The Branded and Gilded Life

He's known as 'Lipstick Brother' in ChinaIn a pandemic, Li Jiaqi, sold $1.9 billion in goods on the first day of Alibaba’s annual shopping festival in August 2020He tries on various makeup products on his show, ranging from brands from top companies including Sheshiedo Co lotions and Apple Air pods - though there's no make up connection there!It's not as if he has an unusual format. The sales are more than what some profitable retail chains in the US would sell in an entire year.He earned fame by starting off with 'lipstick marathons' - applying several brands of lipstick over several hours. Naturally, he's a Guinness Record holder for applying the largest number of lipstick options in 30 seconds!Starting off in sales at a L'Oréal store, he developed his own unique style of describing beauty products. That lead to his trying out livestreams which got progressively popular, and he built up a huge following.For the moment, he seems to have escaped the government's drive against 'effeminate men' The sheer volume of sales he generates on a single day is hard to replicate.As dialog writers in Indian films have known for long, a single popular catchphrase becomes legendary and builds recognition.Li's catchphrase is 'OMG sisters, buy this!' Now, that may not be seen as particularly creative but there's no doubt that it works.On average, he makes about $10-20 million per month.Making a personal connection with millions of womenAnd leaving a trail of luscious, glowing and smiling lips.Which billion-dollar pool should you play in?If you haven't heard of Anker, you will.They started out making chargers for mobile phones.Now, that's not a market entrepreneurs would enter instinctively. But Steven Yang, the founder and CEO saw the long-term potential of a fragmented market that would grow steadily over time.Apple has now stopped including chargers with new phones. So has Samsung. And the EU has mandated USB-C chargers as a standard. That expands the market for third party chargers exponentially.Anker has excelled at increasing charging power while reducing the size. They bet on Gallium Nitride which keeps the size small and multiple devices can be charged at the same time.And they identified the pool they would play in.Not in mobile phones, which is close to $500 billion annually and the largest product market.The next is laptops and PCs, which is a $200 billion market.Then come the tablets which are at $60-70 billion annually.Followed by smart watches and headphones which make up a growing $40 billion marketSo, the markets diminish to 10% of the size of the biggest ones in just a few steps.But there are a lot of $3-5 billion dollar pools which will grow in future.That's a great way to understand where the company's strengths lie.And the options available there are truly widespread.Plus the realisation that the company's structure is built to generate revenue from the smaller growing pools, not the monolithic ones.That's the kind of clarity that helps companies and decide where they can play their best game and succeed.It gives Anker pole status in the smaller categories - and that is a great place to be.In a goldrush, sell matsYoga is getting traction worldwide.From recommendations by doctors to expensive Yoga studios, it is growing exponentially not just in the US but China and Australia as well.One of the biggest signs of it becoming a worldwide phenomenon is the number of variations that have been invented.Superstar gurus wanted their auras to glow brighter and establish their own gravy train of followers.Like Starbucks has multiple flavours, there's now Kundalini, Hatha Yoga, Restorative Yoga and the controversial Bikram Yoga which has even got its own scandalous Netflix special.When a movement becomes a gold rush, there's another indicator of success.The growth of accessories like Yoga mats.They come in a striking array of colours, materials including thermoplastic elastomers, apart from the basic woven grass mats.But that does not align with upscale settings.So, the mats have evolved as well to meet the luxury needs of patrons, who don't want to rest their finely toned bodies on commonplace mats.As a result, the accessories market in Yoga is taking off faster than the search for salvation.Like Gucci and YSL totes being carried around, there needs to be a category appropriate brand to flash your Yoga credentials.And brands have understood that this can be milked for a couple of decades, at least.The Yoga mat market is projected to grow to $17 billion worldwide by 2025.Even while proponents and disciples stretch, swivel and contort gracefully, it becomes another thing to talk about on the cocktail and fitness circuit.The flavour of Yoga, the pedigree of the teacher and the branch of Yoga being practiced.The pursuit of calm has become a mint!Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Or Korean, for that matter. Or even Russian.The evolution of subtitles and dubbing in films is going in unpredictable directions.Streaming services are running into problems with respect to dubbing and generating subtitles in multiple languages.One runaway hit can change equations.The Squid Game on Netflix was watched worldwide by audiences who didn't know a word of Korean. But Netflix found another fascinating detail hidden in the data.People preferred the dubbed version of the film in their local language instead of subtitles. Makes sense because for some, subtitles are a distraction.The problem is how this can be achieved.Here comes AI to the rescue. A company called Veritone has access to petabytes of data from media libraries. That is being used to create a synthetic version of a familiar voice speaking a different language, keeping the same tone and emotion.Nvidia is developing the technology to move lips of the characters to match the audio.Right now, it is being used in short duration projects like advertisements to get the technology going and iron out the creases.But in a few years or a decade, we'll probably have actors whose versions of their hits will have them speaking foreign languages as well.Even if they don't have a clue as to what they're saying.The translators and subtitling industries may become collateral damage,But imagine stars who are truly cross border, speaking any language with perfect intonation and emotion.Now that could create the first global superstar!Rethinking QWERTYIt has resisted everything.The so-called 'inefficient' placement of keys was the original design mapped to make typing slow. Created specifically so that they keys did not jam up in the manual typewriter.Fast forward to the computer and innumerable placement options have been tried without success.Keyboard design has remained, or at least imitates the original layout of keys.The T9 that briefly dominated mobile phones in the early days of cell phones did not lead to a long-term change.Even the 'soft' version on smartphones stays true to the original.Why has this layout triumphed? One of the reasons is that early laptops may not have wanted to change a design people were familiar with.Navigating a new paradigm was complex enough.That's why Chara Corder is a complete rejection of the original keypad layout.Like a gaming keyboard, each of your finger’s rest on a set of keys. It is supposed to make typing stupendously faster, once you master the basics.The switches detect finger movement in 3D rather than along a single dimension.It also looks completely unlike any keyboard you've seen so far.Each of the keys can be programmed to operate four or more functions.It looks fiendishly complex but apparently has found a sizeable audience willing to take the time to master it.And once you do, they promise that you can type as fast as you can think.It has been breaking all kinds of speed records. Sites like Monkeytype have banned Chara Chord because the speeds are completely off the charts.Maybe QWERTY has finally met its match.The shark discovers a whale of an opportunityMark Cuban is recognized more for his appearances on Shark Tank rather than his ownership of Dallas Mavericks, a major baseball team.But his latest venture could impact more than sport.He's waded into an area where health, politics and policy intersect.Setting up an online pharmacy for generics.The high prices of medicines in the US is an intractable problem. People with chronic conditions end up paying a fortune every month, just to get by.There are currently about 100 drugs on the website and the price differences are revealing. The difference is as much as 90%. For a month's supply of Imatinib, the branded drug costs almost $10,000 dollars. He is supplying it for less than $50.Now that puts him into a major confrontation with the whole ecosystem.The patients are all going to be on his side because it directly impacts their lives and well-being.And by cutting out insurance companies from the mix, he's removed one of the key pillars that govern the healthcare business models.The battle could redefine how the entire health industry works.There are billions, if not trillions of dollars at stake. And if the drug companies and hospitals are impacted, there will be repercussions.Mark Cuban knows what he's letting himself in for. He's opted to go against companies with deep pockets who will see this as an existential threat.Until now, there hasn't been a coordinated effort to cut prices across the spectrum. The loyalty of patients is guaranteed.The US pharmaceutical market is the largest in the world at nearly $500 billion. And that's what Mark Cuban is taking a hacksaw to.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

It started off as a way of getting paralyzed people to walk.Now, it has evolved into military, healthcare and industrial solutions.The basic idea is to enhance human capacity for walking, carrying weights or doing repetitive tasks.The Exoskeleton will probably transform more industries in future than robotics alone.The number of applications being simultaneously worked on is staggering.Helping soldiers manage everything from long tiring treks over harsh terrain to reducing joint strains and fatigue.The same holds true in warehouses and manufacturing lines where the exoskeletons help workers lift massive weights on the assembly line, or manage delicate tasks which require limbs to be held aloft for long.It reduces back strain by providing support even while the person is standing straight.Robotics built into the suit work in tandem with the wearer and the result is fewer industrial accidents and prevention of long-term damage to muscles.It's early days but there is a definite advantage to making people superhuman rather than have robots develop human capabilities.That difference in perspective is helping to change what assembly lines look like and function - the idea is to make people manage working heavy tools and at dangerous heights easier.Over time, as costs drop, they will become a common sight at manufacturing facilities worldwide.Right now, the costs are quite high because the solutions are in an early stage of development.But looking ahead, in everything from helping paralyzed people get around to long army marches and building new efficiencies on assembly lines, exoskeletons will become commonplace.Wearable skeletons are the idea we didn't know we needed.Corporate bonds you can eatPaul & Mike make chocolates. World-class stuff.Their chocolate concoctions win prizes at global competitions.They have also demonstrated their ability to think differently when it comes to raising money.Anyone who has ordered online from them in the past would have got a message asking whether they wanted to subscribe to 'chocolate bonds'The offer is this.Any customer (up to the first 500) can invest Rs. 5000 in the company. In return, they