The agile incumbent—talking e-bikes with Ian Kenny and Chris Yu of Specialized

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This week, Oliver interviews Chris Yu, Chief Product & Innovation Officerand Ian Kenny, global marketing for the Turbo e-bike brand at Specialized.They talk about how incumbent bike manufacturers are thinking ofelectrification, how that’s changing how the company is thinking about thejob-to-be-done for their customers and what role companies like Specializedcan play in the discussion to push Micromobility forward.Specifically, they dig into:- what differentiates the Specialized brand in terms of positioning,company ownership structure and customer type.- how their full stack approach, paired with their scale, compares to therest of the bike industry.- How Specialized think about the Innovators Dilemma, and what framing theyuse to encourage self disruption within the firm to ensure that they canmeet evolving customer needs and wants.- for design, what are the variables that matter for customers? They talkabout the Levo family of bikes, and the learnings that can be ported overto other sectors.- How they’re thinking about urban or local transport, including adiscussion on the competition such as Vanmoof.- How the business model to service the ‘consumption of miles’ might changethe structure of how Specialized- The journey that Specialized made in e-bikes, including its first effortsas early as 2010.- How they’re seeing the supply-chain base change as the industry maturesaround ebikes/electrification.

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