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THE POINT IS...


More than the problem, our inability to handle that problem disturbs us!

Showing articles in Leadershipclick to show all.


The Three Things Every Leader Must Watch out for in 2024published Jan 15, 2024

Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of 

It is one thing to seek out trends and in-vogue things. But when it comes to limited budgets, resources, and especially time, sanity is the key. Only a few days into the new year, and people have already started sending out predictions for 2024. You are highly likely to be bombarded with yet another Gartner hype cycle infographics, top ten technology predictions, and what have you. I want to highlight three things that every person in a leadership capacity must watch out for during this year.

Reading time: 3 min, read now...

Position Well for 2024published Dec 20, 2023

Innovation Transformation Leadership Influence 

In a time when there is too much flux around new technologies, new businesses, and new of everything, things surely get overwhelming. And to help with that overwhelm, we need a uniquely different perspective. A perspective that may not help in solving the problem but will help handle it more confidently.

Reading time: 5 min, read now...

Should India Develop a Local Version of ChatGPT?published Sep 04, 2023

Leadership The Future of Disruption Artificial Intelligence 

With the flag on the south pole of the moon, India continues to progress and show its technological prowess to the world. While that just happened, a new debate seems to be popping up. Just that, it is not about going to Mars or elsewhere - it is about developing a local version of ChatGPT. So the question is - should India develop a local version of ChatGPT?

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

The Hidden Issue in Storytellingpublished Feb 02, 2023

Innovation Transformation Communication Leadership Influence 

Many of the bosses I've seen in my career wanted decisions first, a summary second, and details later (if they could spare more time). While some others wanted a summary first, details later, and decisions afterwards, which mostly they had made already. In no situations, they were interested in someone telling them a (customer) story or anything similar. And this is where the advice on storytelling starts to fail in real life. Because we miss a key and almost a hidden (in plain sight) issue in storytelling.

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

Good Team Managers Don't Miss Thispublished Nov 13, 2022

Transformation Leadership Influence 

But as it happens with most new team managers, Jenny was trying everything she had read and seen thus far. It looked like she took a shotgun approach to show some runs on the board. At times Jenny was micro-managing, sometimes delegating, and other times biting more than she could chew. She was probably doing more harm than good in a desperate attempt to prove she deserved it. A few weeks into that role, Jenny called me the other day to discuss her challenges. She seemed to understand the urgency to get things sorted as soon as possible.

Reading time: 4 min, read now...

A Lot Can Happen in 24 Hourspublished May 04, 2022

Innovation Leadership Disruption Internet of Things 

When our IoT (Internet of Things) platform crashed several years ago, I found myself pushed into a corner. With an imminent demo for an important client, I had to take quick action. That action eventually turned out to be a stepping stone for me and to build my profile. Trust me, a lot can happen in 24 hours. The lesson here is - in times like this, the first principles-based thinking is your best bet.

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Two Monkeys and the Metaversepublished Apr 18, 2022

Innovation Leadership The Future of Disruption Artificial Intelligence 

That evening my bored self decided to visit a nearby zoo. I wanted to look at different animals other than humans that day. As I was strolling through the zoo, nothing seemed interesting as such. A weakened lion, bored hippo, sleepy giraffe, and the zebra that was perhaps trying to get rid of stripes while scuffing against the wall. But as I passed by two monkeys, it sounded familiar. I felt like I understood what they were talking about. So, I stopped. I saw a $5 note in the first monkey's hand while the other had a bunch of bananas. The conversation that followed replaced my boredom with somewhat existential questions.

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The Perils of Conformitypublished Apr 01, 2022

Innovation Leadership Influence The Future of 

It was Tuesday. My son and I were travelling back home from the city on a train. As the train was about to reach our station, we got up from our seats and reached the doors. But then something happened. While my son and I were standing near the right side door, everyone else was near the left side door. My son was getting anxious looking at that as he asked, "Shouldn't we be standing on the other side?" I assured him, "No, this is the right side. Don't worry." That didn't seem to work, however. He kept looking back and forth, feeling like a misfit. A few moments later, as the train entered the station...

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Three More Laws of Stupiditypublished Mar 26, 2022

Innovation Leadership Influence The Future of Artificial Intelligence 

An interesting experiment was done by psychologist Solomon Asch that highlights this human folly. It shows how social pressure can sway a person to adopt positions that go against all the logic. In the 12 experiments on conformity he conducted, around 75% of the participants conformed to the majority view at least once. It means 75% of the people doing the study were pushed to say an answer which was clearly wrong. And it happened because of...