will get chocolates worth Rs. 6500 over one year.Basically, the interest component is paid out in extra chocolates.This will be in force for one year from the date of investment. Since the chocolates cost anywhere from Rs.250 to Rs 375 for a single slab, it means that customers can order what they like for Rs.6500, not including shipping costs and taxes.They have also been upfront about the way the money will be used - to fund the upgradation of their facilities.Now, this is a way of ensuring loyalty with an upfront payment - and for customers who are sold on the brand, an investment in pleasure.The company gets the funding practically for free. The payout is only in the product itself and that means their profit margins may only have to take a small hit. For a short while on a fraction of the customer base.Paul & Mike have also tied up supplies to these customers for the next 12 months. Now that's called predictable sales figures. And while it is small at the moment, they can go on to increase this over time.From the comments on the site, it looks like their customers are well and truly sold on the idea.The simple brilliance of WordleThe man who created the game is Josh Wardle.So, there's a bit of serendipity right there, apart from the fact that 'word' in the name already lets you know what you're getting into.There are numerous word games on the net. So why did this one take off spectacularly?Here are a few pointers.First of all, five letter words are easy but not super easy. The UI is crisp. Six rows of five squares, with the keyboard at the bottom.The second are the rules. You guess full words, not one letter at a time. You know the difference between letters in the target word and the ones that are wrongly placed.And the ones that are not there in the word at all. Progress is measurable.Plus, the same colours are reflected on the keyboard, visually helping you focus on guessing options.The third is rationing. There's only one game a day. Scarcity creates habit, not overload.The fourth is sharing - the people who have guessed the word in 3 tries want the world to know - without spoiling the fun for others.The grid is a great way to evoke intrigue and show off. Hordes of people have been drawn into the game because they wanted to know what these green graphic squares meant. And once they arrived at the site, they would certainly attempt it at least once.The fifth is that it is free. But that's the least important aspect of the game. Wordle would not have succeeded without thinking through the entire experience of gameplay.Once you get into it, you're guaranteed to spend a few minutes every day.Attention alternates between frustration and triumph - and that's the cherry on the sundae!Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

The tweet set off a firestorm.Imagine printers not being able to recognise a company's cartridges!We have all grown used to the cat and mouse games that printer manufacturers play.Replace all the four-color cartridges even though only one of them is drained.Having to waste expensive toners because all the cartridges don't get empty at the same time.Users try and find workarounds or cheaper solutions.Companies find ways to block them. And even though there are entrepreneurs who try to establish a market in the replacement market, they find it hard to succeed or scale.So, it seems like poetic justice when companies have to deal with systems flagging  genuine cartridges as counterfeits!This is the problem. A semiconductor chip was the one blocking duplicate cartridges from being installed.The moment the printer came on, it would check if the cartridge was from the company and if it wasn't, the printer would no longer work.Now that there is a chip shortage, the cartridges are being shipped without them. And there is no way to differentiate.And Canon admits that the toner levels cannot be detected.Here's the formal statement from the company: Due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor components, Canon is currently experiencing challenges in procuring specific electronic components that are used in our consumable products for our multifunction printers (MFP). These components perform such functions as detecting remaining toner levels.Look for the 'counterfeit' market to be rubbing their hands gleefully while the shortage persists.Getting rid of homelessnessAs economies rise and fall, the hardest hit are people rendered homeless.It could be for a variety of reasons.Traditionally, the solution has been to provide temporary rooms or dormitories.That creates another layer of management and oversight - and any funds allocated to these options gets lost in the maze of government spending.It's also a sticky issue politically - the homeless living on the margins have to use all their wits to merely get through a day and they're political footballs passed around from one constituency to the next one.Finland is simply giving people homes - no questions asked.What takes on added urgency is that temperatures in winter drop to -20 degrees and being out in the open means that even survival is in doubt.While the population is nowhere near as large as some of the developing countries, it is still a tall order to provide a home when necessary. But the effect has been remarkable.The first goal was to create 2500 homes, but they went up to 3,500.The number of long-term homeless people has dropped by 35% and there is only one 50 bed shelter that remains from the earlier network.It's not just space to live - the government follows up with support services like education, training and work placement help. Apart from teaching people to cook and clean the homes.It may not be the solution that every country can implement but it may be a far better way of solving the problem than anything available today.The question is, will every country be able to afford it?5G runs into an air pocketIn most cases, the rollout of a new generation of telecom technology is a highly anticipated event.However, in the US, the launch of 5G has run into a major problem.The FAA has warned of 'catastrophic disruption' at airports.Apparently, 5G interferes with sensitive altimeters inside aircraft.And for planes coming into land in bad weather or poor visibility, it's a dangerous problem to deal with.As the wireless spectrum gets more expensive and crowded, we'll face more of these issues.Technology has to keep pace with spectrum requirements from communication and broadband companies to military and aviation needs.For telecom companies, the investments they have sunk into purchasing spectrum and upgrading customers will take longer to recover.For airlines, it impacts bottomlines when flights have to be canceled owing to 5G problems.Some of the disruption is already evident. Air India and Emirates have canceled some of their schedules to the US.Now comes the painful part. FAA will have to draw up guidelines for telecom companies to follow. The antenna cannot point upward, for example. And that could have an impact on coverage.At the same time, it will have to test altimeters and see which models from airplanes are safe to fly in adverse conditions.Since telecom spectrum is auctioned differently in other countries, they have not faced the problems yet.There's no doubt, however, that technology cannot be permanently in expansion mode.The scarcity will no doubt lead to technical innovation and breakthroughs.But these are air pockets few anticipated. And the 5G rollout in the US is in for quite a bit of turbulence.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Chatbots have to simulate human conversations.And we think they're free flowing, the way dialogue is delivered in movies.In real life, they are halting, awkward and filled with long pauses. Even between friends and colleagues, conversations dry up after the common subjects are exhausted or one of the people conversing loses interest.There's a lot of 'ummm..', eh.....' and clearing of throats, apart from the same thoughts going around in circles.At parties and networking events, people play out introductions and opening lines in their minds before actually speaking. Trying to sound friendly, knowledgeable as well as intelligent.It's a hard act to keep up.There are times when you know you aren't getting across to the person you are speaking with.So, why do we assume that chatbots will be able to simulate human conversations without difficulty?They may go through machine learning on millions of conversations and then reconstruct them for certain contexts.But how people think and what they say is still unpredictable.No machine can come up with all the branches of a conversation that humans explore in unstructured ways. Flitting from one subject to another. Starting off at random points and leaving things unsaid midway.Intense exchanges followed by contemplation and thought.Plus, no chatbot initiates conversations. It waits for you to ask the question to hopefully provide answers.Even the most advanced program stumbles.But then, so do humans!The yoga in power storageCompress. Decompress. Compress. Decompress.The idea has been around for decades. Compress air into underground caverns and decompress when required to release energy.The problem with managing electricity is that it has to be transmitted and distributed as soon as it is generated.Storage was not given the recognition it deserved.Now, wind and solar power generation have improved dramatically - but they're still unpredictable and the power generated needs to be stored, so that it can be supplied to the grid during lean times or when demand hits new peaks.Hydrostor, a Canadian company has breathed new life into the storage idea.Using electricity, a fixed amount of water is run through a complex system of pipes to compress air stored deep within the ground. When required, the water is pushed back through decompression and that generates electricity.Several versions of the idea being tried out across the world, including in India but that's more on the lines of a closed loop power generation system.This one focuses on compressed air generating power to be fed back to the grid.They have built a 2-10MW hour project as proof of concept and it is already generating profits.Goldman Sachs has invested $250 million into the company. The potential for energy storage is massive as the electricity market shifts to 'power on demand'. Optimizing that is only possible by building storage solutions that can tide over situations of alternating scarcity and excess.Like yoga calms the human system through a series of breathing techniques, Hydrostor may be the answer to what future power markets need.Deep storage.VR programming for cowsCows don't need multiple entertainment options.Or role-playing games filled with fast-paced action.All they require is immersion in a pasture.In today's confined spaces, letting them out to graze is not an option.They're lined up next to each other and even the space to move is limited.A Turkish farmer came up with the idea of using a VR headset on a cow.Imported from Russia, it puts the cow in a completely outdoor environment.It does make a difference apparently - milk production is up and the cows seem happier.There are a few tricky questions that come up.When the cow sees grass and attempts to eat it, what happens? Has the farmer placed fodder in the right place, so when the cow goes for it, the assumption is that it is eating fresh grass?Humans are harder to convince. They are far more finicky about the environment and have suggestions as well as ideas on the kind of environments they would like to immerse themselves in.But cows have no such problem. Put them into a VR headset makes them believe they are out in the pasture.They don't need a change of scene or anything more exciting - what can they get anyway?Maybe they will simulate calves to nuzzle close when they tire of this, or when milk production goes down.And will there be resistance when VR headsets are removed at the end of the day?As far as cows are concerned, the metaverse is already here!Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

