Vikram Limsay

Writing & Media

Every essay, post and reel in one place. Columns for the national press, notes from LinkedIn, and short films from Instagram.

The New Indian Express

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting19h ·

Trapped between funding America's reckless overspending and its inability to live within its means and scared of subjugation to Chinese capacity, nations are caught between a rock and a hard place in the battle of two giants.They scramble to find options. Will antiquated rules based post war order give and make way for new? My piece in the BW Businessworld - link in comment #strategy #indianeconomy #China #US #BRICS #inflation #capacity

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1d ·

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi May Bappas blessings transform every impossible you encounter into boundless possibilities !

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting5d ·

The news has a message for us in India perhaps. And its not just that Nike cant "Just Do It" anymore and Wipro wasn't really "Applying Thought" when it was required. The situation is more concerning than just that. Its about the direction and relative trajectories of IT sector in India and in the US. The MAG-7( Alphabet Inc. , Apple , Amazon ,NVIDIA & Tesla ) are adjusting their chairs and making space for 3 more, Anthropic , OpenAI & SpaceX at the S&P100 table. Other than Apple all seem to be absorbing the future. Nike, a lifestyle icon, a consumer juggernaut that defined brand power for decades has been edged out. Clearly the market is defining economic priority and it is AI first. Lifestyle can wait. In India the listed 5 amongst SWITCH ( Tech Mahindra erstwhile Satyam, Wipro , Infosys , Tata Consultancy Services , HCLTech & Cognizant ) seem to be sitting on shaky tripods at the NIFTY50 table. Wipro has already fallen off. And its being replaced by BSEIndia a trading entity. Not a tech entity or an innovator. The situation of others at the Indian IT table does look too good either. With consular applications of H1B visas falling over 90% in a year their labor arbitrage model has come apart. Add to that being blindsided in the AI race. Stock market is a barometer of economy and represents future confidence of value creation over current and past performance. It is lethal in its assessment & often correct. But more importantly if Wipro's replacement is a trading entity, and Nike's seat is taken by an AI company. what is the message for us in India? For IT entrepreneurs, policy makers & society. Where did we go wrong ? What should our priorities be in the tech sector. #Strategy #Futureproofing #BeyondObvious #Indianeconomy #IT

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1w ·

The toothbrush isn't the product .. the BUZZ IS ! Its a narrative first approach to branding that is the innovation .. not the technology behind the gizmodo ! Last week was the latest product launch buzz around the Rs.50K Dyson CameraJet toothbrush. An oral hygiene gizmo that can take over two million pictures of your mouth in a year as you accomplish your morning mandatory. It then trains an AI model that promises to identify cavities that no dentist ever can and give it a clean up spray that no floss ever can ! But isn't brushing your teeth a deep personal act. After all how vigorously you engage with your brush is linked to your morning emotion. You don't want complex unwieldy electronics to come in between. So is the product practical, is it required, will it rack up sales, will it launch the next revolution in flossing? But those are red herrings. Dyson doesn't need the toothbrush to be commercially viable. It needs it to be remarkable enough that we talk about it. And then that halo effect transfers to vacuums, air purifiers, hair dryers—the products that actually drive their revenue. It's not solution-first. It's not problem-first. It is narrative-first. Innovation creates a story. The story shapes how we perceive the brand. The brand equity drives sales elsewhere. Is the development cost then wasteful? Maybe. But is it strategic? Absolutely ! And who knows it may even be a fraction of million dollar conventional advertising. And adds to building the technology DNA of the company as an unhindered innovator. Take a bow Dyson ... A #BeyondObvious on the ball strategy .. Kudos ! #Dyson #strategy #branding #innovation #Gotomarket

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1w ·

In one swift samurai-like swipe, India's much-touted demographic dividend faces the risk of being transformed into a demographic liability if we as a nation are not careful. The day is not far, if not already here, when India confronts this danger. Artificial intelligence and Humanoid Robots present the sharpest threat to what policymakers have long presumed to be a strategic asset ..... My piece in BW Businessworld link in comments #Strategy #IndianEconomy

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1w ·

In #Leadership, the one on right is bloody difficult ! Requires intellectual application. Saying NO, opposing, controlling, playing devils advocate, protesting is easy. Requires pseudo intellectual smug. To find a solution is always someone else' job. You figure why there are more NO PARKING signs in your city? #Strategy

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting2w ·

Experts can weigh in on this, but will a #Submarine #SuperTanker be more efficient, green & safe compared to over water. Could it be the #BeyondObvious future of sea-freight? But that would mean mapping the ocean bed topography to the T. Because those who knwo the terrain win. 70% of the earths surface is covered by water & the ocean beds have a topography as complex if not more than land with an added complexity it is dynamic & constantly moving. And only 70% of the ocean topograpjhy is mapped. Less than what we have mapped #Mars. By a conventional bathymetric process that maps depth and SONARs that may not be too useful. Imagine one small mistake or a geo-induced chage & result can be disastrous. Recently a US NAvy Sub coillided with an un-mapped oceanbed crest. Thats like an aircraft colliding with an unmapped mountain peak ! So #googlemaps is only 30% useful. Will be a great extension for #Alphabet perhaps. Or they may already be on the job. Criticality of need can not be understated. Deep sea mining, Deep Ocean Wars, Deep Ocean Logistics will be real before we know it. China recently relased a deep sea high resolution map of the South China Sea seabed. Notice the amazing clarity there. India is also taking steps. The recently commissioned #INSSanshodhak by the Indian Navy adding to Indias efforts. In light of the Greta Nicobar project and the global shipping channels that run close to Indian peninsula this will be an asset. Regardless the task is massive .. the oceanbed will power the future as much as space. #Geopolitics #Maritime #IndianEconomy #Innovation #Strategy

