Panic. That pretty much describes the initial reaction of most people to the pandemic and its immediate fallouts. They made a beeline to stock up on essentials, struggled with getting a remote work setup ready, were forced to play it by the ear, and had to deal with uncertainty by…
The retail industry is not new to disruptions. It has withstood recessions, shifts in consumer preferences, and even greyish trade practices such as predatory or heavily discounted pricing by ecommerce companies. While the sector didn’t exactly trump these challenges, it managed to stay afloat on the back of strengths such…
Like with most technology areas, data science too was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while a lot of businesses curtailed their AI-driven data science expenditure to rationalize costs during the pandemic, the public sector comprising governments and public interest initiatives led by private firms doubled down on data science…
During the 2008 recession, Toyota had to let go off many full-time employees. While this helped it survive the slowdown, it also caused much heartache all around. Since then, Toyota has augmented its variable workforce by 10-20%, a move designed to help it rationalize costs but without layoffs. What Toyota…
August 12, 1994, is of great significance to the history of eCommerce. As reported by the New York Times, it was when a group of internet entrepreneurs celebrated what was then the first online retail transaction backed by data encryption to ensure privacy. The product that exchanged the virtual hands?…
Selling your products through a wide franchise or points of sale (POS) network is a proven way to increase your sales and reach while keeping a lid on overall costs. However, as many franchise business operators would agree, this model has its share of shortcomings, especially in an age where…
There’s the carrot and there’s the stick. Technically, both those terms cannot apply to the same thing. That is to say, if something is a carrot to persuade you to do something, it cannot possibly be also a stick to punish you with if you don’t do that thing. But…
In 2008, when businesses around the world were battling the steepest recession since the Great Depression of 1929, British Airways (BA) did something that made its industry and non-industry peers take notice. While the company cut its IT spending (among other expenses) by a third, it spared its BI (Business…
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to fore an inconvenient truth that most nations refused to acknowledge all this while – our healthcare systems are balanced on a precarious edge and all it takes is a black swan event like COVID-19 to tip them over. In these uncertain times, machine learning…
Usually, enterprise technology is all about balancing traditional IT needs with strategic initiatives. 2022 is expected to be no different as enterprises around the world continue to grapple with the effects of digital disruption and rapidly-changing customer expectations. In fact, a KPMG survey of enterprise businesses found that 40% of…
