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For years, I‘ve been making coffee as the first thing in the morning. It‘s my constant companion to some reading. In a year, we cycle through countless packets to make my brew. Yet, I’ve noticed that every single time I crack open a fresh packet, I have to perform a slight recalibration with the amount of coffee I use. I‘ve been noticing that my mild irritation with the taste variation is giving way to some acceptance.

That‘s the goal of today‘s discussion, which will meander a bit. I don‘t have

A few years ago, I was putting together a bottoms-up innovation team. We wanted a lean group to tinker with some new ideas and convert them into inventions. My thought was the Jeff Bezos idea for a team. Just enough for two large pizzas can feed. This generally translates to a limit of 8 people.

If you’ve ever tried to recruit for a side project within a company, you know the drill. The “good” engineers are always slammed with production fires. They were on the fence, hesitant to commit to

Early in my career, I worked on a system design in a team led by a sharp leader and solid systems architect named Mike. At one point, Mike sent an email containing our model to a large group, including several senior leaders. Feedback started rolling in almost immediately, and the work was largely praised, with most comments focused on the timelines for changing our architecture.

I was still piecing together my understanding of the system, so I started poring through Mike’s Excel file. While

Happy World IP Day!

The theme for 2026 is IP and Sports: Ready, Set, Innovate. While Intellectual Property has been a cornerstone of my career for years, I have often found that my best insights into innovation haven’t come from legal frameworks, but from the playing field.

Elite sports offer a masterclass in how to protect, scale, and evolve an “edge.” Here are three lessons from the world of sports that define the innovation mindset today.

1. Process Over Outcome: The Systemic Edge

If you study

There was a time, many years ago, when my cricket game was finally finding its rhythm. I was a teenager transitioning from casual underarm bowling to "proper" overarm play. My friends were starting to believe in me, and for the first time, I felt I had what it took to deliver.

Then I met Bhavin.

Bhavin was five years older and bowled FAST. Even with a tennis ball, the sheer zip of his delivery delivered tremors. I still remember standing at the crease, watching him start his run-up. As he

I’ve had to organize many programs over the years including seminars, brainstorming, and family meetings. If there’s one constant that has worked across countries, it is this:

Get finger food with tea and coffee.

As a grad student, it was coffee and donuts. Coffee/Tea with cookies works at most places. In India, the variation I’ll have is pakoda if it’s in the evening.

Why those?

• It gets us to talk.

• The drink and especially caffeine and/or sugar awakes ideas.

• The munching mimics the dinner table

The idea to running good teams has more to do with quality. Quality of connection, of practice, and group intention. Make a group too large and your energy is spread.

I like this move towards smaller groups to drive meaningful team building. Kind of like Jeff Bezos suggestion that the optimal meeting size is a group that can eat 2 large pizzas, collectively.

Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO d Salesforce says this about the effectiveness of small teams.

Quote from the book Tribe of Mentors by Tim

One of the memorable work gifts I’ve received is a light bulb from my colleagues. Its an ordinary LED bulb, likely bought from Walmart. What it representedade the difference.

We were the part of an innovation team that would bring ideas to the next stage; inventions, products, business opportunities, everything was game. Collectively the work led to the filing of 100+ patents. As it happens so often, some good ideas don’t make it further. There are many management decisions, including business

Why do you buy a product? Is it because you fit a marketer's template? Here's a beautiful summarization of why we buy

Quote from the book How will you measure your life by Clayton Christensen et al

The core reason for why we sign up for anything - be it a product, service, email list, anything - is to solve a problem.

It doesnt matter if we paid money for it. Even a free sign up is to address a pain. Maybe to get rid of that cousin pestering to build their mailing list.

In our rush to hit the

Bangalore traffic makes you reflect on life a lot more than you’d expect. Today is one of those posts. Weekends, especially Sunday mornings, are a breeze in the city. But from Tuesday onwards, things crawl. We find ourselves looking for reasons behind the bottleneck, yet on most occasions, there is no solid explanation, only adding to the frustration. I believe there is a direct link between how we want our projects to proceed and how we want our cars to move.

The Craving for Motion

We crave