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Failure is Misunderstoodpublished Mar 14, 2022

Innovation Transformation Leadership 

Do you know the most dangerous word standing between you getting smarter and better is "routine?" It has this uncanny, strange ability to make you irrelevant. But, then, why do we like it so much? What stops us from breaking the routine and finding new ways, better ways to do things?

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To Foster Creativity and Innovation...published Feb 21, 2022

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

It was the month of March in chilly Melbourne. My son had recently turned one. He was a new walker. The only problem was he didn't like wearing shoes. Being a responsible father, I needed to figure something out. How could I let him walk and learn without hurting himself? But, I also knew him better than anyone else and was fully aware of the risks that barefoot walking would pose for him. I had a plan to swiftly help him if anything happened when walking in chilly weather on cold footpaths.

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Is It a Bug or a Feature?published Feb 21, 2022

Innovation Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of 

My son wanted me to help him choose a drink out of many at the counter one day. And while I did it that day, it made me think - Why does it have to be that way? How did we get to a point where we always think we want to choose from what is available? Why cannot it be something else that isn't there? Part of the problem lies in how we teach and whether we do more multiple-choice questions or more fill in blanks.

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The "I Have an Idea..." Mythpublished Feb 14, 2022

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Tell me, how many times have you heard someone saying, "I have an idea..." And most of the time, what they say after that becomes "blah, blah" for us. So in our heads, we keep shrugging off the idea of whatever they are talking about. I come across at least one person a day who has got an idea of something or about something. But here is the main question... What is so mythical about it?

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What I Learned Producing a Podcast Last Yearpublished Jan 25, 2022

Innovation Leadership Influence 

When I started producing my podcast last year, I didn’t know much about it. In fact, besides listening to other podcasts, there was nothing much to it. And I remember thinking that it is probably a very easy thing to do. All I need to do is record an interview, do some minor editing, and upload it on the platform. Just that, it wasn't that easy. Many things influence the quality of the podcast, and I may have made countless mistakes along the way. But the more I learned, the more I started to understand.

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The Main Reason Why Creative People Can Predict the Futurepublished Jan 16, 2022

Innovation Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of Disruption Artificial Intelligence 

In the 17th century, electricity was a matter of curiosity amongst several scientists. One of them was Galvani, who did some experiments in 1780. For example, he showed that the legs of a dead frog can twitch when he applied electric current to it. His nephew Aldini, in 1803, took a step further and used human corpses to show that it also happens with human bodies. Soon the news spread and a writer Mary Shelly published a novel in 1818. The main character in that novel was Dr Victor Frankenstein. He stitches several body parts and, using electricity, brings his creation to life. In 1931 the movie "Frankenstein" was produced based on the same story, which Earl Bakken saw during his young age. That inspired him to create the world's first battery-powered pacemaker in 1957. This is one of the many examples of sci-fi turning into reality.

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From Idea to Reality: An Unusual Journeypublished Jan 10, 2022

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Have an idea that you want to implement? Hold on and read this article before you proceed any further. Your idea may be good but there are several other things you need to consider and do before you can ensure its proper implementation. Innovation is one of the most used and abused terms these days. But what exactly it means can be quite nebulous. When we talk about innovation, it can mean different things to different people.

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3 Best Ways to Thrive in 2022published Jan 01, 2022

Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of Disruption 

Every year it happens. During the last few days of December, people talk about their reflections. They talk about what happened and how their year has been. Then in the new year, they start talking about to-do lists, reading lists, new year resolutions. Social media posts and messaging platforms get flooded with me-too fads such as being authentic, taking care of oneself, living life 'in the moment,' and so on. But then a few weeks go by. Then comes February, when things start to wane. People go back to the routine. I feel there is a better way to manage all this. So let's talk about the three best ways to thrive this year.

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Ideas Are Worth Nothing is a Mythpublished Dec 19, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership 

Bringing ideas to life and making them a reality has been a large part of my work and my business for a very long time—nearly 20 years and counting. So when I hear someone say that ideas are worth nothing, I call it out. So, if you have believed that ideas are worth nothing, then today, I want to give you five reasons to reconsider your opinion. Coming up with a creative idea on demand usually involves a process or a plan. And to undermine that is like saying that ideas at Apple are worthless because their products are actually created by other people in China. “Ideas are worth nothing” is a phrase that sounds wise, but it is not. Ideas are worth nothing is a lie, don’t fall for it.

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3 Things To Make Hybrid-Work Workpublished Nov 24, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Hybrid work! Everyone is talking about it. But how do you really make it work for you? Whether you are a team manager, a team member, or a senior leader, you know that there have been challenges in the work as we knew it. Hybrid makes them even more challenging, or maybe not! So, if you have been wondering how to make hybrid-work work for you, then this one is just for you.

