscription, I don't see no reason why the trend doesn't point us there.
So that will turn into an economy of this. Uber being a good example. Random drivers in their own cars is not the end game. Autonomous car operated by Uber picking up people is the end. Tesla has been using autonomy to bring repo cars to a pick up location. It is "ownership" veiled as a subscription you call a payment. You will subscribe to move around. Autonomy in ag will be ripe for product as a service as manufacturer can extract value of usage optimized to return. Really, tech fee in GMO seeds is a subscription program. You subscribe (in some cases is/was tied to locale) and pay a fee based on your projected ROI to use genetics. Subscription services for soft and hard goods stabilize cash flow to the creator and can optimize their returns as well. The data generated by these operations will optimize returns.
You used to buy a new JD A or Farmall Super M and go plow and plant your farm. Repairs were limited to a handful of components and you paid when it broke or being maintained. Now you buy a tractor, pay a subscription to steer the tractor, pay a subscription to use cell data to record data, pay a warranty (essentially a subscription) for when breakdown occurs, pay the trait fees (again subscribing to use the seed or face penalty), then pay a subscription to gain insight to market a crop or pay to have it marketed. It could be argued being against right to repair and bricking a tractor inoperable is a subscription. So to make the tractor go, the seed grow, and grain sold is not already a "product as a service economy" is already here more or less and becoming more every year.
I will leave you with this to think about "is an autonomous tractor freedom or slavery (or servitude to a master)?" | |
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Service work in Implement Dealer's Shop
