A Request to the Dean and the Admissions Committee of Wharton, HBS, MIT Sloan, Stanford, and other global b-schools.

I’d like to start by narrating a pattern that I’ve observed lately.

Why I stopped using the phrase “This is not rocket science.”

If you say, “My idea did not work out.”

Reply: I can see why it won’t work. Blah Blah…[An explanation follows]

Why is free shipping the only option in Indian e-commerce?

In the US, shipping fees are used creatively by merchants to build customer loyalty and segment customers based on urgency and total spend. There are numerous examples — Free shipping above $25,
Next day delivery if you order…

Does your pricing strategy suffer from logical thinking?

Have you looked at a pricing plan and wondered what the hell is going on?

A. $50 — Internet Only Subscription
B. $100 — Print Only Subscription
C. $100 — Internet and Print Subscription

Innovation Abuse — the new corporate evil to watch out for.

The word “innovation” is blatantly abused by companies, especially by veterans in the Tech industry who struggle to keep up with smarter competition from startups. For a moment, consider all the ideas that get approved, the…

Why I cringe when I hear the title “Product Manager”

The word “manage” makes me uncomfortable; less in the context of People, and more in the context of Products, especially Web products that are rapidly owned or discarded by users.

The Missing Diaper

While waiting at a traffic signal on a busy Bangalore road, I glanced over a tiny roadside shop. At first, nothing seemed unusual. The owner was talking over the phone while trying to arrange his goods. At the entrance of the shop, a small boy, about a year old was wobbling around. The owner…

Do paper coupons work better for E-commerce?

I’m curious if anyone has simultaneously experimented with both forms of coupons i.e. sent a paper coupon to a random set of customers, and sent an e-coupon of the same value to another random set of customers. Which set had a higher conversion…

The secret of marketing ‘happiness’

Of late there’s a lot of “happiness” around us. Whether in India or any other country, from Domino’s Pizza (Khushiyon ki Home Delivery) to Max New York Life Insurance (Khushiyon Ki Planning), or Coke with its global ‘Open Happiness’ campaign. Almost in every category…

Facing the truth of E-commerce. The business of selling pixels.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had in-depth conversations with three different e-commerce businesses.

1. An online aggregator for offline designers across India, selling unique accessories for…