Sudhir Ahluwalia's Blog, page 43

What makes a great digital strategy?

A lot has been written on the subject. Let me present my view on the subject.
Digital technologies are tools for efficiency. They automate business processes, analyze data, communicate, and share data. Digital strategies define the process of deploying technologies to improve business outcomes.
It is the vision, business objective, and strategy of a business that is core to an enterprise. A good digital strategy is that which helps in achieving the business vision. The more aligned the digital strategy is to the business vision, the more effectively the digital tools deployed will perform.
Understanding the enterprise’s business model is also critical before the strategy expert starts preparing a digital strategy. Let me explain this with the help of a few examples.
Elon Musk’s companies – SpaceX and Tesla, operate on an Agile business methodology.
Airbnb has a platform business model. Walmart is a linear business model corporation.
The digital strategy for each of the three companies will naturally be different. The tools will be different.
A good digital strategy, in summary, will be the one that is aligned to the business model, vision, objectives of each one of these companies. It is then that it will help obtain for the companies the desired outcomes.
A digital strategy will be effective and aligned if it is built collaboratively after consultation with all enterprise stakeholders for whom the strategy is intended to be created.

About me:

I am an author and business analyst. I love complex writing work Here is my UPWORK profile.Similar Posts:

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Should obesity be classified as an epidemic in the US?

According to the World Health Organization (2016 figures), there are around 2 billion overweight adults. They estimate that 39% of men and 40% of women age 18 or over were overweight, and 13% of people were obese. An increase in obesity is a rising trend. Obesity has nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016.

If the current trends continue, by 2025, 2.7 billion adults will be overweight, of which 1 billion will be in the obese category. Of these, 177 million adults will be severely affected by obesity.

According to CDC data

The US obesity prevalence was 42.4% in 2017 – 2018.From 1999 –2000 through 2017 –2018, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 42.4%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.

US obesity prevalence is higher than the global average.

The problem of obesity is not just an adult problem but is prevalent amongst children too. WHO has reported that for 2016, 41 million children under 5 years were either overweight or obese? Obesity is rising in all age classes. These are alarming statistics.

Obesity is a complex disease. It appears as a polygenic condition. It is affected by environmental factors (mainly unbalanced dietary patterns and physical inactivity).

Obesity also has a psychological impact. Obese people often suffer from low confidence, depression, and low self-esteem. Other conditions frequently encountered by obese people are breathlessness, increased sweating, snoring, tiredness, joint and back pain, and physical activity difficulty. Obesity is said to reduce life expectancy. The reduction will vary depending on the severity of the condition and its health impact.

By declaring obesity an epidemic in the US -it will lead to more dollars for obesity research, building awareness, and finding solutions.

Reference:

Natural Solution for Obesity Similar Posts:

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Is there a role for yoga and meditation in treating cancer?

Let us look at what scientific studies say about the role of yoga, meditation, and pranayam in treating cancer.

Adjunct treatments include relaxation therapies such as meditation, hypnosis, yoga, art, music, tai chi, and qi gong (Elkins et al., 2010). Fatigue in cancer survivors disrupts normal functioning and quality of life. Nonpharmacologic approaches are being tried to provide relief (Bower et al., 2014).

Ayurveda and TCM emphasize the ability of the body to self-heal. It is now understood that the neural system is constantly going through a cycle of death and renewal. Neurons die, and new neural connections are created. Kandel, the neuropsychiatrist awarded the Nobel Prize in 1990, found that if we do not use neural connections, they begin to shrink and die. We do appear to have the ability to reshape our brains.

Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book—You Are the Placebo—presents numerous case studies on the self-healing ability of the brain (Dispenza, 2014)

Yoga and meditation are emerging as popular nonpharmacologic support treatments in cancer treatment and management. Yoga helps calm the mind and is said to liberate it from suffering.

The reviews showed consistent benefits in improved psychological functioning, reduction in stress symptoms, enhanced feeling of well-being (Ott et al., 2006). A meaningful change was observed in cancer patients who were given meditation sessions (Foley et al., 2010).