His name is Nasir Ahmed and it won't ring a bell.But hang on a minute because it will all make sense.He went from Bangalore to the US in the early 60s for higher studies and for his PhD, he came up with the Discrete Cosine Transform - an algorithm that would prove to be crucial to the future of the world.It compressed images and later was applied to video compression as well.The major use at the time was for defense. The military had a massive network but it was next to impossible to send images over it with limited bandwidth.As the web took root, Nasir Ahmed's algorithm became the default for sending images.It was built into browsers and email programs by default.Users, of course were oblivious of how images were moved across the net. All they had to do was attach a file and hit the 'Send' button.The man who made it all possible languished in complete obscurity. He was well-known in academic circles and the enormity of what he achieved came into focus during the pandemic.Zoom or Facetime or Google Meet. None of these would work without deploying the algorithm.His net worth is a micro fraction of the wealth these companies have amassed. But he isn't bitter about it, merely bemused.He speaks of the scientists at the time who developed the base technologies that drive today's internet focused only on their vocation.And he changed the world by making the real time transmission of images and video long before anyone had found widespread global use for it.Was the makeover only for the cameras?It's one of the popular sub-genres on TV, but not in India as yet.In the US, home makeover shows are quite popular.Practically every channel has a take on how to do home arrangements, or cut clutter or tips to modify the home.But there appears to be a seedy side to the sub-genre where reality stops with showing what's good on camera.The format is quite simple - a home or a room is chosen for a transformation and while the family leaves town for a couple of weeks, the makeover team arrives to work their magic.It's supposed to be done for free and viewers think that the chosen family probably has saved a ton of money by being selected.It turns out that the reality is not as rosy.Buzzfeed profiles several makeovers that went completely wrong and the residents ended up with a huge cleanup bill after the camera crews left.Some of them complained that the whole thing was more like a set with everything held together with staples and glue.The problem is that most of these shows start off with good intentions. But then, every makeover can't be a repeat of a previous episode. They have to riff off the themes.And the final result has to be dramatic enough for viewers to tune in week after week.That's probably where the divergence between expectations and reality happens. And keeping TV viewers happy and coming back for more is quite different from making homes livable!The soap, shampoo and toothpaste warsIn this one, the customers aren't involved at all. It's all behind the scenes.The distributors of these products are the last place you expect an all-out flaming war.For decades, they have followed a regular plodding cycle.The distributor sends a sales team to collect orders, deliveries are made. Every year, the distributors and manufacturers haggle over the profit margin and compromises are made.It was a system that sustained close to 600,000 distributors and the small shops they supplied to. Then came the disruptors with the big bucks. Udaan, Jio mart and Big Basket had the capital to strike massive deals with manufacturers and pass on some of those profits to small store owners, cutting the distributors out.It would also make small stores dependent on the larger suppliers over time, given that once the power shifts, the small stores would have less bargaining power.And the distributors have decided they will do all they can to make things difficult.So, they issued ultimatums to the big manufacturers - give the same rates to them as well or else they would boycott the brands altogether.Now, manufacturers treat distributors with kid gloves because they know the havoc they can wreak on the supply chain, at least for now.It's a cycle that repeats time and again. Remove the inefficiency from fragmented distribution networks and there's lots of money to be made - at the regional level, the state level and the international level.For the moment, the boycott has been postponed because the manufacturers have bought time. Distributors in India and small shopkeepers are wily and have quite a sting in the tail.Especially when they assemble their collective firepower and disrupt the disruptors.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Imagine eye drops that improve eyesight.It's the decision most people confront late into their 30s or early 40sProbably the first sign is when distant objects look clear and one has to hold books a little further away to focus.Then comes the hard part. Mentally admitting that one needs reading glasses.The first time is self-conscious. The emphasis on telling people 'I only need it for reading' is repeated several times a day.Some self-deprecating jokes among close friends about finally 'growing old'Dyeing hair is easier because it retains youthful looks. But eyeglasses are a definitive giveaway.That's why Vuity, a new approach to handling presbyopia - the loss of eyesight that comes as part of the natural aging process, is getting attention.The way it works is that you put in the drops, wait for about 15 minutes and like magic, your ability to read improves.Unfortunately, the effect lasts for about 6 hours after which your eyes go back to their earlier state.But it is a huge improvement from actually having to wear glasses - and the audience would be those who want to delay the inevitable.It's going to be another stealth weapon for those who insist on staying young - and depending on how the early reviews are, it should be an easy sell.How many products are focused on preserving and extending our youthful state?The fountain of youth has more devotees than the fountain of wisdom!A dark rum is about to become famousDiplomats are rarely, if ever, involved with product promotions.And the circumstances were bizarre.Lithuania grows no sugar, so it imports the rum base, sugar cane molasses from Trinadad & Tobago.The distilled rum, called Propeller Dark was marketed as a Caribbean original to China.Then Lithuania made a misstep. It opened an embassy in Taiwan.20,000 bottles of rum floating in mid sea were not allowed entry into Chinese ports.Taiwan stepped in and bought out the entire shipment.The national development council even created a series of ads with recipes of how the rum could be used.Even if it was to help an ally, marketing realities can't be ignored.Since the government cannot advertise a private brand of liquor, it built awareness of how rum could be used to spice up a meal or make exotic cocktails.The ads show a bottle without the label and feature in social media.Must be one of the rare occasions where the government is forced to play an anchor role in promoting a product category.It was simply to make the point that they would not let down a country who supported them.But in the process, Propeller Dark has got a dream launch in a country that was not part of the forecast!It remains to be seen if they will use this story to get a foothold in other geographies.But they have to win hearts and minds through the product, even if they've got a launch story for the ages!Chal meri Luna - on HydrogenFirst things first - this is not an Indian product.It's a new hydrogen fuel cell two-wheeler from a company in France.However, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the Indian Luna from the 70s.That became a major hit. Though it didn't have the design dynamism of the swankier 100 cc bikes.But it had what mattered - amazing fuel efficiency and great carrying capacity.For Indian small towns, it was a godsend. Good to load all kinds of things and transport them to the nearest marketplace.There may still be pictures in newspaper and magazine archives of Luna becoming the all-purpose two-wheeler in India.But then, things changed. Fuel costs increased. The Luna evolved but not enough to withstand the competition from the Japanese bike JVs. The Alpha from Pragma Industries rides on hydrogen with a range of 100 kms.he hydrogen filling station can be connected to a renewable energy source and the two-wheelers can be filled in less than a minute.Obviously, buying the filling infrastructure is part of the deal and it makes the most sense for captive fleet operators.Hydrogen is among the cleanest fuel sources in the world but the competition from lithium-ion batteries is stiff.So the company is sensibly targeting those who have a fleet of vehicles and want to keep fuel costs down to the minimum, without significant increases over time.And that benefit beats looks and design hands down.Will it succeed? Let's check back in a few years.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

User manuals are dry and factual.They tell you how to use a product but never how the experience can be enjoyable.But we need user manuals because that's where user experiences begin.Take a simple thing like getting the best out of your fridge.The user manual tells you how to make ice, what different compartments are for and how to maintain the fridge.But a personal user experience of fridges tells you how to stack things up inside, how to make out if stuff in the fridge is past its prime and how to remove icky smells.Similarly, take Twitter.It is basically status updates, links and now, threads.But people have found that much more can be accomplished.They have found friends, co-founders and collaborators.All through a series of unconnected messages posted on an impersonal platform.There have been terrible experiences for people as well - no denying that.The question is how to find enclaves of tolerance and goodness and make that your place of bliss.Though Twitter was launched way back in 2006, it's the people who grew with the platform who are able to define and communicate the experience for others.This may work for some, not for everyone. Tasshin's blog post, is not a user manual as much as an exploration of the various facets of Twitter.And that's the enriching part. You can follow this or devise your own ways of exploration.There are times when nothing will happen, and your tweets will be lost in the vastness of the chatter.But the spark of happenstance is just around the corner.The chaos in human logisticsThousands of flights were canceled everyday in peak holiday season in the US.The reasons given were that crews affected by the Omicron variant of Covid were grounded and that sent schedules haywire.But when the New York Times dug deeper, additional reasons came to the fore.Airlines were badly affected by the pandemic. That lead to a government bailout to keep them running - over $54 billion was paid out.To get the money, they had to accept strict limits on layoffs, dividends, stock buybacks and pay increases for senior executives.They were, however, permitted to reduce head count through early-retirement incentives and voluntary furloughs. They did, and those job cuts have been only partially reversed, even when the market revived.Passengers were encouraged to do their own checking and baggage tagging.Optimisation, code for doing more with fewer employees, became the default for