The ContraMinds Podcast

 The AirAsia Media Playbook: Integrating Travel Experiences

About The Guest:

Mahek Shah is the Global Head of Media at Airasia (AirAsia Media & Airasia Ads).

Mahek is an integrated marketing and communications professional with rich digital marketing and product development experience. She started her career in advertising with successful stints at Ogilvy, IPG Mediabrands, Lion & Lion and Wavemaker before AirAsia.

Timestamps:

00:00 - 03:40 Cold Opening, Sponsor Message, Guest Intro

03:41 - 05:51 The Evolution of Marketing: A Marketer's Journey from Traditional to Digital

05.52 - 07:32 Shifting Skills for Modern Marketers: From Fragmented to Integrated Experts

07:33 - 09:52 A Two-Pronged Approach to Strategic Planning and Inventory Monetization

09:53 - 11:20 First-Party Data Monetization: Leveraging Brand Ecosystems for Partnerships

11:21 - 14:25 Redefining the Travel Experience: Building an Immersive End-to-End Ecosystem

14:26 - 18:34 The Insourcing Trend: Why Brands Are Bringing Marketing In-House

18:35 - 25:54 Redefining Agency Value: From Execution to Consultative Problem-Solving

25:55 - 30:47 AirAsia Move: Redefining Travel as a Seamless End-to-End Experience

30:48 - 36:45 Redefining Travel Marketing: Working with Endemic and Non-Endemic Brands

36:46 - 40:30 First-Party Data and Ad Tech: Building Seamless Customer Experiences

40:31 - 41:51 Marketing Campaigns that Inspired Mahek

41:52 - 43:00 Why Mahek Admires Amazon’s Business Model

43:01 - 44.53 Marketers who Inspired Mahek

44.54 - 47:26 Mahek Shah’s Book Recommendations

47:27 - 50:36 Dynamic Digital Out-of-Home: AirAsia's Campaign to sell 7 Million Tickets

50:38 - 53:30 Advice to a Marketing Student at University

Key takeaways from this conversation

1. Marketing has evolved significantly, shifting from traditional offline methods to a digital landscape that's constantly changing.
2. Modern marketers need to be multifaceted, integrating data, digital, and technology skills to deliver cohesive customer experiences.
3. Brands are insourcing marketing tasks like media buying and content creation for faster turnaround times, better brand custodianship, and cost savings.
4. Agencies must redefine their value proposition, moving from execution to strategic consultative partnerships that solve business problems.
5. AirAsia's "Super App" vision is to provide a seamless end-to-end travel experience, from booking flights and hotels to local transportation.
6. The Super App ecosystem allows AirAsia to monetize its assets through retail media and partnerships with endemic (travel-related) and non-endemic brands.
7. First-party data and ad tech solutions enable AirAsia to target audiences on and off its platforms for better conversions.
8. Integrating multiple technology platforms is the future of media, enabling seamless customer experiences across channels.
9. Mahek admires Amazon for its progressive business model and aspires to build a similar media ecosystem.
10. Philip Kotler's work and cultural literature have influenced Mahek's marketing approach.
11. A recent 7 million seat sale campaign leveraged programmatic digital out-of-home advertising for dynamic, real-time targeting.
12. Mahek advises aspiring marketers to understand data, derive actionable insights, and focus on connecting with consumers.
13. Campaigns like Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" and Dove's diversity campaign have inspired Mahek.
14. A professor who taught her the strategic role of media in marketing has been a significant influence.
15. Addressing business problems, understanding consumer insights, and delivering integrated experiences are key for modern marketers.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

For Show Notes, visit https://contraminds.com

Connect with Mahek:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheks/

Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/

This episode was made possible by the great folks at MovingWalls.

Moving Walls provides a global Adtech platform built by Out-of-home advertising experts, automating the process of planning, buying, executing and measuring OOH campaigns, with a presence across four continents and seven markets.

Moving Walls processes more than 10 billion data points and measures more than 100,000 media sites across the globe. In 2017, APAC CIO Outlook listed us as one of the “10 Most Promising Digital Technology Solutions Providers”. Moving Walls is also a Tie50 winner, a listing of 50 most enterprising startups globally.

Visit www.movingwalls.com to learn more.

Prof. Vasant Dhar is an AI researcher who pioneered machine learning applications in finance. His research examines how innovations like AI impact society, focusing on issues of trust, ethics, and the future of work.

Dhar is host of the podcast "Brave New World" exploring technology's transformation of humanity.

