Enrico Valdani

A Practical Approach to Big Data in Tourism: A Low Cost Raspberry Pi Cluster

Big Data is the contemporary hype. However, not many companies or organisations have the resources or the capabilities to collect the huge amounts of data needed for a significant and reliable analysis. The recent introduction of the Raspberry Pi, a low-cost, low-power single-board computer gives an affordable alternative to traditional workstations for a task that requires little computing power but immobilises a machine for long elapsed times. Here we present a flexible solution, devised for small and medium sized organisations based on the Raspberry Pi hardware and open source software which can be employed with relatively little effort by companies and organisations for their specific objectives. A cluster of six machines has been put together and successfully used for accessing and downloading the data available on a number of social media platforms.

The Movement Game: Breaking Down Orthodoxies

What makes a new fast-growing market? How is such a market created? The answer in many cases is almost blasphemous: it’s a gift “from on high.” The reality is that rapidly expanding markets are often created in mature markets by firms which successfully identify incipient, latent, or existing needs that are inadequately met by other companies. The take-away pizza or hamburger markets are examples of Movement Games initiated in the mature restaurant industry. The personal computer market was invented in the mature mainframe computer market. Couriers such as Federal Express and DHL set a Movement Game in motion by exploiting unsatisfied needs in the mature postal market. The list goes on and on, further substantiating our initial assertion. Many mature markets are primed and ready for a firm to come along and convert some part into a new rapidly developing market. This maneuver clearly represents an indirect attack, one that allows the aggressor to win without a fight, as in Sun Tzu words (see above). From the examples above, we can infer that new technology may represent an “enabling factor” in the Movement Game, but it is not sufficient for — and nor is it essential to — success.

The Revolution of the Competitive Games

The “revolution” in the title of this chapter is meant in the astronomical sense, that is, the movement of a body (a competitive arena, in our case) which makes an elliptical orbit, ending its journey where it began. Revolution is also intended in the etymological sense, with the prefix “re” denoting an orientation toward a new state, along with a sense of abrupt change, severing all ties with the past.

The Imitation Game

The success achieved by a firm that starts a Movement Game, be it low- or high-impact, spurs the competition to pursue the innovator, thus activating the second game: imitation.

The Maneuvers of the Movement Game

The idea that firms and people must change is not new. In fact, all our lives we hear from our parents, teachers, friends, colleagues — basically every thinking person — that change is necessary. So why is it that today the word “change” means something different than what it used to? It’s not that we have finally embraced the meaning of change and the benefits it brings about. Instead, we are waking up and looking at a new world that is rapidly emerging around us, shaping our businesses, our institutions, and our communities. What we are looking at is not simply a world that is evolving as it always has. We are witnessing the emergence of something very new and radically different. What’s changing is our paradigms, rationale, formulations, quantifications, and how we deal with probabilities and predictions.

The Barriers to Change

The high- and low-impact maneuvers of the Movement Game, as illustrated in the previous chapter, are based on the firm’s ability to overcome the natural inertia that keeps us anchored to the status quo. Orbital inertia, according to physicists, is what enables a body to maintain its elliptical trajectory without any additional effort. Unfortunately, however, in the business world long-term competitive advantage actually depends on the ability to break loose from old trajectories. Referring back to our original metaphor: the greater the desired orbital shift (high-impact Movement Game) the greater the energy required; the more quickly we want to accomplish this shift (surprise effect), the greater the energy required; the greater our success in the current orbit, the greater the energy required to change it; and finally the lesser the current financial tension, the greater the energy required to overcome orbital inertia.

The Final Frontier of Value

In the previous chapters we rediscovered an ancient truth: “You cannot step into the same river twice, because everything flows.” Situations that have been apparently static for years sooner or later are destined to flow toward the only two possible outfalls of the Position Game: a new Movement Game (an environmental shock), or the implosion of the sector — that is, the state we call the final frontier of value. A sector reaching this state, after many competitive cycles of innovation and imitation, is like a train that after many runs reaches its final station: the end of the line.

The Position Game

In the first chapter we discussed the battle of the video game consoles between Sony and Microsoft in the early 2000s. This case exemplified the most common and dangerous approach to the Position Game: incessantly improving performance while relentlessly lowering price to win market share. This rationale prompted Sony to react to Microsoft’s imitation of the original PlayStation by developing the PS2 and PS3 versions; Microsoft in turn followed the same line of reasoning with its Xbox and Xbox360. The two contenders consequently became entrapped in the Position Game, with margins and maneuvering room constantly contracting (Section 1.3).

Offensive and Defensive Maneuvers in the Position Game

In order to win the Position Game, a firm needs to deploy our resources and capabilities to leverage: 1 its knowledge of the playing field, that is the competitive arena where we do business the element of surprise, achieved through an unexpected attack a multi-pronged campaign fortification of ground gained collaboration from all personnel determination and high morale

Creating Barriers to Imitation

Competitive confrontations in dynamic markets consist of a succession of innovation and imitation maneuvers. Knowledge of the logic behind such maneuvers is useful for both the innovator and the imitator. While the imitator seeks out the weak points of the first mover’s strategy in order to identify strategic windows that allow successful entry into the market, the pioneer must develop defensive and preventive maneuvers to reduce such threats.