Mukesh Gupta's Blog, page 31

Does Deploying Technology Lead to Competitive Advantage?

In a recent post for Gartner Blogs, Scott Nelson talks about how IT leaders obsess about not using a technology that their competitors use for a given business function. The key reason that they seem to think about is around “competitive differentiation”. As Scott rightly points out, the differentiation doesn’t necessarily come from the technology or the solution that they deploy. The competitive differentiation comes when we focus on “How” and the “Why” and not on the “What”. The reason (Why) a...

Should We Listen to our Customers?

In an insightful post, the strategy guru Roger Martin talks about the different facets of customer feedback, from a product development perspective. You can read his entire post here. If you are a product manager or in any way responsible for collecting customer feedback, I would highly recommend that you read his entire post first. He explores this question from the lens of the context within which the customers are requested for feedback, which brings a very interesting perspective to the topi...

Nature of Work has Changed, Now Leaders Need to Respond

I am super impressed by the ability of Seth Godin to observe what is going on below the surface around him. Earlier today, he shared another one of his brilliant insight about the nature of work and how it has changed in the recent past – from being clearly defined, measurable and manageable chunks; to ambiguous, requiring applied creativity, needs initiative on the part of the employee and being led than being managed. You can read his post here. So, as a leader or manager, what do we need to d...

Origin Story of The first CT scan (Republished from The Conversation

50 years ago, on 1st October 1971, the first CT scan let doctors see inside a living skull – thanks to an eccentric engineer at the Beatles’ record company Godfrey Hounsfield stands beside the EMI-Scanner in 1972. PA Images via Getty Images
Edmund S. Higgins, Medical University of South Carolina

The possibility of precious objects hidden in secret chambers can really ignite the imagination. In the mid-1960s, British engineer Godfrey Hounsfie...

Radical Product Thinking with Radhika Dutt

In this wide ranging conversation, we host Radhika Dutt, who is the author of the upcoming book Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter.

We speak about what is Radical Product thinking and why this is not just about products but a way of life and an approach to thinking.

She also shares the story of Lijjat Pappad and a few other case studies that explain her thinking, with respect to Radical Product Thinking.

She also shares the importance of bein...

Unlocking the Power of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is on top of every organisation – social or entrepreneurial and every leader worth their salt is thinking about how to make their culture more inclusive and equitable for all members of the tribe. 

In this blog I want to warn leaders about the risk of ignoring one or more of the trinity of values (Diversity, Inclusion & Equity) in favor of the others. 

I was talking to one of my friends yesterday. He leads a large team and said that he was hiring and wan...

Life Lessons from The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch

This was the title of the last lecture delivered by Randy Pausch at the Carnegie Mellon University lecture hall. He was terminally ill and only had a few days to live.

If you have not watched this video, I would strongly encourage you to spend the hour and 15 mins that it takes to watch the video and while you do so, please do have a notebook close to you and take notes. In his humorous talk, he shares some great wisdom on life and how to live a life worth living.

You can watch the vid...

How vivid is your ability to visualise?

Pseudo-hallucinations: why some people see more vivid mental images than others – test yourself here The brain can see a lot of things that aren’t there. agsandrew/Shuttestock Reshanne Reeder, Edge Hill University

Consider the statements below. What do they describe? A trip on psychedelics? A dream?

I felt I could reach through the screen to get to another place.

Lasers became entire fans of light sweeping around, and then it felt as if the screen b...

Being a Leader is Like Being an Improv Actor

One of the skills that all of us need to develop as we want to be and behave like a leader is to develop the skills of an improv actor. The foundational aspect of any improv actor is the ability to be fully present in the moment and respond to their stimuli. As leaders, we need to be able to do that as well.

So, if our stimuli requires us to be a coach, we need to be able to channel our inner coach. If our stimuli needs us to be a manager and give clear instruction to someone on our team, w...

11 Timeless Peak Performance Reminders for Leaders

This post is inspired by another post by one of the titans of the advertising industry – Kevin Roberts. You can read the original post here.

Here are my peak performance reminders for leaders:

Start your day with intent. Be humble. Remember that as a leader you are here to serve the cause and the people you lead. Your number one responsibility is to create more leaders worth following. Stay inspired. You can’t inspire others if you are not inspired. Listen with intent. This can be on...