The ContraMinds Podcast

ContraMinds Labs

This podcast tries to decode what really goes behind the minds of people who are the best in their business or profession. It tries to explore their motivations and inspiration, attempts to understand the why behind what they do, and how they successfully accomplish what they set out to do. It provides mental frameworks, markers and mind maps for each one of you to learn and discover from their life purpose, their cultural ecosystem and their experiences. These conversations will hopefully open your mind, help you put some of their thoughts and ideas to practice both in your life and career. read less

The Super CMO Show - Prof. Venkatesh (Venky) Shankar (#006)
May 24 2023
The Super CMO Show - Prof. Venkatesh (Venky) Shankar (#006)
Marketing Accountability: Elevating the role of the CMO and Value of Marketing in an Enterprise Prof. Venkatesh (Venky) Shankar is a Ford Chair Professor, a RETHINK Retail Top Influencer, and an Advisory Council Chair at the Marketing Accountability Standards Board. With vast experience in retail, Prof. Shankar is a professor at the Texas A & M University and has over 27,000 citations (Marketing, Strategy, Retailing, Innovation and AI) on Google Scholar. In this episode, Prof Shankar and Swami discuss: - What inspired Prof. Venky into the Marketing Field - Prof. Venky’s Early Years - Mentors and Guides  - Building Marketing Accountability Standards - Marketing CEOs Create More Shareholder Value - Why CEOs Need Marketing Experience - Hindsight, Insight and Foresight in Retail  - Harvesting Big Data in Retail - Apple Pay and Paypal Increase Engagement - Customer Loyalty Online and Offline - Accountability Standards for Marketing Expenses - Hardskills and Softskills for Budding CMOs - Advice to Marketing Students at University Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Prof. Shankar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/venkyshankar/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
#040 Ravishankar Iyer on Storytelling: The Catalyst to Influence People and Business Growth
May 5 2023
#040 Ravishankar Iyer on Storytelling: The Catalyst to Influence People and Business Growth
Ravishankar Iyer is a Story Coach and Founder of Story Rules (storyrules.in), a startup that offers training and coaching services on how to apply storytelling techniques at work. A Chartered Accountant with an MBA from IIMA, Ravi a.k.a. “The Storytelling Guy”, believes From boardroom reviews to big family gatherings, from TED Talks to teachers in classrooms, from magical monuments to mythology epics, from job interviews to jungle safaris, from CEOs writing shareholder letters to cricketers making superb videos, from Presidents making inauguration speeches to political experts cutting the clutter… In this episode, Ravi and Swami chat about: - How Ravi became “The Storytelling Guy” - Cultivating the Reading Habit Early in Life - The Impact of Storytelling and Learning - Storytelling Techniques for Education - Storytelling at the Workplace - Honesty and Authenticity in Storytelling - Tackling Corporate Crises with Storytelling - The 1-3-9 Framework - Creating the Design Story for Product Companies - Understanding Contemplation and Aesthetics - Presentation Skills at the Workplace Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Ravi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankar-iyer/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com #datastory #storytelling #datastorytelling #businessstorytelling #storytellingforbusiness
The Super CMO Show - Sukumar Muthya (#005)
Apr 13 2023
The Super CMO Show - Sukumar Muthya (#005)
Inside the Mind of a Technology-Driven Marketer Sukumar Muthya is a seasoned marketing technology executive with over 27 years of marketing experience across a variety of industries - from manufacturing to technology. Sukumar is currently the Executive Vice President at Ansira Global - an independent global marketing technology and services firm with clients from automotive, technology, finance & insurance and restaurant businesses, helping in media, ad technology, CRM and loyalty. In this episode Sukumar and Swami discuss: How marketing has transformed over the years Muthya’s Journey from Tech to Marketing Balancing Marketing Functions as a CMO The Chief Marketing Officer Meets the Chief Marketing Technologist Skillsets to orchestrate integrated marketing initiatives Reconciling Attribution Across Marketing Channels Marketing in a Cookie-less World Digital Transformation in Manufacturing Best Practices to Build Digital Transformation in Companies Integrated Loyalty at Ansira Global The Ansira Value Proposition Marketing in the Metaverse Non-negotiable skillsets for Future Marketers Book Recommendations in Tech, Martech and Marketing People who Inspired Muthya What does Muthya do off-work? Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Sukumar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukumarmuthya/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com #DigitalMarketingTechnologies #EnterpriseSoftwareBusiness #ManagementConsulting #DigitalMarketingProcesses #DirectResponse #RelationshipMarketingStrategies #SupplyChain #ProcessImprovement #EnterpriseApplications #StrategicThinking #ProgramManagement #OffShoreDelivery #Adtech #Martech #SukumarMuthya #SivaramanSwaminathan #SwaminathanSivaraman #SuperCMOShow #ContraMindsPodcast
The Super CMO Show - Amit Tiwari (#004)
Mar 31 2023
The Super CMO Show - Amit Tiwari (#004)
Amit Tiwari is a Martech Leader with a new-age marketing approach for new marketing technology enablement. His experience includes a crucial role in the modernization and transformation of marketing technologies.  Amit has vast knowledge in managing all aspects of the product lifecycle from concept development to launch in both B2B and B2C platforms. He is currently the Global Head of the Marketing Demand Centre at Tata Consultancy Services.  Earlier Amit held leadership positions in Philips - where his eight year tenure saw him grow from Country Manager to Director of Marketing for the Indian Subcontinent and subsequently at Havells where Amit spent four years as the VP of Marketing playing a key role in all the four power brands. - Lloyd, Crabtree, Standard and Reo. In his current leadership position at TCS as the Global Head of Marketing Demand Centre, Amit is deeply involved in building a network and influence senior, cross-functional leaders to align technology solutions and business processes to drive marketing transformation, provideing strategic direction for integrating marketing technology products with other technologies & platforms and defining the marketing technology strategy that enables customer engagement and relationship marketing business priorities. In this marketing masterclass with Swami, Amit Delves into: What Inspired Amit to take up Marketing Heading the Global Demand Centre @ TCS Why Marketing Needs To Reclaim Its Seat At The Table Balancing Act Between Marketing Metrics and Business Metrics Running A Business: Being a CMO Versus Being A Business Head Strategies To Balance Marketing Functions as a CMO How Marketers Can Be Agile - Real Life Examples Managing Trade Partners As A Marketer Balancing Budgets Across Marketing Initiatives Ad Agencies Need To be Integrated Marketing Agencies The Marketing Narrative Needs To Change Creating A Unified Briefing Format Across Agencies Marketers Need To Be Jack Of All Trades & Master Of One Working in a Global Role At A Tech Company Amit's Career Trajectory How a Tech Company Can Adopt Marketing Cross Pollinating Marketing Principles & Practices Across Categories ... and much more. Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Amit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-tiwari-marketing-leader/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com #StrategicPlanning #EnterprisePlatforms #AgileMarketing, #CuratedCustomerExperience #DigitalMarketingTransformation #GoToMarket #MediaPlanning #BrandStrategy #ChannelManagement #ProductDevelopment #NewProductLaunches #BrandArchitecture #MarketingCampaigns #Promotions #MarketIntelligence  #BusinessGrowth #BusinessTransformation #CRM #Leadership #TeamBuilding #marktech #techmarketing #leadershipculture
The Super CMO Show - Prof. Tanvi Gupta (#003)
Mar 20 2023
The Super CMO Show - Prof. Tanvi Gupta (#003)
Dr. Tanvi Gupta is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur (IIMU) and a practicing semiotician. Her academic research focuses on brand language and consumer culture—and her research has been published in Journal of Consumer Research—one of the top marketing journals in the world. Tanvi co-leads the Consumer Culture Lab at IIM Udaipur, a platform to foster research on consumer culture in India. She is also a member of the Editorial Review Board at the Journal of Retailing. Before doing a Ph.D. in Marketing from IIM Bangalore, Tanvi has worked as a marketing research professional with Kantar. During her stint in the MR industry, she has worked on semiotics, brand tracking and advertising research—integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods. Tanvi also holds a communications masters from MICA, India with the director’s award for academic excellence. Tanvi