Prof. Dhar is a professor at the Stern School of Business and the Center for Data Science at New York University, former editor-in-chief of the journal Big Data and the founder of SCT Capital, one of the first machine-learning-based hedge funds in New York City in the 1990s.

Connect with Prof Dhar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasant-dhar-931175/

Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/

For Show Notes, visit https://contraminds.com

This episode was made possible by the great folks at Effortless.Effortless has been designed to be user-friendly, aiding you in your journey to streamline financial tasks.

Experience the convenience of achieving e-Invoicing and E-way Bill Generation in just a couple of clicks, simplifying your business processes. Visit www.goeffortless.ai to learn more.

From Disability to Ability: How Enable India Unlocks Potential

About The Guest:

Moses Gorrepati has over 15 years of experience championing inclusion and empowerment for people with disabilities. As a leader at Enable India, he heads programs transforming lives through digital literacy, livelihoods, and social platforms. A catalyst for change, his mission is to build an ecosystem that unlocks the potential of people with disabilities as active citizens and nation builders.

About Enable India:

Enable India is a non-profit organisation that empowers people with disabilities as active citizens and nation builders through dignified livelihoods. Their vision is a world where people with disabilities are seen as change agents and taxpayers with full potential when included in society.

Enable India serves 14 disability types across India, impacting over two lakh individuals and families by collaborating with companies to open up new career opportunities. Over 20 years they have opened 291 roles across 22 sectors, advancing inclusion and agency for people with disabilities.

15 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CONVERSATION

1. Enable India's mission is to enable economic independence and dignity for people with disabilities through livelihoods and employment.

2. They focus on ability rather than disability, providing workplace solutions to unlock potential.

3. Marketing campaigns are designed as collectives, bringing stakeholders together around a shared vision.

4. Language and framing is critical - they promote positive narratives about disability.

5. Solutions should be co-created, giving agency to contributors rather than just consumers.

6. Grassroots community platforms like EnableVani spread awareness and information.

7. Employers are pitched on the strong business case for hiring people with disabilities.

8. Workshops build inclusivity skills and break down barriers with personalized stories.

9. People are transformed through nurturing potential and setting high expectations.

10. Life skills and attitude development ready people for opportunities beyond just a job.

11. Alignment on purpose and values matters more than money with donors.

12. Fair compensation enables dignity but purpose drives staff passion.

13. Marketing success requires collaboration across stakeholders.

14. Solutions should focus on the larger context not just the immediate need.

15. A positive, empowering narrative uplifts and brings people together.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

For Show Notes, visit https://contraminds.com

Connect with Swami: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/

This episode was made possible by the great folks at MovingWalls.

Moving Walls is a media technology group with a presence across four continents and seven markets. Moving Walls processes more than 10 billion data points and measures more than 100,000 media sites across the globe. In 2017, APAC CIO Outlook listed us as one of the “10 Most Promising Digital Technology Solutions Providers”. Moving Walls is also a Tie50 winner, a listing of 50 most enterprising startups globally.

Visit www.movingwalls.com to learn more.

Khyati Bhatt is the Founder, Senior Coach, and Head Consultant at Simply Body Talk specializing in nonverbal communication, helping business heads sharpen leadership and communication skills. Trained under former FBI Agent, Author and Public Speaker Joe Navarro and guided by scientifically crafted models, Khyati has collaborated with elite military forces and top-tier global corporations like Google, Deloitte, Discovery, Adani, Capgemini, Wipro and Panasonic. In this engaging conversation, Swami and Khyati discuss the importance of body language, the power of observation, visual cues and strategies to make connections, how to read a room in a few seconds, simple and effective tips to master verbal and nonverbal interactions in crucial situations like board meetings, interviews and negotiations. We are available on all leading platforms - Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music For show notes and past episodes, visit www.contraminds.com ⁠Connect with Khyati: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khyati-bhatt/?originalSubdomain=in ⁠⁠Connect with Swami⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ This episode was made possible by the great folks at Effortless. Effortless has been designed to be user-friendly, aiding you in your journey to streamline financial tasks. Experience the convenience of achieving e-Invoicing and E-way Bill Generation in just a couple of clicks, simplifying your business processes. Visit www.goeffortless.ai to learn more.

