GPTs won’t makes sales more efficient according to…
What comes to your mind when you think of the word sales? For me it was: “Sell me this pen!!!!”
Mango with her suitcase full of treats
This changed when I read Gap Selling by Keenan a few weeks ago.
This short story is about a saleswoman called Mango, selling software to veterinary clinics all over the world. I employ Keenan’s techniques to showcase key elements to a sales process. I then use this as a basis to state that generic content will not lead to increased efficiency or closure rates. This is my opinion as an outsider to the sales world.
How does Mango approach a potential client?:
Mango sends out a cold email to a client. The client is a well-know veterinary group based in Asia. This is an excerpt of her email:
“Research shows that veterinary clinics in Asia of a similar size like yours have to tackle with excessive administration tasks that lead to burnouts and increased stress among the vets. This leads to 15% in lost revenue annually. That is close to $10M in earnings for companies of your size!
If this is something you would like to solve, I would love to spend some more time understanding your business and processes.”
She focuses on solving their problem. She does not focus on her product. A problem drives a sale. Diagnose the customers problem and understand the impact the problems have on its business.
Mango’s Discovery:
Once she gets her first meeting, she does not start talking about her solution. She digs in deep into understanding the customer’s problems and finding out the value that could be unlocked. Discovery is key. She asks questions that generate more information. She starts asking questions in this format: “Tell me about …”, “Help me understand…”, “Could you walk me through…”, “Could you please describe…”
You are no longer selling a product or service, you are selling a desired outcome. You are selling their ability to accelerate growth. This also means you can’t send out pricing without discovery!
Does Mango introduce her solution on the first call?:
Mango always splits her discovery and pitch. Her discovery call is to focus on the customer and get to know their biggest problems and qualify the client. Each client has different problems. Doing a demo without even knowing which features are key to a particular client would be a mistake.
Once she knows every important detail about her client and has a $ figure on potential value that the client could make/save from using the tool, she demos. She focuses on the features that solve that particular clients problems and that’s it.
Value = Offer (Additional income generated) - Ask (cost of SaaS tool)
How does Mango address the status quo bias (lethargy to change):
There are 6.8 decision makers for every sale. It’s tough to get someone to change even when there is revenue to be made.
Mango knows so much about her prospect that she can put a $ number to the value generated. The prospect and Mango together calculated the value to be $15M in earnings. But Mango knows better. She knows that the client still has to go through several processes in order to get this approved. In addition, the implementation process involves multiple individuals and departments.
So the prospect goes dark. Mango send out an email that has the following: “I’m confused…you said that if we implement our solution you would go from $XX million in revenue to $XY million in revenue within 18 months. So I am surprised I haven't heard from you. Has something changed? Have you solved your problem or got another solution?
Mango encourages them. Mango reinforces the gap and focuses on their current and future state.
Is Mango interested in making her clients like her?
The best paper salesman in the world, Michael Scott from Dunder Mifflin Inc. believed that sales is a lot about people. The show focused on this persona but also brilliantly captured the methodology we’ve read in this blog. In one of the episodes, he asked the prospect what is most important to them - the prospect responded saying cost and great customer service. Michael then provided the prospect with value. He made a call to his customer service (Kelly) in front of him and it was answered within seconds. He showed value, sold the gap and closed the deal. He didn’t want to be liked in that meeting and didn’t focus on that either. Focus on your relationships but that alone will not take you far.
One of my favourite lines: Focus on the next yes - sales cycle should be like a rising staircase. Every single yes you hear, is a small sale. A big sale is a 100 small sales.
This story about Mango leads to my conclusion. Every step that Mango took needed customisation and thinking. It wasn’t generic and if anything, it was simple with no fluff. Your customers are not bots (as of April 2024) and hence I believe that brilliantly drafted generic emails will not lead to an increased response rate.
I hope I’ve inspired a few of you to get this book, which has so much more information and tactics that you can implement beyond just a sales cycle.
Building a stronger mindset: What I learned from a marathon I never intended to complete
Would you think running a full marathon without any training is achievable? Allow me to paint a wilder picture in your minds - would you be able to run a full marathon and drink wine multiple times in between the race? If you can pull off the Barney Stinson, sign-up for the most fun marathon ever and skip this story! However, if you have cause for reasonable doubt, read on!
This blog is about what went through my mind in the course of this race and drawing parallels to some theories from books and the movie Dune. My motivation behind writing this story is to show you that you can reach beyond your potential - by training your subconscious. I have split this story by turning points in my first ever marathon. But first,
Does 5K mean year 5000? This was me at the start of the year 2023. I really had no experience running besides chasing my dog. But all of this changed in 2023. My partner and I would run frequently in the forests of a french town in France where I did my MBA. We frequently did 5Ks. She then thought I could train myself (magically?) in the summer to run a marathon. Not just a simple marathon but a marathon with copious amounts of wine, cheese, oysters, and runners wearing costumes (see images below!). Of course, I did not train in the summer or think it was achievable.