also has a flair for creativity and aesthetic sense. Being a trained graphics designer, her passion for visual aesthetics and culture drives her interest towards visual semiotics and brand language. In this Super CMO episode with Swami, Dr. Tanvi talk about: - Why Prof. Tanvi Chose Marketing & Semiotics - What is Semiotics? - Anthropology, Sociology & Psychology in Semiotics - How Brands Can Use Semiotics - How Brands Can Decode Indian Culture - Binary Opposites, Plotting and Code Trajectory in Semiotics - Residual Vs. Emergent -Lakme Vs L’Oreal - How Brands Can Revive Themselves - The New Code Trajectory: Role Reversal in Brand Advertisments - Can Tech Companies Apply Semiotics in Design? - Culture Hues Embedded Into User Experience - The Influence of Typefaces in Brand Building - Semiotics and the Diverse Indian Culture - The Consumer Culture Lab @ IIM Udaipur - Tulsi, the YouTube Village of India - How Brands Can Tap Into Emerging Regional Digital Identities - Advice to Brands From a Semiotician - Advice to a Young Marketer From a Semiotician Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Dr Tanvi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanviguptamr/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
#039 Pooja Jauhari on Leadership Lessons in Building a Disruptive and Value Driven Marketing Firm
Mar 2 2023
#039 Pooja Jauhari on Leadership Lessons in Building a Disruptive and Value Driven Marketing Firm
Pooja Jauhari is the former Group CEO of VMLY&R India, and former CEO of The Glitch. Over her two-decade-long career, Pooja has worked with some of the biggest brands in the country and the world, and introduced powerful campaigns to society. Pooja has worked with some brilliant people and has held important responsibilities over the past 20 years. She is the Founder of Seat At The Table, an unbiased investment and advisory initiative to invest in companies and people that are built on a purpose. Prior to her appointment in the VMLY&R network, Pooja was the CEO of The Glitch, a high-performance creative company that has worked hard to create a workspace that is gender blind, inclusive and progressive. The Glitch was acquired by WPP, the world’s largest marketing communications company in 2017, and integrated into the VMLY&R network within WPP in 2020. Before The Glitch, Pooja worked with Unilever, JWT and Times of India. With two recessions & a pandemic under her belt, her work in leadership has included a variety of business models, people, challenges and marketplaces. She has been honoured with the IMPACT 50 Most Influential Award in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. In conversation with Swami, Pooja talks about: - Her formative years and how she built her foundational value systems - How youngsters need to structure their career - Running a company through recession and volatility - What the marketing department of the future may look like - Getting comfortable with being silent - Skills today’s marketers need to equip themselves with -Tactical Vs Strategic Frameworks - The Creative Guy and The Data Guy - Challenges in scaling a services company in the creative industry - Me needs to be the servant of we - The learnings from VP to CEO - Strategic Thinking as a CEO Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Pooja: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pooja-jauhari-4ab38755/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
The Super CMO Show - Prof. Peter Fader (#002)
Feb 23 2023
The Super CMO Show - Prof. Peter Fader (#002)
Prof. Peter Fader is the Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His expertise centres on the analysis of behavioural data to understand and forecast customer shopping/purchasing activities. He works with firms from a wide range of industries, such as telecommunications, financial services, gaming/entertainment, retailing, and pharmaceuticals. In addition to his various roles and responsibilities at Wharton, Fader co-founded a predictive analytics firm (Zodiac) in 2015, which was sold to Nike in 2018. He then cofounded (and continues to run) Theta to commercialise his more recent work on “customer-based corporate valuation.” Fader is the author of Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage (2020, 2012) and coauthor of The Customer Centricity Playbook (2018) with Sarah Toms. He has won many awards for his research and teaching accomplishments. In this episode with Swami, Prof Fader gives us a peek into the Customer-Base Audit, talking about: - How A Math Major turned Professor of Marketing - The Importance of Hard Skills for Marketers - Understanding Customer