Do you think Alfie is a multi-sided platform? Explain your rationale in terms of Alfie’s functionality
Do you think Alfie is a multi-sided platform? Explain your rationale in terms of Alfie’s functionality
Description:
The fitness industry is relatively young but growing significantly. Consumers have become increasingly aware of the benefits derived from being physically active. People are tending to allocate a growing share of their income and time to leisure and sports. Even companies have started to establish fitness programs for the benefit of their employees.
The market is highly fragmented and is expanding and diversifying. Fitness centers are popular, and their membership fees represent a large portion of industry revenues. Gyms and studios differentiate based on the nature and quality level of the services they offer. Their positioning varies according to the segments of the population they cater to, the type of fitness training and activities they feature, and the value-added complimentary services they include.
Following a global trend, the use of IT has been on the rise in the fitness industry, e.g., smart watches/fabrics and apps. Alfie is a Montreal-based consumer software technology start-up offering a fitness concierge service for time-strapped people who wanted to keep fit, no matter their busy schedule.
Read the case study about the “Alfie” (attached below), and answer the following questions:
Q1: Do you think Alfie is a multi-sided platform? Explain your rationale in terms of Alfie’s functionality. (10 points)
Q2: What are the core components of Alfie as an MSP?(10 points)
Q3: Given the current state of the fitness-gym market, what are the key challenges that Alfie is facing to become a successful platform? (10 points)
Q4: What are the friction and ignition issues for Alfie? How did the founder try to address each of these issues?(15 points)
Q5: Which side of the platform did Alfie focus on to resolve the ‘chicken and egg’ problem?
(10 points)
Q6: Given the current state of the fitness and gym industry described in the case study do you think Alfie is a disruptive innovation? Create a strategy canvas to support your answer.
(20 points)
Q7. Based on the approaches of Dropbox, Uber and Airbnb (as discussed in class), describe an approach that Alfie could implement to increase critical mass on the user side of the platform. (10 points)
Q8. What are the critical strategic issues that Alfie has to address to grow the network? What growth strategies would you recommend to Alfie? Discuss your answer in the context of “Depth” and “Breadth” strategies as described in the case. (10 points)
Q9. Alfie as an MSP is struggling; not being able to match appropriately the supply and demand sides is a major issue. How Alfie’s business framework will change if it decides to provide fitness videos instead of being a matchmaker between trainers and trainees? (5 points)
Requirements: 1-2 paragraphs per question
Masters Business Plans
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