The Start (Your thinking based on past performance and history - your anchor):
The stage is set, people ready to drink wine in beautiful Bordeaux with crisp air inviting warmth. My partner and I planned to run a 10K, drink a lot more wine and be in awe of the chateaus. To bring context in the real world, we usually perform tasks or activities with a certain target in our minds and anchor ourselves to it. This was me doing that. I was running with my partner, who unlike me is really into running and other weird races - she completed the iron man a few years ago. So I started the race as I set my goal to achieving a 10K with a strong positive mindset.
Reaching 10K (Your thinking based on what you think is achievable):
As we completed 10K, I felt great. I thought that was achievable at the start of the race and I maintained that frame of mind. I also thought it was the most I could. As I finished the 10K (wine count: 4), it struck me that I have no idea what will happen to me if I carry on running. I became fearful. Thoughts turned instantly negative. Isn’t this also how we think in our daily lives? We look for things we want to do, assess, think, think, think and then before you know it, we are focusing on all the negative scenarios that could possibly occur.
In this moment, my partner mentioned a scenario where we would just run as much and enjoy the process. I told that to my myself a couple times and went on. Joseph Murphy in The Power of your Subconscious Mind says that once a seed of a thought has been planted and if you keep thinking about it, it will grow. That’s what happened. I kept telling myself in my head, over and over again that I can go a bit more and so I did…
Reaching 21K (Your thinking based on the immediate past and battling a rational brain):
I’m dumbfounded, drenched, and dehydrated. I couldn’t believe what just happened. This is after having 11 tastings of wine along the way. In fact, I felt better running between 10-21K than I did when I ran from 5-10K. Rationally, I should’ve been more tired now than I was at 10K. But I wasn’t. I had more wine by now than I did at 10K. Morgan Housel, author of best-sellers The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever, talks about how the world is driven by forces that cannot be measured. He gives an example of a physiologist who does a lot of math to calculate how fast a man can run and tried to use it to predict race winners. But on the racetrack, these calculations had zero ability to predict race winners. Why? Because performance is not based on what you’re physically capable of. It’s what you are capable of within the context of what your brain is willing to ensure for the risk and reward in the given moment. I was in that moment at my peak performance as my brain kept getting constant positive reward signals. I went on…
Reaching 35K (Your thinking based primarily on motivation and positive feedback):
Every km is taking longer and longer now. From 21K to 35K, I was getting weaker mentally. I was certain the organisers miscalculated distances between each km. As I mentioned earlier, this was in the truest sense a real marathon. This meant it had a pace cart. I had no idea what a pace cart meant until it showed up. A pace cart is what you need to be ahead of to be considered a valid runner. As it came neck-to-neck, my partner told me what it could mean if we were to fall behind the cart. Morgan in the book Same as Ever, talks about how incentives are the most powerful force in the world. Indeed, at that time, my incentive to be ahead of the pacer was extremely high. Humans are prone to such emotions (pride in this case). When failure stares at you so intensely and closely, you are incentivised to act. My thoughts again turned to just run. My thoughts were focused on this new threat and that’s pretty much all I focused on until I got to 35K. I can imagine you would have instances in your life where you have performed extremely well or as my consulting friends call it - efficient and effective - in times of stress or threats. A lot of my performance depended on my mental state. Joseph Murphy says it best - the subconscious mind is amenable to suggestion and is controlled by your suggestion.
Just in case you are curious to know how my partner was doing: she was sipping on full-bodied wines, eating cheese, oysters, and going back and forth to get more wine! I decided to be a teetotaller after completing 21K. Choose your battles.
Reaching 41K:
There are a few things that define you. I’ve faced many failures in my life. I know for a fact, that each one of you too has faced multiple failures. But this is what defines us. Grit. This is what powered me along in the last few kms of the race. But it was not enough…it never was.
Fin line in sight (I didn’t even have proper running shoes - just gym shoes!)
Reaching the Finish Line:
The last kilometre was a long windy tarmac path to the finish line. If there was something that was constant through the last 21K of the race was my partner’s encouragement and positive thoughts. I didn’t realise how critical her words were to get me through the finish line. Only after reading books and research studies after, I realised her impact. Her constant words of encouragement were communicated to my subconscious repeatedly and my body reciprocated. If I remove my partner’s encouragement from this race, I would have forfeited a long time ago.
The mental affirmation:
The conclusion to this story is for you to encourage yourself, think and train your mind to achieve what you wish to envision. Find yourself someone who can motivate and encourage you consistently. Do not fear. Joseph Murray in the book talks about fear. He says that fear is a thought in your mind and you are afraid of your own thoughts. Even in the blockbuster Dune series, Paul’s mother Lady Jessica emphasises how fear is just a thought in your mind and it can be conquered.
