Business
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Indian Financial Service and General Post Office
A visit to collect a parcel turned into a front-row seat to Post Office Savings Bank in action — and a reminder that 130 years of trust still beats a slick app.
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Citizenship in a Democracy
Mumbai’s voter turnout was under 30% at 1 pm on election day. Heat, long weekends and indifferent employers are easy excuses — but citizenship means more than standing in a queue.
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The 40-Year-Old Startup
What changes when you start a company at 40 rather than 25. Not all of it is a disadvantage.
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Vanity Metrics: What They Are and Why You Should Avoid Them
Vanity metrics make you look good to others but don’t inform future strategy. Here’s how to tell them apart from the numbers that actually matter.
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The Product Mindset
On the difference between building products and building features, and why the distinction matters more than people think.
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Why ChatGPT is Going to Change Inbound Marketing
GPT-3 is capable of producing text that resembles human writing with remarkable fidelity. Its applications for inbound marketing, particularly through chatbot technology, are worth taking seriously.
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On Saying No
Every yes is a no to something else. The discipline of declining is learnable, but it takes practice.
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On Client Work
What makes client work sustainable versus draining — and the signals to watch for before a relationship becomes the latter.
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The Consultant’s Dilemma
On the fundamental tension between selling expertise and genuinely solving problems — and why the best consultants find a way through it.
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Reduction in Stamp Duty Rates
Stamp duty is an additional charge levied when purchasing a home in India. Maharashtra’s temporary reduction from 5% to 2% created a window for buyers — here’s what it meant in practice.
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The Case for Slow Work
Against the culture of speed for its own sake — and for the kind of work that can only be done slowly.
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Data, Reporting and Doing What’s Right
Data is being used to showcase that value has been generated — and the most beautiful reports are created to do it. If you dislike data pukes, you would be aghast at some agency reporting in India.
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Data the New Oil
Data and business analysis was until recently a support function. That has changed — data is now being presented and sold as the main product itself.
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The Case of the Missing Engagement Glue — Revisited
Returning to an earlier post about what makes people stay engaged at work, with updated thinking based on the years since.
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Why You Need to Stop Tracking These 5 Metrics
Going digital grants brands access to substantial data volumes. That abundance often leads teams into an obsessive pursuit of metrics without questioning whether those metrics actually matter.
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Comfort Zones
Analytical work had become comfortable territory, and that comfort created a mental barrier against creative pursuits. Then client mandates forced the team to step outside its niche.
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The Rise of the Platform Economy
Why platforms beat pipelines, and what it means for businesses that are still thinking in pipeline terms.
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Using Intelligence Reports in Google Analytics
Google Analytics continues to evolve, gradually bringing premium features to free-tier users. Intelligence Reports let you ask questions in natural language and receive meaningful analytical insights in return.
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Shiny Tools Don’t Make a Purpose
I recently bought a Fitbit. Colleagues asked if it had changed me. The honest answer was no — and the reason applies to every analytics platform, dashboard, and tracker.
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Data Anomalies in Search Console
Organic traffic has been a key growth driver for online businesses. Search data is always incomplete — here’s how to work with the gaps rather than pretend they don’t exist.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running a Business
Ten years in, the honest version of what running a small business actually involves day to day.
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Importance of Context in Analysing Data
Understanding the context under which data was collected is as important as going through spreadsheets or presentations. Data without context leads to confident wrong conclusions.
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Game Theory in Dating: More Towards Understanding Nash’s Equilibrium
Game Theory is compelling when applied beyond theoretical economics — to actual human interactions and collective behaviour. Dating platforms turn out to be a rich area.
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Game Theory and SEO
In search rankings only one site can occupy the top position. SEO is a zero-sum game — which means game theory applies directly.
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Using Data Studio to Create Beautiful Reports
In November 2016 Google Data Studio became accessible to all users in India. Here’s how to get started creating reports you can actually share with teams and clients.
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The Case of the Missing Engagement Glue
On what makes people stay engaged at work — and the specific things organisations do that destroy it without noticing.
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Creating a Kickass Campaign #LikeAGirl
On the P&G Always campaign that reframed what it means to do something “like a girl” — and why it is worth studying.
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Customer Orientation
Every company claims to be customer-oriented. The gap between the claim and the reality is one of the most reliable predictors of failure.
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IIM Jobs
On placement season numbers, what they do and do not mean, and the concentration of talent in a narrow band of sectors.
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Meetings
On meetings as one of the primary ways organisations convert time into noise — and the structural reasons it keeps happening.
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You’ve Been an MBA for Too Long When…
A lighthearted list of signs that business school vocabulary has become your only language. More than three items and it is time for a holiday from frameworks.
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God as a Brand
Applying brand strategy thinking to religion as an analytical exercise — and what millennia of successful loyalty-building can teach marketers.