Business Strategy

I usually book 70-80 speaking events per year. This year? Maybe 40. Just talked with a friend who's a veteran Top 50 speaker. She said: "This is the slowest year I've seen in 15 years." And you know what? This might be the best thing that's happened to our industry. Here's why: Crisis creates clarity. Despite a rise in in-person conferences and hybrid events in 2025, event analysts report that demand for keynote speakers and average speaking fees have not yet returned to pre-pandemic highs, reflecting a speaking industry still undergoing a slower recovery (Corporate Event News). This makes you realize the old model alone was fragile all along. When corporate training budgets tighten and companies restructure, it forces innovation nobody would've attempted otherwise. The data is clear: Our industry is transforming. Training hours down. Marketing budgets compressed. Organizations making hard choices about every dollar. But here's what this disruption revealed: The need for transformation hasn't decreased. The delivery model was the problem. Organizations still desperately need change leadership. Teams still need resilience tools. Leaders still need guidance through uncertainty. They just need it differently. So instead of waiting for budgets to recover, I asked: How can we serve more people with less friction? I took my power back and leveled up! Old model: One keynote → 500 executives → Hope it sticks  Leveled Up model: Keynotes (same as above) AND Industry-leading certifications → 5,000 change leaders → Proven implementation We're not lowering our value. We're expanding our reach. Companies get: • 10x more leaders trained • Sustainable transformation (not just inspiration) • Budget-friendly investment • Measurable ROI We get: • 10x the impact • Recession-proof revenue • Deeper client relationships • Scalable growth The opportunity hiding in every crisis: While many speakers are raising fees in a struggling market, smart speakers are creating accessibility. While others wait for the "old normal," innovators are building the new one. This isn't about accepting less. It's about achieving more. Your disruption playbook: 1. Thank the crisis for the clarity 2. Find the unmet need it revealed 3. Create radical accessibility 4. Scale through volume AND value 5. Build partnerships, not just bookings The speakers who thrive won't be the ones with the biggest fees. They'll be the ones with the biggest impact. And honestly? That's who we should've been all along. This disruption didn't break our industry. It's forcing us to become what our clients actually needed. The question isn't: When will speaking recover? The question is: What will you create while others wait? How are you turning your industry's constraints into creativity? Ready to transform your organization even in uncertain times? Let's talk about what's possible within your budget. DM me.

"Why are you building from Kolkata?" - Wrong question. The right question is: "Why isn't everyone?" Last week, I sat with Vikram Gupta (Ex-Army Major, Founder of Flexi) and 12+ founders who chose Kolkata as their base. Not by accident. By design. Here's what the "smart money" in Bangalore doesn't want you to know: - While they burn ₹2L/month on office rent, Kolkata founders get premium space for ₹50K. - While they fight for overpriced talent, Kolkata has hungry, skilled professionals waiting. - While they chase the same 100 VCs, Kolkata founders bootstrap to profitability. The 3 insights that blew my mind: → Quality trumps location: Customers don't care about your office pin code when you deliver consistently. They care about results. → AI levels the playing field: These founders are using AI to leapfrog - customer support, hiring, product intelligence. Geography becomes irrelevant when your operations are smarter. → Strategic expansion wins: Half these founders are opening Bangalore offices next. Not to relocate - to dominate markets they're already winning from Kolkata. That building from Tier 2 cities is settling for less. Lower costs = longer runway = better decisions = sustainable growth. While Bangalore founders are on their 3rd funding round, Kolkata founders are hitting profitability. Geography isn't destiny. Capital efficiency is. Maybe we should stop asking founders to justify their location. And start asking why everyone's crowding into the same expensive cities. Which Tier 2 city will surprise us next?

