Building Lego World
Reimagining Assets and Convergence in Platforms
We are entering an era of businesses scaling faster than any other time in human history. Most of it is possible because of modularisation of assets and capabilities available to enterprises. Many tech-enabled platforms are using existing APIs to build a business for a specific customer need and scaling it without worrying about making all the components in-house. I have earlier written about emergence of SuperApps as universal platforms as well as scaling of Jio as a first trillion Dollar Indian company from potential and execution perspective. More on this later in the newsletter.
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If you would like to read a summary of the 45 posts in 2020, please do read this newsletter.
DTW
During the Week, Jack Dorsey’s Square announced its acquisition of Jay-Z’s music streaming service Tidal for close to quarter billion dollars. Vox reported that it won’t be surprising to see Square + Tidal work on their own NFT scheme. NFT is the latest buzzword in the creator economy signifying increased interest in blockchain backed non-fungible tokens like already famous Nyan Cat.
This is an example of business using Lego approach of creating tremendous value for all the stakeholders. Instead of trying to build everything from ground up, you simply tap into APIs (Application programming interface) to create seamless experience for users. It is transformational idea to see your assets and capabilities as collection of Lego blocks that can be broken down and reassembled for other purposes.
One of the significant use of this approach has been Decentralized Finance (DeFi). According to Def1Prime - DeFi is the movement that leverages decentralized networks to transform old financial products into trustless and transparent protocols that run without intermediaries.They have listed 200 projects so theoretically if you could just pick any three tools out of them, you would have a million and quarter different combinations to build an entirely new financial product. One example of this has been passiv which turns your brokerage account into a modern portfolio management tool.They simply use APIs to bridge into your existing brokerage account and help you rebalance your portfolio. You might wonder as to why the existing brokerage firms would not do it themselves. Well, most of the times, it is legacy systems as well as too narrowly focussed business models which prevent them from re-configuring their assets.
Amazon has been instrumental in creating the narrative around Lego approach in building rapidly scalable businesses. Whether it is their foray into AWS, Banking or now Healthcare, it has been greatly accelerated by their ability to repurpose and reconfigure their core assets mostly software capabilities to launch new rapidly scaling businesses.
Amazon is steadily foraying into banking and allied financial services in India. I had explained about the ways Amazon is unbundling the bank through an amazing graphic from CB Insights.
Much of this kind of innovation comes from a very radical thought process where platforms like Paytm “sees itself more as a 'problem solver' than a bank or a tech firm”. They have become Shape-Shifting enterprises to create value for all stakeholders.
I think there is an interesting personal lesson as well in trying to play around and create different combinations of our “Lego Block” like capabilities to see what clicks.
Give it a try.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I was guest speaker in a webinar on Saturday with Rotary Club of Pune Central on my running journey where I shared some of the key lessons from endurance running for career, business and life.
It was an enriching experience of talking to fairly accomplished professionals and businesspersons. They were kind enough to listen to my running experiences and even showed tremendous interest in taking up running as a fitness regime. It was heart warming to learn about their philanthropy initiatives and community outreach especially during the Covid19 pandemic. Thanks to Jignesh Patel and Aditya Dharmadhikari for reaching out and creating this wonderful opportunity.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, I moderated a panel discussion organised by Centre for Women Development & Club Aaina at IBS Hyderabad.The panellist including Geeta Goti and Sree Lata Shankar shared their own stories to weave interesting insights about entrepreneurship and forging a positive approach towards life.
Wish you a Happy Women’s Day!
One of the highlight of the year so far has been National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who read "The Hill We Climb," during the Inauguration of Joe Biden as US President. Do watch the video of Amanda reciting the poem. It still gives me goosebumps. Here is an excerpt-
And every corner called our country.
Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid, the new dawn balloons, as we free it.
For there was always light.
If only we're brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it.
I Love You
Shailendra