Giri Devanur.

All of us want to achieve peak performance in both our personal and professional lives. We want to have more time to enjoy pursuits that bring us joy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has two definitions for the word “productivity:” 1. The quality or state of being productive. 2. The rate per unit or area per unit volume at which biomass consumable as food by other organisms is made by producers. No one wants the measurement of biomass consumable as food as their ideal …

Have you ever seen the television shows Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul or Boston Legal? As an executive, you have a bunch of lawyer friends, and you know that you can call one of them for your legal challenges or opportunities. It could be a merger and acquisition deal or a financing agreement with a bank or financial institution. Either way, you know who to call. These lawyers, naturally, are not a cheap or small investment, and no one would ever think …

We have been hearing for months that AI will kill millions of jobs — that technology will take over all aspects of the travel industry and so on. Let’s take this onslaught of information and clinically dissect it to get a clearer view of how the travel industry will be affected. We can broadly define the core aspects of the travel industry in three main categories: preparation, buying and the actual experience itself. 1. Preparation Assume you want to go …

Nana korobi ya oki This statement is particularly true for tech startups. Historically, some of the most successful startups show that you have to keep trying until you find the proverbial “product-market fit.” What does this mean? Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz) defines the term as follows: “Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” In order to find a good product-market fit, a startup has to fail multiple times. …

I’ve found that senior business executives, entrepreneurs and employees climbing the ladder all have a common goal, and it isn’t success, power or fame. On a very basic level, what drives everyone is a desire to create happy and memorable experiences, both for yourself and for the people around you. Take Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, for example. He has said publicly that he takes six weeks of vacation per year, often spending that time outdoors, where he says he does his …

One of the questions most executives ask themselves in regard to their employees and their organizations is: “How do we achieve peak performance on a continuous basis?” Attaining peak performance is almost always about understanding one’s physiology and gaining a better control of emotions, thus enabling smarter decision making. Every success, failure, or opportunity seized or missed is the result of a decision that someone made or failed to make. In neuroscience terms, all decisions are initially driven by feelings, …

The global finance industry is massive. Global assets under management (AUM) is approximately $85 Trillions (https://press.pwc.com/News-releases/global-assets-under-management-set-to-rise-to–145.4-trillion-by-2025/s/e236a113-5115-4421-9c75-77191733f15f) This massive industry is under attack from various angles. Yesterday I was at a brick and mortar bank. I like my client services manager (Let’s call him Mr.W). Mr.W is a super cool guy and he is always smiling. But he couldn’t get me a simple transfer from one bank in US to another in India. It takes 5 business days!! Yes FIVE business days. And …

Dear 2017, I have fond memories of you. This past year has been absolutely amazing. Wanted to thank all my family, friends, colleagues,  advisors, together with known acquaintances and unknown angels who have helped me in this wonderful year! Very pleased with the last 365 days as it helped me accomplish a decent amount. Here is a small but significant list. Big bucket list items: Teaching in Columbia University (https://youtu.be/K1woLb-QzMQ) . This was one of the biggest moments of my …

We all worry about how to maintain “privacy”. Adding fuel to such concerns is the recent leakage by Equifax  (which said some 15Million people lost their identity fully) AND Yahoo claimed that EVERY SINGLE user who had an account with Yahoo lost their identity. 3 Billion accounts hacked. Go figure!! But these are just the tip of the iceberg in Cyber Security problems which are yet to come. Come to think of it, let’s say you just went on a international …

@apple announced the arrival of new iPhone X on September 12th, 2017. 10 years ago, I had witnessed the arrival of a technology marvel. Compare the original iPhone with Nokia or Blackberry, which were “the market leaders” back then. VS The iPhone was a piece of art. We all started lining up in front of apple stores. @apple was a $25Billion market cap company. Fast forward 10 years and 8 more models of the iPhone, the valuation has shot up …