Anton Howes (www.antonhowes.com) is the Head of Innovation Research at the UK-based think-tank, The Entrepreneurs Network. Anton also serves as the Historian in Residence at the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. In this engaging conversation, Swami and Anton explore the fascinating role the Royal Society of Arts played in fostering innovation and invention during the late 17th and 18th centuries. Delving into the roots of the industrial revolution, they discuss the historical spread of innovation and the pivotal shift from Britain to the US in the early 19th century. Anton shares valuable insights into the significance of interdisciplinary learning as a catalyst for innovation. The discussion extends to pondering the future, exploring where the centre of gravity for innovation and invention might shift over the next decade or two. Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music For show notes and past episodes, visit www.contraminds.com ⁠Connect with Anton⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonhowes/ ⁠⁠Connect with Swami⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaraman-swaminathan-9856501/ This episode was made possible by the great folks at Effortless. Effortless has been designed to be user-friendly, aiding you in your journey to streamline financial tasks. Experience the convenience of achieving e-Invoicing and E-way Bill Generation in just a couple of clicks, simplifying your business processes. Visit www.goeffortless.ai to learn more.

Welcome to a very special year-end episode of the Contra Minds Podcast.

In 2023, we had a phenomenal line-up of guests who were achievers in their own profession. They all stood for the ContraMinds philosophy of having the conviction in what they were doing irrespective of what the world around them wanted them to do or believed in. This episode is a curation of their thoughts, ideas, and insights.

Rajesh Jain shared the idea of ProfiCorn and how profits need to be at the core of any business. Pooja Jauhari spoke about the leadership lessons that she learnt while building a marketing services firm.

Rajat Agarwal spoke about how health tech platforms need to focus on patients, nurses, and hospital support staff that can deliver exceptional experience for patients. Matt Abrahams spoke to about spontaneity of communication. Sridhar Ramaswamy spoke to about the digital factories and how the digital factories are changing the world of marketing.

Dr. Aniruddha Malpani emphasized the need to rewire education so that education can build curiosity in kids. James Bellerjeau talked about how great performers look beyond job descriptions.

Ravishankar spoke about storytelling and he shared great frameworks to be better storytellers.

Roger Forsgren, the ex-Chief Knowledge Officer of NASA, spoke to about the importance of learning history and how history can help improve critical thinking skills. And this is something that he said is so very important for engineers.

Finally, Prem Kumar Gokuladasan, shared the phenomenal work that he was doing using technology in transforming rural education in India.

--- You can access the full episodes on www.contraminds.com.

We are also available on all leading podcast platforms and on YouTube as well. Here’s wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year! ----- Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com ----- This episode was made possible by the great folks at Effortless. Effortless has been designed to be user-friendly, aiding you in your journey to streamline financial tasks. Experience the convenience of achieving e-Invoicing and E-way Bill Generation in just a couple of clicks, simplifying your business processes. Visit www.goeffortless.ai to learn more.

We launched The Super CMO Show in January this year and it has been a truly rewarding journey so far. This episode is a curation of the top marketing moments we’ve had with our esteemed guests on the show... moments from our conversations with Unilever veteran Marc de Swaan talking about Humanized Growth and the Da Vinci CMO Model, to Prof Tanvi Gupta of IIM Jaipur on Visual Semiotics in marketing. From prolific author and Prof, Peter Fader on the Customer Base Audit to marketing leader Sukumar Muthya on the need for technology-driven marketers. Amit Tiwari of TCS’s Global Demand Centre talked about why marketers need to recalibrate. reskill and reboot…while Prof Venky Shankar, a Ford Chair Professor shared insights on the role of the CMO in today’s marketing world. We had the privilege of talking to the one and only David Fradin on Product Design and Management…and the Out of Home Pioneer Srikanth Ramachandran on how app data can influence Out of Home Experiences. Eight Enlightening Episodes! It’s been a truly enriching experience talking to the best minds in the industry and we look forward to bringing you much more in 2024. ----- You can access the full episodes on www.contraminds.com. We are also available on all leading podcast platforms and on YouTube as well. Here’s wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year! ----- Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts For show notes and earlier guest interviews, please visit www.contraminds.com ----- The Super CMO Show attempts to find answers to all these questions through conversations with the best minds in marketing: - How should the CEO and Company Boards take strategic advantage of marketing to improve the value of their firms? - What do CMOs and Marketers worry about, and what issues or problems make them lose their sleep? - Why is it important to understand customer behaviour if you are involved in marketing as a technologist or a marketer? - What impact does 800-Pound Gorilla – Technology have on the marketing world, and how can it be leveraged for a company’s product or brands? - Why is the power of data, analytics, and technology on creative is here to stay? - Why are financial skills as essential for marketers as marketing skills? ----- This episode was made possible by the great folks at Effortless. Effortless has been designed to be user-friendly, aiding you in your journey to streamline financial tasks. Experience the convenience of achieving e-Invoicing and E-way Bill Generation in just a couple of clicks, simplifying your business processes. Visit www.goeffortless.ai to learn more.