Base Audit - Can we Run Diagnostics on Customer Behaviour? - Customer Based Audit - The Diagnostics of Marketing - Applying the Concept of Customer Base Audit - Customer Based Audits for Contractual Vs Non-Contractual Relationships - Non-Contractual Businesses Need Customer Based Valuations - Understanding the Customer at the Granular Level - The Customer P&L Statement - Prof. Peter’s Blueprint of Customer Centricity - Re-engineering Companies for Customer Centric Corporate Culture - Changing the Fundamentals of Market-Mix Modelling - The Marketing Department of the Future - Direct & Indirect Marketing Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Pro. Fader: https://twitter.com/faderp | https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterfader/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
#038: Dr. Aniruddha Malpani on The State of Indian Education - Outdated Systems, Flawed Teaching Methods and Myopic Parenting
Feb 13 2023
#038: Dr. Aniruddha Malpani on The State of Indian Education - Outdated Systems, Flawed Teaching Methods and Myopic Parenting
Dr. Aniruddha Malpani is a pioneering IVF Specialist, Angel Investor and Social Impact Entrepreneur. Through his firm Malpani Ventures, Dr. Malpani has contributed immensely in promoting India's startup ecosystem. A strong believer in the power of entrepreneurship, Dr. Malpani funds frugal innovation in India, and is also among the leading voices seeking a transformative change that India's outdated education system needs. In this enlightening conversation with Swaminathan & Vignesh, Dr. Malpani deep dives into: - Social impact investing and compassionate capitalism - The transformative power of reading books - Why parents, teachers and students need to speak up against archaic structures - Dr. Malpani's Social Ventures - Apni Patshala - Why we need to break the mould of one-size-fits-all education - Why students need to be respected and given the freedom to think - How we can change from being a nation of answer-givers to question-askers - The nonsensical need for social validation through degrees earned and - The mental tenacity, competency parents need to retrain their thinking  Dr. Malpani has authored 4 books –  How to Get the Best Medical Care, Successful Medical Practise, How to Have a Baby and Using Information Therapy to Put Patients First --- Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ --- Connect with Dr Malpani: https://twitter.com/malpani |www.drmalpani.com | www.malpaniventures.com Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with Vignesh: https://twitter.com/hrorq --- Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
#037: Prem Kumar Gokuladasan on How Technology Can Transform India’s Rural Education
Feb 2 2023
#037: Prem Kumar Gokuladasan on How Technology Can Transform India’s Rural Education
Prem Kumar is the founder of Kalvi40, a mobile educational technology app that is transforming the way education is imparted to over 750 Government schools across 26 districts in Tamil Nadu. A seasoned IT delivery Manager with a career that spanned 19 years across companies like HCL and TCS, Prem Kumar took a leap of faith in creating Kalvi40 when he observed gaps in the way education was reaching school children in Tamil Nadu’s Hinterland. With a global collaborative volunteer network which helps Kalvi40 create content for the kids, Prem Kumar today has managed to reach over 750 Government schools across 26 districts in Tamil Nadu. Listen to Prem’s fascinating journey in this podcast where Swami delves deep into the what, why and how of Kalvi40, including: How Prem was inspired to start Kalvi40What made Prem take the ultimate leap of faithUnderstanding what “rural India” really meansHow Prem built the platform from scratchDiscovering the difference between Corporate Outsourcing and Social OutsourcingThe distinction between Purpose and Process in Social StartupsThe challenges of running a social startup Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Prem: https://twitter.com/premgkumar | https://www.linkedin.com/in/prem-kumar-gokuladasan-43105618/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
The Super CMO Show - Marc de Swaan Arons (#001)
Jan 13 2023
The Super CMO Show - Marc de Swaan Arons (#001)
