Godrej's internal magazine Change publishes my article - "Are you ready for the information economy?". Read it here: http://issuu.com/godrej/docs/jan_2012/11.
April 27, 2012
March 23, 2012
India Immersion Program Presentation at ID
In December 2011, nine students from the IIT Institute of Design traveled to India on a three week program organized by ID and Godrej&Boyce Ltd. During these three weeks, they worked on a strategic project with nine executives and the VP of Innovation from Godrej&Boyce. They were part of new pilot program at ID called the India Immersion Program.
On Tuesday, March 20, 2012, join the presentation and discussion as Navroze Godrej, the students from the India Immersion Program, and I talked about our experiences during this program as well as the effect of this program on ID and future Immersion programs at ID.
February 08, 2012
Anijo Mathew speaks at the 11th CII NID Design Summit in Delhi
I was invited to deliver a keynote address at the 11th CII NID Design Summit held in Delhi on 8-9 December 2011.
The Summit featured some great keynotes from VIjay Kumar at IIT ID, and James Woudhuysen, Professor at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
I spoke about the move from an Industrial economy to an Information economy and what business and design can do to affect change in this context. The same presentation was also made to an interesting mix of business folks and designers in Mumbai at the invitation of Aparna Piramal (of the Piramal group and BP Ergo). Aparna writes extensively about therole of Design in Indian business and it was quite interesting have a conversation with a group hosted by her. The session was attended by Radhika Piramal (VIP), Devita Saraf (Vu Technologies), Ratan Batliboi, Preeti Vyas among others.
October 04, 2011
Why Amazon Fire is the new disruptor...
Yesterday, a good friend of mine casually mentioned - "You know, I pre-ordered the Amazon Fire". If reports are to be believed, 95,000+ others made the same decision. Why is this important? Well for one compare it to RIM's performance in the second fiscal quarter - only 200,000 Playbooks were sold in the entirety of that time. The Kindle Fire is not an amazing innovation by any means. It has a dual core processor, 8 GB HDD, 512 Mb RAM, NO CAMERA, and limited access to applications - by any measure this is mediocre hardware. BUT it costs $199! ONLY $199!
This is where Jeff Bezos did something smart - something which other hardware manufacturers cannot do. Hardware manufacturers (Samsung, Motorola) have one problem - they are hardware based. Which means that if Apple holds all hardware aquisition contracts for tablet hardware, they have to work around it by charging more for their device. Because thats all they have...the device. And because they hold this position, the companies (including Apple) have to continuously fight a losing battle - cutting edge hardware technology.
Bezos took an alternate position - he decided his company could make money off cloud content instead of the device. He should know - he has been working hard to make Amazon one of the best cloud based information service out there. Now all he needed was a platform to access this content - an Amazon branded platform. A "cheap" Amazon branded platform.
So what does he do? He waits. Rob Wheeler in his HBR post suggests why waiting is a good thing for disruptive innovation. He says that "Disruption occurs given two criteria. The first: that incumbents move upmarket to the most profitable segments, ignoring low-end competitors at the bottom of the market. The second: that the low-end competitor introduces a product with a scalable technology or business model advantage at its core that has the potential to displace the incumbent."
When the time was right, Bezos picked the platform that was most on a trajectory to failure - the RIM Playbook. By using the RIM Playbook as a hardware template (he hired Quanta, the same company that designed the Playbook, to design the Fire), Bezos dramatically reduced his front end design costs; by using technology that is just right (not cutting edge), Bezos reduced his supply chain costs; AND by using the same hardware platform, Amazon gave Quanta breathing room .
Now that Bezos had the price he wanted, he could focus on the experience. The Fire is so compelling, not because it is the fastest, or the lightest, or has the best camera. But because it is the BEST cloud information device out there. Better than the iPad, better than Android, and better than WP7 or 8. And Fire will change the way we interact with the cloud!
My friend invested wisely. Fire is the new iPhone. Fire is the new disruptor.
September 19, 2011
Steve Jobs explains how Apple 'got to its glory' in 1996 interview
via www.bgr.com
What caught my attention is Jobs' observation: "The problem was that Apple stood still. Even though it invested cumulatively billions in R&D, the output has not been there."
This is the problem with most big companies - the R&D is there. Money is being spent! BUT ON WHAT? Maybe its time companies took a leaf from Apple - they invest in R&D but they NEVER STAND STILL!
August 30, 2011
The Next iPhone May Be Kind Of Boring Suggests Forbes But...
via www.forbes.com
Okay - so I am not usually interested in iPhone rumours and predictions. Everyone has one and they are usually baseless . But here is one from Forbes: The next iPhone may actually not be that exciting - only a dual core processor, curved glass, NFC functionality (yawn!). BUT here is the interesting tidbit: it could work on ANY wireless carrier OR NONE AT ALL. Imagine walking into an Apple store, walking out with an iPhone5 and using it on any wireless carrier (since the phone has both CDMA and GSM radios). Or maybe you prefer to use it only through VoIP services. Now that is different.
Of course Apple is going to suggest that this is all new and innovative BUT don't forget that Google tried to bypass the wireless carriers with their NexusOne. The problem was that their initial offering worked only on TMobile and people don't really care for spending $500 bucks on a phone if you can't hold it in your hand.
Everything said and done, if this does indeed happen, it will be really exciting and game changing. Maybe not so much for the techies (yes! yes! the quad core iPhone should come out sometime in 2013) but for anyone who is interested in mobile strategy and business models.
August 25, 2011
Who is Apple's new CEO?
via www.engadget.com
Tim Cook takes over Apple from Steve Jobs. A BIG SHOE to fill but I am sure Steve Jobs has left enough legacy in the place for at least a decade of innovation. What happens after that will determine what happens to Apple.
But who is Tim Cook? - hit the link to read more...
April 12, 2010
Bloomberg reports Palm Looking for Buyers
The end of an era but great news for the Smartphone market. Buyers will be looking to tap into the large portfolio of patents that Palm has horded over the last few decades of it's existence. HTC is listed as one the interested parties - given HTC's connections with Google, that would make them a power player among the top three (Apple, Google, and Microsoft).
Exciting times lie ahead...
April 09, 2010
Rob Fabricant asks if Apple is Really Committed to the iPad?
An interesting article by Rob Fabricant of Frog who questions Apple's moves with the current release of the iPad. His basic position is based on the claim that hardware is easy, its software that is difficult to make - and Apple has not made any significant advances with the iPad software.
I tend to disagree with this position - sure Apple sees this as one device among a host of new devices...but there are two really interesting aspects to the iPad:
1) its blazing fast - anyone who has played with the iPad will testify to how fast it is; sometimes even faster than my tablet PC - this is significant as Apple sees the iPad as a pure information appliance.
2) its form factor is conducive to interpersonal communication. Of course this means nothing until 3rd party apps publish useful apps that exploit this - but my guess is we will see a lot more interesting things come out of this.
Time will tell if Fabricant is right - but for now, its an interesting position. Read on and comment...