The practical guide to answering big questions with a systematic approach made famous by strategy consulting companies — How do you answer tough questions? How do you prepare for big decisions? Luckily, there is a system that fits most situations. I used it as an engineer, entrepreneur, consultant, and coach. It’s an evergreen approach applicable in any field. So what is this mysterious system of problem-solving and decision-making?

A practical guide to hypotheses-driven decision-making with examples — The consulting way of solving problems is surprisingly simple. It’s all about structure. It’s an evergreen approach that’s applicable in any field for entrepreneurs as well as for large corporations. I worked as an engineer, entrepreneur, consultant, and manager. I applied the same approaches in every job and in life. …

As I mentioned in an earlier LinkedIn post, we at OVBI are working hard to address rural India’s water challenges through the JalTara initiative. The goal of JalTara is to solve rural water challenges at scale— by digging standard recharge pits in every plot of land in a village. One…

“The modern devil is cheap dopamine.” — Naval Ravikant — Dopamine is a neurochemical that plays a vital role in our motivation and willpower. Whenever the brain anticipates a reward, it releases dopamine to stimulate us to take the necessary actions to obtain that reward. In other words, without dopamine, we wouldn’t feel motivated to improve ourselves, build a better…

A practical guide to the powerful 4S method with examples for anyone. — How do you solve big problems? How do you answer difficult questions in life and business? Is there a systematic approach that fits any situation? There is. Luckily in university, I had a complete course about systematic problem solving taught by a senior partner at McKinsey Management Consulting. I memorized…

Innovation and new product development has much to do with experimentation and following hunches as it has to do with that breakthrough moment. This blog is a short post on some of the accidental discoveries made along the way, in the pursuit of a different outcome. Here are 10 products discovered by accident which may surprise you. 1. Bubble Wrap! Bubble wrap was originally…

When looking at new presentation tools, one requirements rises to the top: make it easier to create and tell a story so that the audience will remember it. “Great stories happen to those who can tell them” — Ira Glass In my search for better tools, I have been focusing…

Case studies of futures design in-practice. — The earliest surviving piece of literature The Epic of Gilgamesh dates back to 2100BCE in ancient Mesopotamia. It tells the story of Gilgamesh meeting and mourning his friend Enkidu and embarking on a perilous journey to discover the secret to eternal life. As far back as 28,000BCE there were visual…

The art of crafting an AI strategy through Wardley Maps — Background — Spearheading AI Strategy at an Established Bank Prior to founding Data-Centric Solutions, I spearheaded the development, execution, and implementation of the AI strategy at an established bank. Although relatively green in delivering at such scale, I accepted the job with enthusiasm. …

Abstract Our most ambitious and successful clients are the ones that not only do focus on bringing a single innovation initiative to the market with a structured, validation-oriented, platform design approach but the ones that recognize the need to look at their organization, capabilities, and strategies from a portfolio and systems…

Author’s Note: This article was written over 60 hours with love and care using the blockbuster mental model. If you like my writing style, and you want to create high-quality viral content using the blockbuster approach, you’ll love my Blockbuster Blueprint newsletter, which delivers three in-depth articles every week. This…

I always thought OKR was a bit pointless. My first introduction to it was back in 2018 at Facebook. I already knew the projects I wanted to do that quarter. My manager reviewed the projects and said, “Can you frame the goals in an ‘OKR’ format?” I googled ‘OKR’, familiarised…

Author’s Note: This article was written over 60 hours with love and care using the blockbuster mental model. If you like my writing style, and you want to create high-quality viral content using the blockbuster approach, you’ll love my Blockbuster Blueprint newsletter, which delivers three in-depth articles every week. It…

Originally published on news.appbase.io. OKRs, short for Objectives and Key Results is a widely used framework by teams to communicate what is the big picture in a quantifiable way and track how is everyone contributing towards it. Google has been using OKRs since their startup days in 1999, this post…

You Need a Better Where-to-Play/How-to-Win — People inform me they are busy as if it is a badge of honor. For me, it is a signal that they have a weak personal Playing to Win strategy. To explain why, my 7th Year III Playing to Win Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece discusses Being ‘Too Busy’ Means Your…

Just published, our newest title, Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World by Maria Giudice & Christopher Ireland. Below are the blurb and Chapter 1, “The Imperfect Future,” so you can sample it for yourself. …

“Rather than focusing only on what is false or who or what is at fault, wisdom involves focusing on whoever and whatever is true, whole, wholesome, valid, and right.” — Forrest Landry This blog is the third and final part of a series on the culture war. In part one…

In a previous post, I talked about how we’re moving from the surreal to the slowburn. As we transition, what do we want to sustain from those emergency responses? What are the behaviours we’ve changed we want to sustain and what are the trends we want to accelerate or reverse…

I've written before about how we move from behaviour change to systems change and how you can create that movement through the lens of a 15-minute neighbourhood. When I worked on an organisational transformation programme, I wanted to ground it in impact on the ground and, therefore, in people's lives…

Comfortable mechanical and technological innovations give way to a disruptive cognitive transformation. — GPT Summary: From the wheel to the transistor, mechanical and technological innovations have changed human history and expanded our capacity for unique and specific advantages. However, the next step is a cognitive transformation where thinking becomes the new domain of technology. The inculcation of AI into humanity fundamentally changes the…