AI Didn’t Invent Circular Deals

I concluded my blog post entitled ROI For Customer ≠ ROI For Investor with a promise to write a follow-on post on startup investments that are not made in cash. This is that follow on post. Noncash investments have been practice du jour in many industries for decades. During the dotcom era, it was customary for startups to pay for marketing, … Read more

myBAR Data Analysis By ChatGPT

I recently asked ChatGPT to dive into my book collection, crunch the numbers, and give me insights into my reading behavior. This blog post is the result of that exercise. I’ve read over two thousand books. You’ll find some of them in my bookshelf. But many books I’ve read are missing from it since: I … Read more

“Will AI Kill SaaS?” Is The Wrong Question

Last week saw a severe meltdown of software company stocks on Wall Street. Salesforce: −47% Figma: −83% Hubspot: −71% ServiceNow: −53% Workday: −45% Click here for a more complete list. According to Wall Street Journal, the $300 billion drawdown in software stocks was caused by the threat posed by new AI vibe coding tools to … Read more

Arattai V. WhatsApp: Network Effects Don’t Grow On Trees

The mainstream media has already started writing the obituary of Zoho’s Arattai messaging app. Take, for example, Economic Times. In its oped entitled Why Arattai Isn’t A WhatsApp by Akshat Khandelwal, ET writes:  Arattai will join the long list of ‘dead’ Indian apps such as Koo, Hike and Chingari that tried to punch above their … Read more

How China Primed Its R&D Pump With IP Theft

When some rando shills China’s R&D playbook for India on social media, it’s funny. But if a leading columnist does the same in the world’s second largest business daily (see footnote 1), it’s no laughing matter. When that happens, it must be rebutted. Consider it done. —– In his op-ed entitled Commercial, Not Tech-Savvy in … Read more

Inventing A Strategic Enemy To Create Revolutionary Brands

In his oped entitled Abey, Get a Strategic Enemy! in the Economic Times dated 2 October 2025, M Muneer proposes what I call the Strategic Enemy playbook to create revolutionary brands. Strategic Enemy Playbook Brands seeking improvement often disappear. Brand growth needs differentiation by enemy. The human mind recognizes opposition, not superiority. American brands Liquid … Read more

Why Foreign Exporters And American Importers Are Paying Trump Tariffs

“When President Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, economists predicted surging inflation and raised the odds of a recession. Those worries now seem overblown.” ~ How the U.S. Economy Has Defied Doomsday Predictions on Tariffs, Wall Street Journal. I’d predicted this in my previous blog posts on Trump Tariffs (see RELATED READING at the end). … Read more

Trump Tariffs: Who Is Paying How Much?

Ever since Donald Trump started talking about tariffs (1988) and first imposed tariffs (2018), the mainstream media has been parroting the pedantic economics theory that tariffs is a form of tax on US consumers. When Trump reiterated his intention last year to impose tariffs if he was elected the President of the United States, MSM … Read more

ROI For Customer ≠ ROI For Investor

A company that invests in ERP stands to gain from higher inventory turns, lower DSO, etc. Benefits of enterprise software are generally of the nature of increase in income and / or reduction in expense. To calculate the ROI of its investment, the company would add up the dollar value of the total benefits and … Read more