Author Archives: pr

About pr

Strategic thinker claiming to see around the bends. When he was born he could not chew, walk or talk. After years of practice, he can now do all that, simultaneously!

Taxes and truthiness

Posted on December 4, 2010 by pr

Battle lines are being drawn by both US political parties around this issue, as both sides try to deliver fodder to their loyal base.  Republicans are adamant to expand the tax cuts to everyone, whereas Democrats want to limit the … Continue reading →

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Wikileaks – strategy bites back

Posted on November 29, 2010 by pr

Your view of Wikileaks.com will depend on where you are sitting.  If you are one of those people who hate US, you are happy and curious about what has been leaked.  If you are a believer in US intentions, you … Continue reading →

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National strategy

Posted on July 5, 2010 by pr

Contrary to the laissez-faire capitalist view, having a national strategy is important.  Andy Grove, one of the best strategists of our time, writes eloquently about where US strategy of profit-driven offshoring has gone wrong.   My favorite excerpt: The story comes … Continue reading →

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How not to design customer support

Posted on June 23, 2010 by pr

The only goal of every customer support interface ought to be to get the customer as quickly as possible to the best person to help with the problem.  Complicated menus, myriad options, endless redirections and exposing artificial walls to customers … Continue reading →

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Wealth gap

Posted on June 18, 2010 by pr

Businessweek recently published ranking of countries with most millionaires.  Not surprisingly, US topped the list and China is moving up fast in third place. What caught my attention was the percentage of wealth controlled by this elite group in each … Continue reading →

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Disruptive Innovation

Posted on May 6, 2010 by pr

PBS program Frontline recently covered the private college industry, in which how the government-backed (now government-run) student load programs have fueled a $400B education industry.   I had several reactions to this program: 1. Unintended consequences: Any time the government wants … Continue reading →

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Making your job obsolete

Posted on April 23, 2010 by pr

If I had to sum up my philosophy on how any person, organization, corporation or country could grow, it would be ‘focus on making everyone’s job obsolete’.  It may seem too simplistically obvious while being difficult to implement in practice … Continue reading →

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The Airline Spirit

Posted on April 17, 2010 by pr

Recently, Spirit Airlines announced that they will start charging $45 for carry-on luggage.  Fees for check-in bags made more people avoid check-ins and prefer to carry-on their stuff.  Now they are irate over fees for carry-ons announced by Spirit.  Even … Continue reading →

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Apple’s 3.3.1 problem

Posted on April 13, 2010 by pr

Apple locks horns with developers…again.  This time over a section in new agreement for the 4.0 SDK requiring ‘pure’ Apple code without the use of third party platforms.  I remember they prevented people from developing such frameworks in the first … Continue reading →

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Apple and China

Posted on April 5, 2010 by pr

China is doing an excellent job of balancing growth and freedom – in this case freedom for ‘pursuit of happiness’ by moving to urban areas.  As these graphics illustrate, China is moving large chunks of rural population into its 669+ … Continue reading →

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