Roger Forsgren is a retired Chief Knowledge Officer of NASA. He was a director of Academy of Program, Project and Engineering Leadership at NASA. Roger is also an undergraduate with a liberal arts degree, a mechanical engineering degree and a masters in industrial engineering. Roger is also the author of two books and the most recent being “When Graduation is Over, Learning Begins - Lessons for STEM Students and Professionals”.

In this episode, Swami & Roger discuss the importance of having a liberal arts background for an engineer, foundational skills needed for successful engineers, how communication skills, decision-making skills, and working with people are as important as number crunching, and where empathy can help achieve efficiency in an imperfect world filled with vulnerable people.

This is Roger’s second episode with Swami & Contraminds. We had the privilege of playing host to Roger in episode 23, released on Jan 22, 2022 - Roger Forsgren on Knowledge Management Lessons from NASA.

Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts

Watch the full video episode on YouTube

To sign up for our weekly newsletter, please visit https://contraminds.substack.com/

Connect with Roger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-forsgren-b5a20a166/

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

This episode was made possible by the great folks at Effortless.

Effortless is a Neo-Banking business application built for handling Bookkeeping, Compliance, Payroll, and Funding.

Today entrepreneurs are struggling to track the cash inflows, outflows and forecasting of cashflow with the current broken finance stack. Lot of founders and core team time is spent to manually track collections, vendor bills and make payments, and in various spreadsheets, saved in mails, laptops and some physically and different banking app and sending the same to the accountants and consultants for compliance filings leading to poor financial planning, lack of finance data and non-compliances leading to penalties and interests.

Effortless has made e-invoicing compliant invoicing simple for anyone to make, reduces 90% effort to collect, with all banking integration stay on the top of your cashflow. Secured UPI like business payment directly from effortless ensures all expenses are tracked including expenses you make from your personal credit card and UPI apps. Realtime insights, reports, alerts and notifications to enable you to thrive in your business.

For further details, visit: www.goeffortless.ai

Is it Your life is your responsibility or  Just keep going. No matter what or pay yourself first.  It does not matter how good the advice is if you have benefited from it!   

As Prof Annapurni says, Whatever the situation you are in be it a disadvantageous situation but identify the advantage of it and make use of it. 

 As Sunder Madakshira says, Winning the battle in one's mind before winning it in the marketplace is very important.   

As Chris Yeh says, Quantity has a Quality of its own, You should keep doing and trying, Keep trying and work hard! 

 Find out the Best Advice our guests Ever Received in this curated video. 

 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 

What advice would you give to an 18-year-old in university?   Is it Getting out of the bubble of your Majors? Developing communication skills or simply sticking to the basics?  

As Prof Annapurni says, work hard, be passionate, and find something that challenges you. If you feel comfortable and capable, you are no longer challenged.  

As Neil Hoyne says, in the future, you must learn subjects outside your core discipline and gain real-world experience! 

 As Chris Yeh says, Try and experience new things because there will be an easier time to try new things or meet remarkable people as all things are being served on a silver platter!  

Find out what advice our Guests would give to an 18-year-old at university in this curated video.

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

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

Rupal Patel is an ex-CIA agent turned entrepreneur, international speaker and business consultant. She helps founders and executives unlock their potential through a powerful new toolkit that reveals how techniques of the CIA can help anyone find their voice and thrive without conforming to stale stereotypes or dated “best practices”. Rupal is the author of the bestselling book “From CIA to CEO”.

In this episode, Rupal talks to Swaminathan Sivaraman on

• the fundamental values that shaped her life, as the child of immigrant parents in America
• the importance of curiosity in career-building
• understanding your personal mission and corporate mission
• how it was working at the CIA
• how to have difficult conversations as a leader
• talking the truth to power
• how the CIA taught her to handle failure
• her philosophy of absolute v relative life
• learning, gathering and debriefing data about yourself

and many other strategies and unique methods to reset your mindset and aim for success.

Listen to the full podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

Full Video Episode available on YouTube.

B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is the cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.