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The Cow That Couldn't Moo!published Nov 18, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Did you ever follow the GPS only to find yourself in the middle of nowhere? Or, without question, followed the advice of an expert - maybe a doctor, financial adviser, or someone similar only to learn later that your instincts and your thoughts were correct? So, why and how do these kinds of things really happen? I think, primarily, the issue is that our complex, data flooded, information flooded world has made us more reliant on experts, protocols, and technology. So much so that we have stopped thinking for ourselves. It's like we have outsourced our thinking to a troubling degree to gadgets and social media. We are slowly and steadily abandoning our autonomy. It irks me. How do you feel? We need a new approach for integrating them more effectively. We need to learn better ways to harness their capabilities without undermining our ability to think for ourselves. And it does take more than just critical thinking.

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Companies Don’t Innovate; People Dopublished Nov 15, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

The sourcing and development of innovative ideas are essential to a businesses’ long-term success. Therefore, hiring managers need to keep innovation in mind when reviewing candidates. Candidates possessing innovative qualities and experience contribute to a successful company. They directly impact the work culture and many business practices. However, hiring for innovation is different from all other hiring criteria, processes, and decisions. This article will talk about at least two dozen characteristics of employees who are best suited for innovation.

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What's Better Than Having A Digital Strategy?published Oct 12, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

It is one of those questions I get asked occasionally, and in my view, there are bigger and better things than just having a digital strategy. Worrying about your digital strategy is like worrying about a small cog in a large wheel. And, yet, this term has been beaten to death. Several consultants and vendors use this term as a gimmick. Because after all, it helps them to sell their services. But, what does it mean to you? How much digital strategy is enough? And what can you do about it? What is better than digital strategy? I will get there in a bit. But first, let us understand, "What is strategy?" Because we often hear this word, HR strategy, digital strategy, technology strategy, etc. So, what is strategy?

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When I Lost My Luggage in Chinapublished Sep 02, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership Disruption 

I was in my hotel room when I took off my shirt to wash. And then I realized. I don’t have another one to wear. The shirt I took off was already soaking in water. And I was standing bare in the middle of the room. It was 6 in the evening, -20 degrees Celcius and snowing outside, and I was in Shenyang, China. I was about to go out to get something for dinner. I missed my lunch that day. I was starving. So, while staring at my thin black jacket on the couch, I had a choice to make. To sleep without dinner or go out in that thin black jacket for food while risking myself with hypothermia. Earlier that day, I lost all my luggage. And this is the story of what happened next.

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Business As A Platform to Enable Innovationpublished Sep 01, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

When engineering and electronics giant Siemens wanted to launch hearing aids for kids, they faced an interesting challenge. Leadership was contemplating, "How do you market hearing aids to kids?" Despite being a necessity, how do you make them attractive? How do you make them look cool and not weird? Now for all their experience and technical expertise, these questions were far out of their comfort zone. Their history, their strategy, their culture had never encountered a challenge of marketing technology to kids. The first question they asked was, "Which of our full-time employees can take this assignment?" Unfortunately, the answer turned out to be, "No one."

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Start Before You Feel Readypublished Aug 13, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership Disruption 

How often does it happen? We have an idea. We get curious. We find more about it. And then nothing happens! Fear of failure and perfectionism are the most common reasons people don’t take action. We fantasize about the outcomes, but we never really do anything beyond that. So how do we really overcome them? Let me show you my approach to get past these roadblocks and take action.

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Importance of Special Purpose Teams in Innovationpublished Aug 01, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

There are some good strategies adopted by the defense forces that can be useful in the corporate sector. Dig deeper and try to make connections. You will see that corporates can learn from two key characteristics that defense forces exhibit. Agility and mission-based approach are two things, for instance, that can be of great help to the companies. Read on to find out how these can help

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Did Curiosity Kill The Cat?published Jul 28, 2021

Innovation Leadership Influence The Future of Artificial Intelligence 

How to develop curiosity? How to get more creative? Unfortunately, answers to these questions often are vague and abstract. If you want five practical tips to bolster your curiosity, become more creative and innovative, this one is for you. If you want to stay curious and become more creative, start learning the facts for yourself. Stop relying on Google or the internet.