Over the past 3 years, I’ve coached over 4000 professionals, from first-year college students to CXOs at Fortune 500 companies And here’s a statement that still breaks my heart to hear: “I know my work. But I feel small the moment I have to speak in English.” You know, it’s one of the top 3 limiting beliefs I see across clients, regardless of age, industry, or experience. And the worst part is that most people genuinely believe that fluency in English is the main sign of confidence. Let’s bust this myth once and for all: 👉 English is just a language It is not a measurement of intelligence, capability, or leadership 👉 Confidence is contextual You can be deeply confident in your ideas, Yet hesitant in expressing them if the language isn’t native to you 👉 The brain doesn’t freeze because of a lack of knowledge It freezes because of fear of judgment, of being misinterpreted, Or worse: being underestimated A recent study by LinkedIn and the Soft Skills Council showed that 71% of Indian professionals feel nervous speaking English in meetings, even when they are experts on the topic. That’s not a communication issue. That’s a conditioning issue. 👉 We’ve equated English with professionalism 👉 We’ve mistaken an accent for authority 👉 We’ve let amazing talent go unheard (Simply because they paused to find the right word) Let me be honest here: Even I, as a communication coach, have felt the pressure of “sounding fluent” or “using better words.” But with time, I’ve realized that, The most powerful communicators don’t use big words. They use true words with empathy, clarity, and conviction. 📌So here’s what I tell every client who says, “I can’t speak well because my English isn’t good enough”: “Fluency is a skill. Confidence is a choice. Build both, but don’t mistake one for the other.” And if you’re reading this and still feel nervous about speaking up Remember, Your voice matters. Your story matters. And I promise, you don’t need flawless English to make an unforgettable impact. Let’s raise a generation that listens to meaning, not just language. P.S. What’s one thing you believed about confidence that turned out to be false? #SoftSkillsCoach #LeadershipGrowth #CommunicationMatters #LanguageBias #SpeakWithImpact #ConfidenceCoach #FluencyVsConfidence #HumanSkillsMatter

In finance, bridging the gap between numbers and understanding is an art. We, as finance professionals all have to interact with numerous folks who are not from a finance background. Where we have to explain the concepts to get the work done. Just think about the life of a guy who works in a bank and explains the complex loan structure to a farmer or a person who doesn't understand terms like foreclosure, prepayment penalty, processing fees, and EMI. How much difficult it would have been for that guy if they didn't explain the concept in a story? As finance professionals, our role often involves translating complex financial jargon into a language that resonates with our non-finance colleagues. Below are some tips that can help in these conversations. ✅ Clarity: The cornerstone of financial communication is clarity. It's not about drowning our audience in numbers and confusing them with some jargon and theory but making those numbers tell a story. ✅ Simplicity & Precision: Think of it as a recipe: a pinch of simplicity and precision. Avoid jargon and acronyms that could leave our audience scratching their heads. ✅ Empathy Matters: Understand our audience. What keeps our colleagues from marketing, HR, or operations up at night? Tailor our communication to address their concerns and show them how finance impacts our world. ✅ Engage, Don't Lecture: Make it a conversation, not a lecture. Encourage questions and discussions. Engaging our audience fosters a deeper understanding. ✅ Continuous Learning: Financial communication is an evolving landscape. Stay updated, adapt, and refine our skills to remain a top-notch communicator. Being an effective financial communicator isn't just about numbers; it's about connecting with people and explaining the concepts in plain vanilla language. What's your key to success in financial communication? Share our thoughts below! 👇💬 LinkedIn LinkedIn for Creators #FinancialCommunication #FinancePro #Clarity #Simplicity #Empathy #Engagement #ContinuousLearning #linkedinforcreators #linkedin