Nine studies conducted on cancer patients and survivors showed modest improvements in sleep quality, mood, stress, cancer-related distress, cancer-related symptoms, and overall quality of life (Bower et al., 2005). Breast cancer patients who practiced yoga showed some positive results (Smith et al., 2009; Mustian et al., 2010).

Yoga practices by cancer survivors 65 years and older helped reduce cancer-related physical and mental fatigue and reduced side effects (Sprod et al., 2015). A 7-week yoga program by breast cancer survivors showed improved quality of life and physical parameters (Culos-Reed et al., 2004). Beneficial effects of yoga were observed in patients who had not been exposed to chemotherapy (Moadel et al., 2007).

In the future, this form of health management in which discipline, physical exercises, breathing, and mediation play a part will continue to attract the attention of researchers. As evidence of its efficacy emerges, this has the potential of becoming a separate wellness management stream on its own.

Reading references from my books:

Tri-series on Natural Solutions for Cancer, diabetes, and obesity Similar Posts:

Is Yoga an answer to many a disease?Does mind training help in disease prevention?Can a spiritual healer heal cancer?

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Opportunities in Ayurveda beyond its ancient concepts

Ayurveda is an ancient science that focuses on a holistic lifestyle. Teaching in Ayurveda, unfortunately, is excessively focused on the past. Science in the past 3000 years has added a lot to our understanding of holistic living. There is a crying need to bring modern thinking into the Ayurveda fraternity.

Governments are not designed to move quickly and bring about necessary changes. Instead, change and reform will be brought about by people from within the Ayurveda ecosystem. This includes physicians, manufacturers, policymakers, scientists, and experts in allied fields. Innovation is the key.

Here below are areas for exploration:

Link concepts of Prakriti to modern advances in genetics and epigeneticsThe concepts of doshas, ancient uses of mantras for healing needs to be re-imagined. Linkages between the emerging scientific areas like:the role of the microbiome,psychotherapeutics,neurology

in healing require new and innovative study.

The synergistic interplay between component herbs and minerals in ancient herbal medicine-based formulations needs to be put through random clinical trials and published in reputed scientific journals.

People operating in the Ayurveda ecosystem have a huge opportunity in the 21st century to take themselves and expand the fundamentals of this ancient system forward.

Additional reading link of my books on Amazon:

Sudhir Ahluwalia books Similar Posts:

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Digital transformation is essential to grow a business

Technology is today an integral part of modern society. Don’t many of us feel a bit lost without our mobile phone. Remember Kodak, the photo company and the classic case of its demise.
Sam Walton realized early on in the early phase of growth of Walmart that the company will not be able to sustain itself and grow. It was becoming difficult to supply his stores in time with merchandise, and monitoring performance was becoming more difficult.
He took the digital transformation route. He adopted technology and was one of the first retail store companies that invested heavily in digital technologies. Walmart rapidly left its competitors behind. It has continued on its path of digital transformation and has stayed the market leader in the US and internationally.
Amazon arrived with its platform business model and started disrupting the retail market of the world. Many of the big retail chains that were late in using digital transformation started struggling. Some have been acquired by digital natives like Amazon and a transforming Walmart. Walmart was getting disrupted by Amazon until it caught up and took to the digital route.
Look at another example – SpaceX and Tesla, both of these, have integrated digital into their business model. SpaceX is disrupting the space vehicle business and Tesla the automobile industry. These are two examples of companies that have integrated digital transformation into their business model itself. These are companies that have adopted continuous digital transformation models. The results and pace of growth of these companies are far more than their industry peers.

About the author:

If you are looking for a writer who can undertake complex analyses, you can reach out to me. I love undertaking policy research assignments. Here is my UPWORK link.Similar Posts:

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Is marijuana a cure for cancer?

The marijuana plant is not listed as a medicinal plant for treating cancer either in Ayurveda or in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is recognized as a narcotic in both these ancient medicine systems. Pliny the Elder makes mention of the use of cannabis for pain relief. Sushruta Samhita mentions the use of cannabis as an anti-phlegmatic and as a cure for leprosy.

