Learning New Ways to Decouple and Couple Existing and Emerging Systems.
Edition #093
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
What Were Marcus Aurelius' Rules For Life? His Self-help Classic Has The Answers.
National Geographic carries a brilliantly written article on Marcus Aurelius, the well-known and celebrated Roman emperor. It shows how his philosophy is still relevant for modern-day life.
Here are some key takeaways from the article for you to reflect on:
Developing inner strength and accepting things beyond one’s control is essential.
Developing perception can help build a solid foundation of true knowledge.
If you practice virtue, happiness can be found.
It is important to maintain humility in the face of authority.
Learn to do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life. It will give you immense focus and attention to detail.
Read the article here.
The Future of Retail With Lee Hnetinka.
Lee Hnetinka is the Founder and CEO of Future and Darkstore, and he talks about what he believes will be the future of retail.
Here are some thoughts from the conversation:
Why retail stores need to move from being ‘Experiential’ to curating ‘An Experience’ for customers.
How the future of loyalty programs will be all about customers willing to pay for access and status, while many programs retailers run today are based on the premise of ‘giving them a status’.
Learning to understand that ‘Desire is Your Product’ which will drive loyalty.
Combining access and tiers and differentiating the experience will be critical.
The evolution of the concept of darkstores, driving innovation, curation and using them for instant delivery.
Listen to the entire episode also on:
Satya Nadella And His Vision Of How Microsoft Copilot Will Transform the World of AI and Computing.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke at Microsoft Ignite 2023 on Microsoft’s Copilot stack and how it can transform the world of AI and computing.
Here are some thoughts that were shared :
Satya Nadella anchored his speech around the Microsoft Copilot Stack and how he sees AI and computing coming together.
The collaboration ecosystem that Microsoft is building along with Nvidia, OpenAI, Meta, etc., and how the future is about ‘Loosely Coupled’ Partnerships between companies with specialist technology expertise.
In the new world of AI, the software and hardware companies need to come together, given the incredible computing requirements that will be required.
He spoke about the emerging world where the application of SLMs(Small Language Models), RAG( Retrieval Augmented Generation), and leveraging copilot agents in how enterprise data across systems will be used to aid decision-making and provide context while making these decisions.
There is a lot more out there in his speech on AI infrastructure, Cloud, quantum computing, building enabling ecosystems to leverage and customise previously fragmented data in enterprises, etc.
You can watch his entire keynote address by clicking the above link.
Learning New Ways to Decouple and Couple Existing and Emerging Systems.
The conversation with Lee Hnetinka and the keynote presentation of Satya Nadella threw up some thoughts and ideas.
What worked successfully for decades in any industry will constantly require new plumbing, collaboration and connections. This requires you to have a keen eye to observe changes in the behaviour of what people or businesses consider valuable and are willing to pay for. Traditional ways of doing business and business models that have thrived for a long time will undergo a significant shift when new players use or connect technologies to find innovative use cases and disruptive applications. Also, significant transformative shifts happen when widely held assumptions and ways of working are challenged with new ways of deployment and execution.
Take, for example, mobile phones, where traditionally, the hardware and software were independent components or modules, much like how the PCs or the computers were built or assembled. This was then reimagined as a platform where the hardware was tightly coupled with the software operating system, completely transforming and disrupting existing players in the mobile phone industry. Similarly, the camera, as we knew it, was an independent device, but it found a new place when it was embedded in mobile phones. Suddenly, this threw new opportunities for companies like Zeiss. Also, it changed the way photos were taken, making them accessible to a large population across the world and creating new opportunities for face recognition, AI applications hitherto not seen before. The same disruption hit the watch industry with the Apple Watch, as they coupled many emerging technologies in their watch. Apple thought of the watch as a platform and lifestyle device, not merely to show time!
Similarly, looking back at the history of the automobile industry, to bring about affordability, the manufacturers of yesteryear era - Ford, General Motors, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Toyota, etc. decoupled the various automotive accessories or parts needed for cars or vehicles so that standardisation across the industry could be achieved through scale and volume. However, more recently, Tesla came in and coupled all the automotive parts into a platform, much like how software companies think. This ultimately disrupted existing automotive players as current systems and processes blinded them, and they did not rethink or reimagine how new systems or technologies could be embedded in their vehicles because they got boxed in with their existing way of thinking about their products and services.
There are two paths that you can take when it comes to coupling and decoupling existing and new systems :
Start with a scan of technologies and ask yourself - ' What are the new or innovative applications of emerging technologies in my industry which have the potential to disrupt our products or services and create a new line of business?’
Observe the changing consumer behaviour in society and ask yourself - ‘Which of the business models and technologies can add new sources of value and experiences to my products or services that consumers will find desirable and helpful?’
Be curious about the changes happening in the environment around you, and then think about connecting the unconnected.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
Learning to observe, perceive, contemplate and reflect can significantly change how you think, approach and solve problems.
Retail stores must move from ‘being experiential’ to ‘curating experiences’.
Leveraging an ecosystem of ‘Loosely coupled’ partnerships between technology providers can help build and accelerate competitive advantage for companies.