Last week Bill Gates offered his annual list of the top 5 books to read, “5 good books for a lousy year.” I think most of us can agree that 2020 has not been the greatest year of our lives. A year that has been a defining one for many – and largely because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Amidst the blare of the US elections many of us probably didn’t notice the opening of Berlin’s new airport on 31-Oct. With its opening delayed by a good 9 years and budget overshot by $4 billion, the capital city’s airport stands out as an exception in a country reputed for engineering & planning excellence.
In the weeks following the onset of the COVID shutdowns, most organizations were in crisis-response mode; but as things return to a normal (or semi-normal) state, business leaders should pause, take some time to assess the efficacy of their actions, and internalize the lessons learned.
In recent years, a new saying has grown popular among many business leaders: “Data is the new oil.” With the advent of IoT, mobile devices, and web services, the volume of data available has increased exponentially.
On his popular TV show “The Profit,” entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis repeats this mantra frequently: successful businesses are built on the three P’s; people, product, and process. The concept has its origins in lean manufacturing, but it has since taken hold across a broader spectrum of industries.
Disruption is nothing new; it’s just happening a lot faster and with greater impact than ever before. The good news, though, is that it’s not only possible to survive under such circumstances; great companies can even succeed and prosper in the midst of massive disruption.
Today’s companies continue to expand to reach global markets, but this has made control of supply chains more and more complex. Companies recognize that developing and executing successful supply chain strategies can be key to gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Few days back, I was in an unplanned call with Sanjiv. As the call wound up, I concluded my argument saying, “…after all, data is polysemous.” It was quite uncharacteristic that Sanjiv let me conclude that way because he has a nose for debatable ideas and data being labeled polysemous is at the least contentious.
October 12th, 2019 was a red letter day for every athletics fan. That day, for the first time in history a human completed the marathon in under two hours! Eliud Kipchoge the current world record holder did the unbelievable and shaved off a good 2 minutes from his best time.
As the year entered its final quarter, I was revisiting some predictions pundits had made for 2019. It’s an interesting exercise I go through every year. Estimating soothsayer accuracy is not the objective.