I've watched 3 "revolutionary" healthcare technologies fail spectacularly. Each time, the technology was perfect. The implementation was disastrous. Google Health (shut down twice). Microsoft HealthVault (lasted 12 years, then folded). IBM Watson for Oncology (massively overpromised). Billions invested. Solid technology. Total failure. Not because the vision was wrong, but because healthcare adoption follows different rules than consumer tech. Here's what I learned building healthcare tech for 15 years: 1/ Healthcare moves at the speed of trust, not innovation ↳ Lives are at stake, so skepticism is protective ↳ Regulatory approval takes years usually for good reason ↳ Doctors need extensive validation before adoption ↳ Patients want proven solutions, not beta testing 2/ Integration trumps innovation every time ↳ The best tool that no one uses is worthless ↳ Workflow integration matters more than features ↳ EMR compatibility determines adoption rates ↳ Training time is always underestimated 3/ The "cool factor" doesn't predict success ↳ Flashy demos rarely translate to daily use ↳ Simple solutions often outperform complex ones ↳ User interface design beats artificial intelligence ↳ Reliability matters more than cutting-edge features 4/ Reimbursement determines everything ↳ No CPT code = no sustainable business model ↳ Insurance coverage drives provider adoption ↳ Value-based care is changing this slowly ↳ Free trials don't create lasting change 5/ Clinical champions make or break technology ↳ One enthusiastic doctor can drive adoption ↳ Early adopters must see immediate benefits ↳ Word-of-mouth beats marketing every time ↳ Resistance from key stakeholders kills innovations The pattern I've seen: companies build technology for the healthcare system they wish existed, not the one that actually exists. They optimize for TechCrunch headlines instead of clinic workflows. They design for Silicon Valley investors instead of 65-year-old physicians. A successful healthcare technology I've implemented? A simple visit summarization app that saved me time and let me focus on the patient. No fancy interface, very lightweight, integrated into my clinical workflow, effortless to use. Just solved an problem that users had. Healthcare doesn't need more revolutionary technology. It needs evolutionary technology that works within existing systems. ⁉️ What's the simplest technology that's made the biggest difference in your healthcare experience? Sometimes basic beats brilliant. ♻️ Repost if you believe implementation beats innovation in healthcare 👉 Follow me (Reza Hosseini Ghomi, MD, MSE) for realistic perspectives on healthcare technology

Mercury eats up gold when they touch, making a soft mix called amalgam. It wrecks jewelry, amazes scientists, and is banned in lots of places because it’s toxic. Because of this unique property, mercury is unfortunately still used in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), primarily due to its low cost and ease of use. Miners mix liquid mercury with gold-containing ore, forming an amalgam that allows them to separate the gold from other materials. To recover the pure gold, this amalgam is then heated, causing the mercury to vaporize, leaving the gold behind. This simple yet dangerous method is prevalent in many developing countries where miners lack access to safer, more advanced technologies. The use of mercury in mining carries severe environmental and health consequences. When the mercury vaporizes during the heating process, it pollutes the air and can travel long distances before settling into water and soil. Once in aquatic environments, microorganisms can transform elemental mercury into methylmercury, a highly toxic organic compound that bioaccumulates up the food chain, contaminating fish consumed by humans and wildlife. Miners and their communities face direct exposure through inhalation of mercury vapor, leading to devastating neurological damage, kidney failure, and developmental issues, particularly in children. Recognizing these severe impacts, international efforts are underway to curb mercury pollution from ASGM. The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty aimed at reducing mercury use and emissions. Programs like UNEP's planetGOLD are actively working to introduce and implement mercury-free mining techniques, such as gravity concentration and direct smelting, providing training and support to help artisanal mining communities transition away from this harmful practice and protect both human health and the environment.

This month, China shipped the best open-source LLM ever released. Twice. First came Moonshot AI's Kimi 2 - a 400B+ parameter Mixture of Experts model with up to 2 million tokens of context in proprietary deployments (128K in the open release). Just two weeks later, Alibaba's updated Qwen3 dropped, beating all others across MMLU, GSM8K, HumanEval, and ARC, despite being roughly one-fourth the size. These aren’t just strong Chinese models. They’re better than everything else that’s open. If you're only tracking OpenAI, xAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta (OXDAM anyone?), you're missing half the map. Let’s talk about how China’s AI strategy is diverging from the U.S.: (1) Different Foundations. Chinese labs aren’t just fine-tuning Western models - they’re building from scratch. Kimi and Qwen weren’t bootstrapped from GPT-2 or pre-trained in English. They’re native-born models, optimized for chinese-language tasks, long-context reasoning, and mobile-first deployment. Kimi is built for cognitive labor, not chatroom banter. It is a document-native agent - compressing legal contracts, summarizing financial reports, answering across sprawling PDFs. (2) Different Form Factors. The Western paradigm centers on chat-first UX: Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT. In China, LLMs live inside superapps: WeChat, Taobao, DingTalk. The interface is less visible, more embedded - generating invoices, rewriting legal terms, creating marketing copy inside workflows. The user doesn’t always know they’re using an LLM - and they don’t care. The value is functional, not philosophical. (3) Different Constraints. U.S. labs benefit from: - Best-in-class GPUs (A100/H100) - Global API distribution - English-language web data - Loose alignment requirements Chinese labs face: - Export restrictions on advanced chips from the US - No access to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini APIs - Stricter regulatory oversight on outputs But constraints breed innovation. Chinese models are built to be efficient, deployable, and sovereign. And they iterate fast, often weekly. (4) Different Strategic Advantages. China has: - Data access: Massive consumer internet footprint + government records = rich pre-training sources. - State support: Government subsidies for compute, training, and foundation model development. - Enterprise pull: Urgent demand for AI across logistics, finance, manufacturing-sectors where LLMs aren’t toys, but tools. - Centralized velocity: Close coordination between state, academia, and private labs accelerates deployment. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has already registered 40+ foundation models for public use - creating a semi-regulated AI stack that scales. While the West continues to chase AGI, China is deploying AI that works - at scale, for billions, inside the operating systems of everyday life. We’d be foolish to ignore it.

