My 13 year old son Daniel called me from school this morning. “Papa, I don’t feel well. I have thrown up already twice.” To which I queried “You mean to say can you pick me up now?” In a muttered tone he confessed “I know you are tired…” probably expecting me to be still in bed.

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I can fully recommend you watch this Ted video talk

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Admittedly, your HSE or the Public Works Department may not approve but you have to give it to this guy, he thought about how to solve his problem and he did where many others would have failed.

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India has inched recently from 142 to 130 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index but one still needs to realise the complexity and difficulty of doing business. One therefore needs to take a holistic and pragmatic approach to this. The Indian statutory and regulatory environment is constantly being transformed.

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Yerwada central jail (courtesy www.walkthroughindia.com) My company driver had collected me from the airport. It was a hot sunny afternoon and the air conditioner of the Toyota was blowing softly. I was on my way to my office and we were driving along the busy Airport Road.

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Arun Sehrawat I have scraped data and created algorithms for our family travel website. It was therefore with more than an average interest that I listened to William Uricchio of MIT talk at THINK 2013 about algorithms and their effect on social conversion. Uricchio started with explaining that the media has seen a tremendous change in the last few years – a few companies own 80 percent of the media while on the other hand, there has also been a decentralisation as a result of the internet.

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“Many multinational companies have hidden, unrecognised multicultural gems within their ranks. To find these and get the most from their unique skills means taking the time and trouble to carefully develop and deploy multicultural managers in critical positions.” Read more by my former INSEAD professor of Strategic Management, Yves Doz.

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You have received a customer complaint. Do you focus to minimise your financial loss or the loss of face your company may suffer? This thought crossed my mind when I lodged a claim with Alitalia for delayed delivery of our luggage on July 1. We had enjoyed a wonderful trip to Italy recently.

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inzicht-in-india Everything you wanted to know about doing business with India but were afraid to ask…? It is available now via www.inzichtinindia.nl. Together with others who contributed their material I will be at the formal book launch in the Netherlands on July 10, 2013. The details of this event are being worked out by the author.

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BNR Radio On Monday April 22 I was to be heard on the Dutch business radio broadcaster BNR radio. Diana Matroos presented live the program ‘BNR Doing Business with’ from the rooftop of the Trident in Mumbai. You can hear it still here, though it’s in Dutch.

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How can we help you? A friend of mine called this morning to say that, despite the spamassassin I had installed, he had received almost 2000 spam messages and whether I could help. Not certain how one could receive suddenly so much spam I was somewhat bewildered and took an eager look.

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For those of us dealing with risk management, and who doesn’t these days, here is a link to the 2013 World Economic Forum Report on Global Risks. This year’s findings show that the world is more at risk as persistent economic weakness saps our ability to tackle environmental challenges.

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How to maintain creative complexity without the limitations of co-location is an article by Yves Doz, my former professor at INSEAD, and Keeley Wilson. Illustration by Heads of State “For their global innovation strategies, many companies have long relied on their ability to assemble people with key capabilities and critical knowledge.

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Earlier in the day Bob Geldof had stated that China has uplifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Can this be sustained or not? Jonathan Fenby, founding partner of Trusted Sources, the emerging markets research and consultancy firm, spoke on this topic at THiNK 2012. Jonathan Fenby (Photo courtesy Thinkworks Pvt Ltd)

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Sherry Turkle At THiNK 2012 being held in Goa this weekend, Sherry Turkle spoke on the social network: why are robots are becoming human and men machines. As a psychologist, over the years she became more concerned with the change to a virtual reality in that we become social robots.

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