Ducote Outsourcing: Cisco

I recently saw a Cisco commercial that highlighted one of their clients:  Ducote Motorcycles.  The commercial showed a Ducote motorcycle and talked about how good they were.  The commercial then shifts directions, saying that Ducote knows what they are good at, which is motorcycles.  It then says that they use Cisco for their networking and systems. This is a real life example of outsourcing.


Ducote sticks to their core competency of making quality motorcycles.  They then outsource what they are not good at performing.  This commercial would not have ever stuck out to me without this class, as I would not have been thinking about outsourcing and core competencies.

Technology in Shoes?

Can shoes become so technologically advanced that they are banned by the NBA?  Apparently, the answer to this question is yes.  While many training shoes have claimed to help increase performance, the Concept 1, also known as the "Launch 'N Load, is thought to increase performance so greatly that it was banned by the NBA this week.

The shoe was invented by two former walk-on basketball players at the University of Southern California.  It has a proprietary, springlike device under the balls of the feet.  The NBA claims that it gives too much of a competitive advantage to those who wear them.

This just shows the broad implications of technology.  Of course we hear about how technology is changing things such as electronics and businesses.  However, it is not often that we hear about a shoe being banned because of technology employed in it giving a huge competitive advantage to the wearer.

Anyone else have a technological advancement something like this, where you would not ordinarily expect one?