As has become commonplace these years, 2023 too has been a year of extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, excessive and unseasonal rainfall in some places, drought in other places. We know that extreme weather conditions and natural calamities are becoming the rule, but it doesn’t conform to any pattern and we are unable to mitigate… Continue reading Greening the Planet Against Climate Change
In the old days when I was still a cub copywriter in the advertising industry in India – which is around 35-40 years ago – the prevailing marketing wisdom was that the consumer or customer is the one who makes the biggest decisions on brands. “Customer is King” was always heard at meetings, in conference… Continue reading Have Consumers Changed the Way They Make Brand Decisions?
For years and maybe even decades, technology experts and think-tanks have been warning us of the impact of automation and AI on work, skills and jobs. McKinsey, in its 2017 report on the Future of Work, which I had written about and shared on my blog in 2019, had indicated what kinds of jobs and… Continue reading The Generational Impact Generative AI Could Have on Work
This month saw the grand finalé of the G20 2023 summits under India’s presidency. New Delhi, India’s capital was suitably sanitized, beautified and locked down – for a 3-day holiday – so that leaders of the world’s most economically powerful countries as well as heads of multilateral institutions who had descended upon the city could… Continue reading G20 and BRICS, All in Expansion Mode
In my previous blog post, I had written about airlines as world connectors, providing an important economic and cultural link between countries and their people. And in it, I tried to create and recommend a new brand strategy for British Airways, already an image-builder for Britain as well as a world connector. I had envisaged… Continue reading Airlines as Image-Builders of Countries
We think of airlines as transportation, and also in the context of tourism, but rarely as providers of international connectivity, as vital as telecommunications and the internet. And even more rarely do we think of them as performing an important economic function, not even in today’s globalized and highly connected world. They are critical not… Continue reading Airlines as Connectors of the World
As central bankers from around the world converge at Wyoming for their annual Jackson Hole conference in August, the question that struck me is should it be their responsibility alone to fight consumer price inflation that is raging across many parts of the world. Of course, a lot depends on what kind of inflation it… Continue reading Should Monetary Policy Alone Fight Inflation?
Almost two years after the waning of the Covid pandemic and a year and a half of the conflict in Ukraine, the world is still fighting consumer price inflation in most parts of the world. That continues to be the biggest obstacle to growth and economic recovery, as consumers cut back their spending, especially on… Continue reading The Fractious State of the Global Economy
With all the excessive focus on technology in the times that we live in, it’s easy for companies to lose sight of brands, and consumer connection. These days particularly AI is the focus of so much attention, that I fear at least my industry of advertising and brand communications is getting carried away by all… Continue reading Technology or Brand, Which Comes First?
I am reading the second volume of the three-volume selection of Gandhi’s Moral and Political Writings, edited by Raghavan Iyer, that is part of my aged father’s library at home. I had read the first volume decades ago when I was visiting my parents from Delhi and thought it’s high time, I read the remaining… Continue reading Interpreting Mahatma Gandhi for a VUCA World
Peripatetic Perch 