Train your mind consistently like a marathon.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration. I will face my fear and I will permit it to pass over me and through me”
Book Recommendations:
The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy |
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman |
Same as Ever by Morgan Housel |
The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy | Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman | Same as Ever by Morgan Housel |
The Indian Belly and $$$ Billion Protein Opportunity (or not?)
Long read (10 minutes)
I am a Gujarati boy and I love my Gujarati daal (sweetened split chickpea soup). I suspect it probably has an equal amounts of jaggery and chickpea. This sweetened jaggery daal was for a long time my idea of the best source of protein in a vegetarian diet. Like me, you too most likely have a favourite daal and you’ve also been told that this is a great source of protein. But today, I will show you through data and research - inherent protein deficits in an Indian vegetarian diet, why we are prone to the Indian belly (also called skinny-fat), my thoughts on the next superfood (no, it’s not a nut, seed, lab-grown, or generated by a chat-bot), and as a thank you gesture for reading my article - desserts that are a high source of protein.
My partner, in her first visit to India, pointed out how almost everyone she looks at has a belly. That got me to zoom in on peoples’ bellies every time I walked the noisy streets of Mumbai. After getting dizzy with all the belly-dancing around me, I looked for a more stable approach. A government survey from 2021 says over 56% women and 47% men have a high risk waist to hip ratio. On top of that, over 80% of Indians aren't even aware we face a protein-deficit in our diets in the first place.
I recently acquired the Indian belly too. This is what peaked my interest to find out more about our diets and evaluate if there is an opportunity in the protein consumption story in India. What I found out was the following: we eat too many carbs on a daily basis in our home diets (vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals). Even four small chapatis is 400 calories of carbs (excluding the generous clarified butter we add in). While, we probably have just one bowl of daal. Our proportions are all wrong. This is one of the main reasons why we have this body type - skinny fat. Gurinder, founder of South Asian Strong, does a really good job of explaining this body-type.
Why should you care?
Because you are naturally prone to being skinny fat and less healthy. Indians are fatter across all income segments. Indians are more diabetic than they’ve ever been. Even though we eat a lot and can afford quite a bit more than we could a decade ago, our protein consumption hasn’t really gone up. A recent study stated problems at two ends - 80 million are currently obese in India and we suffer from high undernutrition because of low dietary diversity in both poor and rich households.
The rationale for low protein consumption is usually attributed to being a poor nation that doesn’t have enough income to consume protein on a daily basis. This argument works for meat-consuming households. I don’t think it could work for a country that is a minimum 39% vegetarian. India also consumes tremendous amounts of pulses and the fact is households will continue to stay away from meat even with the rise in per capita income. So there needs to be a way to solve this consumption gap beyond just getting richer as a nation (China for example in the last decade). This is the Indian vegetarian population under 64:
So how much protein do we need and what are we getting (rich and poor)?
We’ve been told lentils/legumes are full of protein… and even nuts. To get the amount of protein we need a day (Indian regulation says 0.8g per kilo weight; general consensus is a minimum of 1g per kilo weight; current Indian ratio is 0.6g per kilo weight - that's 25% to 40% less than optimal), we would have to eat 3-4 bowls of my sweet daal or several bowls of peanuts. Like I highlighted earlier, the proportion of the meal is not optimal nor balanced.
So how do we break this status quo barrier in our households, urban and rural?
Indian households are familial. As you are well aware, the kitchen is a zone that has a few generals. To win this war, we need to educate our generals. If you are a millennial living with your family, the chief general in the kitchen is not going to listen to you either. Try me. It’s going to take a mammoth policy change from the government and shift its focus away from pulses. We have been focused on pulses far too long. India consumes over half of the world’s pulses. The production of pulses has grown slower than the population, resulting in a steady decline in their per capita availability and consumption over the last five decades.
Between now and 2050, there is a large protein gap that needs to be filled. But I think it’s going to be really tough to address this market opportunity. The opportunity:
$90B protein consumption gap today |
$600B Protein consumption gap in 2050 |
$90B protein consumption gap today | $600B Protein consumption gap in 2050 |
Ideal weight is prescribed by the National Institute of Nutrition; even though the Indian government prescribes 0.8g of protein for every kg of an adult, I have assumed 1g for every kg of an adult as the ideal weight is far from the true weight of an Indian adult. I couldn’t find statistics on the average weight of an Indian. Price of protein per gram has been taken as an average and assumed to grow at a CAGR of 4% until 2050. Egg has not been considered but shown for comparison. The market estimation is done on the gap as I have assumed it is the gap that will address the non-pulses segment.
Now that it’s established that it's a humongous opportunity. Is it really an opportunity?
