BRAToSPHERE

Author: Bharat Jhurani

  • Platform Thinking

    Platform thinking is the model evolving across industries. It is the equivalent of having one brand catering to a particular need through various product and line extensions, in the FMCG world. The same brand has products in multiple categories all providing the same core need through various uses throughout the day becoming a part of your lives in an intrinsic manner and building a mega brand in the process.

    One good non-FMCG example of a platform brand is Wechat in China which takes care of a gamut of stuff for the consumer, right from the smallest transaction to the smallest interaction, it is all routed through this super app. Fundamentally, I believe Wechat as a brand stands for “enabling and simplifying interactions”. It is a super app of any interaction (financial or otherwise).

    Similarly, there could be a platform for various big needs that the consumer has. There are hordes of experiences that the consumer today is struggling with; With a fragmented approach and individual  gateways for each of these experiences it is not ideal, and thus someone who manages to consolidate these experiences in a useful manner would manage to create immense value.

    In the software world, Cloud and Artificial intelligence would of course be important tools that would be used to provide these services. A point to note here is – Cloud, Machine learning, AI, etc.. are all in the backend to achieve the consumer’s need. The consumer is not looking for AI, he wants to get a job done and is employing a particular piece of hardware/software/service to accomplish that in the best possible way. What Brand would he trust to accomplish that particular “job” is where the moolah lies.

    Companies and new age startups that think on these lines would have a chance to build a Mega integrated business capturing opportunities at multiple areas of the entire value chain. In the digital space, with the window of our digital devices, some of the spaces that I think are ripe for disruption – 

    Entertainment – one platform for all my needs

    What are the various avenues I reach out to entertain me in the digital world? I consume content. Be it by reading, listening, watching (from a 5 minute short film to a marathon season of a series), experiencing it with gaming, etc.. Before I get to that, I currently need to have gatekeeper apps to figure out what content, where can I access it, and blah, blah, blah, creating a friction between the experience. Can we have one place that I can access all of it?

    • Movies
    • Music, Podcasts,
    • Gaming
    • Reading – News, Magazines and Books

    I feel the most poised to win this battle would be Apple. It already has a presence in all of these with their individual platforms – “Apple TV”, “Apple Music”, “Arcade”, “Book”, “News”, etc.. I am sure it is a matter of time when they figure out a smart way to integrate it all into one. A one stop solution for all the content that you can consume..

    Health – one stop solution where one can access all my health needs

    The four basic tenets of Health all mixed into one. The consumer would want to think of Health holistically and ideally want to lean on to one player for all his/her Health Needs. The four tenets of good health – 

    • Food
    • Physical
    • Emotional/Mental
    • Financial 

    The super app platform could be that one place where the consumer gets access to reliable information regarding all of the above, take online/offline classes for any of the health programs, have access to his entire medical/financial portfolio and history along with an advisor, schedule appointments with a doctor/diagnostics, order medicines, etc..

    I think Cultfit in India is well on its way to build this, and with a wide offline presence complementing its online platform. It is well placed to build trust and reliability which is the most important tenet for any player in this space. Gaia is another player in this space that has potential and a vast adoption.

    What are the other areas that you think are ripe for disruption?

    This post originally appeared on my LinkedIn profile- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/platform-thinking-bharat-jhurani/

  • Blog – A personal Memoir

    Am writing here after long. A big break once again. This way, I think I should seriously evaluate what exactly am I maintaining this space for? Does anyone even visit this? Do I even open the blog? My own blog?

    I briefly touched upon the purpose (the in thing!), and on purpose can a blog serve in today’s hyper connected world where everyone is looking for a quick adrenaline fix, on a social media platform in less than 140 characters ideally. Reports indicate that our attention span has reduced to single digit seconds in the last decade. That means a person has less than a 10 second attention span on a particular “distraction” before moving on to something else. (The 10 second mentioned here is generous, reports indicate much lower than that!) In such times, what in the world would a person come to read a blog post for?

    Well, I believe it is more of a personal journal. A chronicle sorts to record the happenings and thoughts in your life. And this blog has served it well all through the years – its been more than a decade that I have been maintaining it in different forms.

    Thus, with this thought, I am convinced that a blog is much more than what it seems. It is like a open public personal diary of sorts. And that it is, and would continue to be, in the time foreseeable.

    In related news, I have recently moved to Atlanta, Georgia taking up an assignment within the company. These are exciting times, with new experiences everyday. I am excited on this new journey, and looking forward to new experiences and events enjoying the varied culture and a diverse ecosystem that this country has to offer. Hoping to keep you posted on these on a regular basis.

  • What purpose does a Blog serve?