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High-speed Innovation with Distributed Leadershippublished Jul 01, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

If you look carefully at the current organizational mix, you will see an exciting emerging trend. Most companies now have at least three different generations in their employee mix. It is interesting because each of these generations looks at management principles and leadership quite differently. So, the question is, with such a wide mix of talent, ideologies, thinking, and operating styles, how do you ensure high-speed innovation? I have rarely seen an employee that wants to be told what to do. Instead, most of them want leaders to trust them for being capable of doing the right thing. And, from that perspective, most of the management principles from the past are not applicable anymore. When we think of a progressive organization and innovation, these factors need to be accounted for.

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Want to Innovate? Stop Focusing on Customer Problemspublished Jun 10, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

Okay...let us start with the basic and yet core question. "What is a problem?" Sounds trivial, but it is more than a trick question. A quick Google search might tell you that definition of a problem is, "A matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome." So, let us take an example to dig down further. Let us talk about Jimmy, our customer. Jimmy is an art lover and recently purchased artwork in an auction last week. Now he wants to install it on the wall of his living room. But Jimmy does not have all the necessary tools to do that. He does not have a hammer, nails, or drill-machine, etc. In this scenario, Jimmy wanting to install an artwork in his living room is not a problem.

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It is Time We Stopped Being the Mediumpublished May 18, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Extrapolating your existing strategy is like trying to find another bottle. And you just saw, finding another bottle does not solve the problem. It only extends the time. You are only buying a few extra minutes. On a normal timescale, it may be a few extra years that you will be buying. But the problem, that's not going away. Suppose we put one hypothetical strain of bacteria in an empty bottle at 1100 hrs. Bacteria grow by dividing themselves, thus doubling at a finite rate. Let's assume that they double every minute. Then we observe that the bottle is 100% full at 1200 hrs. Now, with this information, I have two questions for you.

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When It Comes to Innovation, Data Is Uselesspublished May 10, 2021

Innovation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Do you remember the famous quote of Henry Ford? “If I have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” But think about it. Why should that be the case? That is when you start to see the limitations of incremental innovation and ideas around it. In comparison, radical and transformative innovations are miles apart, especially when comparing their outcomes. Moreover, the process of selling these (radical or transformative) innovations is significantly different. Incremental innovation is often the “pull-then-push” type, whereas radical and transformative innovations are exactly the opposite. They need the “push-then-pull” methodology of selling the concept. It makes all the difference, along with my assertion and the title of this article. Let me explain.

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Change The Game with Transformative Innovationpublished Apr 10, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership Disruption 

You can also transform and change the game, but only if you think two steps ahead of disruptors. If you want to do that, you must shift your focus from customers’ problems to customers’ intents. When you respond to those intents in the best way you can, you will stay ahead of the curve! However, most organizations are not designed for the third type of innovation, i.e., disruptive innovation. So, when they attempt doing that, they look like a dad dancing at a teenager’s party.

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Nothing Happens For Decades, Then…published Mar 10, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of 

This month marks the first anniversary of one such week of the last year. The disruption was certainly unwarranted (the word says it all) and unplanned. However, it highlighted several flaws in our ecosystem at several levels. It highlighted how our ways of doing work have many pressure points. How, several things that we do daily could fall apart by just changing its medium, e.g., meeting virtually instead of in-person. And why we must be agile, resilient, and well prepared at all times. Nonetheless, it already happened! So, what happens now? What comes after disruption?

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My Manifesto for 2021published Jan 04, 2021

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

Last year I predicted that this decade is going to be a significant one for humanity as I see much disruption planted on the way. Oh boy, was I wrong? Nothing happens for decades, and decades happen in a week. This would an apt definition of what happened last year. But make no mistake, it is far from over yet. And that is why, if you are making any resolutions or manifestos for this year, please factor in these possibilities. Second and third-order effects usually follow any chaos, disturbance, or disruption. And most often, the third-order effects are more prominent and intense. In fact, in engineering parlance, they are known as third harmonics.

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Why You Must Stop Focusing on Customer Problemspublished Dec 01, 2020

Innovation Transformation Leadership The Future of Disruption 

You will often hear when someone is talking about disruptive innovation, "Uber didn't kill the taxi business; limited access and fare control did!" And when you hear this, the typical response comes in one of the two ways - the first says, take the help of incremental innovation and try to fix those problems. In contrast, the other response is to adapt to the disruptive innovation playbook. But, I argue, both are not sustainable, not enough!