Let’s think of our household lunch and dinner. Everything on the plate is commoditized and regulated.
In addition, Paneer and dairy supplements (whey) is a highly fragmented, over-competitive space with little innovation.
So we need to either add, substitute or complement our plate with a protein component in the coming decades. This is why I personally don’t believe there will be an opportunity to create a large scale product-focused company…except maybe:
Tempeh. Tempeh is an Indonesian preparation that is basically fermented soy beans. It has a good shelf life and is neither processed nor does it have a daily intake limit like soya chunks. After having consumed Tempeh for nearly a month now, I believe this is a product that has potential to scale and innovate. Tempeh unlike other protein products, imbibes all our Indian spices and doesn’t taste like meat. Tempeh in India is still at the nascent stage with Hello Tempeh and Tempeh Today being at the forefront of this revolution. Tempeh Today, promoted by Netherlands based producer Schouten, will launch 100 small-scale fermentation units in India in the next 5 years. Tempeh needs the push that Soya chunks received and needs to be addressed in governmental policy to bridge our conusumption gap.
Bonus:
I promised to share names of Indian desserts with high protein. Times of India has been silly enough to provide you with such a dream…
Select list of interesting reads used to write this story:
Observer Research Foundation: India compared with other markets on rise in protein consumption
National Family Health Survey 2019-2021
Tata-Cornell Institute: Reducing the risks for obesity by 2050
Sharks and Stocks: The Modern Portfolio Theory
100 million sharks each year are killed for their fins, as bycatch and a bunch of other silly reasons…but
The odds of being killed by drowning in your bathtub are 1 in 840,000
The odds of being killed by an asteroid are 1 in 1.9 million… and
The odds of being killed by a shark are 1 in 7 million
Even after several years, the perception that sharks are mighty dangerous shows to prove how difficult it is to change the status quo.
I will however do my bit and share a bloody (not) experience in Fuvahmulah, an island literally on the equator and part of the island nation - Maldives (in case you like hovering over google maps like I do - https://goo.gl/maps/1TaTUjSFJLGRTpeU8)
I was lucky to witness an age-old relationship between the locals and sharks surrounding this isolated island in Maldives. The fishermen on that island catch tuna and other local fish using traditional fishing methods (no large-scale fishing trawls, fishing nets or the likes). The local fishermen get off their dinghis, the sun gleams through the harbour sparkling the palm trees, moving towards the small market near the harbour. After their daily sales to the salami lovers, the fishermen naturally generate a lot of fish scrap (for example the tuna heads) that needs to get recycled back into the ecosystem.
What do you think happens next?
The fishermen discard this scrap back into the water surrounding the harbour. In a short whiel, huuuuuge tiger sharks ascend from the depths…
Having four-five of these 20-feet beasts lurking around you is exactly what you’d expect in a National Geographic documentary and not in reality! Tiger Sharks are known to be very inquisitive and love a good staring competition. One did come seriously close to me… right until I couldn’t stare at Pirate (the dive instructors have named them all) any longer, and then she gracefully swirled away. Unreal.
Coming back to tackling this status quo bias - the relationship between the locals and sharks is sacrosanct. The locals on the island tell me that they never caught sharks even when they can easily do so and make $$$$$, albeit for a short-term.
So do these locals at Fuvah have some rationale for not fishing these sharks? Is there a status quo that they have been attuned to? It is very likely that their ancestors knew the importance of sharks in keeping the ecosystem throbbing.
Finally, I would like to draw an interesting parallel that I thought of a few days ago. Let us look at Sharks as an asset in the portfolio of all the fish species in the ocean. What role does the Shark play in this portfolio? Sharks form the crux of the portfolio because they hold minimum risk and maximize returns. Am I making this claim out of fin air? Several studies have shown that sharks are crucial to the survival of the ocean ecosystem, a claim even acknowledged on the recent Netflix documentary, Seaspiracy.
So, the question remains - how do we save our sharks?
You’ve definitely noticed this in your city
A long long time ago, as I walked past the road leading to my grandparents home, I noticed something very ordinary - two chemist shops operating side by side - but still made me ‘Michael Scott’ level inquisitive. Why were they operating next to each other? Back in the day, I would usually confront my elder cousin with some of my questions - whether we could print money at home to get rich, how could we buy an F1 car, and the sorts. I don’t really remember what my cousin responded to this question, maybe he made something up, but it didn’t calm my inquisitiveness. The question remained unanswered… however, through the years, I still remembered this one point… why couldn’t the two shops be on two ends of the road?
Wouldn’t that just be better? Don’t you think you would be better off at one end of the road, away from your competitor (selling the same products at exactly the same price), than being right beside him?
