Category: Contrarianism
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The crime of omission : office politics
Here is why office politics is so tricky to deal with. 90% of office politics is based on things people don’t say and things people don’t do. If you use a legal analogy, it is tantamount to the crime of “omission”. Crime of omission is something you haven’t done! failure to do a legal duty…
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ChatGPT vs Jobs
Let us begin with a story. An American investor on his tour in China in the 1960s visited a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat…
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Selling a product that is in the making
As a trend, creating visibility in a career or at a workplace is often prioritized before developing competence. It is like aggressive marketing even before developing a good product. Why limit ourselves to work space boundaries? Look at Instagram brands that have solid performance marketing in place. Thousands of followers if not millions, solid branding…
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The trap of job identity
The video of Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin went viral, a couple of days back. Why did the video go viral? Because there was a stark contrast between her personality and expected job identity. This contrast caught the eye of the masses. There is little room in our minds for an extroverted librarian. Or for…
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The value of decisiveness
Being decisiveness in life is like playing Tetris, every random block that emerges at the top is a decision to be made. It is your choice to not make the decision but then you also don’t get to play for long and have fun. Keeping this in mind, thought of sharing a simple perspective with…
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Do you really need a 10-minute delivery?
Zomato’s 10-minute delivery sounds like 2 minute Maggie noodles. Can you really fix noodles in 2 minutes? But for decades we have had this on top of our minds. 2 minutes is something very quick. Noodle is a quick fix for your hunger pangs. Do I really need my noodles in 2 minutes? Not really.…
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The fridge Vs Hyperlocal Delivery
A recent ad by Dunzo, a hyperlocal delivery app goes as “Ab Fridge ka Kya Kam hai” (what’s the use of the fridge now?) Time for a lesson on operations management. Here we go! Seems like the 10-minute delivery proposition erodes the utility of a fridge. It is a battle of inventory Vs JIT (Just in…
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The value of a 4 day week
I started my career with manufacturing and process engineering. The companies I worked for gave me Sunday to relax, enjoy and rejuvenate. A Sunday wasn’t enough. A half-day on Saturday is what used to long for. That was a decade back. Now I have switched jobs and work in an industry where 5 day work…
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Why predictable stories win?
Couple of weeks back I just binged watched Squid Games on Netflix. I am sure many of you have watched the show by now. Whenever I login onto Netflix, Squid Games is always trending. What is so different about Squid Games that makes it so engaging? How some people always get their storytelling equation right?…
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Managing Customer Experience is really a rocket science
I love to visit Crossword. It is a ritual I perform every time I visit a mall. Usually, these stores are quiet, peaceful and urge you to spend time with books you never care to read. But a few days back, it was a different story. Two staff members were having a heated conversation. The…
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