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The 13 Principles to Help You Maintain Sanity in Businesspublished Nov 20, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

Businesses often get carried away by the smart technology at the disposal and assume that we can use it to solve every problem around us. Emerging technologies are new hammers, avoid treating all the issues as nails. You must avoid rushing into the emerging future. Instead, deliberate efforts, coupled with thoughtful steps, can yield long-lasting positive results. This approach is crucial because it is challenging to undo strategic and technological mistakes these days. While working with over 85+ businesses of various sizes in the last 20 years, I discovered a characteristic pattern in the companies that were the best and the rest. I have tried to model this into an explainable and understandable form here as The Sanity Model.

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Role of Tech-ethics in Consumerism and Sustainabilitypublished Nov 13, 2020

Innovation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

If you think online shopping has made everything easier, you would be so wrong! When websites start to offer you more and more products to purchase, it has long-term consequences on your digital, physical, and emotional environment. Technology can be a force for good. But we need more people with the right mindset for using it. My TEDx talk calls out this idea of tech-ethics by sharing a personal anecdote and finding parallels between the business models being employed by most e-commerce websites today.

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On Gritpublished Oct 11, 2020

Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of 

After almost a year and a half of me failing miserably, I overcame that challenge. I reappeared for exams working twice as hard. There was not an ounce of a doubt in my mind about my success. I did not even think about it. After exams, within two months, the results were out. I passed in that failed subject and scored high enough to be one of the university's top three students. In the same year, I ended up publishing four technical papers and winning a project competition. How did that happen?

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Innovation in Virtual Presentationspublished Sep 30, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Influence The Future of 

When the first lock-down was imposed, almost all events were canceled. People thought everything would be back to normal in a few weeks. It was anything but that. As everyone came to senses and accepted that virtual gatherings are here to stay, many of us picked up the pace to get our act together. The initial few months gave us enough practice to be reasonably comfortable with virtual meetings and presentations of all kinds. But the novelty is wearing off. People have developed more discerning eyes and ears.

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The 7 Things a Business Coach Must Do when Working with Founderspublished Sep 21, 2020

Innovation Leadership Influence The Future of 

There is a critical difference between armchair experts and people who have been there done that. Every founder does not have to repeat the same mistake to learn valuable lessons. They can learn from others, only if others are willing to share their mistakes and experiences without adding any spice to their version. People often tell entrepreneurs, especially startups that they need to know their “why”, the purpose of being in the business. But in my experience, they already know it. Instead, the most challenging part for them is almost always — how?

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A Lesson Worth $11 Millionpublished Aug 30, 2020

Transformation Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things 

In early 2018, an Australian telecommunications company bit the bullet and rolled out an AI program for its incident management process. The telco expected to save more than 25% of the operational costs from this implementation. Unfortunately, the plan backfired. Eventually, the endowment effect kicked in, and the company had no plans to go back and fix the problem from its roots. Instead, it kept pushing through and wasting an enormous amount of money, allegedly circa $11 million in operational costs. The crucial question remains — who eventually paid for this?

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On Adaptability published Aug 28, 2020

Transformation Leadership Influence Disruption The Future of 

Once Dr. Albert Bartlett made a profound statement, "The greatest shortcoming of humanity is our inability to understand the exponential function." The logic is simple and irrefutable. Exponential growth cannot proceed indefinitely within a finite system, whether on earth or in an economy. To explain, Bartlett gives an interesting example.

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My Name Is Google, and I Am a Victimpublished Aug 26, 2020

Innovation Leadership Influence The Future of Disruption Artificial Intelligence 

I lure you with the pretense of free services. Then I capture your personally identifiable data and surveil your behavior. I sell that data to advertisers and make billions in revenue, but I do not pay (fair) tax. I also crawl other's websites and show you snippets of news and other content, so you don't have to go to their website often. But, how dare you ask for fair compensation for your data and content? I am not happy. I think it is unfair. Hello, my name is Google, and I am a victim!

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The Reaction is Instinctive, the Response is Intelligent!published Aug 12, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption 

We see in our daily lives; many things disturb us. Some irate us, frustrate us or make us sad. What do we do with them? Most of the time – we react! It is a natural human tendency to react. However, I think a response has more to offer than mere reaction. Think about the traffic - it is not the traffic that disturbs us. What really annoys us is our inability to handle the disturbance and frustration caused by the traffic. If we know how to keep calm or find a better way out of that traffic, we don't dwell on it much.

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On Attentionpublished Aug 08, 2020

Innovation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

Once an expert thief said to his young son, “Son, you are grown up now. I should start training you early. I want you to become a better thief than I am !” His son nodded in affirmation. Both decided to start the training very next day. The next day – thief says to his son, “Let me first assess your basics. I will give you 20 minutes.” He said, “Your task is to pick my pocket without getting caught. Your time starts...now !”