In 2013, I chanced onto the Ed-Tech platform Coursera. Back then it was still at its nascent stage and I was curious to explore this new dimension of learning. So I did a few courses in Finance (that made it crystal clear why printing money indiscriminately will actually make me poor) and chanced to learn a bit on Game Theory. Voila.
That’s when I learned the answer to my age-old question: It is actually most profitable (in equilibrium) when both shops are side by side as against when both are on two sides of the same road. Why? Because of a Noble winning concept called Nash Equilibrium, named after Mathematics genius John Forbes Nash Jr. This is how marketplaces (online and offline) are eventually created, as more and more competitors come and set up shops side by side to eventually build a vibrant market!
I’d like to leave you with one final thought - next time don’t always learn or approach something with one or two pre-defined goals. Keep an open mind. You cannot fathom or compute the independent variables that can influence and affect our lives.
To those who are curious, one definition of Nash Equilibrium: “The Nash equilibrium is a decision-making theorem within game theory that states a player can achieve the desired outcome by not deviating from their initial strategy. In the Nash equilibrium, each player's strategy is optimal when considering the decisions of other players.”
Confusing? Try this: https://www.gametheory.net/Mike/applets/PDilemma/Pdilemma.html
Still not convinced? Learn some: https://www.coursera.org/learn/game-theory-1
Are you reading this on a weekend? Watch: A Beautiful Mind
My experience as a lecturer: Millennial to Gen-Z
Visualize this: You are sitting on your favourite bench along with your friends in a fun class in college. What is the first memory that comes up? I bet these still are one of your most memorable moments in life. I have learned a lot in my college years, both inside and outside of the classroom. During my undergraduate years, I learned more through experience than through the textbook. This was around 10 years ago.
Seven years later. I was entrusted to impart some gyaan (knowledge!) to young students. I was bloody nervous. I presumed teaching would be easy. But while I walked the hallway, all the bad outcomes blurred my thinking - how would students perceive a 27-year-old lecturer… what if I slip-up when I begin my first class… what if I can’t answer questions thrown at me… what if there’s no discipline and zero interest from my students…?
From anxiety and nervousness, sweat patches and body sore, I was in a completely new environment. What did I do to counter this? I had to build interest in what some people find boring - Finance.
From book giveaways (non-fiction books - read my blog on Human Psychology) to watching Netflix documentary shows in class (Dirty Money for instance) - blending modern with traditional - drawing on real-world instances of corporate governance flaws with theoretical insights. This is what helped build passion a strong student community. I learned to lead students in the right direction by being humble, patient, and always ready to listen. It took me several hours of effort but it is all worthwhile when I hear that my class is loved the most! Truly, leadership is not taught. It is experienced through different situations thrown at you at different times. Do things differently is a cliché. But this is what flexes our brains to think!
Passing thoughts: Think of ways in which you can give back and act as a force multiplier.
My Foxy Start-Up Crash
Background - Big numbers:
There is over a trillion dollars in student loan debt in just the United States of America.
India’s GDP is approximately 2.9 trillion dollars.
Loan History:
After the financial crisis of 2009, non-mortgage component of consumer credit played a significant role. Post 2012, there was more than 1 student loan for every mortgage loan. This ratio continues to increase.
My journey:
Back in 2013-14, I was exposed to several different options of studying abroad. I needed to understand the fuss around this and get the math to make some sense. We students were all told the several positives of studying abroad and we were obviously enamored! But no one gave us an analytical approach to showcasing our cash outflows and its long-term implications.
I come from a middle-class family, like many of us! Money is central to every decision we make. We need it most desperately to increase our standard of living and we use it most prudently to insure ourselves against adversity.
Thankfully, I learned about capital budgeting and core financial concepts around the same time in college. This got me thinking… I wondered whether I could build an analytical tool that could be self-intuitive to me and my classmates. I had no knowledge in coding (read my blog about the un-engineered to get a little tech guidance) but I had MS Excel! I built my model on Excel and hustled my way into launching an online version of my edu tool – Fox Counsel. It is a study-abroad calculator that adds up all the expenses one can and cannot foresee to give an estimated pay-back period. It truly was and I believe still is a novel concept. I tried hard to market it (almost for free) and generated great momentum.
But did I have any experience running a company? Running a business post building the product? I learned my way to market and build connections. However, not enough to create a sustained momentum. I featured in several online digital platforms and offline newspapers (all for free) but I did not have a strong vision. Why was it so? I simply lacked experience. After several years of working in the field of early-stage growth investments, I definitely am armored to level max. Still I don’t regret the timing of it. Nor do I regret failing.
Finally I’d like to leave you with a phrase: Don’t give up. Start.
Check it out: www.foxcounsel.com
Tech for the Un-engineered
This writing is for those who seek redemption! For those who see the following requirements in their dream job:
Min Qualification – Graduate from a top-tier Engineering institute
This isn’t to diss Engineering programs or their students. However, it is to bring in a sense of reality amongst us others who are competing alongside them for similar jobs.
