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As Feyman said, better to have questions that cannot be answered and make you squirm than answers that cannot be questioned.
So, how do you know a heretic who is a drain on morale and culture vs. a freethinker who needs to be encouraged and nurtured?
Salesforce Blockchain was announced last week. What types of problems does it seek to solve, how real is it, and can it be an exception to the over-marketing and hype in enterprise blockchain?
Can centralized knowledge stores with proprietary knowledge be disrupted by decentralized networks riding on top of open protocols?
An ancient king feels betrayed and his kingdom is in decadence. But who is to blame and how does he find out?
While there are many different ways to think about what blockchains do — ranging from the hyper-technical to digital money — there is value to reverting to a utilitarian model and think of each blockchain as doing a specific type of work.
A blockchain helps in getting a “job done” using a decentralized network of participants aligned by transparent incentives. In an ideal state, can this network get the job done smarter, faster, cheaper, better than centralized options?
The Netscape Browser in 1995 made the Internet (which had existed since the 1970s) go mainstream.
What could be the equivalent of the Browser for the decentralized internet in terms of similar impact? Is it a wallet, a dApp Browser, or something else altogether?
For almost two decades (1990-2010), Analytics was more or less synonymous with reporting and cool dashboards for executives. No longer is this true. The new analytics stack has come a long way and has more budgets, heft, and power than ever before. Analytics has now morphed to Intelligence and comprises of mission critical systems and services with a clear mandate to generate new revenues and profits.
Are decentralized apps for real? What do they do, why are they different, and what is required for them to succeed?
The CRM of the future (not just the tech, but the strategy, culture, and the business models of how you make money from customer relationships) has to be squarely about solving for the end customer and creating deep loyalty and emotional bonding.
I believe there are four types of product leaders in high-tech companies: Starter, Scaler, Steward, and Sage. Each type has different skills, mindsets and predispositions. Hiring managers and CEOs will do well to reflect on who they actually need before they begin the recruiting process for product managers or product VPs.
In the universe of digital projects initiated and funded within a large enterprise, some are transformational, some incremental, some chimerical, and a subset of the first eventually degenerates into misadventures. The real question is do you know which is what at any point in time.
A horror story of an enterprise-wide systems transformation program seen from both sides of the table (software vendor and client). Inspired by real events.
“Are the dogs eating the dog food” is a widely used metaphor in board meetings, but has a deeper subtext often left unexplored.
Being passionate about the solution vs. the problem is the most understated and under-examined malaise of our time. Many a startup has been brought to its knees by misplaced love.
Building a data business based on user data often feels like a Sisyphean task. Until there is enough data, no one wants to be a user. And until there are enough users, there is not enough data.
How can data aggregators go from nothing to something and get on the path to liquidity and scale?
Four types of players are building data businesses that are reshaping industry ecosystems: Last-Mile Suppliers, Platforms, Supply-Side Data Aggregators, and Customer-Side Data Aggregators.
The industry cloud is emerging as a significant growth opportunity capable of redistributing billions of dollars in customer spend from old industry software companies to new SaaS players.
Every enterprise needs to master the six funnels of the buyer's journey transcending discovery, engagement, purchase, usage, and expansion. Data, intelligence, and software are critical to navigating buyers through these funnels in the most effective way, and in the fastest period of time, with minimal friction and maximum throughput.
As an over-used buzzword, “Digital” is abused and tortured like no other. Its multiple meanings are constantly conflated by vendors to confuse customers and as a desperate attempt to assert thought leadership.
A 2*2 framework to understand the different types of bots, where they work well, and where they do not.
While CPQ/ Q2C category of software applications holds great promise for powering the next generation of cloud-based transactional systems, this market has also been a mystery to fathom and unpack. Can the next generation Q2C SaaS vendors break the shackles that have constrained the previous generation of companies?
The systems integration business is in the throes of a transformation. To survive and thrive, SIs need to acquire new skills and competencies, experiment with new operating and business models, and change their culture.
Four types of intelligent agents are emerging as serious contenders to pursue the holy grail of simplifying and enhancing users’ lives by being a high value-add concierge.
A culture of seeking and pursuing the truth at all times is the biggest competitive advantage in today's uncertain, chaotic, and messy world.
Customer Success is now at the very core of enterprise software and is no longer something that can be outsourced to systems integrators and third parties.
Spotting growth from 0-1 and 1-10 is incredibly hard. But it is also a skill that can be acquired with deliberate awareness and practice.
A personal story about my struggles with a simple task and the meta lessons from it.