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How to Put AI Ethics Into Practice?published Aug 03, 2020

Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of Artificial Intelligence 

Guidelines do not address the root causes of issues that are results of AI; they merely provide "do's and don'ts" at a very high level. Because of such a high-level view, they are enjoyable to listen to and debate about but are nowhere near practical to implement. But, let us first understand what the problem is. Why are people concerned about AI? Once we understand key issues, we can find out probable root causes and then see what really needs fixing - all by using first-principle methods. Do you really want to make AI better and the force for good? Then you must read this

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A Systematic Approach to Risk Mitigationpublished Jul 29, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence 

Generally speaking, it is a project management strategy in which a project team imagines a project failure and works backward to determine what potentially could lead to that failure. This working is then used to handle risks upfront. However, in the risk management context, I am going to use this (pre-mortem) term interchangeably to represent a more sophisticated and engineering-oriented methodology, known as Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, i.e. FMEA.

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The Five AI Myths to Be Aware Ofpublished Jul 27, 2020

Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

Technology is often over-hyped but underestimated. Artificial Intelligence couldn't have been any different from it. There are several stories, which don't give you the full picture. And then there are many anti-stories, which create more confusion. As I often say, the truth can be uncovered only with deep questioning and relentless persuasion for answers. It is simple, but not easy! So, here are five AI myths that keep circling without any conclusion. Everyone needs to learn to find anti-stories for each story and cross-check. Eventually, you may still believe in the main story, but you will be more confident as a result of cross-checking.

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The Story Behind YOU 3.0published Jul 05, 2020

Transformation Leadership Influence Disruption The Future of 

It was my fourth phone call with Amit that month. The previous hour-long calls, while managing our work and different time zones, hadn’t brought down the interest in the subject. Instead, the feeling of being on the verge of something important persisted. The broad question that got us thinking was how careers are affected in uncertain times. The world is changing fast. Employers’ expectations from employees as well as employees’ expectations from employers are changing significantly. Moreover, the classical assumption that merely doing a good job can advance your career is getting beaten to extinction.

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Leading the Transformation Through Disruptionpublished Jun 18, 2020

Transformation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

Transformation – some call it digital transformation while some treat it as a business transformation. Nonetheless, transformation is a significant undertaking. Now the challenge is this; we are in the middle of a crisis, a significant disruption, and this makes things even more difficult for everyone. So, the critical question is, how do you lead transformation through the disruption? I will attempt to address this question in this article. Moreover, even if it was not for the disruption, the advice will still be valid.

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On Perceptionpublished Jun 08, 2020

Transformation Leadership Influence The Future of 

If you do not like how people perceive you or what others think about you, you must take charge of your perception of reality. Remember that you are in control of your story, always! It might seem a bit counterintuitive at the outset, as I keep insisting that you must pay attention to what others think of you. The way this world is changing, economies are transforming, and options to live a good life are evolving, I think you need to start giving some attention to others’ perception about you.

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

Special Purpose Teams in the Future of Workpublished Jun 05, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

There are two key characteristics defense forces exhibit, which corporates can learn from – the first is agility by design and second, mission-based approach. These two traits make them resilient and help in handling disruptions effectively. For any defense mission, tasks, resources, and success guarantee are critical, and it is the same for corporate projects too. Each mission begins with a small team that follows three high-level steps. I recently spoke with my army veteran friend to understand more.

Reading time: 3 min, read now...

Business As Platform for the Future of Workpublished Jun 01, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

Think of an onion - as you peel it, layer by layer, it starts to unpack a lot of punch. Traditional business models center around single-stream processes, which they manage and execute inhouse. It often creates bottlenecks and increases dependencies. But more importantly, it has an adaptability problem with changing customer demands. Artificial Intelligence and other technologies are enabling significant changes in the economy. Now the time is ripe to make transformative changes; hence business as a platform!

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Distributed Leadership for the Future of Workpublished Jun 01, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

There is an exciting and emerging trend being seen in organizations these days. Most of them now have at least three different generations in their employee mix. It is interesting because each of these generations looks at management principles and leadership quite differently. Nowadays, most of the employees do not want to be told what to do. Instead, they want leaders to trust them for being capable of doing the right thing. Most of the management principles are not applicable anymore.

Reading time: 3 min, read now...

The Key to a Great Story is Not Who, What, or When, but Why!published Jun 01, 2020

Innovation Transformation Leadership 

Whether for theatrical or practical reasons, purpose or motive has always been the driving factor of the story. Knowing the Why makes things crystal clear in trying times. It acts as a guiding star when we are in a problem. As far as the business context is concerned, not having an answer to this critical question poses a fundamental problem in almost all the change management initiatives. Additionally, when an organization is trying to revamp or go to the next level of excellence or advancement, not knowing this (why — the purpose) becomes a roadblock. Any suggested change or idea is rejected due to firm beliefs formed by employees over a long period in an organization.

