Does Your Fire Escape Plan Work? Early hours of 29th December saw a horrific fire at a rooftop restaurant in Mumbai. I could hear a continuous stream of distant sirens just before going to sleep. I couldn’t have imagined the extent of death and destruction. The restaurant is a breezy rooftop one, with plenty of…
Vulnerability of Tech Processes and Human Decisions Here are two interesting incidents I came across online in the last week. One, about a seemingly harmless vulnerability in an online service’s process. The other, a possible vulnerability in human decisions in a human-dependent, traditional business. First of, a French literary buff, conducted an interesting experiment. It…
Earlier this year, Tata Motors announced a new brand identity. ‘Connecting Aspirations’. Sounds good, but how well is the company truly connecting aspirations? For many years now, I have wondered why Tata Motors isn’t among the top 2 selling passenger cars in India. Despite being, what I believe, is a company and group that represents…
Can We Easily Spot Left-Brain and Right-Brain Thinkers? Just a thought. And I could be wrong. How can we easily spot a strong left-brain, or a right-brain thinker? In an argument/ discussion between two people with strong, opposing views – is it possible that those who tend to reply almost instantly each time, especially early…
An idea using a Design Thinking mindset, for Tesla’s Supercharging Wait Time Problem Tesla has really transformed the automobile industry, cracking the existing fuel industry and automotive heavyweight nexus. And this is despite the first versions of electric motor driven vehicles dating back to 1828! That’s when Hungarian Ányos Jedlik invented a type of electric…
What the Customer Wants There has been the occasional debate between two schools of thought: You need to ask the customer what he/she wants; and, The customer doesn’t know what he/she wants until we show them (remember ol Steve Jobs?) A bulk of the views I’ve come across so far lie on the side of…
Image: source A Design Question: Turn Indicators on Cars As cars get sleeker, so do its lights. But I’ve noticed that the entire rear light cluster has been shrinking in size on some cars. And in some, the turn indicators are designed or placed in a way that possibly defeats its purpose. A car’s rear…
Ryan International school – Are CCTVs the Best Solution? 5 min. read. When faced with a problem, ideally, we should get to the source of the problem first. Only then can we attempt to solve it. But of course, we all know that! And yet, almost always, we will first react to a problem by…
Fierce Competition A lot of companies face problems from time to time. Let’s focus on problems that are controllable, i.e., outside of those to do with a declining economy, financial meltdowns, etc. In such situations, many business leaders have had to address shareholder concerns. And many of them justify the situation as ‘witnessing fierce competition’,…
Design Thinking: What a Patient Wants Design Thinking is a relatively new concept in many countries including India. It is, however, already some decades old now. And having been practicing it for a few years now, I often get asked what it is about. And for examples of its applications. For starters, design thinking is…