How can we differentiate ourselves if we want to step into the tech world – be it in any industry? How can we build an edge over the others?
Tech is not going way. It is only going to take a larger piece of the cake and also make the cake even more voluminous. I would like to put a disclaimer here that I have not worked in a tech company yet. I have however worked with and invested in a few of them and currently pursuing a program in data science. More on that later…
So, to everyone else – do not lose hope! There is between 40%-50% employment in the tech-space for non-engineers. Be it product manager, strategy, marketing, operations, business development, or accounting. The possibilities are wide and varied. What I would like to urge you to do is to have a general understanding of the industry and sub-industry (for example):
Technology
Fin-Tech
Robo-Advisory
So how do we go about this when we have no practical experience? We need to start with theoretical knowledge that can form a base for you to work on practical examples and in-turn help dig for more information. To give you an example, I was researching about Robo-advisory and I found a beautiful course on Coursera that gives an amazing background on this space with several case-studies. That got me to further read-up on the examples shared and through this I discovered several other companies in this space. Take that FIRST STEP!
This push and pull technique of gathering information can be used with several other ways to build the necessary acumen. Further, given that technology’s main goal is to make life simpler, having a real passion and sense of understanding of your purpose in your dream company can help truly sync your goals with those of the companies.
Coming to the real deal:
There are ample data science and analytics courses out there. I have thoroughly studied and researched several. These made my shortlist: IIT Roorkee and TSW, IIIT and UpGrad, Eruditus and IIT Delhi, Great Lakes/UT Austin and Great Learning
Coursera has several courses on Fin-Tech and Technology. This is one I did: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/wharton-fintech
Nein! Das ist nicht Richtig!
Take a crack at yelling out these words:
Kaftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung
Freundschaftsbezeugung
Siebentausendzweihundertvierundfünfzig
According to one definition of “Outliers”: An outlier is an observation that lies an abnormal distance from other values in a random sample from a population.
So what am I getting at here? I want to share my perspective on what you are already aware of - the importance of understanding and knowing the local language and culture. Through my travels around the world, I have noticed how it helps build positive engagements with people and afford us a greater sense of security and camaraderie. Cultures are different so people are bound to be different. It is the outliers that we must discount and stay away from generalizations.
So why do I learn German? I was ridiculed back in the day when I spent days and weeks learning the German language (I read and watched a lot of documentaries on WWII which then got me intrigued about this language early-on). I was told that this language is hardly spoken outside Germany and has no world appeal. This did not bother me because I did not look at it in this way.
But what I wanted was an alternative approach to a history class. You can learn a lot about a country and its culture through its language – people, cities, the love for wurst (sausage), approach to life, its relationship with neighbouring countries - and it becomes even more interesting when you complement learnings with shows and movies. This has made me love the language even more and I continue to learn in my free time.
So don’t be constricted in how you shape your life. Try to find reason.
Take that first step and learn what you think is richtig! You can start now on Duolingo, Babbel or the several other mobile apps and websites. Almost free ways to take your first step:
Watch foreign shows and movies
Find Instagram and Facebook accounts that focus on language learning, culture and life in that country
Take a trial Duolingo/online course
Ocean, Oil, and Osmosis
Let’s start off with a list of your top 5 cities in the world. How many of them were on the coast? All of them, maybe?
Well, we all love the view of the horizon. With this short story on oil, our travel buddy, let us examine exactly why an international lock down has heaved such a sigh of relief across natural ecosystems of the world and in particular the oceans. (fact check: there is truly only one global ocean on Earth).
Our first departure is to the historic Mediterranean Sea. Though the Mediterranean Sea accounts for only one percent of the world’s ocean surface, 22 percent of the planet’s oil travels across the Mediterranean each year. Untreated or inadequately treated sewage flows into the Mediterranean waters from more than 120 coastal cities and each year thousands of tons of industrial waste and agricultural chemicals reach the sea.
Now let’s ship across to Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Singapore, which is located on the Strait of Malacca’s eastern end, is one of the world’s largest refinery centers. Along with refinery operations come the inevitable spills and accidents at coastal docking operations.
Flying to the EU countries (albeit skipping UK for now) is everyone’s dream! The European continental shelf has been a commercial hustler since a long time now. To date, the North Sea is one of the busiest marine regions. However, we are just not aware of the physical stress pushed down onto our ocean. Since the industrial revolution, this region contains the largest assemblage of industrial plants on earth, accounting for 15 percent of the world’s industrial output.
