A digital media company was bought in 2022 for $50 million. Then in 2025, the purchaser sold it for $9 million. Over 80% of the value vanished. “We later realized that we could do brand building anyway without having to own a media company,” said the entrepreneur of pedigree. Who pays the cost of late…
Author: Unny
If a better quality of life is an aspiration….
Last year, a friend’s smart and talented daughter got admission at the most coveted Architecture & Environment / Urban Planning University in Ahmedabad. I assumed they would be excited, as I was. After a lot of debate at their home on the ‘earning potential’ of the degree, she hesitantly joined. Only to drop out in…
The Not-So-Trickling Down Theory
A few days back, a LinkedIn user, Arvind had shared a WhatsApp group conversation from a residential society. It was a déjà vu, as it’s a story I’ve heard and experienced far too many times. These are those conversations. Flared up emotions. Existential dread. Concerns about a world that’s turning completely unfair! Hell broken loose….
Real Problems. Un-Real Solutions
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” [Attributed to Abraham Maslow] The new and only tool now is AI. The solution for Bangalore’s traffic woes? An AI tool that will let you know in advance where the jams are likely to occur, so that…
Is People Development only HR’s responsibility?
[First published in Economic Times, 13th Jan 2025] The HR function is often criticised in organisations for not doing what it is meant to. The narratives are often along the lines of HR straying away from its purpose, it becoming a compliance function and not a strategic partner, does not do enough to fulfil the…
Musings on our sense of ‘time’, the past, and the future
One of the most thought provoking and insightful piece I have read on our ability to put ‘time in perspective’ is from Tim Urban, a prolific writer. His writings are deeply researched and often an explainer on many topics when one is trying to make sense of this world. Our ability to have a sense…
Why I Write
This was triggered by Charles Assissi’s post and piece on ‘Why I Write?.’ It probably resonated with many people who are professional writers as well as some of us who write once in 12 blue moons. Like the Cycle Agarbathi advertisement says, ‘Everyone has a reason to pray,’ perhaps everyone has a reason to write….
Book: The Price of Time
“Can a history of interest rates really entertain? You bet.. To read this terrific book is to be reacquainted with the bizzaire, Alice-in-Wonderland condition of modern finance” – Marc Sidwell, Sunday Telgraph. [From the blurb on the back cover] I have been reading books on economics of all types for the last many years, as…
A Walkable Mumbai
[This was a blog piece written as part of a Appreciation Course on Urban Governance by Takshashila Institution. This article relies on multiple sources for information. All the sources are credited at the end of the article] An arterial road or an internal road. The grey colour Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) van arrives. A few…
What AI does for us Vs. what it is doing to us.
[First published in Mint Print Edition, 17th May 2024.] “To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods,” says the line in the teaser clip for the movie Ex-Machina released in 2015. What technology does for us has never been a topic for a discussion or debate….