airlines looking to survive.They tried to increase capacity and raise it to previous levels without adding the same ratio of people.For a time, it worked.But the recent wave showed that there was little room for error, or even comfort.Without spare capacity, there is no room in the system to shift things around.And what started off as a few cancellations went on to become a rolling snowball.Every canceled flight is revenue loss that can't be made up. And the fragility of business models and supply chains is being exposed like never before.How computer punch cards launched a giant - IBMAnyone who's been though a computer science class would have heard about it in a historical context.What exactly did programming a card mean?An article in Ars Technica showed how it was an elegant solution for the late 1800s - and transformative as well. The problem was tabulating census figures in the US. Conducted in 1880, it took over 8 years to collate.When the first census was done in 1790, only age and sex in addition to a person's name was recorded. Later occupation, marital status, education and place of birth was added. Each parameter added increased the complexity of the data to be processed.Herman Hollerith was the inventor of the punch card and he phrased it this way, in the 1889 revision of his patent application, “A hole is thus punched corresponding to person, then a hole according as person is a male or female, another recording whether native or foreign born, another either white or colored, &c.”Special machinery had to be developed to punch holes with accuracy and efficiency.Next, Hollerith devised a machine to “read” the card, by probing the card with pins, so that only where there was a hole would the pin pass through the card to make an electrical connection, resulting in advance of the appropriate counter.This accelerated the counting to the point where the entire census tabulation was completed by 1890, just a year later.Hollerith went into business selling the technology by incorporating Tabulating Machine Company, which went on to become International Business Machines - IBMThe semiconductor revolution in computing would take a few more decades.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Or teacup, for that matter?Some people prize massive mugs that hold large amounts of coffee and nurse it for hours.So, why do we slip into these habits?Why do we want to repeat the familiar?There's an aspect of selecting cups that we're hardly conscious about.The mouth comes in contact with the rim and unconsciously drives our preferences when we make a choice.The fancy ceramic designs with delicate handles and ornate graphics have a different texture when your mouth settles on it. Think about the feeling and you'll recall it.The same is true of the earthen 'kullar', the terracotta cups that are simply smashed after use.There's a way your mouth feels around different cups - the thicker the rim and the more the curvature, the more your face 'dips' into it.Some love it steaming hot - where the liquid is close to scalding temperatures. Others like it lukewarm and a few are perfectly happy to keep sipping on something that has gone completely cold.You've seen people wrap their hands around hot cups in winter. The warmth from the cup is a source and a daily ritual of pleasure and sustenance.The morning cup is an ingrained habit. It's makes people less irritable and willing to face up to the day. Delay it and you delay the pickup.We've built some strange affinities. But it has a cascading impact on the way the day unfolds.It's the first of many comfort zones we enter on a habitual basis - whether we're aware of it or not.  The Ratan Tata effectYou can't miss him on LinkedIn.Every day on the feed, you're guaranteed to see at least 2-3 selfies put up by adoring fans.They've probably waited months for the day.And it's gone down in their personal history - the few moments they had with him. Captured in a frame where they're listening attentively or gazing at the screen in pride.What everyone notices about Mr. Tata, however, is the gaunt, slightly bent figure, with the kindly smile.Everyone else is a footnote - and that's the way it will be because people only notice the famous figures in any picture.So scrolling through the feed, especially when it was his birthday recently is seeing a succession of pictures of Mr. Tata with dedicated fans.Personalities like Mr. Tata and the former President Mr. Abdul Kalam are 'like' magnets and used to drum up attention.Their quotes may be authentic or made up. But that is not the point.The Ratan Tata effect generates a small spike of attention in a sea of posts which are just pictures. Like this one as well - guilty as charged!I first began to see one occasionally a few months ago and then, there were breathless comments and congratulatory messages on getting an audience with the great man.Now, of course, it has become the standard 'bucket list' item.In most cases, the interactions are little more than an exchange of greetings, which is how this works. How deep can anyone go in a conversation that barely lasts for a minute?A brush with fame, no matter how fleeting, is irresistible!Does 31st December matter?We've had lists, lookbacks, love and loathing for the year gone by.And yet, when the countdown begins and the clock strikes 12 to indicate that we're in a 'new' year, there's a curious sense of things being exactly the same.Change, for each one of us comes at different times.No announcements, no calendar connections.We see it when students get their final year college marks.The haves and the have nots.The ones who get distinctions and the ones who think they've been left behind.The first time you fall in love.The birth of a child.The death of a parent.The disappointment of losing out on something you worked for years on.The small victories and moments that you recall after decades.The music in the car on a long drive to nowhere.Heartbreak.The designation that finally gets attached to your name after slogging for years.And then finding that it doesn't matter in the long run.Lusting for one possession after another.Left to languish after the thrill of acquisition passes.Like forgotten trophies in a musty cupboard. Symbols of victory and pride that seem to be as fleeting as the ceremony and the applause.They don't come on a schedule or follow the metronome of time.Some dates we remember.Others we purposely forget because we don't want to be reminded of what we felt like at the time.Time, the cliché  goes, is the great healer.We look in a mirror and see a wrinkle we didn't notice before.Then, we realise that time ripples through our life marking its passage exactly as it pleases.Tomorrow is a mirage.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

There was a camera called Flip before smartphones in the early 2000sIt did just one thing well - video and made it easy for just about anyone to make and edit video. As it soared in popularity, it was bought by Cisco for almost $600 million.It proved to be a purchase fraught with problems. Cisco was geared to sell to enterprises and Flip was essentially a consumer product.Somewhere within the company, it got stuck in the red tape and Cisco decided to completely withdraw it from the market.That brought about a great deal of hand-wringing from customers who had committed to the camera and recorded several home films on it - but to no avail.Now, here's another similar story.We all have a pileup of remote controls for different devices at home. Part of the problem is that the gadgets use different base technologies and integrating them into a single remote is a technical challenge.But a company called Harmony did do it. It provided one of the best examples of being able to use one remote to control practically every entertainment device at home.However, Logitech bought Harmony a few years ago. And now, they've decided to stop production altogether.Looks like it's not profitable for the company or they haven't figured out a way to make it work - even though the article below says it was deliberate. No company deliberately decides to lose money.It’s tragic when concepts have been developed into successful, full-blown products are simply lost in the wilderness of the corporate woodwork.Maybe there is a logical explanation but no one's willing to say what happened.The camera doesn't forgetOur memories may dim over time, but cameras don't.Unless the software that manages the images gets corrupted, for some reason.Face recognition is already being used for everything from unlocking phones to identifying travelers at an airport.Now that seems like perfectly legitimate use of the technology.But once the genie is out of the bottle it can go anywhere.When Facebook said it would no longer use its tagging system to identify people, it was a temporary blip because people saw how easy it was to track individuals for no reason whatsoever.With technology that has legitimate uses, things can evolve both ways.Police forces would want to keep tabs on those identified as criminals to track their movements. And that opens up different kinds of intrusions into a person's private space.Banks would justify face recognition to identify customers when they're opening an account or transacting, so that the wrong people are not able to access an account.But hackers can find all kinds of uses that simply go against the grain. If a face tagged to a real person exists in a database, it can be used for things without the person's knowledge.Let us say a company enables face recognition within the company for access.If attackers gain access to this database, they can 'spoof' employee identities and then access proprietary information.And governments would want to track opponents - the number of potential uses and misuses just keep multiplying.It's a hard question to answer - whether facial recognition solves problems or creates new ones.A test case for renewable energyIs the future inevitable?Media stories drive the narrative that renewable energy is the way of the future along with the gradual easing of fossil fuels.Puerto Rico is one of the staging grounds of future battles.When the electricity grid was flattened by a couple of hurricanes, the emphasis shifted to rebuilding.It was clear that existing electricity companies wanted to get back to the regular generation mode, utilising the funds allocated by the US government.In other words, it should go back to business as usual.But renewable energy companies see this as the perfect opportunity to make the switch - and the case that electricity generation should not go back to the old mode of working.So, will decentralised power generation where solar panels are put up on homes and industry roofs to generate power become the new model? There's no clarity on which way will work better in the long run. Scaling the power from each rooftop and then creating an overall grid to distribute it will take time. But people and industry need power here and now.It's a tricky rope walk to manage needs now while creating a fresh infrastructure. If people make the investment in their own power, who pays for the overall power generation as a backup? There are no easy answers to that questionFor both the segments involved, it's a battle for survival. One into which politicians, consumers, companies and policy makers will take up positions and fight tooth and nail.Whichever way this plays out, similar battles will open up everywhere.A transition on such a scale is like pulling out teeth without anesthesia! Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Imagine you could.Your smartphone would instantly become a glass brick, assuming it could travel through time. So, unless you had some way to stay connected to the present, there would be no coming back. Even if you went back 20 years, you would not have the smartphone or social media. Now that's an idea worth thinking about, given that we know how polarised the world has become.Go back over 100 years and you can mostly forget about cars .No telephones either - not even land lines and rotary dials.Go back another couple of hundred years and homes would have no heating or lights. Conveniences we consider basic.All those fast food cravings would have to remain as cravings. Unless you took a whole lot of ingredients and the recipes back to the past.Question is, how would you take back plastic packs and even books to a time when they didn't exist?Think about it. A thousand years ago, books had not been invented. So they would disappear when you traveled.Even the clothes you wear today - they weren't invented, so how can they stay on you?Going back in time means reversing all the advancements, good and bad. Its not about transplanting the present into the past.Now, would you actually know that you were back in time? In your mind, maybe but it would be hard to explain how much the world changed to the people around you.If you could speak the language, that is. Apart from explaining that you aren't an alien from another planet.There's this mental picture we have of travelling to the past and moving back to the present, as if it were simply a physical journey.You can't go back in time as a tourist. With a real risk that you can cease to exist!Slumming itIndia has the dubious distinction of having the largest slum in Asia. Or is it the world? Dharavi.It's where people live on the edge, every single day.The facilities and the space available are among the tightest in an already expensive metropolis.And yet, it produces stories of entrepreneurship and triumph against the odds.Including something as strange as 'Slum Tourism' where the affluent gawk at the unfortunate.There is really no parallel.Rashmi Bansal wrote 'Poor Little Rich Slum' documenting the lives of hardy entrepreneurs from Dharavi.They aren't asking for handouts but contributing to the economics that drive the city.And that's a clear sign that people braving the biggest odds need support from the government to improve their lives.Rather than redevelop the slum and build something for the affluent, Brazil is trying a different approach.They are mapping out the byzantine lanes and the cramped access that people living in the slum navigate every day and seeing how the slum can access public services.Resilience is built into slums as the recent experience of managing Covid in such tightly packed areas demonstrated.People who were informed and educated on the dangers did a great job of managing the community and stopping the spread - even though they were living at a tremendous disadvantage.There's no doubt that the people who live in the slum have little room for maneuver - and that's precisely why health and some of the welfare services could play a great role in easing lives.They shouldn't be forced to slum it.Thank your stars you have to worry about your future!There's an interesting discussion going on in a forum.A young guy got an unexpected windfall of $7.5 million - setting him up for life essentially.It meant he would not have to work another day - which is what most of us would see as a stroke of amazing luck.And yet, that's not what happened.As he describes it : And I also have no idea what to do with my life now. I have not talked to anyone about it but I start to feel fatigued, even though I am not doing much. My motivation for my study is gone, I stopped working out, stopped reading books and am basically becoming insanely depressed in the process. The covid situation is not helping much either.Hardly what you'd expect.He literally has lost the incentive to do anything because he does not have to 'worry' about the future.Practically all the advice given to him by the others is not to tell anyone - because the pressure on him will only increase.He will find long-lost 'friends'  and relatives eager to help him spend the money and keep some for themselves.Now that his choice is unlimited, he has no clue on what he would like to do - distorted by having no incentive to put in the effort.We have been brought up to believe that motivation is internal - and nothing saps it like having enough money to laze around for the rest of your life.Though I'm sure all of you are hoping that you'll be in exactly the same state he's in.Think money will solve all your problems? Be careful what you wish for!Subscribe now and I'll send some interesting stuff on branding, behavior and markets to your inbox every week. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

First, you get keyless entry.Then, if you lose the fob, you pay a huge amount to reprogram it, even though the work involved is minimal.However, Toyota has demonstrated that car companies can figure out new sources of revenue on a car you've already paid for.There are a range of 'Connected Services' you opt for and it's only after a couple of years that you realise that it costs you money to enter your own car!The 'subscription' is $8 a month, or $80 per year.Imagine paying this, not for a convenience or an upgrade but simply to get into the car and start driving.There are already howls of protests from customers - all legitimate because it is seen as a rip-off.Some of these 'services' continue to be available for free only on the luxury models.The airline pay model of starting at a base price and then paying extra for everything from seating to food is invading other industries as well.There's software loaded on cars to control several aspects of the driving experience and creating new tiers of customers is an experiment.As long as our cars were purely mechanical, we owned everything. But the business model of software companies that make recurring payments a tidy stream of growing revenue is spreading to automobiles as well.An aside - the 2017 models of Toyota where the subscription never kicks in could command a higher premium in the used car market!The complex wrap on a simple ideaOn a large billboard in Piccadilly in London, a small boy walks across and points to the sky.In the background where he's pointing, a plane passes. And the details of the flight along with where it is headed appears. This happens with every flight out of Heathrow.It looks absurdly simple and gets attention because the details change, even while the action doesn't.A nice touch is the boy strolling back after the plane has passed by.So how was it executed?An antenna mounted on the roof of a nearby building reads live flight data from every aircraft transponder within 200 kms.The GPS coordinates, speed, latitude and longitude are read, cloud cover in the area is determined to check visibility and that goes into instructions sent to the billboard.Only when all these cross-coordination points match does the flight detail and the animation appear on the billboard.It got over 350 million views and won the Cannes Golden Lion in 2014.What's admirable is the simplicity and the accuracy of the information displayed timed to perfection.The costs, paperwork and permissions would have taken an enormous amount of background work, in addition to the setup.And since it is placed at a high traffic point in the middle of London, the branding opportunity was justified.For a simple idea like this one, imagine the number of bureaucratic, technological and logistical hurdles that had to be overcome.In the end, however, the charm works.Meditation as extreme sportThe ski resorts were closed.But the slopes were open.There were no crowds owing to Covid.And one expert skier programmed a drone to follow his breathtaking slide through virgin slopes as he teetered over giant crevasses and edges.It's makes you wonder why people do it.Mountaineers and skiers demonstrating their skill and control long before the proliferation of social media.It's 4 minutes of sheer adrenalin as he weaves his way down treacherous slopes and the drone swoops in on him from angles that no human could have managed.At times, he's just a black fleck in an ocean of white.At others, you can hear him slice through the snow cutting through it with two knife edges, leaving scars in his wake that the next snowfall would fill. There are moments where he's skiing through pine forests of white trees.And quiet contemplative ones as he treks up to the mountaintop before he straps on his skis and shoots himself off the edge.There are times when the cliff face is almost vertical and it makes you dizzy just thinking of what it would have been like when he leans over and lets go.The point of no return.When all those years of practice and reflexes kick in without seeming effort.Almost towards the end of the film is a sheer mountainside of white snow.And he flies off it at an angle, making his way downwards.Maybe at that speed, you get meditative and move into a zone where stillness is the speed.And he wants to be there as often as he can.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

That's how all fairy tales’ end. And the real world begins. We assume that the attainment of success or money is some point from which we can leap into a higher level of existence.Question is, we still have to find it.Life seems pretty much the same for billionaires as it does for us regular folk.Just yesterday, someone sent a WhatsApp on Jeff Bezos where he said, in a mundane detail, that he washes the dishes at home after breakfast.Is that the state of Happily Ever After?You build the largest company in the world but dishes don't wash themselves.So, is everything spic and span with the picture?I remember a conversation with a successful lawyer who said he wanted nothing more than to own a Harley Davidson when he was young.He told himself that he would go for long drives along picturesque landscapes and life would be terrific, all the time.At some time in his 30s, he made the money.And the Harley landed up in his garage. He was happy, having achieved what seemed impossible as a child. For a while.He took a few trips over the next few days and the riding experience was great but not the one he had in his mind as a child - the traffic, the heat and the routine of filling petrol, checking air pressure intruded. He kept wondering if anyone would scratch the beautiful paint job and that worry ate into him.It's still in his garage gathering dust because he hardly ever drives it. Another dream realised and stored in the attic of memories. In fairy tales, the thought is reassuring. But real life has another agenda.Photo by R.D. Smith on UnsplashCuring plastic addictionIt's an almost perfect solution.Seaweed mixed with some plant extracts solving a major problem - plastics in packaging.There's no doubt we've got heavily reliant on plastic right across the supply chain. It is so versatile, there are hardly any aspects of the chain that can function without it.Water bottles. Food packaging. Oil packaging. Single use cups. And none of this can be replaced overnight.It's the result of decades of work that has gone into colours, textures, surfaces to be printed on. And plastic has delivered.Now, we need to go into rehab. And getting around without the convenience is a hard thing to sell. How many true environmentalists exist in the world?Let's not forget that 50% of the plastic in the world is put out there by just 20 companies.That's why Notpla comes as a breath of sanity.The name is a mish mash of 'Not Plastic' and it is obvious why they had to brand themselves this way.It looks exactly like the plastics it replaces but it is nothing like it.Water bubbles you can simply pop into your mouth and bite in. Swallow or wait for it to dissolve.Edible packaging may not sound very appetizing and