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Be the Best Version of You — YOU 3.0!published May 30, 2020

Transformation Leadership The Future of 

As the world is changing faster than ever, economies are being dressed and redressed every week; a personal upgrade has become a necessity. I think the timing is ripe now for rolling up your sleeves and taking charge of your life; you might be due for an upgrade! Then why wait? Disrupt yourself and break out of stagnation as soon as possible. Upgrade yourself and be the best version of you, be You 3.0!

Reading time: 3 min, read now...

What You Are Seeing Is Not the Future of Workpublished May 09, 2020

Transformation Innovation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

What you see right now is not the future of work. But it is undoubtedly a perfect trigger to change several things at once. Adapt to the current working requirements with all the grace, but make no mistake; this is not the future of work. It is just the tip of the iceberg, call it a stimulus if you will. The good part is, no one has seen how the future of work looks; it is entirely a greenfield area. You can bring in transformative changes and become a business of the future, and show others what it is like to be the one.

Reading time: 6 min, read now...

On Perspectivepublished May 04, 2020

Leadership Innovation The Future of 

When I was about 8 yr old, my father told me a story — an interesting perspective on perspectives. A businessman was passing by a large farm in his car when he saw a farmer resting under a tree. The businessman got curious, so he stopped and approached the farmer. On approach and pleasantries, he asked, “Mate, what are you doing?”. The farmer responded, “Resting !” Businessman, being what he is, said to the farmer, “Well, instead of wasting your time by resting, you have such a huge farm, why don’t you work hard ?”

Reading time: 1 min, read now...

On Resiliencepublished Apr 08, 2020

Transformation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

“State administration has suspended 13 out of 75 colleges from the admission process,” told my friend as I was walking toward the interview venue. I was there for my university selection and admission process, and with utter shock, I nearly shouted, “What the…!” The news only came at the very last moment. So, you can imagine what I would have gone through when nearly 20% of the options were off the table. It affected the entire admissions process, and I lost my choice to study Computer Science Engineering. Whether it is uni-admission problems, Covid-19, recession, or any other crisis, none of them stays for long! But you must make sure that your response is coming from your better self.

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After Covid-19published Mar 22, 2020

Transformation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

Indeed, the virus has caught everyone with pants down, and I don't think any sane company or individual will forget the lesson. However, don't be mistaken to believe that this is an unprecedented change. This change was due anyway in the next three to five years. The virus merely accelerated it. Had none of this would have happened, this was supposed to be the future anyway. Anyway, now it's here, and a better response to the situation is to adapt. A few years from now, what do we want to tell our children, colleagues, friends, and families? Do we want to regret it as we look back, or do we want to take pride in our actions?

Reading time: 3 min, read now...

A Test of Human Qualitypublished Mar 20, 2020

Leadership Disruption 

Quality is not only applicable to products or services, but it is also relevant to us humans and individuals. How people, governments, and businesses have been responding to the current crisis of COVID-19 has been very revealing. Especially the strengths as well as flaws in human behavior. Right from toilet paper brawls, to school closing decisions, to work-from-home challenges, to 10% product discounts amidst of all this, each of this has exposed once again — we humans are still not as advanced as we think, and many of us still have questionable quality! I have seen better human behavior before...and here is why a difficult time can expose the quality of human beings as well as humanity.

Reading time: 6 min, read now...

What Are You Delivering, Value or Fluff?published Mar 12, 2020

Transformation Leadership Innovation 

Although I spoke about this topic in a few forums several years ago, my recent experience made me revisit it because this (phenomena) keeps happening now and then. I firmly believe that how customers and suppliers perceive each other mostly and directly impacts the results. If we want to create a real value for everyone, we must shed our perceptions and see-through customer lenses to be more productive. Value always implies an explicit trade-off between what you give and what you get. And it applies in almost any context.

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

Why Simplicity Will Be the Key to Emerging Futurepublished Mar 12, 2020

Transformation Leadership The Future of 

A lot of times, when I quickly describe something, people ignore me. Some say that over-simplification could be the issue. And for several others, it appears that I am missing something or keeping some information out. Maybe yes! I am distilling that information because it may not be relevant or less relevant. Or perhaps it was there for diverting you from thinking clearly, so I am omitting it. Maybe that information was nothing but a distraction. Or could it be that I am genuinely trying to convey the message instead of blocking it from being understood?