From everyone’s dream to the dream maker - The Persian Gulf. Its coastline is one of the most rapidly developing regions on earth due to its central role in global oil production and shipment. Life-giving estuaries, coral reefs and tidal communities are replaced by the infrastructure required to support oil production and an ever-growing population. So where does all the fresh water come from? The region has the world’s largest concentration of desalinization plants. The residual stuff goes right back into the gulf and disturbs the entire ecosystem. A major and unique issue with this gulf is its shallow depth and small size. 60 percent of the world’s oil production sails though this bottleneck!
And finally, we visit the pristine Caribbean. Sun, Surf, Sand, and Oil Platforms - more than 2,000 fixed offshore oil platforms garland the US Gulf of Mexico waters and counting!
There are some who have a unison view that oil spills are to blame, for most part, to the deteriorating ocean ecosystem. Surprisingly, oil spills account for just 5% of the oil entering the aquatic environment. As we’ve seen through our travels in this story, most oil enters the aquatic environment from land-based sources and effluent (dirty stuff) from wastewater treatment plants.
For now, travel has hit the pause button. This has given nature much needed time to rewind. There is neither a need to eliminate our use of oil nor a need to encourage a ban on oil or any of its byproducts. This episode in our lives, a pause, has showcased the importance of prudence in our overall consumption. Let’s extend that to oil. We must help the ocean continue to rewind even as we transition back to normalcy.
Let’s be guests to our travel buddy - oil. Let us not be mere consumers.
The fun stuff:
Virtual Dives: Interested to see WWII remnants underwater? The Pacific was a theater for some of the greatest battles of World War II. See the remnants of war as they stand today. Is Raja Ampat your dream dive destination? Coral reefs in Raja Ampat have a higher diversity of coral and reef fish species than anywhere else in the world. Take the giant stride from home:
https://theoceanagency.org/oceanedu
A Bathroom Escapade: Let’s flush some things permanently:
https://www.cleanseas.org/features/whats-your-bathroom
Glowing corals: Glowing corals are a highly visual sign of climate change. This organization is using colors to warn us:
https://www.glowing.org/the-warning
The inspiration for this story comes entirely from my readings of the Project Aware Book - “Our World Our Water.”
Innovation and Venture Investments during and after WWII
The Allies (Britain, France, former Soviet Union, and the United States) in 1940 were left off guard when the German Wehrmacht’s Panzer Division cut across through the thick forests of the Ardennes.
A little history to set the background. The United States neglected military preparedness and was left to quickly assimilate and strategize if the United States were to play an active role in the ensuing war. After Pearl Harbor, the United States formally entered the War. The military war supply turned out to be the most serious challenge. The United States had a large reserve of human capital. However, it lacked to meet the supply of a basic war machine – The Truck. Tapping on its immense human capital, the United States enlisted Mr. Charles Doriot to head the Production Expediting Section in the Procurement Control Branch. Charles Doriot was a Frenchman who came to the United States as a student and eventually became a professor at Harvard Business School. He taught the Manufacturing course at Harvard Business School. Doriot was known to be a great task-master who was always seen in a suit. Even so, his students had to wear one!
Coming back to our pre-war discussion, Doriot was keen to play a role in the war. However, the French neglected his technical and operating prowess. As the United States offered him a more relevant post, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Quartermaster Corps. This sets our background in history and Doriot.
Doriot: The operational machine himself
One of his foremost challenges was the inadequate capacity of trucks. Given his family legacy rooted in automobiles and his studies at Harvard of the automobile industry, Doriot was an ideal candidate to estimate the needs and to size the capacity of finished vehicles, components, and replacements parts. In the second half of 1941, most carmakers were failing to reach half their production targets. The US Army and US Navy were also at odds to control manufacturing at a few auto plants. The American private auto company plants - Chrysler, Ford, General Motors (all headquartered in Detroit) – with their current operations could not meet the requirements of the army. So far, the Army was operating these factories and the auto companies sat back. Doriot proposed an interesting strategy. He acknowledged that the army was in no position to run the auto business. Doriot decided to turn the tables. He wanted the auto companies to be liable and responsible for productions targets. To the extent that he even suggested that Mr. Ford personally be given full charge and responsibility for manufacturing as many trucks as the army needs in his plants. Through this, Doriot built a “speedy” relationship with Detroit. This renewed faith and responsibility of the automakers led to production targets being met and more importantly, ended the Great Depression (unemployment rates at the end of 1941 was at a decade low of less than 10 percent). With this short-term goal fulfilled, a more pressing issue came to light. What about the all-important tires that go onto each truck?