companies who spend millions on advertising would not want their products to look exactly like their competitors.But it's a big step forward. And hopefully we'll return to our senses.Even if it looks like a journey that will take years, if not decades.Migrating the internet!Tim Berners-Lee invented the basic protocols of the internet - html and httpAnd brought about one of the biggest changes in the world - the start of the world wide web.However, he was unhappy with the way the web evolved into creating massive tech companies that locked user data in and made huge sums of money out of it.Now, he's attempting a reset.Putting people back in control of their data and handing it out to companies only for defined purposes and needs.Will it succeed?It's hard to say. But he's creating an option where the early movers will create their own PODs of data with controlled access.Right now, it's confusing because it's not ready for prime time.Even people who create their own PODs need applications built on the new standard.The problem, invariably, is that smart entrepreneurs see potential and the future much before the rest of the market does.Then, they provide services and make it easy for people to transact.Now, most of the world already on social media and logged into current web services will not see a benefit right away.They've heard of privacy issues but it does not seem to concern them. And that's the way existing giants would like it to remain.The power is in the control of the data and how money can be made from it.If it goes back to people, how will money be made? Inrupt, the new company founded by Tim Berners-Lee is hoping to find a way to balance commerce and individual privacy.This is the real Web 2.0. Not the Metaverse view that is being flogged right now.Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life ! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

If you've downloaded the VLC media player on your desktop, you know how well it works.The CEO started off the project in 2003 when he was a student at Ecole Central in Paris.It ran on the university servers for a few years before it became wildly popular and outgrew the initial infrastructure.Since 2005, it has been downloaded more than 3 billion times.And it still available for free.Jean-Baptist Kempf has steered the project right from its initial development into a non-profit without a break.When the project became to big and expensive for the university to handle, he decided to cut it loose and find other sources of revenue.Making it a non-profit was crucial. Now, the core team is made up of around 10 people, but every year 100 - 150 people contribute to the code base.Much like Linux was overseen by Linus Torvalds, VLC remains a passion project true to its origins.It could have been abandoned anytime and left to slowly decay but it hasn't. The core team has made sure of that while pursuing other careers.Felix Paul Kühne started work on VLC in 2003 when he was a 16-year-old student but he remains a lead developer devoting his spare time interacting with other contributors and holding the project together. And in the meanwhile, he qualified and works as a Doctor of Emergency Medicine.It's hard for people who look at free projects to understand how much work goes into getting it done. Or the money that has to be found.And yet, it does. That's the miracle.Image Credit: pngkey.comAre limitations Ingredient X?Singapore is a small country.It does not have the luxury of space and yet, it has to manage growing needs.It's completely flat and lies just 5 meters above sea level.50% of its water needs are met by purchase from Malaysia and that agreement ends in 2061.Climate change is another problem the country is faced with. And yet, it has done remarkably well so far.One part of the solution came from recycling sewage and transforming it into usable water. Today, it already supplies 40% of the daily demand. Desalinated water will supply another 30% of the demand by 2060.This means executing consistently with little room for error. It's not just a necessity but the entire country depends on the projects to deliver.Singapore may have only 6 million people but it is a model of how constraints can shape an economy and drive it.They made individual cars expensive but public transport is so good, no one misses it.They have to manage population growth, ethnic diversity, trade issues and the biggest problem of all, a lack of space to grow.And yet, with precise steps they have built a country that is a model for others to follow.The question is, what happens when the constraints disappear? That's when governments take their eye off the ball.Take a look at the countries which have shown remarkable resilience against the odds. And that seems as essential as those blessed with fertile soil and a great climate.Limitations are ingredient X!The mosquito's 'spit glands'That's one of the projects that Johns Hopkins hospital researchers have been working on since 2019.They've found that it holds the key to curbing malaria - it may be a long shot at this point but we've seen how previous research done decades earlier helped accelerate vaccine development during the pandemic.We know how the tiny mosquito is able to play havoc with all the repellants, the nets and gadgets and devices that proliferate every year without any lasting relief.How someone thought of looking into the spit glands of the mosquito to find a solution is beyond me. But I'm glad they did.Another project is on proteins that could restore damaged sound-detecting cells in the ear - and given how much the current generation uses earphones, it may be just in time for when they hit their 40s and 50sOne more discovery is that Parkinson's disease may be connected to bacteria in the gut, which is a long way from the brain. The proteins that are responsible travel from the gut through a long nerve.For blood-related disorders, a bone marrow transplant may prove to be a much better option, including sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia.And brain implants are helping people to control prosthetic limbs only with 'thoughts'. Its early days but these are truly the kind of breakthroughs that will return people to a quality of life they could only have dreamed of earlier.Solutions emerge from the unlikeliest places. Thanks for reading The Branded and Gilded Life! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

The profile pic is a signal - whether it is on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.A tiny amount of pixel space where the site allows limited exploration.A newbie is instantly recognizable - the ones who have the standard issue avatar of the site. It could also signal the rebel who does not wish to play the game. But that's often the exception rather than the rule.Around profile pics, there's a whole system of small apps which exist to allow you to change and modify the pics in accordance with what the current trend is.I am definitely old school - I don't experiment with new angles, backgrounds or even the outer colors of the circle.So it was a pleasant surprise when Titus Snell sent me a message with two profile pic options - and I was touched that he had made the effort to work on the pictures and send it to me.One of them was a sedate blue, which was calm and collected. And what I switched to. The other was a rust shade of red - which is also quite unusual. Maybe in a few weeks from now.And then, Prof Alby Kurian told me that a photograph of mine on a slide in the background while I was speaking at a conference definitely created an aura. Far more than any kind of angle or artifice that I could have come up with. So, that went up and by all measures, it does help to set an elevated context.Though it's small, the profile pic definitely allows you to express your individuality. And shimmer in a sea of faces!Routing for roots!The well-to-do are migrating from India in large numbers according to the ministry. Over 600,000 people have given up their passports over the past 5 yearsThere will be various interpretations of this move - right from the political to those who believe that a future in a developed country may be a good hedge against climate change.Like a whole lot of wealthy people in the US decided to get their own homes in New Zealand as a safe haven when Covid was raging in the US.Now, some of these are simply assumptions. There is a pattern but within the pattern are complex reasons and it never is as simple as the media like to portray it.Another pattern. Companies abroad are finding it hard to attract Indian techies. There are a whole lot of reasons behind this.For one thing H1B spouses who earn money on the side by running their own businesses in the US live from one government policy to the nextThe coveted 'Green Card' hopefuls live in limbo in the US. Indians are apparently the biggest set of nationals awaiting the change from Green Card to citizenship.Gen Z in India finds that there isn't much of a difference working from here. The money is good and like techies in the big cities in India who had moved back to small towns during Covid, they're getting comfortable.On a global chess board, it's like the pawns now have a mind of their own!The commercial viability of online followersBusinesses are finding that social media followers aren't exactly the best metric to estimate results.Book publishers who paid massive advances to top celebrities based on their followers-in-the-millions-profile would lead to big sales were sorely disappointed.There's a slip between public perception and reality.Building a following in the real world involves tremendous work and effort.  Influencers can actually get things moving with just a phone call or an appeal.On social media, however, the commitment is easily made and just as easily forgotten because there is no firm connection or consequence.The words influencers and followers don't have the same magnetism and aura when they transition to social media.You can't blame the portals alone for the way this works. They built approximations of the real thing.Connections, engagements, feedback and even likes online are imitation versions of what real world commitments involve.If you're connected to a person in the real world, both of you take the time to meet, talk to each other and help out in various situations. You know each other's families, possibly and have several shared experiences as memories.But online, it's just a click and you're away. You may like what a person posts and look forward to reading more or watching a video but the connection ends there. They may not know you at all beyond the profile picture.Having millions or even thousands of online followers is not a bad thing. It even gives a completely different vibe - and at times, that's all you're looking for.But equating them to real world relationships is a stretch - they exist in another orbit altogether.Subscribe now and I'll send some interesting stuff on branding, behavior and markets to your inbox every week. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Literally.A new way of drying off after a bath is here.Unlike wrapping yourself in layers of Turkish bath towels, turn on the air.A new design appliance for bathrooms is the all-body dryer.As opposed to the hand dryers that have become reasonably popular in public bathrooms.The advantages are obvious. Go from wet to dry in a matter of minutes. After luxuriating in a hot shower, hot blasts of air blow at you from all directions to dry you off.So you don't end up creating wet puddles walking all the way from the bathroom to the wardrobe.If it works as promised, hotels will line up for it because they can simply do away with having to wash, dry and replace the towels everyday. That's a significant cost saving, apart from removing a source of the mess in the rooms.The only question is whether they will be power hogs. In which case, the savings from buying and maintaining towels evaporates.All said and done, the idea is worth trying. On rainy days and in winters, the damp smell of towels lingers long in the air.And there's nothing as dispiriting as having to wipe off with a damp towel.The first versions of these ideas usually leave a lot to be desired. And some crucial questions are still not answered.How long do you have to stand in front of the airstream, for example. And when you see the design, it's air being blown at three levels. What happens in the middle, and most importantly, how do you dry off the hair on your head?Well. it may not be wise to drop that bath towel, yet. For a few years at least!A single woman ed tech businessDid you ever think that TikTok and Instagram could be used a teaching platforms?Miss Excel has been doing just that.She creates Excel training courses on these platforms, and they have been a runaway success.They range in price from $297 all the way down to $5.What exactly is going on here?It isn't as if there aren't enough tutorials on the Microsoft website.Or even on YouTube.Excel courses are quite easy to find and a Google search will net quite a few options.It's probably got to do with the way Miss Excel engages her audience.She dances, pirouettes and sets her promotions on Tik Tok and Instagram to music.Corny when you think about it. For example, videos show ' Conditional formatting' and a headline like 'Does your spreadsheet match your outfit?'There's no reason whatsoever for the colours on the spreadsheet to go with your clothes but she does things like this - get the excel sheet background made from the pattern of her clothes.You aren't going to be able to read any numbers on those sheets, but like they say, it's 'fun'Makes you wonder about all the teachers slaving away in classrooms and earnestly rustling up courses that go deep into the subject.And here's a young lady tripping on Excel to say pretty much what you can find on several sites if you do a little digging.It helps, of course that once things go viral on TikTok , it propels the course to the top making it highly visible.So GenZers looking to learn Excel must be instantly hooked. Someone speaks their tongue.There are days when she earns as much as $100,000 dollars .who says life is fair!What the $100 billion in UPI transactions mean for banksThe change was swift.The pandemic drove more people and businesses to digital payments.Traditional banks are the foundation for the entire system.And that became the problem which could balloon into a threat in the years ahead.While banks are the ones approving and managing transactions, they have become invisible to users.As long as net banking was an option, a user had to log in on a fairly regular basis to manage payments.With apps like Phone Pe and Google Pay, that is no longer necessary.If banks get relegated to the background and become the invisible middlemen, their long-term prospects are squeezed.They have to rely on aggregators for their most profitable businesses like loans for vehicles or personal loans and slowly, get cut out of the reckoning.A small announcement the other day passed almost unnoticed. That SBI would be adding a Rs.99 charge to EMIs on every purchase. This was over and above the interest payment - a flat charge.This leads to customer resentment because a customer sees no value in making the payment.It is a sign that SBI wants a part of the action on payments and they are willing to risk the wrath of customers because they don't have an option.The writing is on the wall - banks thought that payments were merely transactions and loans were their main product. But if people don't need you for payments, they could look elsewhere for loans as well. The payment facilitators are building the wall between consumers and banks - how this will play out remains to be seen.Subscribe now and I'll send some interesting stuff on branding, behavior and markets to your inbox every week. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

The QR code was invented back in 1994.The original use was to scan components at high speeds in auto manufacturing companies.The biggest advantage of QR codes is that they hold 300 times more data than barcodesBut they became a largely fruitless link between offline and online environments.Brands used it for years to tempt users to go online by scanning a squiggly square in magazine ads after the invention of smartphones.It was supposed to be the bridge to landing pages and allow users to go straight to designated pages and get people to interact.It went nowhere.People thought that typing in a URL was equally easy.Until Covid made contact in any form scary.Even credit cards being swiped implied danger. People wanted to order and pay without making any physical contact with menus, catalogs or any surface.And that's when the QR code became the preferred option. It had become popular in Japan and China as a mode for payment but with Covid, the floodgates opened.Today, the no-contact plaques showing a QR code have become the norm in supermarkets and even online payments.QR codes are generated on the fly on desktops and paid for with scans by the mobile app.They top up mobile or satellite TV recharges, bill payments, and we interact with them almost without thinking now.A system that was made for no contact living had to wait for the world to discover it 26 years after it had been invented.And it looks as if we won't be going back to physical payment modes even after the pandemic passes.Photo by Markus Winkler on UnsplashNature has expert engineers who work for freeWe think of nature as beautiful. verdant and a poet's inspiration.Turns out that the engineering skills are truly magnificent to behold as well.A dry creek in California was proving to be a wildlife risk.It had grown that way after years of agricultural use.The estimate for 'greening' the land was around $1 million and the time it would take - 12 years.So the ecologists took an unusual route.They prepared the land for beavers to operate freely and it cost about $60,000.In just 3 years, the beavers have completely transformed the landscape.They didn't need a blueprint. There was no committee constituted to oversee progress.And best of all, they didn't need to be supervised or told what to do.Trees, willows, plants that thrive in wetlands and meandering streams appeared across a wild landscape encompassing about 60 acres.This is a project initiated by the US Fish and Wildlife service.Hardly seems like the kind of thing a government would do but there are several projects now in the pipeline.Seeing the success, nonprofits and universities are now on board.So, an army of beavers is now going to be put to work to reclaim the land. Nature's engineers who have been doing it for eons will be called upon to repeat the magic of breathing life into land that has been denuded and destroyed.Like the elves and the shoemaker saga - we don't have to tell nature what to do.Just prepare the ground, get out of the way and come back for a pleasant surprise a few years later!Can a calendar make money?It depends, really on what it is being used for. Practically every email program has a calendar. So what was missing?The old way to fix a meeting was to email,  figure out a convenient date and time.When you're trying to organise it halfway around the world, it gets a lot trickier. Especially when there are several meetings involved.Trying to figure out when working schedules intersect and whether the person is free at the time is a problem.Whether you're trying to line up a demo, get an introduction going or interviewing a candidate.Calendly was founded by Tope Awotana who faced the problem himself. He tried every other product in the market and knew what was missing.Getting the technology to work was another major problem altogether.We underestimate the level of knowledge that is commonly available - if we are familiar with something, we assume the rest of the world knows. Which is far from the truth.So the problem statement can be pared down to this. How can you set up multiple meetings a day across time zones and know when time slots with the people you want to meet with are available?That's the problem Calendly solves. It let's you synch up slots that people indicate on their schedule without having to exchange emails.Word of mouth was the single biggest way in which people got to know of it. And last year the company made over $70 million.So yes, calendars do make money - but not just by printing the months of the year!Subscribe now and I'll send some interesting stuff on branding, behavior and markets to your inbox every week. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

James Dyson built over 5000 prototypes of the 'Cyclone' vacuum cleaner to get it right.He made one change at a time, so he knew exactly what was going wrong or in the right direction. Not 2 or 3 changes. One.He was told by every manufacturer that vacuum cleaners could not get any more efficient.The 'cyclone' technology had to be developed to suck up dust particles smaller than 1 micron. A Physics professor told him anything less than 20 microns was impossible.He had to buy out a partner who didn't believe it was possible either.He tried to license the technology to manufacture it but no one was interested.He finally had to do it himself.The vacuum had a transparent pipe showing the dust being collected. All previous research had shown that consumers didn't want to see dust being swept up. The engineers liked seeing it, so they kept it.It was priced at 4 times the cost of the established competitors. No one gave it a chance.The few retailers who agreed to stock the product paid for it in advance. Those were the terms of the sale.The people who bought it were not the rich. Their houses were vacuumed by maids and they couldn't care less.It was bought by the middle class who wanted to keep their houses sparkling clean and found a product that worked as promised.It took nearly 4 years to develop the first working prototype. And another 4-6 years to get it out to market.James Dyson put up his home as collateral to raise the money from a bank.In the entire set of events narrated so far, where do you see the inspiration?Now, you know!Photo by Crawford Jolly on UnsplashFrydomSounds a bit like freedom, right.A guy has created an interesting interactive site on the best shapes to fry.Not too many surprises, actually.The ridged shape 'fries' the best because of the surface area exposed to the oil.What's a little surprising is that only potato fries were explored.If it was India, you'll get all kinds of shapes and sizes to work with, apart from the incredible variety of things we happily drop into oil.'Bajjis' the evergreen favorite of the commuters come in round coin shapes, stuffed with potatoes.The long misshapen ones often hide a fiery chilli. Entire batches are fried at a time and people patiently await their turn to dig into them.But we also have this ability to combine the crisp outside with flaky and soft insides in the fries. Which calls for some specialisation and skillful techniques.The 'fafda,' something that looks like the Gujarati version of the regular 'papad' seems to have evolved into one stage of automation.Long and thin strips are laid reverentially across boiling oil and then packed off in 1 kg boxes for family consumption.There are no stopping Indian families who like to fry everything from bitter gourd to capsicum.There's even a complex recipe where ladyfingers are sliced, stuffed with masala, tied up with string and then shallow fried.The resulting concoction can convert even the most die-hard