Reading time: 4 min, read now...

Will You Kill One to Save Many, Or…published Mar 12, 2020

Transformation Leadership Artificial Intelligence 

I am sure, each one of us in a decision-making role would have faced this at least once. When it comes to a decision that would affect a larger group of people — things are neither easy nor straightforward. If you have to make a quick decision, what is your obvious, frequent choice? Would you go for the popular one or the right one? We face this kind of dilemma every day of our life, almost everywhere — in office, community, politics, and so on. Unfortunately, in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority (no pun intended !). It does not matter how foolish & ignorant the majority are or how farsighted & knowledgeable the minority are.

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

When I Missed the Train Stationpublished Mar 12, 2020

Transformation Leadership The Future of 

This happened several months ago — I was going home after a day-long work in the city and boarded the train from City Town Hall. Then, as usual, I got involved with my smartphone, until my wife called to check my arrival time. I looked up to see the nearby station/area to give her an estimate. That’s when I realized I missed my station already and I was five stations ahead. The first thing I did — acknowledged that I was heading in the wrong direction. Next, I quickly estimated how to correct the course, i.e. get down to the next station and catch another train to my destination. And then...

Reading time: 1 min, read now...

The 7 Commandments of Good Decision Makingpublished Mar 12, 2020

Transformation Leadership The Future of 

Decision making is not only a science but also an art that must be practised and improvised continuously. These seven commandments are just the beginning of it. Good decision making comes from complete clarity and rightful confidence. For this, one must step back from the current work portfolio and look at the bigger picture regularly. The number one barrier that is holding most people back from achieving their business’ (or even their own) full potential is their inability to make decisions.

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

The Future of Writing Is the Future of Thinking!published Mar 08, 2020

Leadership Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

Writing can be one of the superpowers for the coming decade, not in its own right, but as a process that enables clear thinking! Everyone doesn’t need to become a prolific writer; merely writing a journal can make a big difference in clarifying thinking and making one a better person. Let’s imbibe that; preserve human writing, preserve thinking! Our future is whatever we make it; let’s take the first step towards making it better. Let’s start thinking for ourself, today, and shun the automated feed of decisions that are made for us (by someone or something else).

Reading time: 6 min, read now...

A Dozen Things About AI Ethicspublished Jan 30, 2020

Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence The Future of 

Artificial Intelligence is the imitation of human-like intelligence by the non-human abstract agency. Although primarily we assign this term to the computer system only, I think there is merit in seeing it as a broader system that involves humans and machines together. Upon adopting this more expansive concept, you will realize that AI can be a company too! Just think about Google, Facebook, and other companies as a form of AI. Do you think that's plausible?

Reading time: 2 min, read now...

Making Tech Responsible Againpublished Jan 10, 2020

Leadership Disruption Artificial Intelligence 

Last year when Apple launched a credit card, they also debuted in the technology bias domain. A wealthy tech entrepreneur (one of their own) was given ten times more credit limit than his wife on the new Apple Card. It was contrary to the fact that the couple had their assets held in common. When one complained, the answer was, "It is just the algorithm," Steve Wozniak (Apple’s co-founder) said. Apple as well as Goldman Sachs, the bank backing the card, both were unable to explain, why's that! In layperson's term, it was more like, "Computer says so...!" jingle that any company will sing at you when they have declined you for a loan, or something similar. That is THE problem.

Reading time: 5 min, read now...

My Manifesto for 2020published Jan 08, 2020

Leadership Disruption The Future of 

This decade is going to be a significant one for humanity as I see much disruption planted on the way. Last week, the first week of the new year was crowded with wishing messages and memes, gifs, greetings, and some other things. Many people have asked me about my goals for this year and if I have made any resolutions. This year, not! I think resolutions and goals are overrated these days. Typically, most of us would have made resolutions or goals for this year. And, as usual, some will follow through, and some will fall through. What if, instead of making any resolutions, we come up with the purpose or agenda for the year? I reckon that would be easier, wouldn’t it?

Reading time: 3 min, read now...

A Man Who Sold Delicious Hotdogspublished Dec 31, 2019

Transformation Leadership Disruption The Future of 

There was once a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so read no newspapers. Moreover, of course, he didn't watch television. However, he sold delicious hot dogs. He put up signs on the highway telling everyone how good they were, he stood on the side of the road and cried out to all that past, "Buy a hot dog, they are the best in town." So people bought his hot dogs, and he increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of all the extra business. He finally got his son to come and help him out with his business.

Reading time: 4 min, read now...


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