Pine consults with numerous companies around the world, helping them embrace the ideas and frameworks he writes about, develop concepts for creating more economic value, and see those concepts become reality.

His books (author / co-author) include Mass Customization, The Experience Economy, Infinite Possibility and Authenticity.

In this episode with Swami & Vignesh, Joe talks about the need for experiences beyond just Goods & Services. He touches upon his famous presentation on “The Progression of Economic Value”, and goes on to elucidate with very specific examples on how traditional organizations can become experience organizations. How do companies like Apple & Amazon determine what is an extraordinary standard for experiences? What is the concept behind Six Looking Glasses? What is the correlation between authenticity and experience? An amazing episode awaits you.

Listen in on the podcast. You can also catch the full video episode on YouTube.

Prasad Mangipudi is one of the top sports development and marketing minds in India. Prasad is the Managing Director of Sportzlive - a company primarily focused on investing and creating Sports IPRs in the Indian sub-continent market, and is a Mentor Director with the Hyderabad Hydras, a premier esports & lifestyle organisation.

Prasad is one of the brains behind the Premier Badminton League, making India's official badminton league the world's #1 badminton league in just 5 years.

After 26 years of rich experience of across sectors - advertising, hospitality, marketing, tourism, sports events, and healthcare - with organisations like Lowe Lintas, Sterling Holiday Resorts, Greyhound Marketing, LifeCell International, Aurobindo Pharma and Mylan Labs, Prasad finally found his calling card in the field of sports.

In this episode, Prasad talks to Swami about why India has to look beyond its favorite sport, cricket, in its ambition to become a sports superpower. Prasad stresses on the fact that sports builds character and why we must make our youngsters play, play and play. Prasad also talks about his experience building a world-class academy with Pullela Gopichand, India’s biggest badminton star, touches upon how to groom high-class coaches and the need to support players who do not reach the peak of their game.

Intro

Paul Zak is an American neuroeconomist. He is the co-founder of Immersion Neuroscience, which creates technologies that enable human flourishing. His specialities include neuroeconomics, neuromarketing and neuromanagement.

Paul is also a professor at Claremont Graduate University (for over 27 years), where he currently is the Director at the Centre of Neuroeconomics Studies.

In this episode with Swami and Vignesh, Paul discusses the role of Oxytocin and Dopamine, how the human brain responds to trust, the risk of AI in interpreting human emotion, the concepts of neuroeconomics and neuromanagement, hybrid experience as the future of brand interactions and gives us a glimpse into his upcoming book “Immersion: The science of the extraordinary and the source of happiness”.

Connor Joyce is a behavioral science evangelist who writes extensively about the future of work, helping establish the field of behavioral science.

In this episode on The ContraMinds Podcast, Connor speaks to Swami and Vignesh about the importance of behavioral science and its four pillars of Choice Architecture, Biases & Heuristics, Habit Formation and Social Norms. A deep-dive discussion into the world of human-centred research, Connor gives specific examples with Tesla, Uber, Lyft and Snap. He also talks about the Apple Watch and how the idea of Libertarian Paternalism is driving the Apple Watch’s features for better user outcomes.

Shyam Sekhar is the Ideator and Founder of ithought Financial Consulting LLP.

He is an active and renowned value investor with over 30 years of experience in financial markets.

His focus as an investor has been on identifying investment opportunities in emerging companies through a sound research driven process.

In this episode, Shyam talks to us about his investment process, managing finances as an entrepreneur, and thinking about capital and funding from first principles.

Sunder Madakshira currently serves as the CEO of Rezolve in India.

He has held leadership roles for over 26 years in Sales and Marketing with companies such as Adobe, Hindustan Unilever, VISA, SAP, WIPRO and Infosys.

He is considered a pioneer in Data Driven Operating Models (DDOM) in B2B Marketing in India.

In this episode, Swami and Vignesh speak to Sunder about the changing landscape in Marketing, his ideal Marketing curriculum, and how his interest in music influenced his life.

Adrian Gropper, MD, is the CTO of Patient Privacy Rights, an organisation representing 10.3 million patients and is among the foremost open data advocates in the United States.

Adrian’s work focuses on solving critical problems of patient matching, cybersecurity, transparency, access, and delegation to family caregivers.

We had a wide-ranging conversation with Adrian where he spoke to us about Patient Privacy, Data Platforms, and the chasm between Science and the Law.

Prof. Yadati Narahari's research work focuses on game theory, mechanism design, and artificial intelligence techniques to research problems at the intersection of computer science and economics.

