Venture Realty Capital Back when I worked in the venture capital space, startups always came seeking a lot of investment. Often far more than they needed. We would sit with ventures we thought had some potential, and during the process, break down the investment needs. Eventually, we would arrive at a number that was close…
What qualifies as true innovation? The word ‘innovation’ does get passed around a lot nowadays. From large businesses to startups and perhaps even consultants like myself. If you take a moment to think about it, innovation is not as commonplace as we might assume it is. If you had an almost infinite budget, and you…
Anti-crime colour balls Imagine you are a store manager, and a masked thief has you at gun or knife-point, asking you to empty the cash into his or her bag. How would you recognize the thief outside in a crowd of people? Especially if he or she had an accomplice, and the bag exchanged hands?…
I recently came across an article about an initiative to create awareness about marine pollution. Some folks living close to a beach (can’t seem to find the beach’s location), created a giant, transparent fish. Made of mesh and barbed wire, it had a signboard which read, ‘Goby loves plastic, please feed him.’ It made for…
One of the fundamental ingredients of an impactful innovation or successful design thinking exercise, is empathy. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Often, in our enthusiasm to create something someone (a customer segment, employees, or even society), or to solve a problem for them, we tend to knowingly or unknowingly speed…
Ava and Dr. Jimmy Patell, dear friends of mine, were extremely kind to gift me a poem that they wrote about my book on design thinking, Design the Future. The poem itself is more priceless to me than the book. Really humbling. Here it is. Design the Future, what does it portend What does it…
A racist, I assume, has a more chronic condition of xenophobia, which is dislike of, or prejudice against people from other countries.Because a racist will dislike or prejudice against even fellow citizens of another race.Despite knowing this, the laws in some developed countries still use terms such as Black and White. Makes one wonder if they’re…
The Point of disapPOINTment With our high hopes, we do face the occasional disappointment. Not getting that promotion you worked so hard for. Having to postpone a holiday because of some reason, or difficulty in scheduling a meeting because someone’s too busy. How do you deal with such disappointments? Here’s something I have learnt that…