HUMANIZED GROWTH: A NEW BLUEPRINT FOR MARKETING Mark de Swaan Arons is a thought leader in global marketing leadership. An experienced marketing hand, Marc had a successful 14-year career with Unilever working in The Netherlands and New York offices and is now the Founder of the Institute for Real Growth (IRG) - a not-for-profit organization that helps CMOs and other growth leaders drive humanized growth. Earlier Marc co-founded EffectiveBrands (2001), a global marketing leadership consultancy which later became a part of the the WPP group.Marc has learned from and collaborated with many of the world’s most prominent Chief Marketing Officers, and he is a frequent keynote speaker at business schools, companies, and industry conferences. In this inaugural episode of The Super CMO Show, Swami and Marc discuss: How Marc found his true calling in MarketingHow marketing influences the strategic direction of companiesThe Da Vinci CMO modelBeing an effective CMOTips for future marketersBrand insights with Dove, Nike, Patagonia, Tide & ColgateHow technology, creativity and emotion drive marketing and much more. Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts Watch the full video episode on YouTube For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/ Connect with Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcdeswaanarons/ Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ Connect with us: LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contraminds/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds Website: www.contraminds.com
What Does Success Mean To You? | 2022 Recap
Dec 5 2022
What Does Success Mean To You? | 2022 Recap
What Does Success Mean To You? Is it about how much money you make for yourself, or is it in being able to give back to society? Is it a measure of happiness or in constantly striving to achieve your goals?  As Prof Annapurni says, the definition of success changes in every stage of career and life. When we start our career, we are hungry, we are curious. We want to learn, we want to create and we want to be recognised.  A few years later, it is about how much money we make, the kind of lifestyle we want, and the kind of material pleasures we consume. Once financially secure, as we reach the last couple of decades of our career, success lies in the reputation we’ve built, the goodwill we’ve earned and the lives we’ve touched along the way. At the end of the day, as Sunder Madakshira says, a good night’s sleep with a clear conscience is a measure of success in itself.   Watch this curated video on what success means to the guests we have spoken to this year.   Featured in the video are: Roger Forsgren, Former Chief Knowledge Officer at NASA  Neil Hoyne, Chief Measurement Strategist at Google  Sunder Madakshira, CEO of Rezolve  Prof. Thales Teixeira, Co-Founder of Decoupling.co  Prof. Yadati Narahari, Director of the Centre for Brain Research  B Joseph Pine II, Author, Speaker and Management Advisor  Dr. Annapurni Subramaniam, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics   Amit Ranjan, Co-Founder of Slideshare  Paul Zak, Neuroeconomist  Chris Yeh, Author, Investor and Entrepreneur
#034: Thales Teixeira on Digital Disruption Through Decoupling
Sep 21 2022
#034: Thales Teixeira on Digital Disruption Through Decoupling
Prof. Thales Teixeira is the co-founder of digital disruption consultancy Decoupling.co. Previously, he was the Lumry Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where he taught MBA, doctoral and executive-level courses in Marketing Models, Digital Marketing and Ecommerce for 10 years. His two primary domains of research constitute Digital Disruption and The Economics of Attention. He is the author of dozens of articles published in trade press outlets such as The Harvard Business Review, The McKinsey Quarterly, Think with Google, and in academic journals such as Marketing Science, JMR, JM, and JAR. His research and opinions have been routinely featured in The NY Times, The Financial Times, ABC Nightly News, NBC News, NPR, Forbes, Quartz, The New Yorker and The Guardian. Thales is the author of Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption, which is based on eight years of research visiting dozens of startups, tech companies and incumbents. Thales shows how and why consumer industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge. In this episode with Swami & Vignesh, Thales talks about: Disruption & the genesis of DecouplingProduct Development in Developed vs Developing MarketsDifferences between Customer Value Chain and Customer JourneyHow certain Customer Value Chain niches are creating new business modelsHow to define Business Models through the Customer Value ChainHow Large Companies Vs Startups approach Customer NeedsIdentifying Erosion of Product-Market FitInsight into how Uber, Airnbnb & Etsy made their first 1000 customers ...and many more insights and strategies. Listen in on the podcast. You can also catch the full video episode on YouTube.