Marijuana was added as a plant with medicinal value to the US Pharmacopeia in 1850. It is listed as a treatment for neuralgia, tetanus, leprosy, dysentery, uterine bleeding, and many other ailments.

The synthetic form of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol is the bioactive molecule in marijuana) going under the trade name of Marinol was approved for medical use in May 1985 to treat nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.

According to the Indian Central Science and Industrial Research publication, Cannabis plants are used as a tonic, intoxicant, stomachic, anti-spasmodic, analgesic, narcotic, sedative, and anodyne in folk medicine. Seeds and leaves are used to treat cancerous ulcers and tumors.

A US Department of Health and Human Services patent US 6630507 B1 was awarded to Aidan J. Hampson, Julius Axelrod, and Maurizio Grimaldi in October 2003. The abstract citation is reproduced below:

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties unrelated to NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonism. This new-found property makes cannabinoids useful in the prophylaxis of a wide variety of oxidation-associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. Cannabinoids are found to have application as neuroprotectants, for example, in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease Parkinson’s disease, and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention…

Additional reading:

Natural Solutions for Cancer

Asian herbs-and their wondrous health-giving properties Similar Posts:

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Can herbal medicine cure cancers?

I have looked at scientific support for nearly all the major herbs used in Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine formulations for cancer treatment. Many a molecule used in modern medicine today for the treatment of cancers has a herbal origin.

Herbs are often a base for foundational scientific research to test the efficacy of molecules that may promise cancer treatment. Most of these molecules are tested up to the animal trials stage. If they demonstrate scientific promise, the molecules move to drug discovery teams for further human clinical trials.

The evidence on most herbal medicine anti-cancer formulations is tenuous. There are, though, some molecules that hold promise. I am presenting a preview of some of this work below:

Turmeric (curcumin), red chili (capsaicin), cloves (eugenol), ginger (zerumbone), fennel (anethole), kokum (gambogic acid), fenugreek (diosgenin), black cumin (thymoquinone) contain chemicals—shown in the bracket after each herb—that prevent cancer (Aggarwal et al., 2008).

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables are observed to reduce cancer risk in organs such as colorectum, lung, prostate, and breast. This protection is attributed to the high amount of glucosinolates molecules found in such vegetables (Abdull et al., 2013).

Numerous scientific studies have shown that consuming fruits and vegetables may help significantly reduce cancer incidence. Other cancer-preventive molecules identified as chemopreventive include isothiocyanate, genistein, epigallocatechin gallate, lycopene, and resveratrol. The molecules are found in select herbs, fruits, and vegetables. (Russo et al., 2010).

While phytochemicals, which are nonnutritive chemicals found in plants and food, modulate cell signals and cause anticancer effects, the challenge is to develop personalized supplements of specific phytochemicals for each clinical situation (González-Vallinas et al., 2013).

This is the emerging frontier of cancer-preventive research. Anticarcinogenic action is caused by phytochemicals impeding intracellular signals that trigger cancer (Surh, 2003).

In summary, herbal medicine does not have a cure for cancer. Its role is, at best, supportive. There are molecules found in herbs that hold promise for discovering anticancer medicine.

Reference:

Tri-series on natural solutions for cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Similar Posts:

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Management lessons for entrepreneurs from the life of Elon Musk

I have done some research on Elon Musk in the context of business growth cycles. Musk has a startup mindset. He is a person with infinite energy and hugely passionate about emerging technologies. He takes bit bets on businesses that he believes in. He invested his personal funds in SpaceX and came close to bankruptcy. He is an individual with tremendous belief in his capabilities and does not give up.
Is he a rash individual? No, he takes considered decisions, weighs pros and cons before plunging into a venture. Before the launch of SpaceX, he went on a tour to Russia looking to buy a rocket. He refused all deals offered to him there. He found the offers exorbitant, and he did not invest.
Musk is a man of vision. He invested early on into probably the first GPS tracking venture and again into the precursor of PayPal. In each deal, he invested energy, passion, sweat, and money. In each deal, he comes to be a winner who, at each exit, made a considerable amount of money.
Despite his frequent outbursts on social media, his track record tells me that he thinks two steps ahead of most successful entrepreneurs. It is for these qualities he is recognized as one of the greatest inventor entrepreneurs of our times.
If you can emulate his passion, attention to detail, drive, never say die spirit coupled with deep thinking and caution, you will be successful in life.

