Leadership
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Computers and Humans
Einstein once said “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination”. A classic example comes from the time of nuclear race between USA and USSR.By 1983, the Soviets had built a brand new early warning system called Oko. Ready to detect the… Continue reading
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Blind to disruption – part 2
Another classical example how a business could be blind to disruption (continuing from part 1) Knickerbocker Ice company Founding Year, 1831 – Employed 3000 people at peak, was one of the leading brand in Ice making business. Early Nineteenth Century – Closed its door to public Business model – Ice making Found on the East… Continue reading
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Is your business being disrupted – part 1?
Existing businesses have always been disrupted by new entrants having better business models and flexibility to change faster. some of my favourite case studies include Blockbuster,Borders, Kodak and Knickerbocker Ice company. I’ll try to cover them in parts BLOCKBUSTER Year 2004 – $6bn turnover. 60,000 employees, operations in 25 countries. Year 2010 – Filed for… Continue reading
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How a good eco-system could turn into a bad eco-system?
Very thought provoking story of Zion National Park, Utah. Zion Canyon first settled by ranchers in 1862. When ranchers abandoned the canyon in 1918 it was established as a national park and became popular among visitors. A large number of visitors scared the wildlife animals like Cougars(Puma), hence the Cougars population started to decline. Since Cougars are… Continue reading
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Your uncoordinated efforts could be harmful to your digital transformation journey!
Well, digital is the buzzword these days and everyone is rushing to brand themselves as a digital organisation. However, many of these transformation efforts are being started in organisational silos. Well! you may argue that in order to start the transformation you need to start somewhere. But when this happens in an uncoordinated manner you end… Continue reading
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Poker and Business
Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of Zappos shares similarities between poker and business and advises what he learned from poker could be applied to business. Some of my favourites from that list are below Marketing and Branding Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff. Strategy Don’t play games that you… Continue reading
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Are you facing an exponential change?
A lot of time we confuse the exponential change with linear rate of change, though initially; an exponential change may look like the liner change but if you are late to understand it you might be too late to act on it. A beautiful fable captures the power of exponential change. In ancient China, a… Continue reading
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Customer Experience? Well, let’s understand it!
A lot of time businesses focus on working on the customer experience issues where the actual transaction is involved e.g. making your products/services easily available or working on a post-sale experience. However Customer experience is any interaction of a user (not necessarily your customer) with your brand. Sometimes you may not have the right product… Continue reading
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Tapping the capacity of the people
One of the key organisational issues has been tapping the capacity of its people. Great organisations work on this disability well before they are known as great organisations, be it Pixar, Google or others.Mediocre organisations continue working in an authoritarian, hierarchical mode. You might have heard the examples of employees being called resources or extra hands… Continue reading
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Downstream process gaps could create upstream chaos !!!
A fantastic example of how the downstream process gaps could create the upstream chaos. My office ID card got expired recently and I was asked to stay at reception until security team call my line manager to confirm if I was still employed. Though I had already applied for ID renewal and could show the approval… Continue reading
Thinking Space 