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Digital India – its already here
Today’s the launch of the Digital India initiative and quite a coincidence that I had an experience which makes me believe that Digital India is already here. Here’s what happened. I was in Mumbai and called for an Uber. I started talking to the cabbie to understand the target market for a specific use case…
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Play to your strengths – Digital Banking Toolkit
Nadal is the king of clay. Given a choice of surface, I guess he would choose clay 9 out of 10. We all get it – one should play to one’s own strength. Its obvious in sports, but most of us fail to apply the same rule(s) in business. As most banks embrace digital, this…
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Why is Financial Inclusion important?
Financial Inclusion is a common theme across multiple initiatives both by governments and private sectors across economies. Especially in the developing world, it would be safe to say that Financial Inclusion must be in the top 5 priorities of the respective governments. But why exactly is Financial Inclusion important ? Financial Inclusion takes an…
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Digital success needs a matured partnership mindset
I believe that smart matured digital players will need to develop deep partnerships. Let me explain why. With the growing consumption of digital media, there is considerable noise that a consumer is now exposed to. This would mean that the brands have a fast shrinking window of opportunity where they have their prospects attention. Most…
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Big Data, medicine and Dr Gregory House
I am a big fan of House. BIG FAN ! I guess what I really like is the infectious curiosity of Dr Gregory House and the very extreme personalities of the characters at this clinic. In my overly simplistic understanding of medicine, there are two parts to it – diagnosis and treatment. And our Dr…
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Lessons from “David & Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell
“David and Goliath – Underdogs, Misfits and the art of battling giants” is the new book from Malcolm Gladwell which is based on the premise that maybe we have all been looking at the David and Goliath story completely wrong. Gladwell starts by discussing specific details from the Biblical story to build the case that…
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Why mobile payments must arrive soon
I try to go walking on most weekdays. And I prefer to do so light – carry just the minimal stuff. On my way out for a walk yesterday, I stopped by to take some cash along with me – just in case. And this got me thinking, with my smartphone (& earphones) I do not…
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Crowdsourcing from a captive audience – New approach to complimentary breakfasts
Crowdsourcing is all the rage. And restaurants seem to have caught the fancy. There is this guy who is spending a good time just getting real feedback before he decides what and where of his restaurant. A few restaurants have decided to skip the printed menu completely. Who wants to pay professional photographers when the customers…
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School for future politicians
I was super excited by the political experiments that were happening in the capital when Aam Aadmi Party was launched after the successful India-Against-Corruption movement. But my excitement didn’t last too long. Personally, I felt sad that the Kejriwal goverment decided to quit. As an observer and eternal optimist I was hoping that this experiment would…
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Impact of un-utilized assets : A Mathematical Model
A few weeks back I was wondering what happens when we buy a car but don’t drive it. While the automobile industry witnesses a growth but is it something that increases the drag on the economy. I spent a few hours to work on a very simple model to find what happens in various consumption…
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Why I use Paytm for all bill payments except Airtel
Consumer behavior used to be a course that marketing folks took in 2nd year of Bschool. I stayed away , like most other marketing courses. But over the years, time and again I have seen the importance of understanding the consumer behavior – why do consumers behave a specific way, why and how are habits formed,…
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How to save the Boiling Frog?
We have all heard about the boiling frog phenomenon – Put a frog in boiling water and it would immediately jump out. Instead keep a frog in cold water and heat the water slowly, the frog would just boil to death. While I don’t know if this experiment was ever done or not (one guy actually…
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Recommended feature for Google Maps Application
Gratitude First – I am really thankful for Google for the traffic layer on its Maps application. Like most others in Delhi, I have become a regular Google Maps user now, checking the traffic updates and choosing the route that I should take to reach my destination. So much so, that my driver also insists…
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Prediction comes true – In-site search market heating up
Not so long ago, I had written a blog post on why Bing should focus on in-site search as a way to fight Google’s stranglehold on the search space. While no one at Bing or Google heard me out on this, Techcrunch now reports on how this space is heating up. Two start-ups have already…
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Are commission based channels low on trust
In US car salesmen are amongst the least trusted professionals. On digging deeper one finds that they share these low rankings with advertising professionals, stockbrokers, insurance salesmen and surprisingly politicans too (Members of Congress, Senators and Governors). Have a look at the Gallup report summary below: While there must be multiple reasons for people to…
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Simplest way to build trust and confidence
Many a times, we face a situation where we feel that our team members do not have trust and confidence in us or each other. Whether its a corporate set-up or the political leadership of a country or a sporting team, trust and confidence are the key ingredients for a motivated spirited performance. And I…
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Basics of Mobile Payments
Understanding the basics of Mobile Payments required me to find answers to these questions. What is a mobile payment What are the formats/models of mobile payment What is the infrastructure required for mobile payment Are mobile payments secure? What are the security measures adopted?