I have been, for long, a keen student of the startup / venture ecosystem in India and outside. I find startups particularly fascinating, because to me, startups are the most obvious signals we get from the future. For each startup is but a hypothesis about the future manifested physically. I have satiated my interest in this space somewhat partially, through my writings and occasional pro bono advisories to startups. But …
Miscellany
You live in the future. What about your company?
A framework for understanding role and org-fit.
Let us say you are a smart, sharp ex-strategy consultant from the Big 3, now working in the Strategy Office of a print major. The company, facing digital headwinds, is muddling its way through. Business is on a gentle decline; that said, the job still pays well, the people are interesting and comfortable to work with, and best of all, there is no …
Can Narendra Modi Ban Alcohol Overnight?
TL;DR
No, he can’t! The Indian Constitution doesn’t have a provision for him to ban alcohol overnight, thankfully. Yes, he can try to amend the constitution to acquire the right, but this will be challenged by Indian States, for whom from liquor sales are a big revenue stream. The resulting dispute will reach the Supreme Court, who will likely side with the states. I detail why below. Finally ,my essay …
Say Hello to India’s Newest and Fastest-Growing Caste
Sometime around 2012 or ’13, my daughters stopped speaking in Konkani, our mother tongue. It isn’t entirely clear what provoked it; perhaps it was a teacher at their Mumbai school encouraging students to speak more English at home. Or perhaps it was something else. It doesn’t matter.
What did matter was that our home became an almost exclusively English-speaking household, with the occasional sporadic Konkani conversation. We were not alone. …
A (Very) Brief History of Drinking at Work
Bira91, an Indian brewing co, recently launched its new light beer.
Most light beers are aimed at women. And I expected the press release to confirm this, which it did, stating that the light beer will “hopefully give non-beer drinkers another reason to consider beers when they are looking for a refreshment” (Non-beer drinkers here is code for women). I was intrigued by the next line in the press release …
Software needs to eat guns
Written a day after the Umpqua Community College shootings.
From whatever I have read about the U.S., there is virtually zero chance of rewriting the 2nd amendment.
We know Mike Bloomberg has plans. Sure Bloomberg is worth $37b and if he goes all out, it may make some impact. But I am really sceptical. Many Americans love their guns, and attitudes are unlikely to change soon. So what should …
How stockbroker-investor RK Damani and software guru–investor Paul Buchheit think alike
I have just finished reading Supermarketwala by Damodar Mall. It is an interesting book on India’s fast-growing modern retail sector by a retail venture CEO, and has a lot of insights for anyone working in India’s retail / service industry. Still what I found most interesting was a chapter on how D’Mart, India’s most profitable grocery / supermarket chain, and its founder Radha Kishan Damani (or RK Damani as …
Hacking Habits
Allow me to point out four interesting trends
- Leading VC firms are hiring top-name designers as Partners and Principals in their firms. John Maeda, ex-Dean of RISD was hired by KPCB as Design Partner, Irene Au by Khosla Ventures, Tom Hulme by Google Ventures and recently Jeffrey Veen by True Ventures.
- Big Business is buying innovative boutique design shops by the bucket. CapitalOne bought Adaptive Path, the legendary valley-based
Contrasting Susan Wojcicki and Marissa Mayer, and a look at Yahoo’s Strategy
Last week brought us two well-written articles in the New York Times; the first, a withering look at Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, by Nicholas Carlson and the second, a rather more positive one on Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, by Jonathan Mahler.
I found the two stories fascinating, and I thought it would be interesting for this blog to take a quick look at the two CEOs …
The Game of the Name
Before Lytro was a photography company, it was nearly a consulting firm. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that Ren Ng wanted to set up a McKinsey clone and then decided to set up a photography co instead. Rather Lytro was amongst the shortlist of 30 names suggested when Andersen Consulting was changing its name. Of course, Lytro was rejected in favour of Accenture. Just as well.
I …