PB

Spotify’s Diwali campaign with the Gullak family caught my attention, even though I liked the casting more than the ad itself :) It also made me look more closely at what Spotify is doing in India. The company is pushing Premium harder, investing in artist fandom and exclusive experiences, adding audiobooks, and even exploring paid AI remixing. That suggests a broader shift. Spotify is no longer just trying to build listening habit; it is trying to deepen the relationship users have with the platform. In a market where free listening is already deeply entrenched, that is the harder challenge. The next phase is not simply getting people to listen to music. It is getting them to choose Spotify more deliberately. #SpotifyIndia #ConsumerBehaviour youtube.com/watch?v=Ll9335RK…

AI is making content abundant. Attention isn’t. BCG estimates that a large CPG company could move from ~500 marketing assets a year to 5–6 million. That sounds like progress. But if every brand can publish more, personalise more and optimise more, those capabilities quickly become table stakes. The real question is whether consumers find any of it more valuable. Because 5 million assets aren’t automatically 5 million opportunities to engage. They may just be 5 million more things to scroll past. #MarketingStrategy #ArtificialIntelligence bcg.com/publications/2026/ho…

We’ve spent years learning to optimise for bots and algorithms. They mediated attention. AI agents may soon mediate demand. That changes the marketing problem. If the human sets the intent, but the agent filters, compares and chooses, who are we actually trying to influence? Do we build preference so strongly with the human that the agent has to respect it? Or make the brand so legible to the agent that it keeps getting selected? For most of marketing history, those were effectively the same problem. They may not be anymore. #AgenticAI #MarketingStrategy @HarvardBiz hbr.org/2026/10/who-owns-the…

The NYT has a provocative piece arguing that business schools should be abolished. I don’t buy the conclusion. But it raises a fair criticism of the case method. The problem may not be the case. It may be what we ask students to do with it. The classic question is: “What would you do if you were the CEO?” But in a classroom there is no P&L consequence, organisational politics or real skin in the game. A neat decision can easily create the illusion that the problem has been understood. As a certified case-method faculty member, I increasingly use cases differently: experience the problem first → understand the tension → introduce the framework → then teach the theory. For me, the case is not primarily a simulation of the CEO’s chair. It is a way of making theory visible before giving it a name. #ManagementEducation #CaseMethod nytimes.com/2026/10/18/opini…

Sony launching a new satellite GEC in 2026 feels almost counterintuitive. TV viewing is fragmenting. Audiences are moving digital. Even OTT platforms are still figuring out sustainable economics. And yet Sony has launched Vizha in Tamil Nadu with familiar franchises — Tamil Idol, Celebrity MasterChef, Crime Patrol, movies, cricket. Which makes the bet interesting. Maybe the logic is that regional television still has a long commercial tail, especially when content can travel across broadcast, digital and social. But that still leaves the question I can’t quite get past: How long is the long tail — and how much value is left in it for a new entrant? That is what makes Vizha worth watching. #MediaStrategy #Television #BusinessStrategy @ITVNewz indiantelevision.com/televis…

Listening to the IKEA India conversation took me back to my own years at Future Group and Reliance Retail, when modern retail in India was still being built. Back then, large-format destination stores felt like the future. But we soon learnt that Western retail models couldn’t simply be transplanted into India — the real-estate economics were tough, and consumers were effectively asking: why should I travel so far? So formats got smaller and closer. Then e-commerce changed the question: why travel at all? Omnichannel followed. And now quick commerce has pushed it further: why should I wait? Looking back, retail has spent much of the last two decades chasing a consumer who keeps redefining convenience. The real question may be: what will the consumer expect next — and can the economics keep up? @Campaign_India #Retail #ConsumerBehaviour #BusinessStrategy youtube.com/watch?v=4DkAFEFF…

Two stories today on Urban Company’s InstaHelp and Snabbit made me think about what “scale” really means in instant house-help. Both talk about building micro-markets. But here, the critical infrastructure isn’t dark stores or inventory — it’s people. Which raises an interesting question: if this category is won through depth within micro-markets rather than breadth alone, how should we think about scale — and therefore valuation? #BusinessStrategy #Startups #PlatformEconomy @EconomicTimes

When every company responds rationally to the same competitive pressures, does strategy begin to converge? A recent Deep Drive podcast episode from @autocarindiamag on the Indian car market made me think about this. The category is becoming increasingly concentrated. The largest players continue to gain share, invest aggressively, expand capacity and launch new products, while a much smaller group competes for what remains. The pattern is hardly unique to automotive. At one end, market leaders have to keep investing and innovating simply to defend their position — while still finding a distinctive space within an intensely competitive peer set. Mahindra is a good example: firmly among the leaders, yet still continuously sharpening where and how it wants to compete. At the other end, fringe players face a different challenge. They need to find a space they can credibly own, build relevance around it, and earn enough consideration to remain in the frame. Different strategic starting points. Yet the responses often begin to look remarkably similar: more products, more features, more partnerships, more communication, more investment. So the question remains - How do you avoid strategic sameness when everyone is making perfectly rational choices? What do you think? youtube.com/watch?v=Ew3OlQGC… #BusinessStrategy #MarketingStrategy @hormazdsorabjee @ketan_auto

businesstoday.in/education/s… The “MBA is dead” argument misses one thing: people don’t just buy education. They buy access. AI can democratise knowledge. It can’t yet democratise signalling, networks or opportunity. That’s why elite MBAs will probably survive longer than the rest

Really enjoyed this @sequoia conversation with @nikesharora Very grounded discussion on what he’s done (and is doing) at @PaloAltoNtwks Worth a watch. youtu.be/yco9JP0PyLM?si=jywr…