Mukesh Gupta's Blog, page 35

Life Lessons I learnt from the movie “Same Kind of Different as Me”

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Living in a lockdown comes with its own fringe benefits. You end up watching a lot more movies or reading a lot more books that you would have otherwise watched or read.

 

One such movie that I watched recently with my family is was Same kind of different as me starring one of my favorite actress Renee Zellweger, Greg Kinnear and Djimon Hounsou in a pivotal role.

 

The movie is based on a memoir of the same title, written by Ron Hall and Denver...

Importance of Taking a Pause, Reflect and Celebrate the Journey

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The past few weeks of lockdown have had some kind of impact on each and every one of us. Most of the people that I speak to (and believe me, I speak to a lot of people every single day) tell me that they have become busier, more meetings, more work, more calls. Ive seen something similar happen to me as well.

 

Are you busier now than pre Covid?

 

This is surprising on many levels. One would expect that the exact opposite to happen. Most businesses are...

Thoughts about How to Define and Use Metrics Effectively

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We live in a world (now more than ever) filled with data. Collecting data, all kinds has become fashionable. What this has also led to is the proliferation of KPIs.

 

We measure all kinds of things and it has slowly but steadily become common practice to move to pay-for-performance models in every sphere of life including businesses, policing, healthcare, education, non-profits, governments, etc.

 

The assumption is that if the KPIs are being achieved and...

A Prime Example of Human Creativity, Ingenuity and Resilience

I came across this music video that made me sit up and brought a big, wide, smile. Watch it first here.

This is a prime example of what happens when you bring together people who are willing to test boundaries, explore, stay curious and above all want to express themselves. The choreography, music, the interaction between the panes is simple yet comes alive.

 

Who said that you cant make music videos when you are physically distanced. Nothing needs...

How To Come Out Stronger and Ready to Thrive Post Crisis

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We are already seeing a lot of signals in the economy of the upcoming tectonic shifts and the ripples that they will cause.

 

We have a record number of publicly listed companies in the US deciding not to give out dividends so that they can conserve cash.

 

Weve seen announcements from large firms indicating that the majority of their workforce will now work from home permanently.

 

We have seen businesses starting to cut salaries {and in some cases not...

Strategies to Grow During a Slowdown Post Covid 19 Era

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We are all living in an almost once in a lifetime situation with almost entire countries and continents being forced to stay at home due to the current pandemic situation. We are now at a time when almost all the countries are looking forward to gradually opening up the lockdowns and allowing people to restart their work, albeit in a controlled fashion. What this means is that at some point in the next few weeks, every one of us is going to have to...

Our Intimacy with Technology Products

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We bought a robotic vacuum cleaner sometime back, one that keeps roaming around your home, around obstacles and vacuums the entire home by itself. You could also set a timer to decide when it will start the cleaning efforts. Within a month of buying it, my wife started referring to the bot as “Kanta Bai” (Bai in Hindi typically means a helper) and even spoke to her, questioned her about where she is heading and having imaginary conversation. Quickly i started doing the same and...

The 10 Rules of Digital Transformation

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In my work at SAP, I support a community of SAP customers in India – INDUS. One of the initiatives of this community is a micro-community of people who are working in their respective organisations around the topic of digital transformation. Members of this community are from organisations of all sizes, differ in their positions in the organisations and also come from varying functions. The passion for digital transformation is what unites them.

They come together on a virtual...

The Anatomy and Upside of Boredom

Every now and then I come across in my reading list something that lies at the intersection of being interesting, useful and practical. The below post is one such example. This originally appeared on Aeon, written by Neel Burton and edited by Nigel Warburton. I have written elsewhere (here, here, here and here) about the importance of boredom and how it has an impact on creativity in the least and overall life satisfaction at the most. So, when I came across this post, it was natural for me...

A Practitioners View of “The Why, How and What of Breakthrough Innovation”

Needs Based Innovation

I came across this video of Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellow, Kate Rosenbluth and her story of how she founded Cala Health.

I think the approach that she has taken to building her startup is probably the approach that I recommend in most cases. So, I wanted to share this video with all of you (my readers). If you are thinking of starting up or building a product from scratch, watch Kate talk about her experience and learn from the approach.

About Cala...