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting3w ·

This article in Reuters and the recent raids by #TukaramMunde, the Maharashtra FDA commissioner, where even top brands in the food business are found culpable, bring to the fore a serious question about #EthicalLeadership and values-based leadership. Shouldn't leaders who eloquently champion values, who seize every opportunity to build their personal brand around it, whom media platforms elevate and markets as role models also bear some accountability? They've spent decades rising through FMCG organizations that sold Palm oil as vanaspati & frozen dessert, sugar laden colas & milk additives, hormone injected poultry, oil emulsified mayonnaise marketed as pizza cheese, maida as nutritional biscuits, peddled carcinogenic food colors. All increasing obesity, arterial disease & renal complications. Surely they knew... And if they didn't, why didn't their celebrated leadership acumen compel them to at least question these practices? Why was this accountability left to civil servants and activists like Munde or #Revanthimatsingka Or do perks of office reduce values to mere rhetoric & debates on media platforms? The future of ethical leadership will be measured not by words, but by demonstration & actions over eloquence. Integrity over image. Leaders faced with such scenarios should confront, question, call out and even leave. Its about food here & lives. Ethical leaders eventually will win and be respected. @revanthimatsingka #RevantHimatsingka #Leadership #Accountability #FoodSafety #CorporateResponsibility #Integrity

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

This is a welcome step. We've faced and swum against the tide for 25 years. Especially with PSE & govt. projects. Hopefully now even large private enterprises will follow and think twice before making just a brand based choice. The scale that global dollar billings offer to the global management & accounting consultng firms is a difficult qualifier criteria for local firms to match. As a result issues like cookie cutter approach, data security, strategy plagiarisation etc. get swept under the carpet because of such barriers. Finally there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for Indian #ManagementConsulting firms PRADEEP PAL

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Everyone is a service provider. Over the past 25 years in our firm we have experienced that skill & relationship are the two imprtant pivots in any client engagement which drive our #pricingstrategy. I endeavor to keep us in the two right side quadrants. To achieve this my strategy has been to have a command over two aspects; strategic sectoral width & functional depth. But thats enough about us. Hope the below matrix helps in forming a perspective for your services. #Strategy #ManagementConsulting #BeyondObvious Helicon Consulting #ClientEngagement

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Is your organization thinking, conecptualising and creating something on its way to greatness or is it just busy trotting away on the QonQ treadmill? Because innovation is the only strategy for greatness & which is all about what you do & not what you say. I am pleasantly amazed each time i come across how great companies think, conceptualise & eventually crystallize an idea into a product. #Nike has been inspirational in this regard. Its been at the forefront of innovation and thats why a leader perhaps. Their latest product #Hyperslide that is is crystalised out of a simple idea of a typical performance athletes behavior of kicking off the sneakers and getting into recovery mode is simply brilliant. And that too in collab with another innovative company #Hyperice which has smartly & so beautifully positioned itself in the recovery category. Sure there will be copies made, cheap replicas launched by others but these companies will remain followers. Until they come up with an innovation themselves that other follow. Examples like these must serve as inspiration for entrepreneurs. At its core any organization is the raw and native intellect to ideate, conceptualize and create. And thats what is the key ingredient to making a great #Brand. And not smart copywriting, attractive packaging, advertising or gimmicky events #Strategy #BeyondObvious #ManagementConsulting Helicon Consulting

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Think strategy not just design ! A logo is a symbol that instantly identifies a unique brand in a sea of commodities. But in the era of Canva, Midjourney & Flux, logos themselves seem to be getting commoditised. A logo is more about your corporate strategy & must reflect deep intellectual application about the overall business than just a creative design. It should be about representing your strategy, your purpose, you values & more. Not juts playing aroud with canva or prompting Recraft endlessly in search of a pleasing design. The #Unilever logo is one of my favorite. On a casual glance it is an innocuous blue "U" ! But look closely and you find that it is an integrated whole of 25 different icons. Spoon, bowl, icecream, fish, sauce, swirl, hand, hair lips, clothes, sun, leaf, palm tree, dove, bee, tree, bird, DNA, heart, spark, particle, recycle, packaging, wave, container. Smart ! Each of these 25 icon have a rich meaning at its core, representing some aspect of Unilevers business & its purpose. Its like the entire scope of the groups business is communicated just by the logo ! And there are other such great examples too. #FedEx, #Amazon, #Toyota. So if you are creating a logo for your business or redesigning your existing one - think corporate strategy not just design ! #BeyondObvious #managementconsultng #Strategy Helicon Consulting