From 2014 to 2021, he served as Dean of the Division of Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Sciences (EECS) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

At IISc, he teaches two courses:  Game Theory and Artificial Intelligence for Social Good.

We had a wide ranging discussion with Prof. Narahari. We spoke about the work and influence of John von Neumann, the convergence of AI, Economics, and Game Theory, and the Principles that form the foundation of a Good Incentive.

Dr. Annapurni Subramaniam serves as the Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.

Her research work focuses on Star Clusters, Stellar Evolution and Population in Galaxies and Magellanic Clouds.

In this episode, Dr. Annapurni speaks to us about her childhood fascination with the night sky, her thoughts on a long-term vision for Scientific Research in India, and balancing leadership and contributor roles in projects with grace and humility.

Neil Hoyne serves as the Chief Measurement Strategist at Google and is a Senior Fellow at The Wharton School.

He is most recently the author of Converted: The Data-driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts. 

The book focuses on how companies can build trust at the most fundamental level in the the age of Big Data, Analytics, and Machine Learning.

In this episode, Neil speaks to Swami and Vignesh about:

1. Why a Wealth of Data creates a Poverty of Real Human Relationships
2. The Use and Abuse of Metrics in Corporations
3. What it takes to be a Well-Rounded Individual in the 21st century

Roger Forsgren served as the Chief Knowledge Office (CKO) of NASA from 2013 to 2021. As CKO, he led NASA’s Knowledge Management efforts, ensuring that the agency’s workforce had access to the critical knowledge needed for mission success. 

He also served as Director of the NASA Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership, internally known as APPEL, the agency’s education and training program in the fields of Project Management, Systems Engineering, Engineering, and Leadership Development.  

Roger most recently is the author of the book, “Lean Knowledge Management: How NASA Implemented a Practical KM Program” where he lays out the principles, tactics, and strategies he implemented at NASA during his tenure as the Chief Knowledge Officer.

In this conversation, Roger talks to Swami and Vignesh about his career at NASA, the foundational ideas that underlie the practice of Knowledge Management, and why being at the intersection of history and engineering is a unique competitive advantage.

Amit Ranjan is best known as the co-founder of Slideshare, the world's largest community for sharing professional content including presentations, infographics, documents, and videos. In 2012, Slideshare was acquired by LinkedIn and as of 2020, it has been acquired by Scribd.

Amit is also an Angel Investor and Advisor to several early stage startups in India, Singapore and the United States such as Open, Tracxn and Khatabook, among many others.

Amit is currently the Architect of two projects under the Digital India Mission at the National eGov Division, Ministry of Information Technology. These are:

1. Digital Locker: A national ecosystem for paperless governance by digitizing citizen records & enabling digital usage of these records.
2. Open Forge: An open source initiative aimed at building a national source code sharing platform for collaborative development of egov applications.

In this episode, Amit speaks to Swami and Vignesh about crossing the startup-government chasm, what it takes to build a digital nation project at scale and why technology alone isn’t enough to build a great product company.

Col. Vijay Chadda served in the Indian Armed Forces for more than two decades, following which, in 1992, he transitioned to the Private Sector. After holding leadership positions in various large multinationals in the logistics, travel and tourism space, he became the CEO of the Bharti Foundation in 2008.   

Today, he serves as the CEO of the Air Pollution Action Group, a Foundation set up to assist the Central and State Governments in India’s fight against Air Pollution.  

In this episode, Col. Chadda speaks to Swami and Vignesh about his time at the National Defence Academy, how Leadership Principles do not change whether one is on the Battlefield or in the Boardroom, and his thoughts on what ails the Primary School System in India.

Allison Hartsoe is a three-time entrepreneur and is currently the CEO of Ambition Data.

She is, most recently, the author of the book, "The Age of Customer Equity: Data-driven Strategies to Build a Sustainable Company".

In this episode, Allison speaks to Swami and Vignesh about Data-driven Marketing, the difference between Brand Value and Customer Value, and her Favourite Books.

Click here to buy a copy of Allison's latest book: https://amzn.to/3FKVD43

Bipindra N.C. is the Founder and Editor of Defence.Capital, a publication which tracks the business and politics of India’s growing defence, homeland security, aerospace and maritime trade and market.

In this episode, Bipin speaks to Swami and Vignesh about the role of startups and entrepreneurship in Defence Tech, the structure of India’s Defence ecosystem, and the Knowledge and Skills Veterans bring to the Private Sector.