Ketharaman Swaminathan

When Nothing Is Better Than Something – Part 1

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According to the old adage, “something is better than nothing”. This has become common wisdom because it’s often true. But there are a few critical situations where it’s fatally flawed. In this post, I’ll give a few examples. #1. CACHE MEMORY Back in the day, the IT hardware company I worked for launched two models … Read more

India Inc Is Not In A Slowdown. India Inc Is The Slowdown

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With a steady fall in GDP growth rate during the last five quarters, there’s a near unanimous verdict that the Indian economy is going through a slowdown. Most experts agree that the fundamental cause of the slowdown is insufficient consumption. I agree with both views. But I differ about the reasons advanced to explain the … Read more

PINless Card Payments – Innovative Or Harebrained?

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I’ve been asked many times to weigh in on the new PINless regime for credit and debit card payments in India. Most recently it was on Quora, where I was asked to answer the following question: Why is it not required to enter a PIN to authenticate a credit or debit card in many countries? … Read more

Britannia “Morning Jackpot” CEM – Making Digital Easier Than Paper

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I came across a Customer Engagement Management program on Britannia bread recently. The program was called Morning Jackpot and it was run jointly between India’s leading bread and biscuit manufacturer Britannia and Payment Service Provider PayTM. Like in any other digital CEM program, each pack of the product – Britannia Healthy Slice and Britannia 100% Whole bread, in this case – … Read more

Three New Sources Of Case Studies

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As anyone in the B2B technology industry would know, case study is vital in business development and sales. More than anything else, it’s this piece of marketing collateral that demonstrates a vendor’s “street cred” to the world and proves to potential customers that it has “been there, done that”. For ready reference, here’s an example … Read more

TCS Is Within Striking Distance Of FORTUNE GLOBAL 500 – Even Without M&A

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A decade ago, China had 29 FORTUNE GLOBAL 500 companies. Today, it has 119. India’s corresponding figures are 7 and 7. The GDPs of both countries have grown rapidly during this period. While China has seen a proportionate increase in its representation in Fortune Global 500, India has not. This has appeared to be an … Read more

Business Cards Are Still Relevant – Because “Case The Joint”

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After seeing the QR code on the back of my business card, a customer recently congratulated me for the nice hack which let him add my contact to his mobile phone in a single tap. But before I could bask in the praise, he rained on my parade by asking, “Are business cards relevant in … Read more

Are Digital Natives Losing Their Data Chops?

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According to the popular narrative, new age companies leverage data in virtually every facet of their business (as against traditional companies that run on intuition). To a large extent, this belief is right. Many digital natives owe their spectacular rise in the last decade or two to their prowess with data and analytics. A big … Read more

PR – Not Free But Delivers More Bang For Less Buck

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After reading this half page article on Dunzo in ET PRIME, a customer, Anshuman Shrivastava, Director Toptier Energy Services and ex-Banker, commented that PR is free, unlike advertising. Not true. Even if it appears that way at first blush. You pay for both PR and Advertising, just to different people. In Advertising, you pay an ad agency … Read more