     

    After long. Like after really really long, I today stumbled upon my site. My Blog. Bharatjhurani.com !

    Yes, I actually stumbled upon it, when I was searching for something else, and then realized that I actually pay a small fee every quarter to continue hosting this, and I have not even looked at it. No point checking if anyone has been looking at it! There is no new content on it for more than a year now for someone to be even redirected or check for anything here.

    This brings me to the thought – Are personal blogs relevant anymore? In this age of Instagram, and snapchat, where people can be connected with the “interesting stuff” happening in your life literally LIVE, why would anyone take the effort of going to a blog and reading stuff? More importantly, why would someone take the effort of writing down the whole episode, thoughts, beliefs, comments knowing very well that it is too late, and people have moved on.

    Taking one step back, why did I start the blog? To pen down my thoughts. I faintly remember that afternoon in the computer lab in engineering college when I stumbled (back then too!) upon this new toy called “blog” and immediately started penning down some random ramblings. Looking at the stuff that I had written back then, I clearly did not care who is reading it and what could be the repercussions. Did I not know that there could be a privacy filter, and I could make this blog a read only? I am sure I did. I just did not care. Call it youth!

    From when I can remember, I have always loved writing and storing my thoughts for perpetuity. I have maintained a personal journal (in the physical form) since the late nineties right since my early teen years. (Go calculate my age backward!) I have always enjoyed writing, and it is kind of therapeutic.

    I guess, with the years, I have become more mature and thus more careful. I have come to realize that my innocent ramblings could have a deep impact, and thus am careful on what is private , and what can go public.

    In such a quest, I don’t see a reason why should anyone be interested in my private life – what am I upto, what am I doing on weekends, which movie did I watch, which book did I read, etc..

    There was a brief time when I had started using this blog as a review site, but then I realized that it was tending to be more of a reminder for myself of which movies I have watched, and what books I had read, and I am no expert to be reviewing these works of art. I stopped my reviews in public, and rather penned down my small notes privately.

    In this day and age, I guess we have all graduated to instant gratification (in the “insta” age), and thus these social media platforms serve their purpose well. Though, I still don’t see a reason for people to flash their entire vacation album, but well,  I believe it is just easier that way to share some pictures with your friends and family. To each his own!

    In such circumstances, this blog needs to serve a different purpose.

    I think this would turn into a chronicler of all that I would want the world to know. There is stuff that I would like to share with you, hoping that it would help someone develop a better perspective on things that I have been doing, and thus help gain some knowledge. It would also serve the place where i make my point of view clear – to myself, and to whoever cares!

    With this renewed purpose, I am hoping to be more regular on this platform, and would love to hear from you.

  • A beautiful Sunday Morning

    A beautiful sunday morning. The clouds have agreed to descend in the middle of hot May summer. A balcony revamped with greens just very recently. And, a mug of hot black coffee. Things cant get better, can they?

    This is a wonderful moment with the perfect setting in this otherwise barren concrete island called Gurgaon. The hot humid weather was killing and this respite is very much welcome. 

    This is the weather i was looking for to write here! 

    Have been caught up in the daily vagaries of life amidst a whole lot o things that the writing took a hit.

    I have been doing a lot of reading of late and have been on varied topics with varied writing styles. Will have a complete post to cover up all of that.

    There are also “strategies” that i had made two years back that are now seeing initial light of the day. My days and night have been consumed with them. All towards the prosperity of humanity!

    This and a lot more has been going on. But well, weather permitting, i would be back here. Sooner than you can tell.

  • A month that just flew by

    One month of the new year done. Am i like a time keeper here? No. That is not my objective. Am just trying to reflect on the fact that time flies. Time waits for none, and little do we all realise that time is the most precious thing that we have in our lives, more than anything else.

    January has been a hectic month with work travels all around.

    The resolutions are all still in tact and i am making slow progress in each. Was reading this somewhere, a little progress even if it is like a 1% improvement over the previous day takes you far. Compounding kicks in and before you know it, your returns are multiplying.

    Finance jargon eh! Well, this is what a brief evening coffee with a banker friend does to you. Finance, investments, money rotation and we spoke about them all in that little cafe next to the sea. One important realisation there, no matter what the profession, we are al in the business of selling.

    Be it the selling of ideas, selling of thoughts, selling of a proposition or the good old traditional selling of goods and services. We are all salesmen in our life where we need to give something to get something.

    Sipping on Oolong tea here, on a cold delhi winter morning, thoughts wander everywhere and the fact that i am up since early morning helps. I now have all the time to myself to pursue my pursuits (pun intended!) and get going. Looking forward to a wonderful february ahead.

    How was your January like?