Reflections

Statistically, myth is on the right. There, it is essential; well fed, sleek, expansive, garrulous, it invents itself ceaselessly. It takes hold of everything, all aspects of the law, of morality, of aesthetics, of diplomacy, of household equipment, of Literature, of entertainment.The bourgeoisie wants to keep reality without keeping the appearances: it is therefore the very negativity of bourgeois appearance, infinite like every negativity, which solicits myth infinitely. The oppressed is nothing, he has only one language, that of his emancipation; the oppressor is everything, his language is rich, multiform, supple, with all the possible degrees of dignity at its disposal: he has an exclusive right to meta-language. The oppressed makes the world, he has only an active, transitive (political) language; the oppressor conserves it, his language is plenary, intransitive, gestural, theatrical: it is Myth. The language of the former aims at transforming, of the latter at eternalizing. Myths ripen better in some social strata: for myth also, there are micro-climates. #messaging #semiotics #signifier #signified #barthes

Tesla: Vehicle production: 367,000 Revenues: $25 billion R&D: $1.5 billion Employees: 45,000 Volkswagen: Vehicle production: 11 million Revenues: $278 billion  R&D: €13 billion Employees: 300,000 Yet, in Market valuation, Tesla is ahead of Volkswagen. This points to 2 things which are important to register.  First, that the American business environment allows for future centric innovation and technology for the sake of commercial success. Secondly that the ‘business of America is business’ and therefore nothing stands in the way of disruption and elimination of even the biggest most revered business enterprises, institutions or incumbents.  This cycle of innovation, disruption, destruction of old and inefficient and renewal of the economy is unique to America today. India with its young population, huge domestic market, intelligent workforce, technical prowess , management talent and first generation entrepreneurs must learn from America and actively collaborate with it. The more open and welcoming our economy the greater will be our might as a nation  #India #america #capitalism #democracy# #innovation

Spraying champagne by Formula 1 winners is a cherished ritual. It began, rather by accident, at the 1966 Le Mans 24 hour race when winning driver Joseph Siffert showered unsuspecting onlookers with champagne because he accidently popped open an overheated bottle.  A tradition was born when American winner Dan Gurney deliberately splashed champagne over the crowds at the next year’s event in 1967 The reasons it all started was that, way earlier, in 1950 – the year that the world championship was formed – the French Grand Prix took place at Reims.  Since this happened to be in the heart of the Champagne region, both Paul Chandon Moët and Fredric Chandon de Brailles – as keen fans of motor sport – got involved and offered a jeroboam of Moët et Chandon to the winner Juan Manuel Fangio .  Thereafter, they extended this to most prestigious motor sport events.  Rituals may be born by accident but have to be celebrated, repeated and institutionalised to become part of a brand’s dense and rich web of aspirational associations. Brand  Ritualism ,a sociological phenomenon, helps to define the ‘in-crowd’ from the rest. A living legendary brand will inevitably have myth, history, ritualism and an adoptive framework associated with it. #brand #sociology #ritualism #marketing #legend

The trade war that has become a tech war and has the potential to be the new Cold War!  What seemed initially to be rather muscular trade negotiation is now rapidly escalating into a tech war.  There are spiralling concerns over the impact of technology in life, society and interstate relations . There are 3 theatres of activity concurrently on. The first is the US & EU’s regulatory agencies and government‘s versus the tech majors . The second is Russia and China taking on the US-based tech giants. The third is the most obvious – China vs US in the most recent case of Huawei.  It seems quite evident that the bench strength for creating and leading new technologies is equally robust in both the camps – US and China. Therefore, the stand-off is likely to last for a generation or more and affect all of us. From soybean to rare earths; mobile phones to military weaponry the spectrum is wide and rich.  India’s interest will be to side with the US.  But it would be better not to have to make such hard choices.  The responses from Wall Street seem clearly indicative that big money wants to ‘do a deal’.  Ultimately the battle is about developing and deploying the best technology and having the soft skills to create brands.    #global # #marketing #technologies #geopolitics #brand

It’s time to move beyond emerging markets stereotypes says Franklin templeton .The biggest sector in the MSCI emerging markets index is technology.  It accounts for close to 30% of the market.  The other significant thing is that emerging markets leaders are unhindered by legacy systems or sunk investments and therefore can come up with genuinely ground breaking and new IPs from mobile banking to data analytics to electric vehicles. In China , the clear trend is migration to digital payments platforms run by Alibaba and Tencent.  India figures prominently in the new technology change. This was recently highlighted by the Financial Times in an analysis by Henny Sender. Our eComm transaction quantum is a fraction when compared to that of China’s , but a growing middle-class means enough demand where at your fingertips services and ‘digital means to pay ‘ are seen as an irresistible combination of convenience and access.  Materials & Energy businesses once 30% of the MSCI index are down to 15.7%  though in economies like Brazil it still goes to a high of 27% It’s time for serious re-classification of emerging markets.  #technologies #change  #newtechnology

We are living in an age where mass is replaced by personalised.  Everyone has a data track and the distinction between local and global is disappearing. Everyone is enabled by technology to choose between multiple market-based alternatives.  Minting money used to be always a sovereign right.  But now we see an explosion of alternative cryptocurrencies.  Investors like Andreessen Horowitz,Bain Capital and Peter Thiel have invested over $300m into stablecoins, projects that are seeking to print dollars and euros in blockchain to compete with central banks. This is a direct and potent challenge to control of monetary policy by central banks.  Fact is that today most dollars and other global reserve currencies  exist only as digital records, not as physical paper notes.  Add to the tech enabled fact that anyone can create blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, and we could create a system that issues a cryptocurrency which always has the same value as a dollar  Then there will be no distinction between a federal reserve dollar and a crypto-dollar Pronto – we shall have currency brands – like any other competing brands. Today a dollar or euro is a unit and denomination of monetary value not brands   Projects such as Maker and Basis are attempts to achieve precisely this – creating crypto-currencies that can be accepted as if they were "real" dollars” and are exchangeable for Fed-doIIars on a one-to-one basis.  In other words new dollars that are issued only on the blockchain.  Because these systems are governed by decentralised algorithms, there is no central issuer that can come under pressure to stop competing with the central bank.   And a truly global world may emerge. Be scared or be excited ? We will know very soon.

The question ‘who is in charge here ? ‘ may not have answers. From the start of civilisation as we know it, power has been blunt and brutish. Therefore, society has tried to restrain and control power – from the Magna Carta to the modern day – frameworks, treaties, conventions, laws, moral and public scrutiny were all about how ‘power treats power’  and how ‘power treats the people’ . But today,  the technology at our fingertips wields real power.  Technology creates advantage.  Technical superiority gives leverage.  The scale enabled by the Internet is putting new technology companies at the top of all business verticals.  Data driven start-ups have demolished legacy advantages. The technical know-how, early experimentation,achievement of scale and great quality of data these are the things that make monopolies. Monopolies driven by dominant platforms that buy out challengers and concentrate the ability to innovate within the tiny groups.  Even war and the ultimate privilege of power – the monopoly over violence – is changing. Now information warriors paralyse faster than any ammunition.  This power is currently running around wildly from fingertips to algorithms to weird forms and mutations but the great news is that it has been released at last.  #digitalinnovation #AI