Regulated Blockchain – Oxymoron But Killer App

There are many business relationships where trust is one-sided. Let me give a few examples of such relationships in which the contract between two parties A and B is such that A needs to trust B but B does not need not trust A. #1. METERING Mobile phone subscriber consumes data. The consumption is measured … Read more

Teardown Of The VC Investment Model

This is a slightly edited version of my answer to the following question on Quora: “We’ll disrupt uncouth taxi unions.” “We’ll kill greedy banks.” “We’ll upend shady realtors.” Startups with noble mission statements like these get billions of dollars of VC funding and enjoy unicorn – or even decacorn –  valuations. As a result, the average … Read more

Winners Don’t Let Security Screw Up User Experience

Like me, you may have come across people who appear obsessed with security but happily book cabs, send messages, order food, and even make payments without entering a single password / PIN on their smartphones. This is not as contradictory as it seems if you look at the end-to-end customer journey. For the uninitiated, Customer Journey can … Read more

Will You, Won’t You, Will You, Won’t You Get Your Blockchain App?

Fans of Lewis Carroll will immediately spot the striking resemblance between the title of this post and the refrain from The Mock Turtle’s Song in Alice in Wonderland. A newly opened electronic brokerage gave free eTrading accounts to all employees of the company in which I was working in circa 2000. I signed up for one immediately. … Read more

Why Do People Make Payments Without A Password After Obsessing Over Security?

Let’s take the following two statements: Indians are obsessed over security Indians make payments without entering any password. Each of these statements is a fact. But, taken together, they appear contradictory and portray Indian consumers as fickle (or worse). Not true. In this blog post, I’ll use the principles of Customer Journey Mapping to explain why these … Read more

Multiple Choice Questions: Yes, No Or Maybe?

There are two styles of testing in corporate and academic assessments: Subjective / Descriptive: The test has a question and the test taker – “assessee” in Learning & Assessment Management System-speak – writes their answer on a piece of paper in the case of offline assessment or types their answer into a form in the case of … Read more

Tap’s Loss Is Dip’s Gain – Or The Attitude That Will Kill Contactless Payments

India’s central bank-cum-banking regulator Reserve Bank of India relaxed the two factor authentication mandate for instore card payments below INR 2000 (~US$30). This means that you can pay with credit or debit card at a store without entering a PIN for purchases below INR 2000. Ever since that announcement was made, card issuers and acquirers … Read more

How Do You Verify Electronic Receipts In The Age Of Photoshop?

This is a slightly edited version of my answer to the following question on Quora.  Short Answer: Verification techniques range from “do nothing” and heuristics through to rigorous matching of returns filed by buyer and seller. Long Answer: I’ll first answer the question that’s asked by taking the stated use case where Party A (Individual) … Read more

IKEA Will Die If It Expects Indians To DIY

Nine years after I wrote Changing Face of DIY Markets, it’s still not so easy to get carpenters, electricians and plumbers for doing small household repair and home improvement jobs in India. At the time, the matching of demand from consumers with supply of of handymen was quite inefficient, with most online portals offering only listing services. … Read more

Upside Of Brexit For IT Industry

When my employer posted me to Germany in the early 2000s to open its subsidiary for the so-called D-A-CH (German speaking) market of Europe, we had no reference customer in Germany. When prospects asked who we worked with, I’d rattle off the names of several American customers. Prospects would shake their head and ask for … Read more