PS: I am an author and content writer currently creating original content for my clients on business growth cycles, digital strategies, and cryptocurrency. Here is my UPWORK profile.Similar Posts:

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Should an individual with diabetes consume watermelon and muskmelon?

Diabetes manifests itself when insulin produced in the body cannot adequately metabolize the sugar in the blood, causing blood sugar levels to spike. Insulin plays a blood sugar regulatory role. It prevents blood sugar levels from either rising too high.

Blood sugar levels, when these stay high, cause harm.

While evaluating food for suitability for people with diabetes, it is essential to look at the food’s Glycemic Index. Foods with a high glycemic index would mean that the carbohydrate present is more readily available than those lower on the index. High GI foods can cause carbohydrate spikes, which in diabetic individuals can be a health hazard.

Foods with a low GI help in glycemic control in diabetes and lipid management. Such foods are energy-dense contain high amounts of sugars or undesirable fats that will reduce glycemic response. Most fruits and vegetables, beans, dairy, and some grain are low-glycemic foods with a 55 or lower glycemic load.

Bananas, sweet potatoes, raisins have a glycemic index of 56 to 69. These are medium glycemic foods, while high-glycemic foods like sugar, ice cream, heavily processed food rich in calories and fat, and watermelon have a value ranging from 70 and above. Watermelon is 70 on the glycemic index putting the fruit in the high-glycemic category.

On the other hand, bananas, apples, grapes, and oranges (raw) all are in the medium Glycemic Index category, with values being 47, 40, 43, and 48, respectively.

According to the American Diabetes Association, nutrient-dense foods are the best for individuals who have diabetes. These foods are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals but low in added sugars, sodium, and unhealthy fats.

These nutrients are available in non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, and the like. These should be consumed as far as a possible whole and minimally processed.

Apple, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, brown rice, whole wheat bread, whole grain pasta, and oatmeal are other food recommendations.

A diabetic diet can include starchy vegetables like corn, green peas, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, plantain, black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, and green lentils.

People with diabetes should avoid consuming watermelons and muskmelons. There are many alternatives available.

References for additional reading:

Natural Solutions for Diabetes

Nutrition Facts – a guide to good health Similar Posts:

Glycemic index and diabetesWhat fruits should people with diabetes avoid consuming?How is low glycemic index food good for diabetics?

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Can we reverse type 2 diabetes with natural therapies?

Dr. Neal Barnard, associate professor of medicine at George Washington School of Medicine, recommends a vegan diet to people with diabetes. According to him, a vegan diet can even reverse diabetes. (Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes published his book in 2007)
The diet recommendations of Dr. Neal Barnard are more in consonance with the current day thinking, which claims that the link between the gut, diet, and lifestyle diseases like diabetes is intimate. Effective restoration of gut microbiota Reversal and repair of gut microbiota to good health is possible through dietary changes.
In my research on natural solutions for diabetes, that there are practices like yoga, tai chi, qi gong, acupuncture in alternate medicine, which have found scientific support as useful tools in diabetes management. This experimental support has extended to human clinical trials.
I have been able to identify four plants – Gymnema sylvestre, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Eugenia jambolana, and Curcuma longa that has the most substantial scientific support for their anti-diabetic properties. Formulations that contain these herbs should help.
However, my considered view is that given the complexity of diabetes as a disease, the use of alternative medicine should be used in consultation with your diabetologist.

Reference:

Natural Solutions for DiabetesTri-series on natural solutions for diabetes, cancer, and obesity

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