Major roadblocks to corporate sustainability  🌎 Sustainability strategies are advancing, but execution remains a challenge. Even companies with strong commitments face internal and external barriers that slow progress. Identifying these roadblocks is the first step toward addressing them. Leadership remains a defining factor. Without clear executive commitment, sustainability struggles to move beyond surface-level initiatives. A lack of mandate and strategic prioritization often leads to fragmented efforts rather than systemic integration. Short-term financial pressures further complicate decision-making, prioritizing immediate returns over long-term resilience. Even with leadership support, execution can stall due to limited organizational expertise. Many teams lack the technical knowledge to operationalize sustainability goals, from ESG reporting to decarbonization strategies. Without this capability, sustainability remains aspirational rather than actionable. Another key challenge is weak strategic integration. In many organizations, sustainability is still treated as a side initiative rather than a core business driver. Embedding it into financial planning, product development, and supply chains requires a shift from compliance-driven approaches to value creation. Beyond internal capacity, operational constraints play a role. Limited resources—financial, technological, and human—can slow down execution. Cultural resistance within organizations also remains a factor, as legacy mindsets often favor conventional business practices over systemic change. Data is another weak link. Inconsistent, incomplete, or unreliable sustainability data creates challenges in measurement and decision-making. Without robust tracking systems, companies struggle to set credible targets, demonstrate impact, or refine strategies over time. Finally, broader systemic factors—regulatory uncertainty, supply chain risks, and lack of industry collaboration—create additional complexity. Policies are evolving, but alignment across industries is still inconsistent, making it difficult for companies to navigate expectations and scale best practices. Addressing these challenges requires more than ambition—it demands a structured approach that aligns leadership, strategy, and execution. Companies that recognize these barriers early and build internal capacity to overcome them will be positioned for long-term success. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange

🚨 "Bhai, inverter kharab hai!"  No. The installation is. In the past 1–2 years, it seems everyone is in the solar business. Electricians, plumbers — even drivers — have become "solar technicians." But ask yourself:  🛠 Is it really that simple to handle a hybrid system worth millions?  Or are we playing with people's investments — and their safety? As part of the aftersales team, my engineers and I deal with this daily:  ❌ PV + and – reversed  ❌ Grid connected to the backup port  ❌ Load wired into the input terminal  ❌ MPPTs shorted, AC sides blown  ❌ Inverters blamed for installer mistakes And the irony?  “Sir, 100+ systems install kiye hain.”  Yes — 100+ bad jobs, done proudly. No understanding of DC, AC, settings, protections — yet full confidence. 💸 And here’s what’s enabling this…  “EPC companies are too expensive.”  “I’ll just buy my own inverter, panels, and structure.”  “I’ll hire a road-side electrician to install it.”  “Look, I saved Rs. 50,000!” But wait… Did you really save? When something goes wrong — who takes responsibility? Not the seller.  Not the road-side installer.  Not the warranty department.  Just you. ⚠ You're risking your home. Your family. Your investment. And for what? 🌞 It’s time we educate the market. Solar is not plug-and-play. It’s not about just making the inverter turn on. It’s about:  ✅ Proper design  ✅ Safe installation  ✅ Smart configuration  ✅ Long-term performance And that requires trained professionals, not shortcuts. 📣 Let’s raise awareness.  📣 Let’s protect the customers. 📣 Let’s protect the solar industry. #SolarPakistan #AftersalesTruth #SolarInstallers #InverterFail #SolarEducation #RayabEnterprises #HybridSystem #CleanEnergy #CustomerAwareness