I was convinced I was a left-brained person until I started gaining notice of my visual, creative, and intuitive side too At the age of 8, I discovered my love for writing , and it has been a passion that I have pursued throughout my life. From writing poems and opinion pieces for university magazines to authoring market intelligence and consulting/data reports for Gartner and Mordor Intelligence, my writing skills have always gained notice and has been a valuable asset in my career. In my late teens, I realized that I also had a knack for Mathematics and Statistics , when I was consistently scoring straight A's in all the disciplines most of my peers would dread. Little did I know back then, that this would help me when I would later go on in my job presenting complex data findings to stakeholders, building models from scratch, or cracking otherwise nerve-racking guesstimate interviews. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis hitting the stock markets , I also got fascinat...

"Can you go halfway around the world, and live in a cold city with freezing winters? Can you leave your friends and family? Wouldn't you be lonely?" -Jumpa Lahiri, The Namesake This is the exact question I asked myself, as I saw my invitation letter from the Government of Canada with the following words: "We are pleased to invite you to apply for permanent residence under the Federal Skilled Workers". This is a highly competitive score-based  immigration system for experienced professionals valued internationally for Canada's  social benefits, healthcare, education, and a high quality of life. I usually never second-guess, but in that moment, the prospect of quitting a well-paying reseach & consulting job in India and the proximity to my people to start life from Square one barely held any appeal.  More so, because I love India.  The love, the education, the principles, the family values, the work diligence, the peace-loving outlook, the  experiences, ...

This will change the way we work   forever! Microsoft has introduced Copilot which will be embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps and is more than OpenAI’s ChatGPT embedded into Microsoft 365. With the following capabilities already, and continual improvement, it can TRANSFORM workspaces: Create powerful presentations with a simple prompt with  Copilot in PowerPoint  by adding relevant content from an old document.  Analyze trends and create meaningful data visualizations in seconds with Copilot in Excel. Summarize key discussion points and suggest action items real-time with C opilot in Teams. Moreover, Business Chat can be fed with natural language prompts like “Tell my team how we updated the project strategy,” and it will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads. Amazed at the power of # artificialintelligence . “Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing”, said Satya Nadell...

The business world is ever-evolving, and with new technology emerging, there are a multitude of opportunities for entrepreneurs, environmentalists, technologists, and investors to seize. In 2023, certain businesses are poised to make a significant impact on the society and the economy. Here are the top businesses worth discussing in 2023: 1. Space Exploration Companies: With NASA and SpaceX leading the way, space exploration has been a topic of interest for decades now. However, in 2023, the industry is set to explode, with space exploration investments skyrocketing quite literally as well as figuratively. With companies such as Blue Origin , Virgin Galactic , and Rocket Lab , joining in, the possibility of space tourism is starting to look like a real possibility. A case study on SpaceX's reusability strategy of rockets highlights how reusable rockets are disrupting the traditional space industry by reducing the cost of launching payloads into space significantly. Moreover, a...

Brainteasers keep the mind well-greased. So here's a riddle  you may like:  Drill a hole through a sphere such that the height of what remains of the sphere is 10cm . What is its remaining volume? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Answer: The volume of a sphere is ( 4 / 3 )π r³ Assume any values of the sphere's radius and the hole's radius that are consistent with a 10 cm wall of the hole. So what if we assume the hole is infinitesimally small, i.e. zero?  That surely works, and the answer is simple: the volume of a 10 cm diameter sphere! Which is around 524 cm cube.  Note: I found this randomly in a magazine today and spent 5 minutes remembering the volume of sphere formula, but it was all worth it in the end. Too easy, huh?

"Please resist racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, climate-change denial, body shaming, ignorance, and corruption. Resist hate." The above note used to be a part of my work desk back when I was working from office. It had a ton of positive impact because it acted as a filter and reminder to attract only non-judgemental open-minded folks into my life.   During lunch time, I used to overhear a lot of giggles over sexist and racist jokes, but for those people I became unapproachable (other than professionally) for good. Most people who would walk upto my desk, already knew what my expectations were. Whenever someone would walk upto my desk with a comment that would be sexist or in any of the hate categories, I would immediately point my finger towards this note without having to say anything. Time and again, I face an inner moral conflict when someone I'm talking to passes a comment that falls into any of these or similar categories; because mo...

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist, created the theory of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to assist business owners in maintaining elevated levels of employee engagement. The theory proposes that there are five essential needs that drive human motivation, arranged in a hierarchical order. Maslow's theory states that people first attend to their basic needs, then progress to higher level needs only once the lower level of needs are met, leading to a sense of fulfillment.  In marketing, the hierarchy is used to market to specific groups of people based on similar needs. However, it can also be applied to other areas - to ascertain employees engagement and arguably, even in marriages! Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the Workplace : Many companies use this hierarchy in the workplace to determine how to motivate employees and meet their needs.  1. Physiological needs Survival needs such as coffee, clean water, comfortable working environment, breaks to eat, access to a restro...