Skip to main content

2021 a look back

  • The switch to virtual training was tough - well managed. To think of an analogy - we managed to score runs on a low scoring pitch and bad light - but there is much work to be done in this space. We are still in Day 1 of virtual training, and possibly trying to map Physical training to virtual modes. More thoughts (here, here, here and here)
  • Demand for learning continues to go up. I may personally not like learning as engagement - but companies seek learning as engagement, learning as culture, learning as skill building, learning as talent management. So, more power to those who are in these spaces.
  • Indian content is still not there yet I feel. My own book was received fairly well. So again, a space of opportunity and much more. And I am not talking about Indian models - just content optimised for India without the usual biases.
  • I really wonder what will happen to big content providers who sell "licences" or what makes them survive so far? There are newer business models that are breaking this model - so thats a place to watch out.
  • Why arent companies creating their content easily? Is this an opportunity? To make it easier for companies to create their own content.
  • As the pandemic persisted from the first quarter of the last year, optimism dropped, fatigue went up and by the end of the year, while companies are adjusting to hybrid, new normal and virtual work - there are significant signs that work will tend to pre-pandemic status quo with a few sops, options and perhaps more awareness. There is a lot of shift happening as of now - but my sense most of this will revert with people wanting to get back to work (armed with choice though)
  • There was a lot of talk about the new normal - I am fairly convinced that peoples behaviours will regress to the mean. And the pandemic will soon be forgotten. Why I say so - people are travelling like before (or more), spending like before (or more), working...you get the drift. So as humans we want normalcy - we want our life back, so do companies and management. Even those businesses that are taking a remote first approach to work will regress the moment they hit a bad patch. I say this knowing fully well the slight rise in numbers around us (in India)
  • Note that I am not saying remote first is a bad way to work - it is good, probably the best - but it requires significant amount of mutual trust to make it happen. Personally having worked remotely on quite a few projects - I love it - but at a large scale, it does take a lot of effort to make it work and yes, the communication overhead is tremendous. 
  • India is seeing an explosion of startups and ideas. It is good to see students just out of college dreaming of their own tech start ups. And finally we can say the era of the 2000s is over - where everybody was asking "where is India's Microsoft". Well, we have them - not one, not two, but a handful. 
  • Digital India has well and truly taken off. In place after place, business after business - digital is replacing cash as the medium of business. This is another opportunity area. 
  • Financial data transfer (Unified Id has been enabled). This is needed in healthcare as well. In miltary, we can see seeds of self sufficiency sprouting in India. I love the fact that make in india is led by private entrepreneurship and not bureaucracy. 
  • With the expressways being build rapidly and the dedicated freight corridors, India is set for a quantum leap from a living conditions and overall growth perspective. This is where I feel we are at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022...
  • So, well, make the most of it whereever you are...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and

The Mintzberg triangle

At a recent training, someone spoke about the Mintzberg triangle. I located it here . Image from that page reproduced here. The page linked above has a better explanation of diagram above, but what intrigued me was that the triangle exists for practically anything. The facilitator referred to this in the context of facilitation. Of how facilitation has science, craft and art to it. That is so true,  I thought. Worth a thought! Need to read of Mintzberg though...

Waigaya and Sangen Shugi - Honda

Two big takeaways from Driving Honda were Waigaya and Sangen Shugi. A few days ago, we were working on a strategy module for a company. As we leafed through old and new theories and books around the same - one comment which caught my eye was Henry Mintzbergs comment where he says "Strategy is like weeds, it has to grow all around your company" A lot of times organisations dip into their pool of employees (and sometimes customers) and solicit ideas from them. This happens either at an offsite or a meeting or some quarterly review and the ideas pile up. Most companies today have an innovation program that encourages bottom up ideation. Many of these ideas are future strategy - provided someone is listening. Sometimes these ideas are not immediately implementable - but if one keeps looking, there might be valuable stuff in there. And if (post such programs) ideas die very often, the motivation of someone to keep doing it will also diminish. Waigaya is what Honda call