In December 1941, the Japanese Army invaded the rubber-rich islands of Malaya and Indonesia. The United States could build trucks. But how could the trucks function without tires? According to Doriot, the United States would be left without rubber by mid-1943. The United States undertook a massive program recommended by Doriot. Apart from gas rationing and forbidding sale of new tires, the United States Government invested $700 million in fifty-one plants over two years to create an altogether new industry of Synthetic Rubber. Some of the other equipment’s developed under Doriot at war-speed included water-repellent fabrics and shoes, backpacks, insecticides, sunscreen, and plastic armour. Doriot also founded a European business school. More on that later on in this story…
Doriot: The Venture Capitalist
“Always consider investing in a grade-A man with a grade B-idea. Never invest in a grade-B man with a grade-A idea” - Charles Doriot
Soon after the war, Doriot founded the American Research & Development (ARD) Investment Company. With his learnings leaned from the war, he realized the potential and need to invest in young, new companies that are trying to create a niche for their products. In a sense, Doriot founded a venture capital firm (possibly the first) with external investors on-board.
He held a simple investment philosophy – analyze and study potential companies, steer the companies, and be patient. In the 1949 ARD Annual Report, Doriot said – “An average idea in the hands of an able man is worth much more than an outstanding idea in the possession of a person with only average ability”. With his leadership, Doriot was able to generate superior investment returns for his investors (for my fellow investment pundits – Doriot generated alpha over its benchmark Dow Jones Index) in ARD’s 21-year history! Let’s discuss one such investment. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). DEC started from a garage and went on to successfully compete with IBM in a short span of 10 years. What worked for DEC is that it challenged the mindset of consumers and went against IBM and other similar companies with seemingly nonchalant products. Back in the 1960s, a computer was considered a serious machine used only for serious tasks. It had no business playing The Beatles! DEC challenged this mindset when it launched the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1). PDP-1 was an interactive computer that would be easy to install and use and be sold at a fraction of the cost of an IBM machine. In a sense, PDP-1 liked The Beatles! Doriot understood businesses, people, and products.
Coming back to the school that Doriot established in Europe. He founded the Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires in 1959. Still doesn’t ring a bell? INSEAD!
On the other side, we had the Axis Power – Japan
Just as with most people today, playing cards was associated with gambling in Japan.
To this effect, Japan had banned Hanafuda – flower cards - so called because the twelve different suits are represented by flowers. However, in late nineteen century, Japan lifted this ban to accommodate the growing western influence in its culture. To take advantage of this, a playing cards company was founded in 1889. In 1950, the founder’s great grand-son took over the operations of the business. Let’s name the great grand-son, Mario.
Mario’s company losing steam:
After World War II and in the 1960s, Japanese adults were turning to pachinko parlors (slot machines) and bowling alleys! Mario’s company was losing steam. Mario decided to venture into different businesses from food, taxi fleets to love hotels. This jaded vision got the company knee deep in debt. Mario sought engineering graduates to help create value. To his surprise, most top engineering graduates eyed big Tokyo companies. Mario’s company lacked everything these graduates eyed. Eventually, Mario hired a young local electronics graduate, Gunpei Yokoi. Gunpei had struggled through his degree and got no offers from top companies. Gunpei worked in the maintenance department in Mario’s company. Gunpei, throughout his life, was an enthusiastic hobbyist and worked on model trains, working on cards, and made things out of working scrap. He eventually led the company to innovate products that would transform the gaming industry in the second half of the twentieth century. His simple philosophy drives the company vision to date. The company in question?
Lateral Thinking: A forgotten skill
Gunpei’s lateral thinking philosophy needs to be given serious thought today. Lateral thinking is basically the re-imagining of information in new contexts, including the drawing together of seemingly disparate concepts that can give old ideas new uses. The heart of his philosophy was putting cheap, simple technology to use in ways no one else considered.
For example, Andy Ouderkirk, a scientist working at 3M, wanted to find a solution to reflect light from a surface at all angles. Until then, Brewster’s law, which stated that no surface could reflect light near perfectly at every angle, was given its due respect and no one really challenged a two-hundred-year-old principle. That’s when Andy was delighted to know that a group of optics specialists assured him that it could not be done. Andy knew that these specialists lacked a breadth of experience. Well, Andy and all the optic specialists in the world had the answer right in front of them every day. Andy looked at the plastic of a water bottle and realized the importance of polymers in light reflection. This led to creating a multi-film optic layer that glittered without bounds. This multi film layer is now used inside cell phones, laptops, LED light bulbs, solar panels, fiber optics, and projectors.
Our Present:
To recap, World War II led to worldwide destruction. World War II also led to an exponential growth in technology and innovation that gave us new household products and even nuclear power. Agile operations and strategies can be developed even when the roads seem the darkest. Innovation does not singularly mean complex ideas and complex machines.
We are at war again. This war is unique. It is a particularly peaceful war, so far! We need to act now to make a difference in our own way. Lessons from these great men in history must guide the inertia in us to higher potential.
I leave you with a few pleasing adverts published during WWII, some of which are relevant today:
The information in this blog is credited to the following sources:
Range by David Epstein
Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital by Spencer E. Ante
National WW2 Museum Website: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war