Leading with brand alpha is also good business

Reading Time: 5 minuteswe lead with what lags and ignore what we should lead with
Brand generates alpha for a business

Reading Time: 3 minutesBrand alpha is not a distant shiny theoretical concept. It generates cold hard cash.
As a rule, Indians bend the rules

Reading Time: 3 minutesKirana stores used Jugaad to build categories in India. As we organise retail more and more, who’s bending the rules now?
Brand managers are not set up for success

Reading Time: 5 minutesYoung brand managers are thrown into the deep end. MBA education is too theoretical and managers don’t have time to teach. That’s why they need mental models.
It’s not just about the money

Reading Time: 6 minutesIt’s about fuzzy costs, and goodness. Stories, empathy, and self awareness hold the keys that unlock the mystery of fuzziness
Desire is good, desire is bad – The paradox of desire

Reading Time: 6 minutesThere would be no marketing, or even capitalism without desire. Trigger warning: I delve into the Hindu scriptures to understand the paradox of desire.
A marketer’s only job is to increase velocity

Reading Time: 6 minutesWhat Indian retailers and Bezos have in common and q-commerce misses- velocity is cash and free cash flow is king. That’s why a marketer’s only job is to accelerate velocity.
Suffering and flow go together

Reading Time: 5 minutesOur lives are containers for a million big and small tasks. Some tasks we love. The rest we tolerate, and a few we abhor. The ones that put us in flow are worth suffering for.
Mediocrites and Meaning Seekers in the age of AI

Reading Time: 5 minutesIn a post-AI world, the responsibility for keeping the mercenararians in check and the artists fed and clothed will lie with the mediocrites and meaning-seekers.
Mercenararians in the age of AI

Reading Time: 5 minutesMercenararians and artists are two ends of a spectrum, but there is a middle ground