ladyfinger skeptic.May be an Indian website designer could explore the multiple sizes, shapes and textures of Indian fries to show the world that potatoes are not the ultimate gastronomic experience.People who live in smart homes may be rendered dumbIt's mostly hype.Reality is another matter altogether.Lights coming on just as you enter home. The temperature adjusted to the precise degree that you have defined as comfortable.Music begins to play from your favorite playlist, depending on what your mood is - determined by your latest tweet or smartphone conversation.The coffee machine begins to bubble and froth based on the recipe you've fed in.Now, let me pierce the bubble.This is an account from a person who actually lives in one, so she should know.The problem as usual, is that competitors are jousting with each other.Google Speakers can work at odds with Alexa's instructions.Some of the IoT players have a mind and systems of their own - and that leads to frustrating consequences.Alexa gets a little too chatty for comfort, making various recommendations over the course of the day without being asked.Lights come on at night when you're fast asleep - and not being able to put them off adds to a sense of powerlessness. It requires another update. Until it breaks again.Weather bulletins are read out aloud even when they haven't been summoned.Some of these are niggling problems but it shows us how far out on a limb we already are.If our fridges are going to place orders without our knowing, calls made to ecommerce companies to deliver things that have run out, where will it stop?And what happens when 4 people with different habits start living together in a smart home?Whose instructions do the systems follow?It's a recipe for chaos and we're just starting to see where the madness could lead.Subscribe now and I'll send some interesting stuff on branding, behavior and markets to your inbox every week. Triggers for your thoughts. Share it with friends. Or anyone you think will be interested. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

There's something cinematic about platforms - no, not the software version.It's where family issues get resolved or break up forever - at least in the movies.The place where strangers arrive in a town and have a profound impact - where their life changes or the town changes.Scriptwriters need a staging point for life's inflection points - and railway platforms are more accessible than airports. Airports are distant and there can't be last minute resolutions - at least the way they can be staged on platforms.Bus stands are ordinary. There isn't much potential for drama in drab surroundings.But railway stations have parallel lines that converge or diverge - and act as final chapters.The train leaving the station, the guard waving the green flag and blowing the whistle and the closing doors have a finality that can be mined for dramatic staging.The heroine having escaped the clutches of her dominant family runs in slow motion towards the outstretched hands of the hero.Will he disappear into the horizon? Or will they unite at the last possible minute? We've all seen movies where both happened.In fact, it has become a cliché - the movie station ending and trying to come up with variations is now almost impossible. But that doesn't matter ultimately.The point is that every story needs a resolution. And platforms offer that neutral ground where conflicts can be either resolved or end in bitterness.Platforms are cinema's punctuation point. Life has to come to a full stop or go on.Photo by grayom on UnsplashInsurers are cutting ransomware coverit's getting chaotic out there.Even with strong cyber security systems in place, insurance companies have had to pay out hefty sums to affected companies.Ransomware, apparently, is the new money making favorite of the underworld.There's nothing to be transported, and every single successful strike brings in large rewards, directly in cryptocurrency. Making it harder to trace and thwart.No wonder insurers are having to cut their losses and put up safeguards from payouts instead of protection.They are paying only half the cover they used to and some insurance companies are actively discouraging cyber expansion.That is bad news for IT companies which looked at software eating the world. But ransomware is taking a seat at the table and biting off a lot more than any company can cough up.No one predicted a networking future that would have to contend with such disasters. Effectively, an affected company's data needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and there is no guarantee that they will not face a reckoning again.The ease with which data is locked up and systems rendered useless is prompting a rethink.Solutions will be found but since the operation is highly profitable, new attack methods will be tried out as well.How will insurance companies respond to the new dynamics of cyber crime? The risks are rising at a fast clip now.Companies will have to bear the brunt of the attacks. A solution provider who can prevent breaches could be a guaranteed billion dollar opportunity - as long as they can deliver. Quantum computing may have to be fast tracked.Explore things you don't understandWe create our own barriers and walls.I've heard people proudly say " I know nothing about..." as if that was an achievement. It takes so little to find out more.Maybe you won't be able to understand things in depth right away but it does not mean you don't make the effort.Babies start out with no understanding of how to move, talk or communicate. But they are observing and making the effort all the time.The gibberish that comes out of their mouths transforms into words and then sentences. The 'rolling over' in bed is among the earliest things that kids do, not sitting up or even attempting to walk.They ask an unending series of questions, irritating adults who find that they have to explain the same thing over and over again.That's the learning process. And somewhere in school, we get used to rote learning. And studying to get the highest marks in class.As if that is the objective and not the thrill of understanding.We get used to others setting the limits of what we should and should not know. Like invisible barriers, we never go beyond them.Take cryptocurrency. There's a series of lectures from Princeton University available online. It's 13 hours of a deep dive into what Bitcoin and blockchain are all about.But don't limit yourself to what is fashionable right now. We live in a time when there are no limits to learning.We have to go back to the time when we learned more in those first few years because of one simple behavior. Curiosity.The rest will take care of itself.Every week, I'll plant a few ideas in your mind on branding, behavior and markets. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com

Formula 1 is all about speed with a core group of worshippers.But it was a closed world. What people saw was cars driven at incredible speeds around convoluted tracks.The big names like Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen were well-known.But a sport is never about the lead players alone.It's about the thousands of smaller stories that never get a moment in the spotlight.So anyone placed below the Top 5 got scant attention from the sports media.The other thing that attracted attention were the slow motion crashes and the way cars careened around the track into massive pileups.But the human stories were missing.Once the live telecast was done and the interviews followed, people waited for the next race to watch and cheer on their heroes.The idea to make a scripted documentary of the Formula 1 world was greenlit by Sean Bratches, a former Managing Director of commercial operations for F1.Box to Box films produced the first season for Netflix and they were given unprecedented access to all the teams.And suddenly, the human stories came through loud and clear. It was about crushing defeat and disappointments as much as the victories.The nail-biting finishes were shaped by teams working in close coordination with the superstar drivers, but every wrinkle and setback was seen as well.The net result? Viewership of the F1 races jumped by nearly 50% and the managers seen in the Netflix series were mobbed as much as the stars were.Fi became the sports brand that grew the most on Facebook, YouTube and InstagramBrand building is fueled by storytelling. Not so much the machines as the machinations!"A developed country is not where the poor drive cars”It's where the rich use public transportation"This is a quote attributed to Enrique Penalosa, a Mayor of Bogota.And what does Elon Musk think?From an article in Wired “I think public transport is painful. It sucks..."Two completely contrasting philosophies.The first built Tokyo, the largest and most densely populated metropolis in the world.It's a city without one single centre but many of them and overseen by relaxed zoning principles. So, one area does not get to thrive at the expense of another.And then you have the US. A country that lives by the principle of individual independence and strict zoning.Where public transportation is perceived as the option for the poor and not something cities should invest in.In Tokyo, like in Singapore, trains are the best way to get around a city that sprawls.  Riding the train does not say anything about your economic status. So you don't have to invest in a massive car and show it off.Tokyo ranks 99th in the world for the average expensive price of a single-bedroom apartment.Mixed zoning allows density and people living in close proximity to each other. As a result, it increases safety because people are out in the streets all through the day. Children walk to school with no problems at all.The principle of individuality is enticing. But it also separates you from the rest of the people you share the city with.If you don't want to travel in public transport and interact with only a certain social circle, what does it say about you as a person?Tokyo should be the model of the world's metropolises. But the one that is packaged and sold is New York.Do we appreciate risk?As far as insurance policies go, maybe.But until the 12 century, the concept was largely unknown. As with most things, it was business that paved the way.The earliest known usage was with respect to merchant ships and voyages. The captain of a ship would enter into a contract with an investor for a 'resicum' - the Latin word for risk before setting sail.On return, the captain kept 25% of the profits and the investor got 75%Now, we're able to calculate probability, eventuality and returns on data that goes back decades.And it has crept into daily usage that spans an entire spectrum.The risks of falling in love. Of keeping all eggs in one basket. Of spreading risk like it was a slab of butter. Or  de-risking as some kind of sponge that absorbs hard knocks.And so, the word has moved far away from it's origins to involve behavior - of people who take needless risks and those who don't.Entrepreneurs have been defined as those who have a high risk appetite.There are physical risks and mental risks. Each with its own set of payoffs and pitfalls.There are risks we can control and those we don't even know of. Until Covid, not a single insurance company would have considered a world-wide shutdown and the impact it would have on businesses.For everything from stock market crashes to F1 results, the risks multiply.And as  global connections increase, all we know is that new risks are just around the corner just when we get comfortable with what we are able to predict.Every week, I'll plant a few ideas in your mind on branding, behavior and markets. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com